Month: <span>February 2012</span>

Blog Posts

Let’s Get (Psychologically) Ready to Rumble!

  • 2nd February 20129th March 2022
  • by megan

While I’m sitting here waiting for the final draft of one of the regional schedules, I thought I may as well kill some time by talking about the issue of psychological preparation for tournaments. Rather than go for some drawn out research examples, I thought for a change I’d just go through some of the basics of what I do.

 

1. Musical Preparation

Every tournament needs a playlist. Well, not really. But every type of tournament needs its own playlist. At UWON 2011, I think I really started respecting music as a way of not just warming you up as an individual before games, but a way of bringing the team together. Ok, it’s probably something that generally works better for women’s teams, but I can also cite as evidence the Mohawks Open first team singing ‘You Know We Belong Together’ before a big game at indoor nats two years ago – so really, you’ve just gotta know your audience and pick your tunes.

My personal tournament list gets sorted probably 1-2 weeks before the tournament, and I’ll be listening to it lots during that time: between home and uni, in the gym, chilling out at home. Generally this is about 3-6 songs which get me in the right frame of mind. At Beach Worlds, this was proper agro music – I’m talking Ultivillage trailer tunes, maybe a little Pushpass – because I needed to get pumped and I needed to get aggressive. These were big games, and going in floppy wasn’t going to cut it.

For uni tournaments, my playlists are a little different. They’re not about getting me pumped for games, although generally they manage that too. They’re there to remind me what uni ultimate is all about – and it’s mostly about having fun. Yes, playing good ultimate. Yes, doing all the stuff we’ve practiced in training. But uni level isn’t club level – I cannot ‘expect’ of my team the level of clinical offence or high intensity defence I can ask of the Brighton Women’s club team. So I can’t listen to ‘high intensity’ angry music – I have to listen to, as Robbie would put it, complete trash. It is terrible. I think the lack of musical nuance may actually kill some of my brain cells with each listen– but it is perfect, because it reminds me to stop taking myself so seriously. And to drop it like it’s hot, obviously.

 

Actual point: it’s important to have a set of music that evokes the right emotional and mental state for a particular team and tournament.

 

2. Personal Preparation

I think it’s important before tournaments to not just imagine yourself doing super-awesome things (mental rehearsal) but also to think about things you will need to focus on as an individual for the benefit of the team. For me this weekend, I’m thinking about how I’m going to have to switch between tactician/coach and player, without taking away from our captains. I’m also thinking about the fact that I am going to have to self-regulate my throws – and work out if I’m having an off-game. It’s one of the great things about our team this year that if I’m having a ‘can’t hit a barn door at five paces’ game (or day) there are plenty of other players (like, the whole rest of the team) to take up the throwing load. But they can’t do that if I persist in throwing away like a goon. Third point for thought is the idea of leading from the front: I can’t influence directly how people play on either the second team or the first team really. All I can do is play as hard as I can, as well as I can, and hope that with that as a whole team we can feed off the energy of 7 or 8 people doing the same thing (I should probably be able to remember how many of us are on the team…)

 

Actual point: Prepare yourself for the decisions and regulation you’re going to have to engage in.

 

3. Watching Some Damn Good Frisbah

Ok, so I do this all the time anyway without tournaments coming up, but tournament weekends are an excuse to put aside chunks of my evenings the week before to watch highlight reels, in game footage and just generally fill my brain with all the awesome things it is possible to do on an ultimate pitch. One of my current favourites is a clip of a US women’s college team at regionals, which includes one of the most ridiculous layout Ds I’ve seen for a while (standing start layout from a far side handler mark on a pass into the lane, check it out here) and the monstrous throws of Robyn Fennig. But anyway, I think it gets me ready for the total immersion in ultimate that is a tournament weekend, and it gets me excited about ultimate, which is probably the most important thing before gametime.

 

Actual point: Err, I like watching frisbee. You should try it too.

 

If anyone’s got some favourite preparation stuff for big weekends, why not let us know in the comments? And before you say it, no, stuffing my face is not part of  my mental preparation. That’s physical, silly billy.

Mohawk News

Women’s regionals

  • 2nd February 20129th March 2022
  • by lucy

All women playing meet outside Lancaster house (the one by the medical centre) at 6.25am on Saturday 🙂 Dont be late!!! Also make sure you have UKU membership, let me know if you are confused!! xx

Blog Posts

Effort, desire, willingness, success

  • 1st February 20129th March 2022
  • by therapist
Sunday 29th January 2012 was, for me, a day spent mostly in my pyjamas watching two phenomenal athletes battle for the prestige of becoming Australian Open Champion (in men’s tennis). I don’t use the word “battle” lightly, either. Near on 6 hours of gruelling competition resulting in Novak Djokovic taking the title and further cementing his position as the best player in tennis at the current time.The winner, to me at least, didn’t really matter. I enjoy watching tennis and didn’t mind either man winning (I was gunning for a Murray vs Federer final) and cared less about the result the further the match went on. I know it is a cliché to say that neither man deserved to be beaten, so I shall refrain from saying that, but the effort put in by both men was beyond that which I have ever seen.

The end result became secondary for me as a spectator: the reasons for me continuing to watch the match deep into its sixth hour were more to see if both men would actually survive. They did. It was extraordinary. I was reminded of a video of two women completing an “Iron Man” competition where confusion, delirium and exhaustion take over as the women crawl over the line. It’s painful watching and whilst neither Nadal nor Djokovic were at that end, there were times when both men’s faces looked like they could give no more.

And yet, from somewhere, they both produced some breathtaking tennis in the final set. I was constantly clapping and cheering (they couldn’t hear me, I know) in exclamation at what both men were producing. There was one point where Djokovic was walking slightly oddly, and behind his eyes he looked defeated, gone, but he managed to win the match! I honestly thought that Djokovic wouldn’t make it, that he would fall over in exhaustion (which he did, once) and just not be able to continue. But he showed fight, grit and determination the like of which I have never seen before in my life.

All this given that, not only was he facing Rafael Nadal – arguably the fittest man on the tennis tour, but he was doing so having played for 5 hours two days beforehand against Murray, a day after Nadal had beaten Federer. The big question I am asking is simply HOW Djokovic managed to do it?

How do you possibly train for a six hour battle where you know that your opponent gives you nothing for free? How do you keep the focus and determination to win, when your opponent is looking fresh and ready to go, no matter how many times you seem to beat them? What was going on in both of the players’ minds is beyond me. I cannot begin to comprehend how those two men must have felt when the match was finally over. And fair play to Nadal who came round the net to hug the victor in his congratulations, a huge sporting act from a man who never ceases to amaze me.

I saw a tweet midway through the match that said something along the lines of “If you had 11 men with this much desire on a football team you would have world beaters instantly”. I don’t disagree with this but does this mean that, for example, footballers don’t put the same effort that these two men did? Surely not. Surely their desire to succeed is the same as Djokovic and Nadal’s and so surely they would, if need be, look as broken as those men did at the end of the match. Maybe this is not a fair analogy since football matches ALWAYS have a definite end point so maybe it is not possible for the footballers to put the same energy into their play but I’m sure that if Nadal played football then no fan would ever deny his effort for the team – he would break himself for his end goal: success.

I hope, as a result of watching this tennis match I will be reminded of how to keep going and keep fighting when the going gets tough. Much like in tennis, when playing ultimate you are not beaten until the instant where the other team gets a winning score. I really like that as it differs from the likes of football where time can stop you from mounting a victorious strike. So even if I am feeling beaten and like I cannot go on I will keep fighting and make my opponents beat me.

Don’t get me wrong, I need to prepare myself for such times. There is no way that Djokovic could have been that strong without preparing his body beforehand (and we were all impressed with how ripped he is when he tore his shirt from his body at the end) and so there is absolutely no chance that I am letting my physical condition be anything other than as good as I can make it. I will put everything I possibly can do to make sure that I can do everything in my power to help my team succeed. And I will ask you, if you won’t do that, why not?

For Djokovic and Nadal the only thing that mattered on that Sunday (Monday morning, Australia time) was winning that match. But it was not just about that one 6 hour period, but about all the preparation work beforehand. They both did everything in their power to ensure that they were able to finish that match, but not just finish it – they were both physically and mentally prepared to play their best tennis possible on the brink of exhaustion and do whatever they could to win*. It was mesmerising and, more importantly, inspiring.

I will make absolutely sure that I do nothing that will hinder my chances of being physically able to compete to the best of my ability at the back end of nationals. Djokovic and Nadal played some of their best tennis after a ridiculous time on court and so, I hope it motivates me to train hard enough to mean that I play my best ultimate deep into competitions.

If I put in the effort, have the desire and willingness to train, I will be successful.

*Within the rules, of course.