Ultimate Frisbee Pick-up Rocks
Feb. 25th, 2007 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebToday I finally tried one of the pick-up games that a friend of mine likes to go to. Another friend used this as an opportunity to try to get together a bunch of old friends who used to play pick-up games together, um, over a decade ago. As a result, I got to see one of my favorite people who I hardly ever get to see. Plus there's another old-timer who's probably been playing the whole time who I enjoy playing with--today he made a throw between the legs of the guy guarding him.
The other people we contacted admitted that they don't really like running around like crazy.
It was tiring but pretty fun and wonderfully unserious. Read chikuru's Stall one, stall one, stall one... for one difference between our game and league ultimate. My favorite difference is the way women are treated. We had two women show up, and we were both wearing dark shirts, so we were on the same team. In league ultimate, you (almost) have to have the same number of women on each side, and you always guard someone of the same gender. "Woman" is like a synonym for bad player, or at best, separate but equal. As a heterosexual female, I must admit that ultimate is a little more fun when I get to guard men.
Another difference is that you are encouraged to try to catch the pull (that first throw which the team who got the last point throws to the other team to start the play for the next point). If you drop it, instead of there being a turnover, you can keep the disk so long as you say, "I'm sorry."
And another difference is that people threw to me. Probably more often in this game than in all the games of the winter league combined. And I usually caught it. And I usually threw complete throws. Only one throw (and no attempts at catching) were completely embarrassing. And it wasn't too stressful to have possession of the disk like I thought it would be. There are so many people that there's always someone close enough.
One of my friends had a big gym bag full of stuff and said it made him feel old. He had water, sunscreen, chapstick, several frisbees, sunglasses, etc. I explained that this is not called being "old," it's called being "wise."
But then at the end, three of us were talking about how happy we were that we hadn't sustained any injuries. That sounds like a bunch of old people. One guy said he didn't remember it being this exhausting when we used to play. I said that I clearly remembered several of us sitting around the house being unable to do anything for the rest of the day afterwards.
Which I did again today.
But I like it. I'm going back.
The other people we contacted admitted that they don't really like running around like crazy.
It was tiring but pretty fun and wonderfully unserious. Read chikuru's Stall one, stall one, stall one... for one difference between our game and league ultimate. My favorite difference is the way women are treated. We had two women show up, and we were both wearing dark shirts, so we were on the same team. In league ultimate, you (almost) have to have the same number of women on each side, and you always guard someone of the same gender. "Woman" is like a synonym for bad player, or at best, separate but equal. As a heterosexual female, I must admit that ultimate is a little more fun when I get to guard men.
Another difference is that you are encouraged to try to catch the pull (that first throw which the team who got the last point throws to the other team to start the play for the next point). If you drop it, instead of there being a turnover, you can keep the disk so long as you say, "I'm sorry."
And another difference is that people threw to me. Probably more often in this game than in all the games of the winter league combined. And I usually caught it. And I usually threw complete throws. Only one throw (and no attempts at catching) were completely embarrassing. And it wasn't too stressful to have possession of the disk like I thought it would be. There are so many people that there's always someone close enough.
One of my friends had a big gym bag full of stuff and said it made him feel old. He had water, sunscreen, chapstick, several frisbees, sunglasses, etc. I explained that this is not called being "old," it's called being "wise."
But then at the end, three of us were talking about how happy we were that we hadn't sustained any injuries. That sounds like a bunch of old people. One guy said he didn't remember it being this exhausting when we used to play. I said that I clearly remembered several of us sitting around the house being unable to do anything for the rest of the day afterwards.
Which I did again today.
But I like it. I'm going back.
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on 2007-02-26 04:06 am (UTC)Pick up games are usually more chill than league games, but this one is the most low-key one I know. When I play at IBM, the women are frequently on the same team -- or at least as often as not. But they do have a stall count.