Lost Holster? Keep Firing!

Let’s just say there will be multiple posts about this adventure. For actual results, I can refer you to Kevin’s blog. I will need one post about how important this moment is to me. I will also need a post telling the story of how this came to be, but that may be the same as the first. Finally, I have this generic unemotional post about my goals and performance this weekend.


I have had a long standing goal of making it through one tournament with 0 throwaways, and 0 drops. I use to have 0 getting scored on as a part of this, but those tend to fall into murky break mark area of ultimate and lead to not well rounded D. I will now add not getting D’ed to this list. Sure a large part of getting D’ed is bad throws, but if you make the right cut, I feel like you can go a tournament without being D’ed.


So I introduce the weekend sans holster.


I really don’t know where I left the silly thing. It normally keeps me out of a lot of trouble and saves me a lot of regret, but instead I showed up to Regionals and unloaded on the end zone. I managed to make it through 7 games of this style of ultimate without a single turnover. I had my first turnover in the BAT game. I got a little tunnel vision on a break mark throw to Joe B, but never got the eye contact. I know I heard a dump call before stall 5. On 5, I turned to dump. I didn’t see much movement coming from Rob and Kevin was behind me pretty well covered. After a couple of seconds, Kevin made a sprint for the end zone. There was plenty of room to lead him and get the score. I left it a little too high and a bit too far out front. Someone on BAT got a solid poach D on the throw. I can never remember to call TO’s when I don’t like the look of the field. The next turnover was a bit more dramatic. I looked off a passionately cutting Joe B and then got the disc again a bit later. I saw a fire in his eyes and let it rip. This was an ill advised throw with poor execution and ended with a lot of screaming and one injured player from the other team.


Now that we discussed my failures, let’s move on. I did not get D’ed this weekend and I did not drop any discs, even in the pouring rain. This would not be impressive if I was playing conservative possession ultimate, but I wasn’t. I was a samurai.This goes back to a conversation in 2000-2001 about ultimate styles. A samurai, in my mind, tries to kill every time he gets a chance. Not just hucking, but intentionally looking at the end-zone first and seeing if you can throw it there. Maybe this was more a weekend sans scabbard than holster, but you get the idea. Other choices were Ninjas who were sneaky about killing the other team, gunslingers who just hucked everytime, boxers who slowly pounded you in the face until they got the score. I would love to explain in excruciating detail the events of each score as I so well remembered them, up until our last game. At the exact moment that I fully realized we were going to nationals my mind went blank. I know that by the end of the day Saturday, I was confident that 60-80% of my throws were for scores. This is including games that we lost 11-3 and 11-4. To be clear, I am a D-line cutter. So I only get the disc if we get a D and I need to get open for a pass too. Of all these free flowing end-zone loving throws, only the two turns even came close to being D’ed and I would really like to give the credit to the other cutters for timing and placing their cuts just right.


Here is what I do remember and it is really sketchy.


Tulsa:
· I catch a huck from Ross just a bit short and give a quick pass to someone for a score.
· I’m sure there were a couple of others because this is when I started feeling like I wasn’t dumping ever.

Machine:
· Forehand to Joe B after he yelled at me to get out of his way when he was running deep.
· Caught short pass from Joe B at high stall count for a score.
· I really think I threw another one in this game, but it’s all foggy. Sub Zero: · I catch a tipped disc and realize there is no mark and throw a backhand to Karl D for a layout score.

Hussle/Illinois (I can’t tell them apart):
· Float a short pass to Wes in the endzone. Use some height.
· Karl makes a quick horizontal cut across endzone for a short forehand. He is able to stand still and catch it.
· Make a sliding layout catch on one sideline. Knee hurts like hell. Stand up and throw a cross field forehand to the other sideline and about 15 yards forward to Drew.

General Strike/Dingwop (It’s all a blur):
· I am willing to bet something happened during these games, but maybe I had calmed down.

BAT:
· Ross throws me a hammer at a high stall count for a score.

Madcow:
· Not many chances to play offense.

Best guess at my stats:
Throwaways: 2
Drops: 0
Scores thrown: definitely >10
Scores caught: probably >2
Scored on (including breaks): 3
D’s: no clue, not enough
VBB had 98 total scores
Trip to Sarasota: Priceless