preface: i am writing this with very little sleep from playing in First Night and fresh out of the country strong movie, which “targeted the heartland states”(perezhilton.com) i.e. north carolina…took one for the state…didnt hate it. so im in a weird souther-lovin daze right now.
in a recent conversation with a former scandanavian-esque teammate, the topic of “how to get people to have the same love affair with ultimate that we have?” came up. question of the year for those who spend more hours playing ultimate than going to school, sleeping or eating. (not combined that would be absurd) so as a captain how do you solve this problem, how do you make people want to watch clips from ultivillage or read rsd* and know the competition like you know your team? well, you can make them, you can test them on things like how many players graduated from oregon last year and the likelyhood that they’ve already filled those spots sufficiently.** you could make them run until they hate you and throw until they hate themselves, but if you want a roster of more than 1 and friends, these options are no good.
a lesson in forcing 20 girls to be passionate:
lesson ended. you just cant force people to feel the way you do about a piece of plastic. eventually, the sheer annoyance that someone can throw a flick 70 yards without even trying*** will reel you in and not let go. eventually there will be an “ah ha!” lightbulb moment when they realize they can’t wait to go to practice, they’re feinding for the next tournament, saving their beer money for a flight to Centex. it wont happen to everyone, but hopefully if all the right stars align, you’ll have a solid rotation of people who will do anything to get the disc, on and off the field. lead by example. this may be a really really out there analogy BUT like in field of dreams ya know, “if you build it, they will come” just fill in the blanks, if you love it they will come or love it too or something catchier than both of those…just go with it. special thanks to kevin costner. so this ones to all the captains out there who hopefully(dont want anyone to have a leg up, we’re still fightin for the title ladies) have this problem too, yahtzee!
*this can be interpreted in many ways, chose the right one
**5 and 100%…you gotta be able to pass your own test(well at least get half the questions right)
***thank god i get to be on the receiving end of that throw, mad props to kt. blog to come sooner or later about my frenemy relationship with the flick huck and how it endlessly taunts me and eventually part II about my conquering of said frenemy.
