First Games, Winter League

[livingdeb]

Semi-serious ultimate is a whole different thing when someone actually throws you the disc occasionally. I missed every single time someone threw to me except for one. The last time the person guarding me actually came up to me afterwards and gave me a one-arm hug around the shoulders and said I had given up too soon on the last one.

I expect to suck at running, keeping up with my man, getting away from my man, and throwing. But I actually can catch sometimes. That's my one sort of good thing. Overhearing this, one of my experienced teammates tried to give me lessons on catching. He explained two things. First, people have been overthrowing me--we still have to learn how fast each other can run. If I can't touch the disc, it's not my fault. However, I did touch and fumble several throws. I even would have caught one, but my guard yanked it out of my hand.

My teammate explained that he's a runner but used to fumble all his catches. And so second, when practicing before/between games, we should practice running to the disc, not just standing there, because catching while running is a whole different skill.

Meanwhile we were throwing back and forth the whole time. And I caught every single one. No, what I need to practice is when people are throwing long to me.

After that I never got open again, so I don't know if I would have caught anything after all these pep talks.

So, the atmosphere is pretty good this time. I still don't think ultimate is as fun as it used to be, but sheenaqotj told me that some of the pick-ups around town are even less serious than this winter league, so I may try them sometimes. This may be my last league, though. Or it may get more fun as we go along.

We ended up with yellow shirts. Brilliantly bright yellow. And apparently there's some kind of throw called a "thumber." So, can you guess our team name?

Minor stalling time here so it doesn't stand out if you're trying to guess, but our team is the yellow thumberines. We should probably be called the yellow moonerines because there are (at least) two mooners on our team. After the first game it was noted that once we mooned them, we started getting a lot more points. And it was decided that we should moon the other team much earlier on in the future.

And our rallying cry seems to be, "We're not that drunk!" I don't know what it is about drinking and ultimate, but they seem to go together, even though I would think that anyone who plays that kind of crazy game would want to maintain healthy habits so they could be in proper shape. One guy was drinking wine throughout the two games. I guess what it is about drinking and ultimate is that young people are attracted to both.

For lunch we got pizza and beer. "I didn't have a very big budget, so I got Lone Star."

And now I am tired and achy. I won't be able to move tomorrow, will I?

Comments

Some Unsolicited Advice:

[sheenaqotj.livejournal.com]

It was really great to see you guys out there!

I didn't learn how to catch for years and years. As recently as last Saturday, I dropped 9 out of 10 throws that came in my direction, all of which were catchable. Of course, the colder weather makes it worse since my hands are slow to close. I tend to wear my gloves on the field even though I lose some of the control just because it hurts less and my fingers stay warmer, but that advice doesn't work for everybody -- it doesn't even work for me half the time.

Here are some catching tips people have shared with me, and a couple that I just made up on the spot, especially based on your complaint about in-game vs. practice performance. Maybe I should be trying them out more often:

- When practicing catching, practice catching only with one hand. Especially practice catching with your non-dominant hand -- I _still_ can't really catch with my left hand.

- Watch the throw all the way into your hand. Overdo this. I tended to blink or duck or do the "Sheena grimace" trying to get out of harms way because I was afraid of the disk. Not everybody has this problem, of course, but sometimes people start thinking about the follow-up throw or get distracted at the last second.

- If you can, practice with someone who has both a flick and a backhand. The spin direction is different, so if you get too accustomed to one, you might have the other one bounce off your hand. This doesn't apply so much for pancake catches, but it's definitely true for one-handers. Theoretically, you should be catching it on a different edge, but I can't usually think about it that way.

- On a related note, practice with someone who throws it hard. This is actually one of the big differences between informal games and league games. For some reason, I have a lot more trouble catching throws coming at me at a high velocity (probably because I'm ducking!), although I can normally adjust to make "good" catches on slower disks.

- Running and catching in practice is definitely a good tip. Having a defender on you also makes it harder.

- Yes, long throws can be much harder to read, especially if you have to trick your defender. That definitely takes practice and... some other very specific tips. I'm still not good at it, so I'm not going to say anything about them here. :)

Maybe these tips will help. They certainly gave me something more concrete to do when I'm throwing around! :-)

When I saw you playing on the other field, you were doing just fine, so don't get discouraged. There are a lot of good players around, for sure, but if you pay attention, you'll see that _everyone_ is making tons of mistakes. The good thing is that it doesn't matter -- the primary goal is to enjoy ourselves and no one should be getting down on anyone for it. Keep having fun and running around and coming back for league, because we love to have you around! It was a wonderful, pleasant surprise for me!

Re: Some Unsolicited Advice:

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Yea! Unsolicited advice!

I've never heard of some of these--like to practice catching with one hand, including my less dominant hand. Cool. One of the really good guys advised R. to try to do the pancake catch in the game unless the disk is too high, in which case you use one hand, or too low, in which case you use both hands on the edges. Before I'd only heard to always try to use both hands and, if possible to use the pancake method. I guess using only one hand for high catches lets you stretch farther. I also try for one-hand catches when the disk is way out to one side. So it makes perfect sense to have practiced catching with the nondominant hand.

The only thing I have practiced using my nondominant hand for is playing pool for when it's a ridiculous reach for your dominant hand. When your regular style is extremely inaccurate to begin with, you don't lose much trying the other hand. Oh, also I can use fingernail clippers with the nondominant hand, and I have tried writing.

I like the gloves for cold weather and thought it was totally awesome that they gave us some in the goody bag.

I don't think I have the problem of looking away, but then again, I just might with those hard throws. Hard throws give you a shorter catching window, so I assume they're more difficult for everyone.

Tricking my defender while going after a throw is not quite on my radar yet!

Many thanks for the tips!

Re: Some Unsolicited Advice:

[sheenaqotj.livejournal.com]

On the one-handed catching point, I just want to emphasize that I'm talking about always PRACTICING catching with one hand. That means that even if it's the perfect height for a pancake, while you're practicing, make one-handed catches. In the game, do whatever feels the most secure to you.

The idea is to build the hand-eye coordination for each hand so that if you try to catch it by the rim, you basically have two chances at making one-handed catches. I hope that makes sense.

BTW, that idea came from Gary, who is the winter league coordinator. "Coordinator" is sort of understating it -- the league was his brainchild.

I used to always try to make pancake catches. It took me a while to realize that really high pancake catches are often less secure than one-handed high catches. I still do pancakes far more often than I should, but at least I know what I'm _supposed_ to do. :)

Re: Some Unsolicited Advice:

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

Yes, I understand about the one-handed catching practice.

I agree that "Coordinator" is an understatement. Quote from Gary, while on hold on his cell phone yesterday: "The one thing I emphasized is that the pizzas need to be here on time!"

I learned from volleyball to try harder to get into a position where you can use both hands than to do something stunning with one hand. And I have learned to use the pancake as the default (I think). I noticed yesterday that I wasn't jumping high at all (during practice). I mean, like one foot off the ground! Maybe allowing myself to try more one-handed catches on purpose will make it more likely I will jump higher.

I have made many good one-handed catches before (with my dominant hand), but it still feels very exciting and lucky when I do that.

Re: Some Unsolicited Advice:

[sheenaqotj.livejournal.com]

"I learned from volleyball to try harder to get into a position where you can use both hands than to do something stunning with one hand."

Oh yeah, that's definitely a good strategy! I didn't really think about it that way. Sadly, it isn't always an option. Then again, it's an option more often than we think it is.

I end up actually getting lower when I try to jump because I crouch down and forget to do the jumping part. It's actually pretty sad. My height does me absolutely no good -- although it would be much worse if I was as jumping challenged and much shorter. Since you've played volleyball before, at least you won't have that problem.

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

This sounds way more fun than I was worried it would be, given your previous post. I'm glad.

Don't forget to stretch!

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

We did stretch a bit while waiting for lunch. If that helped, I am very glad I did it.