So learn. Much good.

Learning from the Colorado Ultimate National Team (1/25/14) -

My last post touted the benefits of playing offseason ultimate as much as possible in order to stay sharp. Today I'd like to add-on to that post by saying that while playing ultimate in the winter is good, monotony is not. 

I really try to make sure I don't get burned out on the sport by not differentiating between offseason tournaments and regular season tournaments. Basically, I'm saying to mix it up. If you're an Open Club player, find some Mixed tourneys in the offseason to work on whatever it is you need to work on, and probably boost your self-esteem a bit in process. Don't go to ALL offseason tournaments that exactly mirror your regular season weekends. Also don't forget to capture important lessons from these seemingly meaningless tournaments to apply to the games that matter. Allow me to elaborate:

My offseason schedule typically includes one tournament that brings a new perspective of the game and one tournament that reflects the tourneys in the summer. This year that was Lei-Out (Santa Monica) and New Year's Fest (Phoenix). The reasoning behind this may be somewhat askew to most lines of thinking. Typically I like to think of the new year as a fresh start, and I'm talking FRESH. Like, never touched a disc before fresh. So in that vein I used Lei-Out as a chance to work on my throws as if I had just picked up the plastic for the first time (which is somewhat true of the last few months) and NYF as a chance to work on my defensive footwork. Then, I use winter/early spring leagues to put the two (in this case; can be more) together. 

So far, this has been a successful amount of continued ultimate integration and learning as I have not taken any steps backwards in any aspect of my game since really focusing on offseason ultimate training. There are many exercise scientists far more qualified than I that say confusing the muscles is key to continued improvement in strength. No better way to do that than to lift, play on sand one weekend, lift some more, play on indoor turf the weekend immediately following, lift again, and play on grass the weekend after that. 

I tend to live my everyday life by the CrossFit slogan: Don't Livestrong. Livesore and be strong. Throw in weekend snowboarding of 2 ft+ for my bday weekend Feb 1. and I've definitely accomplished this so far in 2014.

There are also important mental lessons to be learned from offseason "fun" tournaments such as Lei-Out and NYF.

1. Every January since 2012 I've fallen back in love with the sport of ultimate again, all thanks to Lei-Out. I don't know if it's the weather, the MASSIVE amount of people coming from everywhere, the continuous dance parties, or the warm sand itself. I just know I remember why I give and care so much to and about a sport with such little attention outside of its own circles. The reasons why will be different for everyone, just makes sure you appreciate whatever your reasons are when they hit you.
2. This lesson and the one following come more from my experience at New Year's Fest. The annual AZ "winter" tourney has been described as "fun, yet competitive" and I would totally agree. The mix of the two makes for an interesting hidden lesson that many might consider foolish or impossible: how to turn the "party" on and off. I look at it like this, if I'm out until all hours of the evening at NYF and play shittier than everyone else's hangover shitty on Sunday, I know better what my limits are and how to avoid going beyond them for later in the season. I'm a party animal at heart, so it's hard to resist the urge to throw a few back during regular season tourneys because, let's be honest, the party is  part of the reason I joined, and definitely the reason I stayed. Knowing what "party" means to me is an advantage I have over players from other teams still taking USAU sanctioned event time to figure it out. I realize it would be naive to think Club teams attempting to get to the next level "party" at late-season tournaments, but the benefit of knowing how to turn off the party feeling is still essential, it's just flipped. For instance, if I am out all night at NYF and feel and perform fine the next morning, it's not beyond my realm of reality to have a drink or two to relax during more "serious" tournaments. This could be a completely individual thing for me, but my mentality has always been sound, something I take great pride in.
3. For the final lesson from NYF, I will begin by commending the Colorado Ultimate National Team (C.U.N.T) for learning from previous experiences. After a long tournament with only 16 guys, the CUNTs managed to pull out a third place win over Sprawl, a team we lost to the first game of the tourney. No, the lesson is not to always get revenge on your losses. The lesson here is never, under any circumstances, take a game off. Most of the time after a loss on Sunday, teams' energy and intensity seems to immediately decrease. It's understandable. Tired legs lead to tired minds. And tired minds continue to lose games. In(CUNT)ception is no stranger to this, either. At the 2013 Heavyweights tournament in Chicago, Inception had the best placing in the teams' history. Still they found themselves on the short end of a 14-12 scoreline against Madison Club in the semis. The third place game, like many consolation games, was shortened to 9...or 11 or somewhere around there in order to watch the final. This is the first major hurdle to overcome mentally in consolation games. Shorter games does not mean less intense. It should instead mean equally or even more intensity due to less opportunities to make plays since there are less points. Inception wasn't prepared mentally for the final game of the weekend against High Five, and it really came back to bite us in the ass. I'm not going to try to convince you I have any grasp on the USAU algorithm but it's not a jump to say that a smashing win against the Minnesotans much in the same place as we are could have brought a third bid to the region in 2013. It was really nice and very encouraging to see the CUNT guys, although only part of 2013 Inception A, had learned this lesson and were determined, even in a "fun" setting, to not let history repeat itself. Was the competition at NYF the same as HW? Hardly, but the lesson still remains. Well done, fellas.

To my Dearest Cunts - 

What's up, guys? I know you fuckers read this because ya'll are dumb enough to "like" and comment on it on my Facebook page. I'm assuming everyone else save, my mother is no longer reading.

So with that in mind, I have to say: this is OUR blog, not mine. While I will continue to craft larger sized articles to this blogspace in the months to come, I am more than happy to open it up to any one of you who wants to get some opinions or training or whatever out to the internets. At the very least makes some comments below if online creativity isn't really your thing. 

I've already had offers from Ultimate Central to pair this blog with them in the future. If you guys begin to get more involved, I won't. Instead I'd keep the content the way it is now. I mean shit, I just called you all fuckers and said CUNT like 10 times. That's the way it is at practice and when we all hang out, so that's the way it will continue to be here. IF ya'll want it. If not that's fine with me as pairing with Ultimate Central will inevitably mean censoring some of the content here for a greater audience, but also means I personally get famous-er with a greater audience, so I could give two shits either way. Glory (of a team reaching it's goals) and Fame (of writing a nationally read blog) taste the same. I think it's important we maintain a dialogue not only on the field and in person, but off of it and with the facade of "protection" that online comment sections provide. Tell me I'm an idiot and don't know what I'm talking about, I don't care as long as you back your comments up. In other words, comment on my blog so much that it becomes our blog. That way, when we all scream and cheer and hug each other when we make natties this year, the entire country will know how we did it: team chemistry from the get-go. And they will want to be us. Sukkas.

BOUGH