Week 1: Game 1
Met my captain and teammates and had so much fun. It was my first day of league and I learned a lot. Still learning of course. My captain, "Cheese" and co-captain "Sarah" are chill and very good at Ultimate. The team is a good bunch from college aged to middle-aged. I believe I fall in the middle? Gratefully, I was placed w/ another mom on the team who's played for 10 years. Yeah, she's good. We've got plenty of runners, catchers, and our lethal weapon, strong women players. Did I fail to mention this was co-ed? Other than the fact I made a turn, it was still a fun and good first game. We won 15-6, I believe. Score board here: http://tallahasseeultimate.com/summer12.html.
Ultimate in a Tiny Nutshell
I'm working on staying fit and practicing throws, but I'm eager to learn the rules of play. That's the confusing part for new players. Defense with terms like Force away, Force flick, and poaching. "Away" is opposite side from "home," which usually is where your team's belongings are. So when you're marking the handler, you block them to force them to throw in direction your team calls. However, if you're defending middle players or non-handlers, then you face opposite the direction of your team marker. Uhhhhh yeah. Confusing throughout the games especially with several turns quickly happening. On the offense, you have to coordinate w/ your teammates so you don't block each other, esp. the handler and the receivers. There are 2 typical ways to do that. "Vertical Stack" or "Vert" in short, or "Horizontal Stack" a.k.a. "Ho" for these Tally players. Okay, I won't go into the details of that one. The point is, it controls the flow of traffic among your teammates, making it feasible for a smooth drive down the field. Here is a link to some basic info. about the game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_(sport)
Week 2: Game 2 & 3
This was a double header, 2 games back to back. We managed well. First game was a score of 12-5 (I might have to correct this later). Second game was close, yet we won 10-9. Had a few episodes of scary Yikes. At least 3 incidents where the other team clobbered our teammates unintentionally or maybe intentionally. These were girls mainly. One of our girls was in mid-catch and the defending player practically ran into her. I don't know how that counts as defense, esp. when Ultimate is a non-contact sport. Anyway, my teammate was on the floor crying and I freaked out thinking she was seriously injured. Everyone froze on the field watching to see if she'd get up. I was within a yard of her and talked to her to see where the pain was.
Thankfully, she was crying out of embarrassment and was simply shocked. She slowly got up and wiped her tears off. I was so pumped up that she was crying, then I said, "She totally had that." Because she had the catch and someone crazy ran into her mid-air. She landed hard, flat on the ground. Then, she learned that only she could make the call "strip." No one on the team can call it for you. If you have the disc in your possession and if someone knocks it out of your hand that counts as a "strip." Anyway, after her confirmation she called it a "strip." That was a major foul and a strip, and we got the score! That was a good game but talk about some iffy moments.
It's the beginning of the league season, but we're all serious about this game. We've got a great team with positive energy and competitive attitude so I think we can win this. I'm looking forward to keeping track of the games, post some pics, and possibly some vids. Who knows, one of these guys/gals might be pros one day. Right? It's exciting, considering that Ultimate just became a professional sport April (2012).
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