One of the reasons why I chose USC was because of solid ultimate scene there. This was one of the best opportunities for me to improve my ultimate skills. I immediately signed up for the mailing list waiting to join the action. It started with intramurals, which is like a hat tournament having more emphasis on learning. This encourages people who are interested in ultimate to get a sense of how the game is played. We had a lot of fun, met ton of people. Not to forget the jello shots after the final game.
After that the try outs for the college team happened. It was a month long thing, where everyone is evaluated on various parameters like speed, stamina and disc handling skills. We had a lot of people in the tryouts and everyone was good. I honestly didn’t think I would make it to the A team (Lockdown), but fortunately I did. I was put in the defense team cough obviously because of my layout D’s cough. Fall semester was like a growth phase for us. We had practice from 9PM to 12:30AM thrice a week. No sun to hold us back. I so love playing in the floodlights and turf. Also Yes, we did have amazing dedicated coaches.
We did go to a few tournaments in Irvine and friendlies in LA. This helped build the team chemistry. There were also these occasional football pregame grill and beer pong!!!
One of the biggest beach tournament Leiout happens in Santa Monica every year. It was like a chill tournament for us. We had a lot of fun in the sand, leing-out. I met a few Indian ultimate players including Shashank and Suppi. I also met MKBHD. The finals was just insane, Team ERIC killed it.
This officially marked our end of off season. Time to get serious. We were determined to move up the ranking this season. We went to several tournaments like SoCal warmups, Stanford qualifiers, Trouble in Vegas, Sectionals and Regionals where did reasonably good. We spent countless hours perfecting our set plays. We would have done handler dumps a million times. Repetition is the boss. I think I improved overall to understand the flow of the game and learn to position myself properly.
Things I learnt
- Dump it
- Get physical
- Train hard off field
- Throw all the time
- Repeat set plays
- Get horizontal
And finally, how can I forget frisbee prom. This is the time where the girls team asks the guys team for prom. There was beer pong and mini concert at Gideon’s place. It was lit. It was great playing with everyone. I made a ton of friends. I learnt a ton of things on the field and off. Next year I am determined to improve my game even more. I just hope that I don’t get plagued by injury. Shin splints is a b***.
PS: Spencer’s epic tweets.