What To Do When You Can't Play Ultimate

March 10, 2017

People have asked me where I’ve been. They’ve noticed I’m not in any of the photos of Bench in Hawaii, and that I wasn’t at Eastern Regionals two weekends ago. I’m okay, but i didn’t feel up to flying to Kaimana or driving to Canberra.

February was a month for me, and really it was a month after a couple of other months. I’m a big disc nerd; I love friz. The high of friends + running has always been a solid foundation when other things haven’t been going so well. I missed a couple of Brunches with the boys, which was disappointing, even if I think it was the right choice.

I love Brunch though, so I worked on a couple of things to help me get back to it. Maybe they’ll spark something that works for you when you’re not where you want to be.

GRIND

Some things happened recently that didn’t work out how I might have liked. That’s fine. In response, I tried to shift my focus to putting in the work to get where I want to be.

Mad that you got the stomach flu, lost 10kgs, and are squatting 30kg less than two weeks ago?

Grind it out. You’re not gonna get larger by not going to the gym.

Sometimes it’s hard to get to the gym, so I made this playlist [deprecated]. Playlists are great. I don’t know that I’d play this at the fields on Rukus, because it’s a layer darker than most people’s level of hype, but it helps me ease into picking up heavy things and putting them back down.

BE KIND TO YOURSELF

My first life motto was “not a shithead” (or maybe “I do it myself!” if you ask my parents). I’d like to think I now embody that - most of the time, at least - so my current one is “be kind to yourself”.

I sometimes think of 2015 as a tough year and a big disappointment. I missed Honours (First Class) by 1 mark and I didn’t get selected on the Dingoes. It hurt. And that’s true, but really it just reflects the standards I try to hold myself to: I finished university after 6 years, with Honours; I won the first AUG Open’s competition with SUUFA; I started my first full time job;¹ and I worked hard enough to receive an invite to both the Dingoes and Barramundis selection camps, even if I fell short of selection.

MAKE IT A CHOICE

I avoid a lot of things, so I’m trying to avoid avoidance (heh). My friend Tom was kind enough to share one of his mindsets with me, which is simply waiting until I get to the gym to decide if I want to worship at the altar of gains or not. Instead of deciding it’s too hard while I am still at home (and not leaving at all), I go to the gym, do the first set, and quit after that if it’s genuinely too much.

To modernise Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

to lift or not to lift, that is the question

But the context is different.

And Context Is The Key.