Growing old, staying still

I've noticed in practice sometimes I become increasingly frustrated with the way things are run and set up. I keep wondering why some of the guys continually do not get the offense or the set plays that we have even though we practice them over and over again and still we look too inconsistent at times to really threaten other teams at this point. It got to the point yesterday where I even had thoughts of leaving practice because I didn't feel it to be worthwhile when I saw other guys just goofing around half the time and not taking things seriously.

The thing is, I love ultimate and hope that I can play it till old age and my body parts finally give out but recently I have had feelings of dissatisfaction with the game. I couldn't figure it out because I still spend half my day reading either RSD, or Match's blog, or something else related to ultimate.

So I came to this realization: I was the same way when I joined this team 3 years ago. The B team is designed to be a do over every year, and by that I mean we are in existence to develop guys to be better players and better team players. So this often means repeating the drills, offenses, defenses and general play year after year. When I was first starting out, I needed to same repetitions and guidance to understand the system and it took some time to learn it. I was taking advice from everyone else and now it seems like I'm the one who is constantly giving advice whether critical or constructive because I've been going through the same motions for 3 years now. I don't profess to know everything because I'm constantly learning new things about ultimate but sometimes the knowledge being taught to the new guys can be a drag because I've heard it so many times before and I wish they would absorb it immediately so we can move to bigger and better things.

The thing is, B team ultimate is usually caught between styles of play that can be very frustrating at times. It lacks the athletes and veterans of the A teams while being a step above the jovial sociability of rec leagues. That's not say that B team ultimate isn't fun, but the time and money commitments usually mean that folks expect something in return. Well for a lot of the rookies, that return is experience, whether getting that first jersey or going to that first tournament, these guys are excited about what's to come in the future. I too have to ground myself from time to time and think about all the good times I had when I first joined the team and realize the experience of college ultimate will be gone before too long.