The Upside of Winter

Now that it is April, we are starting to get some good weather here in New England. For the last 3 years or so I have been stuck up here and have bitched about the winter non stop, despite the fact that it could be a lot worse. However, the other day I had a realization that I think is interesting, especially for the warm weather folks out there.

Cold Weather Powerhouses??

My first big question is how the hell are cold weather teams any good at this sport? How is it possible for Wisconsin, Carleton, Brown, Harvard, etc.. to compete with the rest of the country when they are trapped indoors for 5 months? This is something that warm weather teams will never understand, because I sure didn't. Think about not being outside from November to March/April. No full track work outs, no throwing in wind, no scrimmages, no drills, NOTHING. It's basically like being injured every year for 5 months. Maybe you are lucky enough to be at Michigan or Harvard and have HUGE indoor facilities, but most schools, even Yale, have ziltch. Basically the winter is one big conditioning session. Maybe teams play indoors, maybe they even have some artificial indoor turf, but come on, none of that stuff is at tournaments and basically becomes a crutch at best. So how does this pose an advantage?

One word, MOTIVATION. The biggest challenge for any ultimate program is to have motivated players. It is at the core of everything from conditioning to fund raising to recruiting. The main reason why Wisconsin is so good is because every team member lives and breaths Hodag disc. They live for it. They work their asses off in the summer with club teams like Subzer0 and hit the track in the winter. My main critique of weak teams (ie Yale) is that the game doesn't matter enough to players. They treat it just like any other extracurricular activity and then when they get rocked at tournaments they come to me with questions as to why they got pwned. My answer is always the same. How can you compete against teams that live and breath the sport when you guys barely make it to practice? The game has to matter more to you.

Ok, so what am I getting at? If you are a cold weather team, whoever sticks with the program come Spring is a true solider. After months of track workouts and stair sessions I am drooling for Henelopen this weekend (well not so much anymore because I am broken). Never in my years of ultimate in Southern California was I as motivated to play as I am now. If you are committed and ultimate matters to you, getting through the winter has such a Rocky 4 feeling. You are so amped, so ready, so fired up because you have basically been in prison for half the year. And when these teams get their chance to get out of the cold for tournaments like Vegas, Centex and Stanford, it is no wonder that some can tool on warm weather teams. They are ready to go. Coming out flat is something none of them is prepared to take lightly because there is no practice next week. It's not like they can take what they learned back with them. Every Saturday at these tournies is pool play at Nationals. There is no tomorrow, because tomorrow is a track workout, or a scrimmage in a gym. No bids, no wind, no nothing. At Kaimana I turned my body into burger and my teammates were like, "why do you hit the ground so much?" to which I responded, "try NOT being able to for half the year". And I think this is something that Winter teams definitely tap into.

Motivation = Performance?

So how does this motivation turn into performance? Ok, so you are motivated so you hit the track and are in shape, and I think this is where warm weather teams stop analyzing the situation. Motivation gives a player focus. All they can do is think about their game because they can't play it. Everything is analyzed in detail because you have nothing else to do. This is also a powerful force in unifying a team. When I was at UCSD there was so much drama bullshit amongst the A-team. I fucking hated it and now they all get a long and it's great. Adversity is one of the easiest ways to unify people and battling the snow definitely has this affect. It also sheds bullshit and bullshit players. For warm weather teams, half assing a season is easy. Practices are consistent whether it is Spetember or February and staying partially committed is possible. However with players that quit mid season or just don't buy into their program, on cold weather teams, they won't make it through the winter and teams can distill their program down to the most committed/motivated, the bread and butter of any college team. In addition, I think warm weather teams are conversely at a disadvantage because they are susceptible to complacency. They may think their game is A-Ok but when tourney time comes, they get out played, and this brings me to my next point.

Ultimate is a REALLY hard sport. There is such a small margin for error, at least at the highest level. In good weather, 2-3 turns can make the difference between a 15-14 game and 14-15 game. I think very few sports punish mistakes as much as they do in ultimate. Take basketball for example. They have turnovers, ie a ball out of bounds, or a steal, but missed shots are not considered turnovers. Possession changes but its not a turnover. In disc however, you drop a disc, you get D'd or you toss a disc out the back, it's still a turn and you better keep them all at a minimum or you are going to be watching the finals instead of playing in them. I think golf is the closest thing to ultimate in this sense. Second chance opportunities are very rare and you need to play perfect beginning to end to come out on top. So cold weather? Being trapped inside really allows a team to not only focus on improving their game, but it also pushes players to really play their best. As with any sport, you have to want it. Physical ability and success are only bridged when someone is motivated to play their best and when your opportunities to compete are relatively few and far between, when that chance comes you are going to give it your best, even subconsciously. I think this is partially how northern teams catch southern teams sleeping. Not to say that it always happens, but this is the pipeline that cold weather teams need to tap into to win in the Spring.

Lastly, I think the best contribution cold weather has on teams is that it pulls players out their comfort zone. When I saw Alan Goldberg talk at UCPC one thing he stressed a lot was playing out of your comfort zone. He talked about how Tiger Woods would hit balls in the pouring rain just to give him a taste of what kind of distractions and challenges he may face in the future. At UCSD, the weather was always perfect. Nice and pretty year round. Not a lot of wind to speak of, not much heat, not much rain. This made practice fun, but if we went to a windy or a cold tournament, wow, our performance dropped. This is tough to remedy and I am not going to discuss that here. However, with cold weather teams, when you finally get outside it's not like someone hits a weather light switch. Things go from unbearable to just-bearable. The 30 to 40 degree barrier is significant and it is definitely a threshold teams have for practicing outdoors. In addition, transition seasons like Fall and Spring have a lot of weather catalysts like wind and this is very prominent in the North. Not to say that there isn't wind in Texas or California or Florida, but when you have cold, wind and rain, you are about as distracted as you are ever going to get and you are basically McGyver, you can make do with just about anything. Sunday at Nationals last year was really windy and I think it affected Colorado dramatically. With an offense that relies on superstars, the wind threw them a curveball they couldn't hit and Wisconsin was seamless.

Cold Region Mentality

I suppose another thing I can say about this is what it's like to play ultimate in a cold region when it isn't cold. Never have I seen people take advantage of good weather when they get it. People here are so hell bent on getting as much out of a good day as possible, that even the workplace suffers. People just ditch and soak up the sun because for a lot of the year, they can't do it. This makes for interesting summers. In San Diego I did the college ultimate thing a lot but come the summer, I played some club, maybe went to a tournament or two, but nothing exciting. However, here, my god. I am going to a tournament every freaking weekend. Henelopen, White Mountain Open, Ommegang, Boston Invite, Jazz Fest, Wildwood, Ow My Knee, and this is all well before the series. It has really been an amazing experience. I was already an ultimate nerd before I got here, but being pushed in this way has really accelerated my playing ability and my interest in the sport. Maybe I was running with the wrong crowd and things are the same in San Diego, but it is no coincidence that close to half the people at Kaimana were New York, Pennsylvania, or some sort of cold weather residents. Being trapped inside has a way of getting you out of town if at all possible.

Closing Thoughts
I love trying to understand this game. Maybe thats why I write this stuff. How to beat Wisconsin, who are the best teams, why do some teams win and others lose, everything. The one thing that I think really separates ultimate from most sports is that their isn't really a season, it's just the post season. Everything is prep for sectionals/regionals/nationals. Furious doesn't beat GOAT 15-8 in August and then gets rocked in pool play for no reason. They prepared for Canadian Nationals and they achieved their goal. GOAT made semis but Furious is in World's. Along the same lines, these cold weather teams prepare and prepare and the weather is an obstacle but it's a constructive one. Motivation is one thing you can't teach and you can't buy. You can only hope your teammates have it. Weather is a useful hurdle and if teams can utilize the opportunity they can succeed in May.

just my thoughts

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