Saddle Up the [Old] Palomino

Not just because they're beautiful horses

and not just because Neil Young sings about them, but because the song itself is a sort of clanky clangy funstomp on trodden trails we know well.  But that's what Neil does.  He's out there divining things from other dimensions we all share but precisely fail to understand.  He's doing things that make sense, after a fashion, and to a degree he grasps his own creations... and yet there is this space between the action and the shadow.

This is often the type of music which sounds off in my mind's ear unbidden while playing frisbee these days.  Mind you, I take precautions like "Making playlists full of Burna Boy, Schoolboy Q, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Anderson.Paak, Janelle Monae, Bob Marley, Passion Pit, Holy Ghost!, &c" to keep myself away from the melancholic strains of Americana.

It is always Neil ("Shelter me from the powder and the finger") It was always Neil, of course. But the shakey wanderer not to be toyed with is to this day one of the primary self-images I hold.  "Dancin' across the water" and the whole rest of that mystic ballad of the colonial genocide of the Aztecs by the Spanish penned by a Canadian made famous in American rock music.  One America indeed.  Fuck your borders.

Did I bury the lede?  I tried out for John Doe, the men's club team I've been coaching for four years in DC.  I attended two tryout sessions and one tryout tournament before being offered a roster spot.  I then had a bunch of questions to ask before accepting the spot... but considering I set "Making John Doe" as a goal once October hit and have been working at it since then... there was little to no chance I would actually decline the offer.

I've UNRETIRED! I don't know how many seasons this will last, but I needed more personal physical challenges to keep me moving as my life progresses.  I also have a strong strong thirst for testing the things I've been woodshedding for 8 years of club retirement against the best competition I can find.  That is, I have some theories which I need to put to the test in real world conditions rather than league play and fun tourneys.

I've also undergone some very critical self-assessment of my work as a coach.  I don't think I've managed to put together my vision of how the game can/should be played in a coachable whole.  I have spent 4 seasons nibbling at pieces of it and trying to show folks what it looks like here or there... and I have definitely improved the field sense and awareness of many players I have coached... I've even solved some mechanical problems for throwers here and there w/o rebuilding their form and intruding too much... and helped cutters make more creative cuts which are viable options for a wider array of throws.  I've experimented with offenses in the EZ and full field and learned some valuable things but I have a truly hard time communicating what I've learned.

So... pulling back and just going into things as a player is definitely helping me see some of my own flaws as a coach.  Since I have much more coaching ahead of me than I do high-level playing... I look forward to eventually returning to coaching with a much more coherent and communicable vision.  But for now?  Ii'm out here Big Game Hunting like an Apex Predator again.  I'm definitely a different player... knotted up a little less inside... more of this, less of that... better knowledge of self.

I'll be playing with and against players younger than some of my (still in rotation!) shirts and shorts.  I'll be playing with and against players who were born after I started playing ultimate.  I'll be out there trying to directconnect to action and movement again.  Working to take the body seriously again.

I'm calmer than I used to be... and yet far less likely to let your bullshit slide w/o comment.  I rarely escalate but... I'm not interested in deescalating when the only things being thrown are words.

I prepare differently, think differently, assess differently, recover differently, throw differently, move differently, train differently... and so and on and on anon.

Funny... almost dozen years ago on a Friday in June I was typing about cockamamie schemes to play frisbee in "Boston" (aka Devens).  I don't remember this actual trip much... I assume the folks involved were Julie, Jamie, & Wix. I remember staying at Elizabeth's, but I remember little to nothing else. (Fortunately, there's a blog for that.)

While I won't be heading to a tournament this weekend, I do have my first official practice as a member of John Doe tomorrow!  I'm excited to start to learn the habits of my teammates and to get them used to trusting me on the field.

I plan to update this space intermittently as I find it valuable to dive back into the archives to see what I was doing way back when in comparison to today.  I will also be mulling on how some of the new things I'm testing on-field work and about some of the changes since I last took club seriously as a player.

I'll end this by saying I am quite thankful for the ability and time and energy and all other privileges I have had and continue to have which allow me to have a ton of fun playing a silly made-up game (all games are silly and made up) I first learned about back in 1992.  I played 4 or 8 games from 92-98.  From 98 to now I must've played in hundreds of tournaments, thousands of games... and here I am... sufficiently favored by fortune to return again to test myself 16 years after my first club season, and nine years since I first retired.

I hope to be able to channel Neil in many ways this season.  Defy age and keep on truckin'.  Show folks things they didn't know where there.  Seem like someone displaced in time.  Be unapologetically your whole self. Build a Crazy Horse to rock out with!  Prefer analog over digital.  Cash over electronic transfer.  Vinyl over file.  Hand over glove.

Anyway... Should be fun.  Look for some updates from your favorite neighborhood old man playing open in this space.

What a world to have such a journey in store for me!