Monday, September 24, 2007

Flashy moves ftw, or not, they're still good to watch.

At the beginning of November it'll be a year, I've learnt a lot and I've decided I like playing Ultimate.

I very much like playing in a team of people who are kind and some of whom do flashy stuff because I also like to watch. I love it when I do flashy stuff! I have hit discs out of the air, caught them while jumping, and thrown perfect throws to the zone! I rock!

At the moment I find being told what to do while playing confusing (though I take non-verbal cues better), and I don't yet want to theorise, strategise, critique the team-play or only have a good time if we win quite a lot (though I'm normal enough that I'd be quite pleased if we didn't come bottom of our league for the third time in a row).

I'm trying to turn 30 Ultimate players into 2 C-grade 5-a-side teams, 1 B-grade 5-a-side team, and 1 Social 7-a-side team. People have mostly told me which grade and size they want to play. I'm a Consequentialist and I'm working for the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

I've been wondering if I should have asked them different questions as well, like
  • Tell me the names of four other players with whom you love to play, I will try to put you on the same team as at least a couple of them.
  • I like playing in a team of people who are kind and some of whom do flashy stuff, what are your favourite things team-mates do and who does those things?
  • What would you most like your team mates to appreciate about you?
(Hey Creatures, if you read this feel free to tell me the answers to the questions, or other things you want me to know, the teams aren't quite final yet).

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2 Comments:

Blogger Alasdair said...

Matt made a reply to my summary of he c-grade finals along the lines of "happy was great to play for." Which I totally agreed with. For me at least, I am driven to a new team by ambition and pride... hubris. The gods never reward hubris. :/

But I think you may be right, and that maybe we should have formed three teams that worked well together, and then seen whether ambition could be accommodated.

I don't think I could limit myself to 4 players that I enjoy playing with. There is exactly 1 player I don't like playing with on the whole of Creature. But the 4 that I think I got the most satisfaction from would be Sam K, Natalya, Steve and Ronnie.

I appreciate flashy a lot less than successful. :) But some players do have a certain style. Sam B springs to mind. :) Indoors, I appreciated the general level of grit and determination in Happy team. We never ever really gave up, and I don't think we ever got rattled. Maybe it was just because of John, but we went into every game feeling like we could win if we only played well as a whole team. I also liked that there were never any recriminations. Nobody ever saw one of my hard-passes and said 'that was dumb mash'... they all just carried on with the defence. :)

I think what I would like to be appreciated about my play style is that I back individuals in my team to play well. I may sometimes over-estimate their running or catching abilities... but I throw to everyone, and rely on everyone to get free of markers, or mark their person close.

8:13 AM  
Blogger Adrexia said...

My expectations of winning or losing depend on who I play with. I don't mind coming last when I'm on a team of new people, but it's a bit frustrating if I'm on a team that should have done well and didn't. Generally, I like my team mates to do their best, regardless of what their best is. The last game against vic was one of the best Lucky had all season. It was very enjoyable, even though we lost... partly because we worked really well as a team, partly because everyone did their best.

Four other people I like playing with... that's difficult as it depends on what type of season I'm playing. I.e, I would expect different things depending on the grade. I have enjoyed playing with these people a lot in the past:
Sam B, John, Stephanie, Steve, Nick, Tim.

I like teams that work as teams, rather than individual/superstar players. I feel better about points where the disc is worked up the field than I do about the long throws to the guy running towards the endzone. Unnecessary turnovers on long-shot passes frustrate me. Spectacular catches on the other hand are awesome. But I prefer team work. Nothing feels better than a point where everyone touched the disc.

Don't know how to answer the last question. Sam appreciates that I catch his throws. :D

12:35 PM  

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