Back by popular demand (“popular demand” being a relative term, of course), some more important/unimportant/useful/silly things ultimate has taught us over the years:
1. Toenails are not essential. Learn to live with this fact early on and save yourself a lot of grief.
2. Knees, on the other hand, are crucial. Protect them at all costs!
3. No matter how far you travel to a tournament, you will still end up
playing against a team that you could have traveled one stop down on the
T to play. (Hey, MIT!)
4. If you over-think your cutting moves, you will manage only to fake
yourself out, look really silly, and fall onto your defender and/or the
ground. Guess there’s a reason people have signature moves…
5. Everything tastes good after a tournament. Unless it’s the summer, in which case nothing tastes good after a tournament.
6. Just because someone official-looking walks over towards your practice
does not automatically mean that they are going to yell at you/kick you
off your field. However, if you and your teammates are currently in the
process of uprooting a “Keep Off the Grass” sign, all bets are off.
7. Yelling “up” while on the mark is good. Yelling “up” while on the mark
and subsequently discovering that your girl is still holding the disc is
embarrassing.
8. If your school does not provide you with any sort of transportation
assistance, do not be alarmed if you suddenly notice an odd and
out-of-character desire to carjack any 12-person vans you see on the
streets.
9. Googling club team names without including “ultimate” in your search is
often futile. Works well for “Brutesquad”, works less well for “Riot”
(come on Google, clearly I mean “elite women’s ultimate team from
Seattle” and not “a form of civil disorder characterized often by
disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence
against authority”).
10. Running after a disc is approximately one billion times more fun than running around a track.
11. Sour watermelons and puppy chow (and no, I promise that is not the same as dog food) are the best sideline snacks ever.
12. Your laundry cycle may be determined by how many wears you believe to be appropriate for your favorite pair of 3/4 spandex. 13. If doing a track workout in the company of running clubs/track teams, it might take a split second to adjust to the amount of leg shown by girls and guys alike. Your shorts will be the longest, guaranteed. 14. Yes, tie goes to the offense. No, this does not mean you should rip the disc out of your defender’s hands and continue playing as if nothing happened. 15. Wearing a white shirt to practice almost always ensures that you won’t have to change when making teams for a scrimmage. Wearing a dark shirt but not bringing a white achieves this goal as well, but is much less advisable. Don’t ever wear a gray shirt.
Hopefully other people are as into lists as we are… they will probably be a frequent occurrence here either way. Also, in response to some confusion, these posts are written as a result of (largely post-practice) gmailing and copy-paste. In more ultimate-related news (what other kind of news is there?), we had practice last night with a guest-star visitor whose beautiful throws reminded us of just how thrilling it can be to watch someone throw a frisbee. This weekend brings another all-night hat tournament followed by a scrimmage against Northeastern! Yes, please.
