Leadership,Psychology,Tournaments
9 October 2011
When I talk about my sport, I struggle to decide what to call it: ultimate or Frisbee? The latter dredges up images of dogs chasing plastic across a stretch of fresh grass, certainly better manicured than any fields we ever get a chance to use. The former is just silly (a sport named after an adjective?!), the product of stoned hippies discovering a new game they could play that would allow them to feel like athletes for an hour or two. “Hey man, this shit is the ultimate!” they’d opine in between drags from a joint and cups of beer (certainly applying the same statement to their bud or brew). I suppose I should feel lucky that they chose “ultimate” over another adjective–I could be playing “groovy Frisbee.”
Psychology,Tournaments
30 September 2011
So my last post was about how to approach games where your team significantly outmatches your opponent. But the more interesting question is what to do when your opponent is significantly stronger than you.
If your team is one of those teams that takes themselves seriously, then you probably have goals. And if those goals are appropriately high, then you probably have a team ahead of you that you need to beat (unless you play for Fury or Revolver). Maybe your goal is to make the second day of Regionals or make Nationals or make quarters or win everything. In all divisions, those teams on their respective bubble are wondering how to knock off that team just ahead of them.
Leadership,Psychology
14 September 2011
We all say we want constructive feedback, but not all of us are equipped to receive it, openly and in a manner that makes it a worthwhile effort on everyone’s part. Although there seems to be lots of opportunities to learn how to deliver feedback, I think what’s missing is learning how to receive it. Being skilled at receiving feedback can make the process more manageable and comfortable for everyone involved! And we just have to trust that our counterparts are doing their part in learning how to best deliver it. They have their work cut out for them, so let’s help them out a bit!
Leadership,Main,Practice,Psychology
27 August 2011
Most of us have played other team sports since we were kids so we have gotten used to the initial period when you first join a team and you get to know the other players.
However, no matter the sport you play – hockey, baseball, basketball or ultimate – there are many commonalities between the sports as far as team dynamics go. I’ve been a member of teams since I was 10 years old and I’ve also gotten to coach sports teams so I’ve seen both sides of the coin and with that, bring a perspective that a lot of players don’t have.
Psychology
25 July 2011
A couple of months ago, I developed a paradigm for ultimate frisbee statistics. The goal of the paradigm was to capture all of the qualitatively distinct events in a game of ultimate. I’ve scored a few games with this system and thought I would share the results with the visitors to this site, just in case anybody out there might be interested in them.
For starters, you’re welcome to check out a box score for the Furious George vs. NexGen game that took place last week (and which can be seen in its entirety on ultimaterob.com) here: http://www.basesproduced.com/
