Had another Ulti game last night. It was super windy out so that made the game quite a challenge. You never knew what the disc was going to do once it was in the air. Sometimes it would drop from the sky like a stone, other times it would carry forever.
On our team I am one of the handlers. This means I get the disc a lot, and am responsible for getting to others who are open. This is a bit of a different position for me. I am used to being further away from the disc, and popping from the stack to the handlers. I am learning a lot this season, but still making some silly mistakes.
One thing I have done a few times is when we are on the zone D, and the cup gets broken. As a mid, I tend to chase the disc to the catcher, instead of falling back like I should so I can cut off other passes. It happened a couple times last night, and at least I recognized what I was doing. Next time I need to recognize it before I run in.
One play we were on the offense, and the other team was zoning us. We started on our own goal line, and dropped back into our own end zone. It was tight for a bit, but slowly we marched the disc to the oppositions end zone. Then, the toss to the end zone went off. I held my breath, the disc flew straight to one of my team players, their hands were open, the disc flew in, and it hit the ground. They dropped it. Crud. The other team got it, gave it a huge huck that wasn’t caught, and it was down in our end zone again. For a second time we marched it up the field, slowly but surely. This time we were able to capitalize and scored.
Another point where I was a handler, and we were zoned I mad some really stupid, high risk passes that I totally telegraphed. One made it to the popper, but the second was horrible. I actually hit the person who was checking in the ribs with the disc. I was that far off my mark. Yeesh.
My final point on the night wasn’t the last point in the game. I was chasing my check, who was chasing the disc. We both got under it at around the same time, and we both jumped up. I managed to tap the disc, but a third person (someone from the other team), crashed into me while I was in the air. I hit the ground hard, and something felt weird. I tweaked something in my back. I found it slightly more difficult to breathe. At the end of that point I sat off for a bit. When I next went to rejoin the game I felt a spasm in my back. I never went back in.
This leads to today. My back has been sore all day. It was so bad at work that I left a little early so I could lay on the couch for a bit. That helped but then I had to get up and do some running around. I hate back issues. It makes life almost unbearable at times.