Santa Barbra Invite

SB Invitational is this weekend and I am not sure how I am feeling. Last year, the Squids won this tournament; it is my only competitive tourney win. This year we are seeded low, are a different team, and have high aspirations. I am thinking about receiving the first pull on Saturday and seeing 70 yards, 7 defenders, and 15 other teams standing between me and my goal. To be honest, I feel a great deal of gravity surrounding the situation - more than you'd think would be surrounding a Ultimate Frisbee tournament.

The truth is, I have never been a vital part of a team before. Last year (and in previous years) I played my role, but because of the other throwers we had on the team, my role was minor. In soccer, I never was good enough to be on the starting line up. My whole life, I was a secondary player on the team - I was able to watch my teammates wrap up the games we won and be responsible for the games we lost. But not this year. This year I am the veteran, I am the quarterback, I am the thrower. I take full ownership in my team's performance.

So I actually have some jitters. Butterflies. Yeah, im actually a little nervous. But its a good nervous. Its got to be that same nervous that comes before any performance - a test, a show, a date. The key thing is to let body do what I know I have trained it to do.

So I focus in. Yeah, winning the tournament is the outcome goal (and it is attainable), but thinking about that goal isn't going to help me do that - that thinking is the opposite of focusing on the moment, the task at hand.

How can I find this focus?

I think about the physical game.

• What are the particular physical actions I will be taking this weekend?
• What state is my body in? Where are my injuries and how can I work around them?
  
• What will I be doing on offense to get the disc?
• What cuts will I be looking for? When? How will I communicate to my cutters?
  
• What throws will I need to make?
• How will I play downfield defense on particular matchups?
• What will my mark look like? How will this change with field position? With team strategy?
• How will I fuel my body with food and liquid? How will I rest it? Help it recover?
  

I think about the mental game.

• How will I eliminate distractions durring warmup?
• How will I avoid frustration on offense and instead of throwing up prayers, keep doing the hard work till we score?
• How will I react to teammates screwing up?
• How will I react to lucky or unlucky breaks?
• How will I participate from the sidelines?
• How will I act when we are up by a lot? Down by a lot?
• How will I coach/teach younger players?
• How will react to a win or a loss?
• How will I feel about playing teams I am rivals with? Playing teams I have friends on?
  
• How will I know when to talk to my team and when to shut my mouth?
• How will I prepare to feel the unexpected?

By asking myself these questions I put my mind exactly where it should be before this tournament. With each answer, I put myself on the fields in Goleta - I am ready for what is going to happen there. Instead of some far off thing to think about ( like defending our title), I have concrete, individual thoughts that I actually can grasp and wrap my head around. I said earlier that I felt a lot of gravity surrounding the tourney and that may not be particularly helpful; I don't know. I do know, however, that there isn't any gravity surrounding my thoughts of what its like to throw that IO break up the lane after a swing where my mark has to blast past me to stop the around. There aren't any butterflies surrounding thoughts of how I am going to be warming up. I know how I am going to react to a teammate turfing a throw at 10-10 and I know how I am going to react to bad calls and I know how I am going to react to game point.

I am ready