My name is Amykay. This is my attempt to document my last semester of Texas Ultimate. Allowing people to keep tabs on the team I’ve committed more time to than I care to admit. This is our year. I hope the last post of the season ends with news that we not only met, but exceeded our team goals.
All About Me
People often say I talk about ultimate too much. Even lately when school is out and I haven’t seen my teammates in almost a month I still can’t get it out of my head. I’m sure most of them will appreciate me finally putting my efforts into a blog as opposed to talking their ears off.
Here’s a brief introduction.
* My name is Amy Kendziorski. I misspelled my last name trying to set up this blog. I don’t even try to get people to say it. Call me Amykay. Or just K.
* This is my 5th year on Melee
* I learned to throw a flick from Michelle Ng. I also learned my ultimate obsession from her.
* I’m a Texan through and through. Ask me what school I go to? Texas. Which one? Texas. The one and only Texas.
* I love teaching. I love rules.
* I really like meeting new people.
Finally, to end the first post I’m going to share a few things I’ve learned in my last 4.5 years of college ultimate.
1. The Texas intramural fields are awesome and we are spoiled rotten. Every year at Centex I have people come up to me and ask in amazement “Do you actually get to practice on these?” Yes. Yes we do. You should check out the view from the sky at night. A glorious green patch bathed in light in the middle of the city. You can see it from miles away. (If you are on the correct side of the plane of course.)
2. Family is important. Traveling around the country I’ve had the chance to spend time with lots of family that I don’t normal see. Sometimes they will come out to watch or sometimes I’d just grab a bite to eat with them at night. Vegas 2008 was very different. My team was able to stay with one of my second cousins. I remember walking up to the front door, 20 of my teammates all waiting in the driveway, slightly nervous because I’d never actually met him before. That, my friend, is the ultimate way.
3. Earplugs and Thermarests. I can sleep on any floor with the aid of my trusty Thermarest. I can sleep in closets. I can sleep with people so close they are touching me or even occasionally kicking me. But I can’t sleep with people snoring or coughing. Even my trusty iPod can’t drown that out. After a sickly team spent a weekend in the same room coughing for hours on end I finally discovered earplugs. The mornings are still painful, but its now usually only my body and not my eyes swollen shut from lack of sleep.
4. It’s about who you know. I’ve had some very nasty games against people that, in the ultimate world, I consider pretty good friends. To the point that I might be able to say I “hate” them on the field. But as soon as the game is over (lets be honest, it helps if we win…) we are suddenly best friends again. As in all competitive environments tempers run high especially at the elite level. My favorite thing about ultimate is that the majority of the time I am able to walk away from the game and remember that my opponents are just people like me. Playing a game. Chasing plastic. Just wanting a break from the endless tedium that is school.
5. Ultimate isn’t 90% mental and 10% physical although I wish it was. I’ve battled injuries throughout my career. Getting over them is a huge test of mental strength, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But even at the peak of my mental game I can’t actually play at 90% of my capacity if my body doesn’t work. This year we’re also working with one of the captains of WashU documenting injuries throughout the season. I’ll included that somewhere in here as well.