Ultimate/My Knee

Sean Ryan in Santa Cruz is coming up. Way excited for that. Wonder how that'll go, hopefully we'll find some places to stay and not end up... sleepless? I don't know, I heard something about sleeping in the gyms... :/

I've been sitting out the past 2 weeks cuz of my knee. I really don't know what's wrong with it, but I do know that I don't want to go through what I went through this summer. So I'm going to be smart about it and not push myself. Cuz my knee's are something that I'll need forever. And ultimate will be over once I'm out of college. But I'm going to start playing again on Tuesday to start getting ready for the tournament. I need to get in better shape. Need to start lifting weights, build up the muscles in my leg so my knee can be a-okay. Also, need to lose the pudginess residing my in stomach and love handle areas. If I can drop a few pounds there, that'll be good. But it'll take willpower, the one thing I don't have. Great. Haha.

I'm really excited about this weekend though. Ultimate tournaments are so much fun. The bonding, the playing, the girls, the games. Man, I love it. But since we have such a huge team right now (let's hope all the girls stay) it'll be lots of sitting out time, at least for the rookies. This time I think there's more crusties, so hopefully I won't die of exhaustion. Especially if I have to sleep on the gym floor that will not be good. I really do need to build up my endurance because I am going to be getting a lot more playing time than last year and it'll be compleletly different and much harder. Time to step it up, kids.

Some predictions about this season. Well, obviously we're not going to win nationals or anything. I don't even think we'll make it to nationals, totally not trying to be a downer or whatever, but seriously, if we didn't make it last year, what are the chances we'll make it this year? But since Danica played a smart card on my competitive factor, and pretty much challanged me, so I don't want to say that we can't because I hold high expectations for myself and my teammates/team. It'll just be hard because we have so many rookies and so few crusties that it's hard to teach it to them all at once. But I see lots of potential, lots of it, we're just lacking.. well, the experience. And it's not just them, me too. This year I'll be handling.. (great, really thought I could get out of that one..) and it's totally new to me. My throws still need a lot of work. A LOT.

Another thing I really want to work on is my defense. I'm getting better than last year, but still not good at it. I need more confidence when I go after the D's. And I need to play smart D. Smart D. Not chasing my player around like a dog or whatever. Something I need to work on. And I really want to get a handblock or something. Don't think I've ever gotten one, at least not in a game.. Well, one thing at a time. It's more important to make sure that I don't get beat to the open side.

And I need to learn how to lay-out. Maybe not layout, but at least not keep landing on my knees. I slide all over the place on my knees, it's bad. And I need to use my fakes more when handling the disk. Use fakes and break their marks!

So a few goals:
1. Get into shape.
2. Better throws
3. Better handler. Wise decisions, fakes, good cuts.
4. Better D.
5. LAY OUT!!

As for the team, just everyone have a kick ass time. By kicking ass, of course. I don't know, I just want to exceed other team's expectations of us, show them that they can't take us as a joke even though we're rebuilding. And hopefully in a year or two, we'll dominate. Pleiades Power. Pleiades Love.