Winter Ulty Recap!

"I'm not happy with your happy hucking ways!"
- Anonymous ultimate mentor to an overly happy hucker...who likes purple.

"When we play eachother, I'm going to cover you all game."
- Anonymous former team-mate to a happy hucking, purple preferring, fast-running Fish.

Amusing recaps aside, it felt great to get winter ultimate underway. Here's the first of 20 weekly recaps to appear this winter (barring any injuries *crossing fingers*).

- Mr. Two Pointer and I have been getting together for a couple of weeks now and going through the KJ approved workout on Sundays at my local gym. It's crazy how fast we can get through the sets of the workout when it's just the two of us. Having said that, I'm looking forward to Sandra being able to join us one of these weeks when she's not "sick" (haha).
- Tuesday's KJ approved workout with the four Fish continues to make my figure slightly less girlish. Sandra entertained us with an odd saying about big, blue balls. A saying that is best left unrepeated.
- At the risk of overanalyzing the first IID game of the year, I thought I'd do the usual positive and negative summary.
- My positive is that my sprint speed has already improved. There were a few times on D and Berkley cuts where I found myself blowing past my opponent. Not to say that I don't have a lot of work to do to get to the point where the improvement would be obvious to GLUM Ford, but I'm on my way. The classes, KJ workouts, and sprint intervals I'm running are paying off.
- Since I usually come across quite negative in this blog, I'll give another positive for Wednesday, in that I was very happy with my "competitive mindset". There were some tough match-ups for me on team 2 that I would have shied away from a year ago, but that I chose to initiate Wednesday night. Knowing that I'll face players in the summer where I give away height, experience, and speed…I picked three people on team 2 that I was able to match up against that would teach me how to effectively mark these types of players. The speed match-up was pretty close :)
- As for a negative, my decision making was awful, especially in the second half. I'm glad former captain GinnandJuice didn't hang around after his team lost, since I rarely dumped at stall 4, and forced more than my share of throws. Which leads me to my personal goal for next week: no throw-aways. Frankly, I have to play smarter with El Ultimo Organizero as a captain...since she's also a Fish captain.
- Thursday's workout with Michelle was the first of the winter that made me sore. I blame those damn resistance bands and the arm curl exercises we did with them.
- Friday's game was odd because:
1) We got behind 9-1
2) It was my first time "co-captaining" a team (granted, I did next to nothing in terms of captaining duties...for which I feel a tad guilty).
3) My bad decision making from Wednesday continued.
- As for the positives, after getting so far behind, our team rallied and came back to tie a very talented squad (including Mr. Two-Pointer, Devlish Kennedy, and Lovely Liz (of Late Night fame)). As a "co-captain", I was so proud of the way we rallied. I like to think just a little bit of that was my example...even if I'm wrong ;-)
- Again, the big negative is decision making. If I want my team-mates to dump on 4 or 5, why am I not doing that? If I hold my breath everytime one of them hucks long to an unsuspecting cutter, why am I doing that? I need to play smarter next week and set a better example. The same "no throw-away" goal will apply.
- Sadly, I wasn't able to join the team for a post-game bevy at the A&L since I had to get up at 8am for 9am pick-up ulty this morning.
- My heart just wasn't in pick-up this morning. Without any open guys there (well...there was one Carleton/Firebird dude), I couldn't really get the competitive juices flowing. I hucked a lot (quel surpise), had one nice break throw for an assist, and misjudged a disc so badly that I got skyed by a guy who's about 5'5 lol. Oh yea, my team lost...but I blame that on G dominating her overmatched (and hung over) opponent on my team ;-)

To summarize, I have to start playing smarter ultimate next week. I know I'm capable of it, so I have to buckle down and execute. As a way to motivate myself, for every throw-away I have in IID and on Friday, I'm going to do 10 push-ups (P.S. I hate push-ups). Hopefully next week's recap will contain two 'mistake free' games.

Oh, and before I forget, the second quote should prove for an "interesting" match-up in a couple of weeks. Admitedly, this quote has me fired up to take this former team-mate for a run. Until next time, happy hucking.