Crossposted from the Xenodochion
So at ultimate training on Saturday we did some very good cutting and running drills. About breaking form the opposition and getting free for a pass. All in all I found them to be fun and interesting and useful. Then we played a game.

On Sunday I took the kids to Norhtland school. They all went bikeriding and I got my new blades on and skated around a bit.

This week is "health and wellbeing" week at work, so I am using the stairs going up and went for a walk at lunchtime.

My legs are now rather sore.

Tomorrow is more Ultimate, more running.

I feel that my legs may hate me for some time yet.

Hopefully there will be some positive impact on my general level of fitness.

I should probably think about cutting down the amount of food that I eat. Most of the food I eat is, I think, fair healthy. I just like Carbs way too much.

First we'll get used to excercising more. Next is the food.

The game on Tuesday taught me two things.

1. I need shoes that do not slide. Trying to mark people wearing sticky shoes is like to mark a greased pig. I am not fast as it is, it doesn’t help that I struggle to change direction without ending up on my behind.

2. Short passes in windy conditions = good. But when you are playing with the wind use it to your advantage. We had one point in particular where there were mostly inexperienced players on the field and I encouraged everyone to do short passes. We had the wind with us but focussing on the short passes meant we never broke out of their marking. In the end they scored.

3. I am not ready to provide on field leadership or guidance. We, as a team, naturally look to Sam, our illustrious leader, or if he isn’t on Sean, to guide the team. In the above situation all n00bs were on and no – one took a lead. As a result we were a bit all over the place. So I stepped in and shouldn’t have. I am still working out my own game. I don’t really have the head space to do much more than that at the moment.

Okay, so that’s three things. But then no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition :P

It was a fun game. Though.

Lasting memories…

Traveller pulling with a huge throw downwind. It caught the wind and just kept flying. He very nearly threw it across the entire park.

Seeing the swarm of yellow and black Happy Creatures coming off the field after the game. Buzz!

Amy, new to the game, marking and catching really well. Ruth, also new to the game, marking and getting into space well. Chris, Will, Hayley, lots of new players who all had very good games under very difficult conditions.

Some superb sequences of passes up and down the field. In particular there was one point where we short passed up the field quickly and accurately and scored a great point.

In the end the final score of 10 – 7 I think was pretty good for us. We had more subs so there was more chop and changing on the field, breaking the flow. They seemed pretty new to the game, but had some very fast, fit, and reasonably good players. So they managed to pull off some really dodgy long passes due to the speed and catching ability of the receiver.

I think we were hampered by conditions, fitness, lots of subbing and some moments of poor skill from players who have reasonable skills (like me throwing several plainly stupid passes, the kind where as soon as it has left your hand you cry D’oh).

In the end a good game. Hopefully next week there will be less wind.

So. Cutting to the chanse we lost 17:6. Personally, though I wasn't actually keeping score I thought they got about 14 or 15.

Anyway. Notables for my personal game.

Fitness is a huge issue. Vic Samuri Pizza Cats are younger and fitter. I am overweight and unfit. Recovery between points wasn't too bad, my cardio vascular fitness is okay actually, the problem is the extra weight and that I have never been a runner, only a sprinter.

And here I come to the first major difference between indoor and outdoor. Indoor is characterised by lots of short sprints. I generally find I can keep this up for longer. Outdoor is characterised by more running, longer distances, back and forth. It's not as fast as the sprints in Indoor, but there is way more of it (larger pitch).

I bought blades in the holidays, and playing and practicing twice a week I hope to make a sizable dent in my general unfitness over the next few months. Will have to be a bit more careful about what I eat, or rather how much I eat.

On the bright side I found my skills have improved. I took more time when I had the disc looking for who to pass to, threw better pass options, and threw the passes better. So I am pretty happy with that aspect of my game. I noticed in the mega long point at the end of the game that I got so tired that all my skills when out the window. I threw dumb passes, poorly, even resorting to the dreaded inside back hand flick (when I should have just thrown a forehand). I rightly deserved the telling off Sam gave me ^_^

The highlight of the game for me was the point I threw to Sean. He was standing in the end zone in all his majestic blond glory marked by a guy 2/3rds his size. I stepped out and threw a forehand to him. It flew true and rose well, just clearing his markers wild leap for it and landing pleasently right in Sean's outstretched arms.

And the best thing about this is I planned it. I saw him, saw his marker and threw the pass to just clear the marker but be easily in reach for Sean. And it all came off. I was, am, so stoked.

So, why the heinous scoreline?

1. I think they generally have put in a team where most players could probably be playing B-Grade, but with some C-grade players. We scored most of our points when the largely C-grade players were on the field.

The first 10 minutes they totally out classed us and pulled away by about 8 points. We started to pick up our game, taking better options and passing well, and the scoring slowed down. Largely we were beaten not outclassed, except for the first 10 minutes.

2. They outran us. They had more subs and generally seemed fitter. Near the end they got pretty tired and started making silly skill errors and we scored a few points. I think as our team fitness improves (especially mine, Sam and Sean played a lot of game) we'll see a general improvement in our game.

3. We were a couple of players short, missing Natalya, Ruth and Dan, but we had a new player, Chris, who I thought did pretty well for his first game. His forehand is weak, but when he tried it the options were good. His forehand will improve. Not sure how much of a facotr this was.

So overall, I think we played pretty well. We were rightly beaten by the better team on the day, but we acquitted ourselves well in the process. Sam's goal was for us to be taking good options and making space. The skills in passing will come. I think we did that and actually put together some pretty good sequences of play.

I'd like to think that the next time we play them, we'll give them more of a run for their money.

And, today, my legs aren't that sore. So it's all good.