Played pickup in the freezing cold today. Went pretty well. I've been trying to focus my defensive awareness at the expense of almost everything else. Focusing on the angle to take if a given throw goes up and the positions I need to get to based on the moves the offense makes. The timing is very different with this group than with the Pike group. I find it very interesting and challenging to play in different styles.
The focus on defense is a great challenge for me as I've not thought much over the years about how to play defense. Reading the game that way is far different than reading the game as an offensive player. The advantages to challenging myself in this way will help me both on O and D in the long run, though it definitely caused some short-circuiting in my game on offense-- I was still busy thinking about D!
That's fine for now, but as the season progresses, I'll work on the shift from "Great D Mentality" to "Great O Mentality" on turnovers. The D thoughts did lead to a couple of situations where I did/should have gotten a D. One I played perfectly. I laid out for the D in the endzone, felt the cold impact of frozen plastic and then, as I realized that I hadn't caught the D. I then heard the shout of "Nice wasted effort, jackass!" from Dono as the well-impacted disc was sent directly into the arms of the player I was defending for a pretty easy goal. Tried to catch it, but I just couldn't. That sucked.
Saw some familiar NJ players (Dono, Reavey, Walt, Vlad) out there and the usual, though smaller, group of NY proper players. I doubt the NJ guys show regularly.
The game is slowly coming out of hibernation for Kaimana.
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Workout Total:
2 hours Pickup
Monday, January 29
ERP/PoNY Pickup
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2 comments:
Switching from O mind to D mind is one of the greatest challenges to an ultimate player, and one that's underestimated, in my opinion. There are a very few players who can switch effortlessly between the two, and it makes them all the more remarkable for it.
As a mostly D player, I spend so much mental time frothing myself up for crazy D that it's difficult for me to regain the patient O mindset once the turn has happened. I'd like to try and work on that as well, but I'm not sure what I can do besides know that it's an issue and think about it when I can.
I've, historically, had the opposite problem. Being primarily and O player has led me to play lazy defense, especially in practice and early in games.
My O never suffered, but my D was terrible. I've got to bridge the mental gap.
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