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?

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 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.

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!!!

Time Passage

Another month goes by and no updates from me. It's currently my last night back East with my in-laws and some realizations have come to me. I like to work with my hands and I look forward to the new year, getting home, and working on some personal projects around the house. Cat and I got some money to Home Depot this Christmas and we are looking forward to maybe finishing up the house. Get some rugs, hang some art work, get some things planned out for the future.
I am interested to see how the new year taxes turn out with the portion of self employment I did. Hopefully most of the money we have put away will not go towards taxes and we can finally have a true honeymoon. The new year also brings up the need to begin running and getting into shape. Also, Vegas is coming up soon and I'm going to try and play every point of the tournament. I kinda have to go all out as we are running with a short-handed squad.
My meds dried up about a week ago and my body just doesn't feel right. I'm shaking way more than normal but I cannot tell if it's my lack of meds or a change in eating habits based upon being back East. We'll find out once I get back home and get back on my meds.
I am running into a mental block right now, maybe I'll update a bit later.

Hectic Life

So it's been over two weeks since I last posted and a lot has happened in that time. Cat's mother and father came into town for four days. They had a great time or so it seems. They went to the museum of flight and the Tacoma Glass Art Museum. I've never been to the Tacoma Glass Art Museum before so I joined them for the day. I was very cool, I've always been a fan of glass art, especially Chihuly. It's great when we are with them as they are so generous even when visiting us they pay for everything. We also had dinner with my folks and went and saw Body of Lies. I don't care for Leonardo DiCaprio don't think I ever will. His vote just grates on me.

Ultimate has been going well. My shoulder is still on the mend but it will get there. We just wrapped up winter league for both my hat team and Tsunami. Both teams had some success this year. It's fun to play with Margo, Rob, and Dylan and I look forward to Vegas in January. Tsunami might make a come back next year, we still need a couple more women and some more confidence but the wins we got this season were definite steps in the right directions. I don't have any more Ultimate scheduled till January so I am hoping to go run some track twice a week starting Thursday.

This Friday will mark my first day back as an Aquarium Volunteer. I haven't volunteered there in at least 6 years and I am looking forward to it. The backend operations have changed a bit since I was last there but I am sure I will get back into the groove easily enough. I made some new friends at training but unfortunately they don't work the same days/times as me. I hope to go visit them on occassion as now I get in free.

The DC holla crew was in town last week. I was crazy at times with video releases and lunch, not to mention the home game on friday. I walked away up but like with most of the moe game of Rob's it was purely a coin flip situation. Work is going really well. I was given a raise to start November off and we are running well with our final season of the year before we launch DCv2. Everyone is looking forward to the new release. I've had some major projects come my way that keep me busy, I was even working 9 hours the other night due to some technical issues beyond my control. I like the company and I think I am a good fit for them, once again just lucky and in the right place at the right time.

My own poker playing is not going so well. I am down 14 buy-ins at 25NL as I attempt to learn how to play NL. I was a decent winner at limit micro-stakes but I am attempting to learn NL as that is where most of the fish are nowadays. I'm watching videos and attempting to make my play better, but it is always a slow grind.

Home life is good. I realize that I don't get as much accomplished in my own personal life as I do in work or other things that take me outside the house. I really should have finished putting the office together by now, but I haven't even cleaned my desk once yet or got caught up on balancing the books. I've set the short term goal to clean my desk tonight when I am up. Little battles, little battles.

A brief history of Ultimate Frisbee

Today was the DiscNW Youth Summit and I will talk more on that later but now I think there needs to be a breif history of the sport as it pertains to me. I began playing Ultimate when I was 15 at Garfield High School here in Seattle. I have played every year since and continue to play still. I went to the University of Washington and played for 5 years there including playing in College Nationals my final year. Now let's not get to thinking I'm any better than I am. I've wasted a lot of time not being in shape and letting great training oppurtunities pass me by, but I am hoping to make a change. I want to make a change and I think that is where it should begin, but will I change?

Anyhow, I played in youth leagues and Adult leagues here in Seattle since High School. Now I play coed frisbee most of the year on Tsunami (a team comprised mainly of aquaintences and college friends) as well as run a club men's team called Downpour. I'm starting to play Microsoft pickup once a week with my friend Dylan and attempting to rehab a shoulder injury I suffered this past summer.

I do a lot of Youth organization work, hence the Youth Summit. I serve as the State Youth Coordinator to the UPA (Ultimate Players Association) and I work on the Youth Committee for DiscNW. I use to coach for the Northwest School as a boys ultimate coach but I was recently asked to resign my position. I won't sugar coat things I was dissappointed but I can see my ideals and training beliefs differing from the school as a whole and I am ok with that. I've been encouraged to go start running my own program and I've flirted with the idea of returning to Garfield to work there as a coach but we shall see where my "feelers" will land me.

The Youth Summit was the first time a large body of people came together to discuss the future of youth ultimate in our region and where it should go. Ok so we just blew a breaker in the house and the computer reset. Hooray for auto-saving. Anyhow, the summit was a good thing I think. It gave some structure to where Youth should go and how the Director of Youth Operations, a job I applied for but did not get, can see it getting there.

Anyways I think that is enough on the topic of Ultimate for now and perhaps enough blogging for tonight but we shall see.

Everything you wanted to know and even more you didn't.

So I have been playing with the idea for a long time of starting a blog. It's the in thing, it's an opinionated world, it's fun to share. All of these are good ideas and I read friends and coworkers blogs but honestly the only reason I am doing this is to make better sense of the world around me. Things within this blog with pertain to life, feelings, ultimate, poker, marine biology, and anything else that I need to speak about in order to better make sense of it and make sense of my life. I've decided that I will tag things as they fall into major groups, so those more inclined to read about a single topic can do so and they need not bog themselves down in the other topics if they don't want. Here I embark on a sort of journey to see where I emerge you'll just have to read along.