So I’ve been doing the captaining thing for Ultimate Frisbee for a long time.  Generally speaking, I have great teams.  We don’t always win a lot, but we have a lot of fun in the process and I think just about everyone comes away having learned something and with renewed spirit in Ultimate. I always assumed that player’s on other teams where having just as great a time.

This summer I had to take a season off from captaining (too much on my plate already), but I would never give up playing, so I signed up as just a player.  I won’t bore you with the details, just a paraphrase of a Simspon’s character… Worst. Captain. Ever.  (And no I’m not talking about Janeway. Nerd Humor, sorry.)  Now, normally I’d just step in and take over, but like I said, too much on my plate already… and eventually someone did take over which helped to make the tourney very enjoyable.

Yet, this got me to thinking about what it meant to be a captain, what kind of person it takes, what it required, and what one got out of it. I kicked around a lot of notions, but eventually it occurred to me that anyone could be a decent captain if someone would just tell them how.  And then I started writing.

So here, at last, is my article detailing that How To Captain.

Go forth, read, and then sign up to captain.

With regards to previous posts I have made about how I suck at pulling but that things are getting better and I’m getting better… Rob Mcleod wrote me about his site: www.ultimaterob.com.  It’s a really nice learning resource with a lot of potential to grow.  In particular Rob pointed me at his pages on pulling and the videos as well.  He’s throwing upwards of 130 yards at a time, so that’s something for me to shoot for.  I doubt I’ll get that far, but it’s nice to have a goal.

There’s a nice article over on the welovedc blog about frisbee in and around the Washington DC area, specifically the WAFC sponsored stuff.  Talks about the various WAFC leagues and stuff.

I know you’ll be excited as I am to find out that the lost cone has been recovered.

Five years ago I went to the Sporting Good store and a bought a set of cones.  I had recently signed up to captain a rec team and as captain I needed to have cones to setup fields.  So I purchased my cones and promptly rushed home to write my name inside each and everyone.

See, ever since the minute I have purchased cones I knew there would come a day when the innevitable would happen.  I lived in fear of it, carefully guarding my cones with fear and mistrust of all whom would touch them.  Yet, I knew some day the cone gods would turn against me.  Someday, I would lose a cone.

Well, friday that day happened.

About halfway through our game friday, which we were winning handily, the sky gods looked down on us and took offense at our laughter, at our merriment, at our impressive disc skills.  They decided to smite us for the brazen way in which we loft our frisbees unto the heavens.  One minute it was bright and sunny, two minutes later there was strong winds, terrible thunder, a horrendous outpouring of rain… oh, and did I mention the hail? Anyways, there was a mad scramble to get off the field and into cars and under shelter as quickly as possible.  And in the process, one of my cones went missing.

I went back and looked for it, but it was not to be found.

So, yes, the day I dread has come upon me and I am sad and confused.  For now I am the owner of a set of seven cones, which is completely without value.

This past weekend had the Dad in town which, despite icky weather, was a nice visit.  We wandered the inner harbor, checked out the cherry blossoms, hit some of the favorite restaurants, and did some grilling.  The inner harbor was fine, but in my opinion made better with a stop at Pratt Street Alehouse to get some of their very tasty hand pumped beers.  The cherry blossoms were mostly gone, but it still made for a nice walk around the tidal basement hunting for the remaining blossoms and allowed my dad lots of picture opportunities.  We followed that with a stop to Arlington’s Rock Bottom Brewery for some cask conditioned beer, which is the only way to serve beer.  Other various places we visited were Victoria Gastro Pub, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and Indian Food in Columbia.  As I mentioned, we also fired up the grill for the first time this spring cooking some tasty fresh salmon for Jennifer, and some steaks for the old man and I.  I was especially proud of how the steaks came out.  Very tasty.

The dad’s visit gave me a chance to rest the broken finger by not being able to play any frisbee all week.  I think that worked out well, but with Tuesday night being to rainy for frisbee, I have yet to test my frisbee abilities with a broken finger.  The doctor took another x-ray yesterday and said that things were progressing very well and that so long as I wear a splint there is no reason not to play frisbee.  He also said that otherwise, no more splint, just buddy taping the finger to the other finger for a while should be fine.  Good news all around.

To follow up on my last posting, I had a specialist look at my finger yesterday.  There is definately a break, but it’s very minor.  A small fragment of bone has broken off.  However, because it’s so small and because it’s separated, it will never reconnect with the primary piece of bone and it’s not really a big deal if it does.  At best the small piece could be removed, but really it should be just fine leaving it in there.  I have to wear a splint for a week, then buddy tape for another week, with new xrays at the end of each segment, but other than that things are fine.

The good news for me is that he sees no reason why I can’t go back to playing ultimate immediately so long as I wear the splint while playing.  Since I wasn’t planning to play this week anyways (I have family in town and no league games on saturday), I’ll take it easy just in case.  On tuesday I’ll go back to playing and see how it feels.

It looks as if I have broken the ring (or 4th) finger of my left hand.  I did something while playing Ultimate this weekend and toward the end of my 1st game (of 3 games that I had saturday) I noticed my finger was sore.  Well, I iced it for a bit and taped it up to its sibling finger, and kept playing.  Then sunday I iced it some more.  It was still sore monday, so I went to the urgent care facility and got an x-ray.  Lo and behold there is a tiny piece of bone broken away and lose and causing all kinds of problems.

So later today I’m off to an orthopeadic specialist to get a more detailed analysis.

In the meantime I’m typing rather oddly with one of my fingers in a splint.  It isn’t slowing me down that much, just a little in terms of overall typing speed, which is good.  Occasionally it gets in the way though.

I’m pretty worried about not being able to play frisbee for the next n weeks while things heal.

Apparently something has clicked.  The great pull I wrote about just the other day must have been magical.  Maybe there was fairy dust on the frisbee? or maybe some of my Irish luck cashed out or my positive karma balance was consumed.

Ever since my amazing pull the other day, I suddenly know how to pull.  I know exactly what I have to do, how to stand, how to move, how to throw.  It’s like something inside my head went clicky clicky and suddenly everything is clear.  It’s quite a feeling.

Now, I won’t claim to be a pulling god or anything… yet.  The distance on my pulls could be better and I still occasionally make a mistake and F it up, but of the 20 or so times I tried pulling during warm up and during my game tuesday, 16 were consistently acceptable pulls. That makes me very happy.

For a long time now I have always envied the ultimate frisbee giants who can pull a frisbee.  I just cannot seem to get one of those nice long, perfectly aimed throws and every time I try it falls woefully short and then awkwardly rolls.  However, that does not stop me from trying.  I pull two or three times every game I play with the sole intent of trying until I master it.  Well, I won’t say I’ve mastered the pull, but at my game saturday I did what I consider the perfect pull.

It was a smooth, nice floaty pull that landed just feet from the back of the opposing end zone.  A nice straight throw with no angles or curves or anything, just drifting over the heads of everyone playing.

My entire team, including myself, was so amazed at my beautiful pull (especially in light of the way I usually pull), that we all just stared at it in utter amazement, forgetting to run down the field and play defense completely.  The other team turned my awesome pull into a quick score and that pretty much ended that.

But I can still revel in the day that I made my perfect pull.