a few minutes of reflection on regionals weekend.
this past month has been a very hectic time for me in basically all parts of my life. ultimate has taken a huge amount of my time, between all the weekend practices, the workouts during the weeks, tournaments, and the time spent thinking about it. my personal life has been turned upside down and left me questioning a lot of things as well. school started back up and presents the same daily grind type part of my life.
training has been a very important part of my life for two years in january. in january of 2007 i set a goal of making a nationals team. i kept track of every workout i did on a big calendar i had made. in june, all of that training was put to a test. i didn't reach one of my goals for that year when i got cut by boston. at that moment, i did something i had never done before. faced failure in a head-on collision at about 200 mph, no seatbelt. instead of calling it quits, i rededicated myself and began training harder, this time to prove to myself what kind of worker and player i could become.
at sectionals and regionals, i played very well, and did so a few times against the team that i was "not good enough" for. this felt good, but i was not satisfied. in the offseason, i decided on a new way of training and hit the gym to lift weights, supplement with some climbing, and some plyo stuff. in hindsight, i went to hard with the cardio too early and will take that into account this offseason. during last offseason, i kept in mind that day i got cut and it motivated me very well. during tryouts, again, i thought i was going to get cut. it is so hard to perform at my highest level when i am worried that every step i take might be my last.
i made the team. after the boston invite, i made the team. i didn't know what to feel. part of my goal had been met, but it wasn't nearly as satisfying as i thought it would be. i was already ready to redefine my goals and i didn't want to rest.
as the summer wore on, the training continued and practices and tournaments came and went. good results came. my playing time was actually a lot more than expected. excitement.
then some personal stuff hit. it was going to be very weird to not share these experiences with someone who had seen firsthand what i had been putting myself through for nearly two years.
sectionals was a blast. we really became a team that weekend.
practice in between regionals was tough physically for me. i had ramped up my training and my body was sure as hell feeling it and i was feeling slow.
regionals. noone scored more than 8 points. wow.
game 1 was against colt .45. no problems in this game. we took care of business.
game 2 was against double dragon. again, took care of business.
game 3 was against sons of liberty. i love these guys and wish them all the best of luck. again, business was taken care of.
game 4. my first ever game-to-go at the club level. i came out absolutely fired up. i wanted this so badly. everything i had done up to this point made me ready for this game. each night during the week i had spent time meditating, preparing myself mentally for this game. it paid off. i scored two goals, threw two goals, and my man touched the disc only 2 or 3 times.
when we scored the final goal, i didn't know what to do. i wanted to just lie and the ground and relish this moment, forever. but i couldn't and also didn't want to. yes, we made nationals, but this team has the opportunity to do so much more. i couldn't let myself be satisfied with just a nationals berth.
finals against goat. smoked them. we win the region. again, i want to relish this moment, soak it up. but i can't. we have sprints to run, 200 pushups to do.
next, i have friends i need to cheer on.
and new goals to set. a national championship is a reality.
this whole experience thus far has been amazing, but it is also hard. as i have reached one goal, i have never before been so ready to set new goals. i haven't had time to truly be happy for what i have done and i don't know how i feel about that. it may sound selfish, but i just have not handled situations in this fashion before. i can't wait for nationals. it is going to be awesome. but, in the weeks following nationals, i am going to take some serious time to be proud of myself. yes, soon enough i will be back to training my nuts off. i am still not even close to as good as i am going to be. in the long run though, i think i need to assess where i am in order to get better and also to help myself appreciate these past two years.
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