Mental F*ck

This past weekend I was playing in our local Fall League game with my long standing team, Tsunami. I have to say that it's the first game I came away completely mentally, f'ed over. Not like "oh I am mentally exhausted" but to quote Dylan's and I new favorite Order of the Stick Cartoon "My brain feels like a psion . . . did psiony stuff". To explain how mentally I am tilted by the game it has been over 2 days since the game and I am still wondering what happened.
I had 5 turn overs in a point, now that is not to say that I've never had that many in a single point, or had more, but for some reason I made the worst mental adjustments and choices during that point and I hit a wall. Anyone who knows me as an ultimate player/coach knows I am a cheer-leader and a talker. No matter where I am on the field or off my voice can be heard and it's one of my biggest assets. However, on Saturday I hit a mental wall. I couldn't cheer, I couldn't get enthused about what we were doing and I realized that often times I am alone in talking to teammates on and off the field. I was simply stunned how silent the game seemed when I wasn't talking, it amazed me. How do people play a team oriented sport without communication?
I think the more alarming fact of my mental shutdown was that I had been working specifically on my mental preparedness for Ultimate in general. I have begun observing more video footage of top players each day before practice and games, putting myself in a top player mindset. I have been striving to arrive at games 30mins or more in advance to make sure my body is fully warmed up prior to games. I have also been selecting pump up music to listen to on drives to practice/games to better set myself for the work and toil that a physical activity demands. That being said it was not enough this time around.
How do we combat the mental turmoil that we face in every day life? How do teams take themselves from a soul-crushing loss to win in the following game-to-go? I recently order a book by Travis Steffen called Peak Performance Poker which I am hoping can help me with life goals not just in my poker education, but Ultimate, and work too. Travis is a recent addition to the DeucesCracked Coaching Team. Tina Booth recently had an article in the USA Ultimate Magazine talking about the dynasty of the Amherst Program and the mental training she puts her players through. She talks of working with a sports psychologist Dr. Alan Goldberg on "mental toughness", through the visualization of top plays prior to games and practices. I am hoping I can use more of these tools to work on my mental toughness but I ask you, how do you cope with defeats and loss in games/life/ultimate/poker/what you are passionate about?

Busy Life

Today is a sick day. Headache and my stomach is not feeling so hot. But sick day does not mean a day off so much as a day to catch up on things that sit on plate without deadlines.
Right now I am listening to the podcasts from YouthUltimate.com where they interview various youth athletes around the nation. Other things on my plate today involve emailing, work obviously, and catching up on blogs etc.
Life in general is busy and things won't back down for awhile. Garfield Frisbee is up and running full bore and games are less than a week away. I put in a bid for the boys to play at Western's and while I am optimistic we will get to play I think we'll be waitlisted originally as our strength of schedule is not very good in the past year.
I failed the observer test, twice. For those not in the know observers are used on the higher level games to resolve foul calls quickly rather than letting big boy egos yell at one another for endless minutes. The test was a required before you could register for training and I found it pushed my knowledge of some of the more obscure rules. It would have been nice if there were different tests available so when you failed the first time you could review where you went wrong and then you can retake a new test that was similar but not word for word as it currently is. Anyhow that was disappointing but I hope to still become a certified observer at some point.
DiscNW league stuff is going well, got to email the coaches and remind them about paperwork but we are ahead of schedule at this time compared to previous years. This season shows big promises with us having lights and turf field for most of the games so it will become more of a staple sport like football or baseball where you know from season to season that games will be on x day every week for 9 weeks. We are underway for spring reign planning and this year I am trying to design and build reusable field maps for the Skagit River Park facilities. I've got a great game plan and just need a sign-off from DiscNW.
I think that is all for now. Cat and I are headed to the oregon coast tomorrow and I am looking forward to some time off.

Vegas Days 3 and 4

So this is REALLY late but I just got around to writing about days 3 and 4 from Vegas. Day 3 was nice an easy, our tournament was done and everyone was going to be around except for Ed and Charlie who had work on Monday morning, poor guys. We made the decision to try for half price tickets and ended up getting tickets to Penn and Teller at the Rio. Let me tell you that doing a 3-way cell text conversation while the other parties are also talking to eachother is confusing as hell. Luckily Laura was nice enough to get tickets for all and Bryan and Aaron went to get the physical tickets themselves. The rest of us (Philbrook, Dylan, Myself, and Ed) hit up Ceasar's buffet for a traditional meal. I can tell you that for the money ($26.99 not including alcohol and tip) that the Ceasar's buffet is excellent. They have something for everyone, and have been expanding their vegetarian selections so hopefully Tara will join us next year. Dylan was uber excited as he avoids dairy during tournaments so in the past has not been able to take advantage.
After dinner we met up with Margo and Tara then hopped some cabs to the Rio for the show. Penn and Teller's show was fabulous. I enjoy magic and the comedy routine mixed in was just great. I had a great time and with everyone there it was an excellent end to the weekend.
Day 4 doesn't have much of a story as this was the flight day. When we woke up Tara and I met up with Laura and had some breakfast. We spent time at the Rainforest Cafe hanging out with Bryan, Aaron, and Philbrook as well. Afterwards Laura and I caught a cab to the airport while the others killed time till their flights hours later.
All in all this was perhaps the most fun and most successful Vegas Tournament I have ever had considering all the logistical problems we had. I imagine that we will get some returners from this group for next year and I look forward to it.

Vegas Day 2

So Friday comes and like all good degens we don't get up till like noon. Game plan is as people wake up text my cell and we'll figure things as the day unfolds. Today Charlie and Philbrook arrive in the afternoon evening then come late evening we are joined by Margo and our East Coast contingent of Tara and Ed. We have crepes at Paris Paris (a tradition) by this point and do some wandering. My ability to walk the strip is hampered by my knee and back so I can only make it to the Paris Paris before having to come back to the Trop. I spend the afternoon getting some work for Deuces done as I am the only one still state side for the company :)

That afternoon and evening we have dinner at . . . you know I don't remember. Bryan and Aaron are still hitting poker rooms hard. Laura and Charlie both have show tickets (Phantom of the Opera and O, respectively). Now I remember we all meet up for a late dinner at the Venetian. Dylan had dinner with his cousin but joined us later. Then he headed back to make sure the late comers could get into a room. Ah good friends. After dinner we caught a cab back to the Trop and met up with the others who had just landed. We played board/strategy card games till around 3am before finally crashing. Tara made the mistake of never adapting to West Coast vampire mode so she goes to bed early each night, sad I know.

Earlier that day I got confirmation from Skip that we are going with a truncated format. My team, Tsunami, plays 4 games beginning at 3pm and ending at 8pm with a bye in the second hour. Cool by us, we are here to play frisbee AND have fun. If we win our pool we go to bracket on Sunday, if we lose the pool we are done, 2-4 in the pool and we play 1 crossover game at 8pm on Sunday. Yeah Sunday night, 1 game. This later changes but you'll have to read the next post to find out how.

Vegas: The Worst Idea Ever!!!

For those who don't know frisbee there is a company run by my friend Matt "Skip" Sewell called Cu1timate (pronounced "cul" "ti" "mate") that hosts frisbee tournaments for college and club teams across the nation, and overseas (checkout their site for a tournament in Ireland). Anyhow they came up with the idea about 5 years ago to run a college tournament in Vegas (titled Trouble in Vegas: The Best or Worst Idea Ever) to replace the then missing San Diego President's Day Weekend. Anyhow that original tournament has grown to like 64 mens teams and 32 womens teams, and 3 years ago they introduced a club version. Well since it's inception I have either gone to the college or club vegas and competed or coached.

This year was no different as I took a smattering of players from Tsunami and friends from around the Ultimate community. All told there was 11 of us, 8 guys and 3 ladies. I was not cleared, medically, to play so that left 7 guys and 3 girls for a 2 day tournament. Ruh Roh! Anyhow we went in knowing we'd be drinking before play began and we'd have fun. Plan was to fly in on Thursday or Friday and come back on Monday. Well Vegas was hit by torrential rains, funny as it's sunny here in Seattle. Anyhow so when flying out of Seatac on Thursday through San Fran to Vegas my flight was delayed cause it couldn't land in San Fran due to bad weather. It was cool though as I was on vacation and didn't care. I was flying Virgin America for the first time and their staff was awesome. Due to the delay I wasn't going to make my connection and before we left Seattle they had me rebooked on a flight to Vegas that night in an exit row (+1 for Virgin). While waiting in the airport the staff played movie trivia for what apparently equated to a free drink of choice on the flight. In order to answer the trivia you had to be first to the podium, ring the bell, and say the answer over the airport PA, awesome (+1 for Virgin).

Flight to San Fran was uneventful. Virgin has awesome planes and if you have never been on one I recommend trying it at least once. Violet and red lighting instead of normal red, and individual touch screens from tv, movie, games, and food/drink orders. Once in San Fran I learn that Vegas is socked in as well so my next flight is delayed. I kill time doing work on the laptop and eventually we take off. I get to Vegas 8hrs after expected but it's Vegas so landing at 930pm is the start of the night.

I land in Vegas and meet up with Laura and Steve at the Wolfgang Puck cafe in the MGM grand. I eat and drink a little before we head to the tropicana where we will be staying for this trip. Some people bag on the hotel but the rooms are as good as any in Hanford or Burlington here in Washington. They just appear dirty compared to the glitz of Vegas. The Trop is also going through a mass overhaul the next year and so each room has a card with a picture that says "next time you are here, your room will look like this". Very classy. It's like a fuck you to the people currently in the room.

I forgot to mention that during the day Skip emailed saying that due to rain the parks department had closed our field facility. They found some turf fields to play at but this would change the format from 2 days and 2hr game slots, to 1hr game slots and you'd play for a 4hr chunk from 9am to 8pm on Saturday or Sunday (+1 for small squad). Anyways back to the Trop. I drop off gear and Steve convinces me to play $5 BlackJack. I will be first to admit I have a Blackjack addiction and cannot walk away from a table at times, but Steve knew this and said he'd look out for me. As is Steve loses like $75 and I make $40 while we wait for Dylan, Bryan, and Aaron to land. We have good fun and Bryan and Aaron head to the MGM poker room to play some $1/2 NL. Dylan and I join them later as Steve and Laura (old people) poop out around 1am.

The MGM poker room is very nice, and I usually play there on all my trips. Anyhow Dylan and I attempt to sit with Bryan at his "juicy" table but according to the floor man we have to balance tables so we get seated at another $1/2 table. This table is bad for me, there are a few regs and NL is not my game. I am card dead the whole time and I try to speculate with bad hands too much. When all is said and done in 3 hours I'm down $300 and rail birding as Dylan is slowly bleeding his $200 BI away. Sad thing is $300 was my whole gambling roll. Yes I know that it's too small to sit at 200NL but I had no choice on the strip without going up to old downtown, so I took a gamble and loss. About 4am Dylan busts out. We hang around for 30mins as Bryan has moved to our table and we had a good repoire with other players heckling and the like. They also all wanted to know about DeucesCracked. They also began fearing Dylan when I mentioned he graduated from MIT. Hooray for table image :). Anyhow around 5am we head back to our room and crash. End day 1 in Vegas.

Vegas BABY!!!!

I leave for Vegas in two days. For those not aware I take an adult coed team down to have fun on and off the field (i.e. this is an excuse for my friends and I to hangout in Vegas every year). This year Cat won't be going, new position at work would make it hard for her to take time off and I will be sad she's not there. This will be a strange trip for me without Cat there, me not being able to play in the tournament, and having so many random pickups playing with us. I look forward to the trip but still skeptical how well it will work out with 4 girls and 8 guys playing a coed tournament, but I think all of us know it's not about the win/loss but about the fun and mischeive we can make while there. Almost everyone has at least 1 or 2 extra days with us and it should be fun. I am hoping to get in some good hours at the poker tables as I want to increase my bankroll before I return to learning/playing online poker next month. I will post more on that later, but for now I got to get back to work so I can get some rest before PT in the morning.
On a side note I have gone 3 straight days doing all my exercises and my knee/back are feeling better and stronger. Next benchmark is in May for sockeye/Voodoo/Downpour tryouts.

Frustrated

For those who know me for more than 6 months, you have seen a trend of injuries throughout my life. I will be first to admit that I do not take very good care of my body, but I like to think that I am getting better and because i am only 27 I think I can turn it around.

Anyone who has seen me in the last two months knows that I am rehabbing a knee injury (patellar tendinitis). I was doing PT twice a week with the hope that I might play, even sparingly at Vegas in a little over a week. Well as of yesterday afternoon I took a step backward in recovery and this morning my physical therapist put to light my fear that I will be flying to Vegas but unable to play without possibly damaging my body further. I had hope till today.

The most frustrating thing is that I have had pain everyday for almost 2 months now. Lower back pain, knee pain, quad pain. I've tried muscle relaxers, Vitamin I (ibuprofen), vicodin, ice, chiropractic care, and PT and I still take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. My wife has to be the strongest person ever as she has dealt with consistant elbow and thumb tendinitis for over 2 years now, including having surgery. I am miserable after 2 months and I cannot see how she has persevered through her pain. It must be frustrating.

Physical Therapy

Today I had my second session of PT to rehab my patellar tendinitis. It was a tough workout, working on form throughout lunging and dips to try to get my knee to track better. I appreciate Laura Bogh's work as a PT as she is making use of the repetative motions I am prone to do as a frisbee player. I have quite a few exercises/stretches to do on my own and I am constantly working on flexing my core and sitting/standing up straight. My back does not get as tired of being fully upright as it has in the past which is good. We are optimistic for me playing at Vegas but I'm not betting the farm on it.

A New Year, A New Beginning

I won't make any promises as it's really hard to always keep your word, so I figured I would just step out and do it. Go blog and if I blog a lot, great. If not, no big deal. This new year and next month brings a lot of promise but first a few quick notes.
My wife and I went back East (New Jersey) for Christmas as we tend to do and the trip was rough. I love my in-laws and really lucked out with them but I have patellar tendinitis right now and walking at that point was impossible without heavy narcotics. Then we were delayed 2 days on the flight out, 1.5 days stuck in the actual airport. I couldn't sit comfortably once in Jersey so I spent most of my time working and lying in bed, sad holiday imo. On a side note, DC bought me a new laptop so I can edit/produce videos while back east so I can still make some money on our trips (Thanks DC). Anyhow, by Christmas I had developed a massive head cold that I am still slogging through. Sad trip indeed.
Later this month my frisbee team is playing at Vegas again, small squad as usual. I hope I can pull a legitimate team together but we shall see in the next two weeks. Either way my ticket is bought and I am going to be there. As it is I don't know if I will be cleared to play even if the team is all together.
I began PT shortly before going back East and it's helping. I still hurt with lunging motions, or if I ma on my feet for more than 30mins but that is much better than curled in bed not being able to straighten my leg, yes that bad!
A lot of work is coming down the DC pipelines as I got a raise and ever more responsibilities. I am working on learning about SEO (Search Engine Optimization: how google rates you as a website) and it's a lot of startup work that Rob ahs been breathing down my neck about. Hopeful I can make some good progress and get him some solid stuff by Monday. Also, I was told if I can take keepyourchips.com and figure out how to max profits from it, I could run with that idea. I like that.
I took 3rd (out of 12) in my DC Fantasy Football league so I have $200 plus the $100 I have in cash to begin playing/studying online poker again. I am excited. I will be posting hands nad tracking most of my poker winnings at a blog on DeucesCracked.com, but I will be sure to cross post once I get going. First trick, how do I deposit online without the UIGEA affecting me.
Coaching will begin in earnest later this month with the Garfield kids. I have a great group of captains and I am looking forward to the new season. I put in our field request late but hopefully I can get something, somewhere. We have a team parent meeting this coming Thursday. Hopefully this year we can get some parental support, if nothing else I would love more folks out at the game.
All in all, an exciting month indeed!!!