Oh! Kentucky

I played in a tournament called Mason Dixon this weekend, in none other than Berea, Kentucky. We took 1st place. There were a total of 8 teams there and only one that was a competitive club team. So what can be taken from a tournament where 5 of your 6 games are a breeze? Here's what I out of the weekend...

First off, sometimes it's fun to dominate (to an extent). It is nice to have a game or two where you can just laugh at your teammates, take seat on the sidelines, and feel relaxed during the game. These are the games that show you why you are a more experienced, dedicated, and harder working ultimate player/team than the other and that can feel good. Every once in a while it is fun to just play ultimate solely for the very reason you started playing, it is a damn good time.

Easy games can be beneficial too. Our first tournament (No Surf) was a rough weekend for us. We had a squad of 9-10 guys playing in the elite power pools and we were only able to escape the weekend with 1 win. It was productive in certain levels, but as a team, you want put more marks in the W column. So this weekend we went undefeated and that can help a team psyche. Now no one is naive enough to think that our first five games were "quality" wins that are going to push us the next level, but it is more a matter of a winning mindset. They can also be beneficial for working on things as an individual and as a team. You can try out new skills you are working on. The team can work on a more fluid offense or switching on D. It is a nice setting to improve on the aspects of your personal game that you don't want to try out in a bigger game and it's good to be able to hone aspects of the team's offense or defense.

Turn it on, turn it off. We didn't play with much intensity in our pool play and semi finals games. We just didn't need to. We won all of our games up to that point by at least 9. So once we got to the finals we told ourselves that we had to step it up and flick the switch. Come out with some fire and play with some passion. We did just that and had a great finals against Ashville. Being able to focus yourself after easy wins and prepare for the harder fought games is crucial. "We haven't needed to play hard all weekend, so now we just can't adjust" is not a valid excuse for doing poorly. You should be able to get yourself in the mindset you need for that game. Coming out hard on point one of a competitive game, in the midst of easy ones, is a must.

A quick recap of some of the more ridiculous aspects of the weekend. The food provided was candy. We got twizzlers, yogurt covered somethings, cheez-its, etc. No bagels. No fruit. No carbs. No substance. There was no bottled water of any sort, just a spigot on the premises (it's not like you pay a tournament fee to have certain amenities provided...). BUT we did get a case of Full Throttle, because we obviously don't need to hydrate, just get really wired before our games. Here's the funny thing about all of the food and water provided, it was ALL expired. None of it could have been sold at a grocery store. Wow. Just wow. Not only we were provided bad and expired food for the tournament, as a number 1 seed overall we had to move fields on many occasions. Now that may seem like I'm just unnecessarily whining, but I'm not sure I've ever played in a tournament where you make the top seed trek across the park to play their games (on multiple occasions)...we picked up our sideline to go play on a vastly inferior field no less. It's curious that one of those games was against the tournament director's team...

This is all without mentioning that we showed up Day 2 at 8:25 to play our quarterfinals game annnnnd what do you know, our team dropped. So of course the other teams start their games late (because we're on ultimate time, right?) and we sit around for 2.5 hours until our first game. 1.5 of those hours I could have been asleep. Asleep at the luxurious Oh! Kentucky Campground.

All in all though, Cincinnati's Hustle are Mason Dixon champs. We have a trophy to prove it.