Hiding those deep down urges...

Perfect. Dealt aces on the button.
UTG limps, MP raises.
Check again for aces. Yes, still there, always three bet aces.
SB calls, you sense danger. UTG calls... MP calls, you sit nervously in your chair for a moment, this hand is not so dreamy after all.
Flop is ten, jack, queen suited.
You cringe as SB raises, UTG all in, MP calls.
UTG just pulled a near perfect squeeze on you, and besides that probably has the goods.
Top pair top isn't looking so good right now. Don't go broke with aces.
Hide the disappointment, its an easy fold. (utg villian was 22/18 for anyone that it means anythign to)

Later that day, you end up at a frisbee field, stall count is on 2, against moderate winds, shortest, slowest, least athletic person has managed to cut stupidly deep of his man, who happens to be the fastest, tallest, most athletic person on their team. A gust of winds pick up as you hear the word '3' and you cock your wrist back and the wind tugs at the disc causing it to flutter in your hand. You stop for a moment as you realise this probably isn't the best spot to make a move. '4!' This is an easy dump.

Being the complete degen you are, you're back at a poker game, its 4 handed, meaning you can open raise about 40% of hands pretty safely. The dealer min raises to 2 bb, sb folds and you are sitting on king queen off suit. Dealer has been playing junk all night, making nonsensical money losing plays. This is an easy spot to raise or call. But as you look at your cards you feel a little a shudder down your spine and for some reason you throw your cards away without thinking. You are startled by the way you had no thought in this decision. You look up and see the other person wince at your play and angrily flips over kings. Completely dominated you were 9:1 to lose and would have been in huge trouble if a king had hit. Good fold.

The next morning is day 2 of the tournament, you broke even last night and are in a happy mood looking forwards to getting onto the field. A short warm up and you're in, line is called you're handling. Max is primary cutter, he cuts in towards you, makes eyecontact and gives you that wide eyed smile screaming to you "I know what you're thinking right now, whatever you are thinkign just do it!" You smile back as he busts deep. You pull the disc back ready to go and suddenly you get a little shudder down your spine, you see Max busting deep but something isn't right. You decide to throw the disc, but not that long huck everyone else is expecting. Max plants his foot down and cuts hard back in, he doesnt even get 2 steps before the disc lands confidently in his hands.

Frisbee is still a very young sport, and the nice thing about it is really anyone can get to a high level of ultimate as long as they are able bodied, willing and commited to training hard and improving their game. Its good in that some sports your physicality will restrict your level of competition, Lee Baker from the mixed team and Chilly from Melbourne who billeted me one juniors camp told me how he used to play State Volleyball as a spiker but was too short to advance any further. He is by no means a short person, but still too short for volley ball.

Frisbee is a long way off getting to the stage where your coach will be trying to add a 0.3 degree tilt to your wrist when you throw, and I always think its a fun experience to compare and contrast ultimate to other sports to see what can be gained.

I am reading a book called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0141014598/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1234256083&sr=8-1) and is just about those 2 second snap judgements that people make for reaosns beyond their control, some are bad, some are good, but the whole point is at the moment we have little control over our response.

In sport we train to turn the game to a point to where the optimal decision is the one that we always make, and we train our bodies how to do this, and we do drills to create situations that when we see them in a game we are to respond in a certain way. The whole point is to get to a stage where our unconscious can take over the thousands of small decisions the body can throw perfectly without us needing to put any thought into it.

Gladwell recalls a story of people trying to learn how to forehand properly from some perfect tennis star. (apparantly) people are too often taught to roll their wrists over the ball when they hit forehands as some tennis pro believed that was how he gained his killer forehand. Reality was that he was turning a total of a third of a degree when contacting the ball, and people tryign to turn their wrists as they hit overtook some ridiculous percentage of tennis injuries of people trying to imitate this. Funnily, the tennis player didn't really know how he was making these great shots, his unconscious mind had taken over and he had no clue consciously how he was doing it.

I remember being told by someone at some time that it is harder to unlearn something than it is to teach yourself something new.

Equally are those times when we see someone cutting deep, they are busting their guts and you know they deserve the throw, but you also know you relaly cant take that risk then before you realise it the disc is already up in the air and turned, and you are scored on for double unhappiness.

It can be really hard sometimes to fight these urges we have, and so often they can be correct...

Time to find that perfect balance!