A tale of two games
Last Sunday, 11/6 marked what will probably the last ultimate I will play for quite some time, depending on whether or not I play in London. I play with a group of people (mostly) from St Thomas, probably half of which play on purple reign or G'nP, so we are at least used to competitive ultimate and not just throwing around with friends. Today was an unbelievably mild day for the beginning of November with almost no wind and a warm temperature thus making for a perfect day to chase after discs.
I got the call from Mike around 13:00 telling me to get to Nokomis as soon as possible. Fortunately I live about 10 blocks away so soon meant 10 minutes. I limped onto the field, limped because I had ran nearly 7 miles the previous day, put my cleats on while taking the field because we were playing savage 6 with an extra guy from the opposing team. I took his spot to make the 7th. We were facing off against Eden Prairie and again I got to play against Rachel's little brother. I felt as though I was just a body running around on the field, my head was not in the game. I also had to handle, which is not my position of choice but is something I have been getting better at. I think I had the disk pass through my hand maybe one or two times per point for maybe 7 or 8 of our 16 or 17 total points. My throws were inaccurate, my handling moves were slow and clumsy, my defense was far from stellar, I was out of breath and slow moving, I was affraid to make the quick transition throws after a turn, overall I felt uninvolved in the production of the offence (mostly because of the lack of opportunity to make cuts) and seemed to be more of a road block in any downfield flow that we had. We won 11 or 12 to probably 5 or 6 after the hardcap.
We had a long break before the second game of the day so I went home and cooled down and had to get warmed back up upon my return to Nokomis. At the start of our game we had a total of 6 people to their 12 or 13. We were forced to play savage 6 against a team with abundant subs. We were NOT going to forfeit our way to the bottom of the B bracket. In reality, we should have been playing for 3rd or 4th to last, not for last place. We had to forfeit earlier games due to lack of people. 6 on the line frantically trying to figure out a defence and offence. We go with a 3 man cup, two wings and a deepdeep. We get the first point, they roll three. Michelle, Erica and I are still tryig to get our cub defense down: all-time mark, top of the cup, dump cutoff, etc. We score again so its 3-2 and I am really tired from being all-time mark (this means I have get to run the most to catch up with the disc). We start rotating cup positions and it naturally works out extemely well. We start forcing them to make more difficult throws, wide swings that move them further backward than forward and get frustratingly close to tipping the dump out of the air. We score again, tie game. This is where our intensity soared. Our individual talents came together at this perfect moment, the last game of the season. My own performance also peaked. Our offense was two handlers with a four person sidestack. I was not a handler which allowed me to cut, something I am much better at. We rolled a quick two points and took it to half. Half time allowed us to take a break to crystalise our D and O and rest a bit. The second half was fantastic. We outscored them 6-1 winning 11-4. Our cup tightened up extremely well, the wings did a great job of cutting off any up field throws with all three of the non-cup defenders making some nice stops. With me able to cut, I was usually the one who started and finished any upfield movement. One thing our team lacked all season was the hard first cut with another hard second cut in either direction. We looked for the deep throw or punt way too much and as I was normally handling I couldn't give any direction on that end of the field. Not only was I able to cut, but my performance was out of this world. Wide open on any of my cuts, perfect passes, perfect outside ins to the endzone and no hesitation in making quick strikes off a turn. I had never thrown so many scores in my life. I think there was a point where I threw to Michelle at least 3 times in a row and hit other a couple times. This game I actually felt as though I was impacting and really driving our offense, and even our defence was offending: pull, quick turn with our sweet cup and quick strike.
I am in no way trying to be egotistical but I truly had the feeling that I, and the rest of the team, were all playing with full intensity. Sometimes I was at the disc setting the mark before the defence even got to it. And no, it wasn't due to a short pull :)
It really was the best and worst ultimate I played over the fall season.
I got the call from Mike around 13:00 telling me to get to Nokomis as soon as possible. Fortunately I live about 10 blocks away so soon meant 10 minutes. I limped onto the field, limped because I had ran nearly 7 miles the previous day, put my cleats on while taking the field because we were playing savage 6 with an extra guy from the opposing team. I took his spot to make the 7th. We were facing off against Eden Prairie and again I got to play against Rachel's little brother. I felt as though I was just a body running around on the field, my head was not in the game. I also had to handle, which is not my position of choice but is something I have been getting better at. I think I had the disk pass through my hand maybe one or two times per point for maybe 7 or 8 of our 16 or 17 total points. My throws were inaccurate, my handling moves were slow and clumsy, my defense was far from stellar, I was out of breath and slow moving, I was affraid to make the quick transition throws after a turn, overall I felt uninvolved in the production of the offence (mostly because of the lack of opportunity to make cuts) and seemed to be more of a road block in any downfield flow that we had. We won 11 or 12 to probably 5 or 6 after the hardcap.
We had a long break before the second game of the day so I went home and cooled down and had to get warmed back up upon my return to Nokomis. At the start of our game we had a total of 6 people to their 12 or 13. We were forced to play savage 6 against a team with abundant subs. We were NOT going to forfeit our way to the bottom of the B bracket. In reality, we should have been playing for 3rd or 4th to last, not for last place. We had to forfeit earlier games due to lack of people. 6 on the line frantically trying to figure out a defence and offence. We go with a 3 man cup, two wings and a deepdeep. We get the first point, they roll three. Michelle, Erica and I are still tryig to get our cub defense down: all-time mark, top of the cup, dump cutoff, etc. We score again so its 3-2 and I am really tired from being all-time mark (this means I have get to run the most to catch up with the disc). We start rotating cup positions and it naturally works out extemely well. We start forcing them to make more difficult throws, wide swings that move them further backward than forward and get frustratingly close to tipping the dump out of the air. We score again, tie game. This is where our intensity soared. Our individual talents came together at this perfect moment, the last game of the season. My own performance also peaked. Our offense was two handlers with a four person sidestack. I was not a handler which allowed me to cut, something I am much better at. We rolled a quick two points and took it to half. Half time allowed us to take a break to crystalise our D and O and rest a bit. The second half was fantastic. We outscored them 6-1 winning 11-4. Our cup tightened up extremely well, the wings did a great job of cutting off any up field throws with all three of the non-cup defenders making some nice stops. With me able to cut, I was usually the one who started and finished any upfield movement. One thing our team lacked all season was the hard first cut with another hard second cut in either direction. We looked for the deep throw or punt way too much and as I was normally handling I couldn't give any direction on that end of the field. Not only was I able to cut, but my performance was out of this world. Wide open on any of my cuts, perfect passes, perfect outside ins to the endzone and no hesitation in making quick strikes off a turn. I had never thrown so many scores in my life. I think there was a point where I threw to Michelle at least 3 times in a row and hit other a couple times. This game I actually felt as though I was impacting and really driving our offense, and even our defence was offending: pull, quick turn with our sweet cup and quick strike.
I am in no way trying to be egotistical but I truly had the feeling that I, and the rest of the team, were all playing with full intensity. Sometimes I was at the disc setting the mark before the defence even got to it. And no, it wasn't due to a short pull :)
It really was the best and worst ultimate I played over the fall season.
posted by Eric @ 11.11.05
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