Pickup
As I discussed in the retirement post, I have been scrambling to find opportunites to play ultimate at all hours, figuring it will be my only source of conditioning/weight maintenance for at least this year until I try and come up with a longer-term conditioning plan that I can actually stomach. So far, I have found a daily pickup game on Sunday afternoons in Arlington, a Tuesday evening game in Cambridge both of which I attend regularly, and summer league games once a week on weekday nights. I hope to find a few more just to keep my options open. Now that I have played low-mid level pickup for a few weeks now, I just wanted to share some thoughts on pickup in general.
I went into these pickup games with eyes wide open. I was actually impressed with the overall level of play. There is your usual wide range of skills, although I am almost definitely the only player that has ever made nationals, not that that is necessarily an arbiter of talent, but for me it indicates a certain competitive edge. Because my first priority out there is for conditioning and practice, I'm always trying to line up on their best player on defense so that I can focus and challenge myself. Otherwise it would just become picking your moments and playing a bunch of poach D.
Last night at the Cambridge game, I was there for almost 3 games to 7. We had iron 7's. It is rare that there are subs. There have been 7's with a sub, iron 6's and iron 7's in the 3 times I have been so far. When we were 6's, I proposed playing games to 3 with a break so that people would be able to run a little more. I was promptly shot down and we played games to 5. Naturally people started playing tired, taking water breaks between points instead of games. It was all a little annoying, but I had made my bid so I went with the flow. So last night they were actually playing games to 7. Towards the middle of the second game, it was getting so bad, that even when pulling downwind, the D got down so slowly that you could work it at least halfway up the field before everyone had a defender relatively near them.
I feel like I want to argue about respecting the game, respecting your opponents by trying, if not your hardest, then hard enough, or respecting the person you are lining up across from. And, of course, the other part of pickup, which is the fact that you could score easily every time if you just worked it down the field, ESPECIALLY since the defense is so spotty. But no, I'm going to work the end-zone eyes and try that long backhand huck I think I've gotten good at. And it is worse, because it is behavior that is reinforcing, because if I see somebody else continually hucking it (often away, or dogmeat throws that luckily get caught anyway), then the other players want a piece of it. They'll start looking off the wide-open underneath guys while they look for their star turn.
I also definitely bite my tongue strategically. I feel like there are a lot of simple things that whatever team I'm on could do that would completely shut down the other team on defense, but I am loathe to speak up, one because I'm the new guy, and two, because I don't feel like it is the right environment. I don't think these guys are here to necessarily get any better. They are there to take some time off, play around with their friends, etc.
I guess I will just keep going and continue to use it as an opportunity to stay/get in shape, and perhaps hone a few special throws. Better than sitting home and doing nothing...
I went into these pickup games with eyes wide open. I was actually impressed with the overall level of play. There is your usual wide range of skills, although I am almost definitely the only player that has ever made nationals, not that that is necessarily an arbiter of talent, but for me it indicates a certain competitive edge. Because my first priority out there is for conditioning and practice, I'm always trying to line up on their best player on defense so that I can focus and challenge myself. Otherwise it would just become picking your moments and playing a bunch of poach D.
Last night at the Cambridge game, I was there for almost 3 games to 7. We had iron 7's. It is rare that there are subs. There have been 7's with a sub, iron 6's and iron 7's in the 3 times I have been so far. When we were 6's, I proposed playing games to 3 with a break so that people would be able to run a little more. I was promptly shot down and we played games to 5. Naturally people started playing tired, taking water breaks between points instead of games. It was all a little annoying, but I had made my bid so I went with the flow. So last night they were actually playing games to 7. Towards the middle of the second game, it was getting so bad, that even when pulling downwind, the D got down so slowly that you could work it at least halfway up the field before everyone had a defender relatively near them.
I feel like I want to argue about respecting the game, respecting your opponents by trying, if not your hardest, then hard enough, or respecting the person you are lining up across from. And, of course, the other part of pickup, which is the fact that you could score easily every time if you just worked it down the field, ESPECIALLY since the defense is so spotty. But no, I'm going to work the end-zone eyes and try that long backhand huck I think I've gotten good at. And it is worse, because it is behavior that is reinforcing, because if I see somebody else continually hucking it (often away, or dogmeat throws that luckily get caught anyway), then the other players want a piece of it. They'll start looking off the wide-open underneath guys while they look for their star turn.
I also definitely bite my tongue strategically. I feel like there are a lot of simple things that whatever team I'm on could do that would completely shut down the other team on defense, but I am loathe to speak up, one because I'm the new guy, and two, because I don't feel like it is the right environment. I don't think these guys are here to necessarily get any better. They are there to take some time off, play around with their friends, etc.
I guess I will just keep going and continue to use it as an opportunity to stay/get in shape, and perhaps hone a few special throws. Better than sitting home and doing nothing...
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 1:27 PM
3 Comments:
i thought it would be funny to create a whole new blog called 'cambridgepickup.blogspot.com' and have the first post be about the 'new' guy out at pick-up who 'takes things WAAAAAYYYY too seriously, who is pretty solid, and an OK defender for an old guy... but it's too much work, i don't have enough inside knowledge to get away with it.... but it'd be funny...
Tips for surviving Boston pickup:
1. Always throw to the turnover machine, and be supportive when he turfs a ten yard forehand on your goal line and then marks the guy picking up the disc rather than trying to cover at least one of the two guys now wide open in the end zone. "Maybe you should work on that at home" won't be appreciated.
2. Do not make any suggestions while waiting on the line -- even a string that culminates with the TM catching the goal -- that's tooo intense.
3. Brick the pull/jack it out of the endzone when possible. It's the only chance you have of getting your team to play d before midfield.
4. Don't throw hammers -- it will encourage others to follow suit, and this gets ugly, quickly.
I'm sure you're God's gift to ultimate and that you've already earned a trip to Valhalla with your play at nationals but to suggest that some pick-up players disrespect the game for sucking wind on D and making a few ill-advised hucks is taking it a little far. Michael Jordan told me that high stakes gambling is a great way to feel that rush when your career is over so maybe you could head down to Foxwoods and save the pompous rants for the DOG reunion tournament.
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