confidence

Quit my job - got a classic Hollywood buyout. Friday is my last day after 7+ years at Nickelodeon and as Nesbitt said, "Your golf game just got a shot in the arm." So yeah, free time also equals blog posts. I actually even am getting a raise to stop working, blog posts might make me feel like I'm doing something to earn the paychecks. And the RSD post about "role playing" got me thinking about how I need to know what my role will be on the internet. Like anything, you need to be confident in what you are doing, so I'm going to try and start banging out some blog posts to up my writing confidence. Here's a fast one to see if I can get into the flow of these crazy "internets."

So getting to the actual topic of Ultimate Talk, in terms of ultimate, confidence is everything just like in all of life, no matter what your role is on the team. A true team player knows they have a specific role on a team and is confident that they can perform that specific job. Because if you aren't confident in your role or in your teammates to know their roles, a team has problems. Role players need to remember confidence has to be found at every level, all the way up the ulty pecking order. I'd bet there are about one hundred guys at the top level that have about the same skill set. The reason why only two dozen or so of those guys are superstars is their level of confidence. And as an old vet, I've really been enjoying watching the confidence level of my summer league team grow. From a record of 3-2, we've reeled off 6 straight wins going into the playoffs this weekend and claimed the meaningless regular season title. I attribute most of the win streak to confidence.

Frankie Rho, who drafted my team for me while I was out of town, picked an excellent summer league team stacked with athletes, but a lot of youth gave us an inexperienced team and only 3 veterans to teach the under 25 crowd. I've experienced this type of thing before in draft leagues. You end up on teams with players that have never won anything in ultimate - maybe you get an "I won a hat tourney once." As someone that has won 50+ tourneys, I always forget that. I always (incorrectly) just assume I'm going to win every game of ulty, beach or grass, that I ever play. And I would like to think that the team I'm captaining has had some of that rub off on them, because everyone on the team looks more talented in throws, D and catching, all the main skills of the game. And lord knows I don't teach any of that crap - I'm just about attitude. Hopefully this weekend we can use that newly discovered confidence to win 3 more games and wrap up that summer league men's league title. It could be the team I most aided in terms of "off the field" contributions, which would be a proud moment. I'll fill you in next week from my couch around 10:30am on Monday - hope you are logging on at work to read it.