Ultimate

Today I got to play in my first Ultimate tournament. It was pretty cool. The team met up at 7:30 and we drove to Long Beach, where we played five games.

First of all, it was pretty exhausting because we played from 9 to 4, with little breaks between the games. Thankfully, we had thirteen people come and only had to field seven, so everyone could rest for about half of the points. Besides the physical exertion, the sun sapped a lot of our energy. Between running around and the sun, I drank over four liters of water and Gatorade.

The whole tournament was really a crash course for the rookies. About half of the instructions I received were shouted in the midst of play, but the experienced players also took timeouts to explain things. I know a lot more about the game and the technical rules than I did this morning. For instance, what happens when the "pull" (the initial throw) is touched and dropped by the receiving team? What if it goes out of bounds out the back of the endzone? The side of the field? How about landing in the endzone and rolling out? Each of these situations is dealt with differently. Also, there are no referees in ultimate so it was not uncommon for a rule to be questioned. Most of the time these disputes could be settled quickly by a knowledgeable player. The only times things got heated was if the contestation was over a past fact (e.g. he landed inbounds) rather than a rule.

Overall I had a great time. Incidentally, I stopped doing concert band this week because I didn't have enough time to do both. I have finally decided that I want to do one thing well. In high school I struggled through gymnastics and basketball and saxophone all at the same time and had a blast, but now I want to commit to one activity (besides school) and do it well. I do think it's a little odd that I didn't pick gymnastics or basketball or saxophone. Oh well.

Sometime in the future I'll post pictures of my dorm room and my longboard and maybe the campus. Until then...