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 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.