The Gong Show

This weekend was NSW Mixed Championships, in Wollongong.

The real winner of the tournament, just as it was last year at Nationals and Melbourne Hat, was the weather.

This was the first time I'd ever played with Abra, and hearing his particular brand of leadership and inspiration first-hand was pretty sweet - he's got a substantial background in sports psychology, and his constant mantra for the weekend was to forget about the uncontrollables (the wind) and focus on what we could change - namely, our own game.*

Obviously, though, in conditions like the ones we had - consistently strong wind, with bursts of stronger gusts from all directions - the ultimate degenerated and came down to which team could reliably throw upwind. Spider-Pig, with three of the ten people in NSW capable of throwing forward that afternoon - Pottsy, Kenny and Pete Gardner - triumphed over a pretty valiant effort by Pie Wagon.

It was interesting to see how different teams adapted, both offensively and defensively, to conditions. Positional play became important, so roller pulls and huck and zone got pulled out by nearly everyone. There were a good few teams still playing man defence, which worked fairly well because it takes away the 1-2 undefended passes zone defences traditionally give an offence.

Offensively, again, there was a lot of hucking to gain ground, a lot of messy ultimate. Spider-Pig had some great fast break connections from Pottsy to Marcus Hayward before the defense could set. In the final, Pie Wagon used a lot of break throws into defender-less space, and some very competent female handlers to have threatening targets downfield against a zone.

So that's that, really. I'll write more as I learn it.

*He had another mantra, but it was mainly about how Fakulti had ruined whatever potential Mark and I might once have shown.

Celebrations and Inward vs Outward Directed Control

For my own excited news, Sydney Uni announced their AUG's teams and I have been lucky enough to be selected this year. I am definitely excited about this, though it scares me how soon it is already, only 6 weeks to train up. The trials were stressful, turned out finding out today the roster size is 18 didn't need to stress toooo much but it will be interesting to see what Sydney Uni chooses to do with this new change.

This semester I'm doing two fun/arts subjects Management - which is how to make people do things for you that they don't want to do, and International Business, which is about how to recognise differences in cultures and making changes in your own behaviour to make the most money possible.

In Ibus, they are teaching us various perspectives on ways to catergorise cultural differences. One example discussed today was inward directed control vs outward directed control.

This concept is based on the way people react to their environments. An inward directed control is more about making their environment change to solve their needs, while outward is about how to work/adapt well to the environment.

One particular area this shows up in how competition, particularly sporting is approached. And inward directed person would have little concern on who their opponent is, aiming purely to just overwhelm them with their own ability. A person or team that is inwardly directed would care quite a lot who their opposition is and aim to believe success is oriented around knowing your opponent and finding their weaknesses and exploiting them.

Obviously both of these things would be ideal to have, but I think often people will fall into a habit of one or the other. Sydney Uni in particular I feel in the past has been too much inwardly focused! Hopefully this year will be different.

I am so excited.