I read and saw a few things that compelled me to write them down. I have begun my rehab bike riding and I was just doing repetitive laps around the park. I saw a father (I assumed) with two kids probably about 8 and 10. The father was making them run sprints between some cones, I imagine for soccer or thugby.
It reminded me of another time I was in a park, it was Tunks Park in Cammeray, down near the water they have an exercise eqiupment park with bars for chinups, raised things to do situps on and so on. There was a crazy dad there with 3 kids probably 10,8 and 7 or so and he was sending them through a full on work out routine, all of his kids did more chinups than I could do at that time. The other thing was they were clearly not enjoying it at all. The dad was full on into it with the whole yelling motivation at his kids despite the pained looks and tears in their eyes.
The last little story is a friend of mine, as a child he was whipped into sports and is one of those extremely talented nuts that can pick up a sport and become an expert at it in no time at all. He was in year 6 when he peaked his career being 5th in his age group on the National Tennis scene. In year 7 the testerone of puberty kicked in and his rebellious nature came out, told his mum to piss off and gave up tennis despite his amazing talent.
Since then I saw him absolutely tear so many opponents to pieces, he was beating the zone reps in table tennis, players who felt they need $100+ bats to improve their play, he was beating them with an old one he'd found at home with the rubber on one side missing and the foam coming off on the other. He became a qaurter back playing grid iron, had a few runs playing rugby, beat down his state level opponents who were training 4 times a week tennis opponents at our Crawford shield. the next year bored of tennis came down and represented our waterpolo team being part of our second victory in waterpolo in 17 years against Melbourne, and in his last year bored of those sports played squash but lost his temper against their Victorian state reps and smashed up a racquet that belonged to the PE teacher. To top it all off he was always in kings playing 8 court handball at school...
Interestingly he was one of the least motivated sportsmen I'd ever played with he was remarkably talented but completely unmotivated. He had amazing potential but as soon as there was serious commitment to the sport (beyond turning up to competitions and winning) he was so put off the sport that he would drop it immedietly.
The other is a child success story.
In year 8 I started playing waterpolo for school, the last open team called themselves "The bogan patrol" and had bright disgusting pink speedos with their team name to go with it. They were some of the most talented players our school had seen for quite some time winning the Crawford Shield waterpolo for the first time from Melbourne in 15 years, getting to regionals in state knockout and coming second in the zone competition. We were a bunch of kids looking to get out of the summer heat. Tyler Martin started that year in year 7, and with some amazing leadership and skills from him and our extraordinary coaches brought us to once again reclaim the waterpolo win from Melbourne, win the zone comp and getting Kinkumbered by a bunch of bogans at regionals in the state knockout.
He was extremely talented a great team player, extremely patient with all of us, and although he was small in year 7 when other teams would triple mark him and laugh us while they tried to score on us using headers (extremely hard in a pool), he filled out as he got older. And eventually represented the Australia in its under 19 opens waterpolo team. He currently players nationals league as well.
Both these guys were childs sportsmen but there was a huge difference in their training and motivation. Both would surely owe a large amount of this to their parents. Both the success and their failures. With many frisbee parents now having kids, I wonder if any of them will force their kids into playing and training, or if this will ever happen. Or are people going to be nice and let their kids play whatever sports they want?
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sugery Adventures: 1 month on
I was just sifting through my physio papers and realised I haven't been at 100% since the end of March this year when I rolled my ankle. I had to just strap it up and play on it at the juniors camp and through nationals was just a lot of tape.
So it's been a while since I've really been able to play sport properly.
Though 1 month on things are looking good. The first 2 weeks after the surgery were pretty rough, especially when I had to get back to uni.
Now though walking is no longer such a painful challenge, I can now dress myself without pain or difficulty, I can bend my knee back to about 100 degrees, do squats, ride at the no resistance level and my hamstring is now strong enough to lift my leg.
The funniest part of it was probably being on peak hour buses and having an old woman get up for me. It was probably the nicest thing someone did for me that day. It was also funny becuase last time I was on crutches the people on buses were assholes pushing and shoving when I clearly have an issue walking without crutches.
I'm now doing squats down about 3/4 of the way to 90 degrees, wallsits that are pretty far from 90 degrees, 1 legged sqauts barely down at all, as well as hamstring and calf stretching.
One of the hardest exercises that I got was that I had to lie on my stomach and lift my leg up bending at the knee using my hamstring like I was doing a quad stretch.
It surprised me and scared me the first time I was asked to do this I was too weak to be able to lift the whole way (more than about 15cm off the ground) i had to use my other leg to help it up.
its a lot stronger now though.
the other weird one was i have to do quad contractions that is I just sit down with my legs out straight and try to tighten my quad. It was a huge psychological barrier, the muscle was there, not very developed but still there and it took about a day of just sitting there trying to make it happen. It was a very strange sensation feeling so disconnected from my quad that I could not contract it at will.
I was again surprised at the number of people who have torn ACL's one of the SUUFA exchange kiddys Jimmy is about 4 months post op and was reliving many of the experiences through our conversations (and telling me what joys I had ahead) and recently spoke to Elsey who I found out also tore his a few years ago.
So the Physio bills are stacking up, I need to get into a gym and an exercise bike soon but being too lazy. Better take better care of myself...
In the mean time I have been occupying myself with Treasurer work from Suufa, went down to melb on a short holiday and watched the last 2 days of unigames saw Suufa's final defeat to Flinders, which was a shame since it was only the second game I'd seen them watch. It was a little painful being on the sidelines I think Simon Hyatt (my travel buddy and Suufa secretary) and I were the only Suufa supporters... and Brett's mum. What I saw was a defense that could not shut down Joel and Alex who liberally threw over and through the Suufa wall, a couple of very good overloading on the deep defender with Joel on the disc, splitting the deep while the wings were biting in too close down the sides offering no help on the huck. Apparantly the Suufa offense was nothign that it'd been all tournament but from what I saw they were struggling not being able to throw through or over the wall and a dropped energy by the end of the game. I was later reminded of this with the 40-0 victory of Manly over Melbourne storm that even professional athletes can get hit by the nerves and of course how amazingly important a teams morale can be.
I've also been playing a lot more poker since I can't do anything else, had a savage session of 5/10c blinds with friends from $5 buy in up to $22 in 4 hours of solid and down $17 in the last 30 minutes getting unlucky not becuase I got bad hands, but I got really good hands I couldnt let go of. I've also made a return to competitive gaming after 3 and a half years, playing COD4 with a 15-5 victory with c[_] over Ministry of Gaming.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Fresh Bwudd
What happens when Pottsy passes away in a freak gasoline fight incident? What do we do when Simon Farrow loses all will to organise after Naremburn Council removes the lights entirely from Naremburn park without telling him?
Where do we go for volunteers?
Get 'em early, get 'em young: universities are huge resources. Surely someone on the AFDA has a list of all the little yet nonvital things they want to do but haven't been able to due to lack of volunteer resources - 'update the AFDA front page', 'hold more beach tournaments in summer', 'buy milk'. Coming back from AUGs I was almost sickened by how much passion and drive there was for the sport from people all over Australia: these are future accountants, computer programmers, advertising agents, engineers and alcoholics. Why not put them to work?
The best part is, it's a two-way street: the AFDA wants things done for free, and starving uni students are looking for anything to beef up their resume or talk about in job interviews.
With some exceptions (Max and Ewan's appointment to magazine editors is the big one) I don't really see the Young Turks being utilised to their fullest extent. There are three positions vacant on the NSWFDA board, even with Frank and Nikki both holding two positions. Of course there's lots to be said against putting somebody with little experience in charge of something, but it's got to be better than the current system (which in my markedly limited worldview seems to consist of overloading a small group of people who are already time-poor and doing too much for no money).
My idea: state universities co-ordinators (or development officers? or even a new position that hasn't been invented yet - heck, everyone loves a business card) liaise with university team managers/coaches/captains periodically to see if there isn't any raw talent that can be put to use on the AFDA's backlist of random menial tasks. At first the AFDA can provide free league frees as an incentive, then as the talent is drawn further into the frisbee community, a good dose of Catholic guilt will probably do the trick. It's that simple and it takes less than an hour's worth of typing all up.
Too late I recognise this all sounds too familiar: I am poaching off this entry from Simmo.
Where do we go for volunteers?
Get 'em early, get 'em young: universities are huge resources. Surely someone on the AFDA has a list of all the little yet nonvital things they want to do but haven't been able to due to lack of volunteer resources - 'update the AFDA front page', 'hold more beach tournaments in summer', 'buy milk'. Coming back from AUGs I was almost sickened by how much passion and drive there was for the sport from people all over Australia: these are future accountants, computer programmers, advertising agents, engineers and alcoholics. Why not put them to work?
The best part is, it's a two-way street: the AFDA wants things done for free, and starving uni students are looking for anything to beef up their resume or talk about in job interviews.
With some exceptions (Max and Ewan's appointment to magazine editors is the big one) I don't really see the Young Turks being utilised to their fullest extent. There are three positions vacant on the NSWFDA board, even with Frank and Nikki both holding two positions. Of course there's lots to be said against putting somebody with little experience in charge of something, but it's got to be better than the current system (which in my markedly limited worldview seems to consist of overloading a small group of people who are already time-poor and doing too much for no money).
My idea: state universities co-ordinators (or development officers? or even a new position that hasn't been invented yet - heck, everyone loves a business card) liaise with university team managers/coaches/captains periodically to see if there isn't any raw talent that can be put to use on the AFDA's backlist of random menial tasks. At first the AFDA can provide free league frees as an incentive, then as the talent is drawn further into the frisbee community, a good dose of Catholic guilt will probably do the trick. It's that simple and it takes less than an hour's worth of typing all up.
Too late I recognise this all sounds too familiar: I am poaching off this entry from Simmo.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Usage
Why do we use zone defence? We use zone defence if the other team is much more athletic, has weaker throwers or if it's very windy.
These arbitrary considerations for zone neglect some things:
Part of what a zone defence accomplishes is the tiring out 3-4 of your on-field players while giving at least 3 players on the other team (the handlers) a rest for the point.
Also there is the illusion that in wind, it is far harder to break the mark than it is to throw open side (up, down or crosswind) to a guarded cutter. This is flagrantly untrue.
Playing against Monash and Flinders on days 3-5 of uni games this year made me wish for points where I could just walk the disc in playing against a zone. Over the course of a five-day tournament zone defence becomes less and less viable.
These arbitrary considerations for zone neglect some things:
Part of what a zone defence accomplishes is the tiring out 3-4 of your on-field players while giving at least 3 players on the other team (the handlers) a rest for the point.
Also there is the illusion that in wind, it is far harder to break the mark than it is to throw open side (up, down or crosswind) to a guarded cutter. This is flagrantly untrue.
Playing against Monash and Flinders on days 3-5 of uni games this year made me wish for points where I could just walk the disc in playing against a zone. Over the course of a five-day tournament zone defence becomes less and less viable.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Rotten Technology
I've always thought that www.afda.com was pretty neat-o.
There's quite a lot of good info that's pretty easy to find. Especially when compared to the UPA and WFDF sites, which either confuse with labyrinthine user-unfriendlyness or lack any in-depth information.
But I'm me - a committed, relatively technological ultimate player. Half of the fun in having a website for ultimate players is making sure that the stark utter newbies are catered for.
I have some issues with the site. Finding events is not immediately obvious, and there are usually discrepancies between tournaments found through the Calendar and Register pages.
The big issue I have is that it does not look professional. It's the face of the organisation, as far as a beginner can tell - everyone ends up there at some point to register themselves, and it's pretty unashamedly outdated, even compared to the UPA.
Look at the difference between this and this. Surely we can give David Colls free league fees at Albert Park social for the rest of his days if he spends a month or so updating the national website and its regional counterparts to match what the VFDA have.
There's quite a lot of good info that's pretty easy to find. Especially when compared to the UPA and WFDF sites, which either confuse with labyrinthine user-unfriendlyness or lack any in-depth information.
But I'm me - a committed, relatively technological ultimate player. Half of the fun in having a website for ultimate players is making sure that the stark utter newbies are catered for.
I have some issues with the site. Finding events is not immediately obvious, and there are usually discrepancies between tournaments found through the Calendar and Register pages.
The big issue I have is that it does not look professional. It's the face of the organisation, as far as a beginner can tell - everyone ends up there at some point to register themselves, and it's pretty unashamedly outdated, even compared to the UPA.
Look at the difference between this and this. Surely we can give David Colls free league fees at Albert Park social for the rest of his days if he spends a month or so updating the national website and its regional counterparts to match what the VFDA have.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Scoober?
This throw is neglected at worst, heckled at best. I suspect this attitude has something to do with it having a silly name. It's also one of those words that look a lot sillier when you type them- like muff, or episcopal.
Regardless, here are some good reasons why the scoober is (not 'always', just 'a lot more than people give it credit for') a good option.
It is, by virtue of its throwing action, a quick release throw on the backhand side. This is useful - a quick release backhand is a much more difficult throw which not many people have consistently.
For an upside down throw, a scoober has a pretty gentle flight pattern, even in wind. Hammers are thrown with a lot of downward motion, leaving them especially vulnerable to blading or buffeting. Scoobers are thrown more at a 45° angle, are a little inclined to float up, but still are more stable.
The crowd loves the scoober.
In man offense, as a breakmark throw, the scoober can hit the deadzone directly behind the marker. No other throw can do this without first getting the mark out of position.
Regardless, here are some good reasons why the scoober is (not 'always', just 'a lot more than people give it credit for') a good option.
It is, by virtue of its throwing action, a quick release throw on the backhand side. This is useful - a quick release backhand is a much more difficult throw which not many people have consistently.
For an upside down throw, a scoober has a pretty gentle flight pattern, even in wind. Hammers are thrown with a lot of downward motion, leaving them especially vulnerable to blading or buffeting. Scoobers are thrown more at a 45° angle, are a little inclined to float up, but still are more stable.
The crowd loves the scoober.
In man offense, as a breakmark throw, the scoober can hit the deadzone directly behind the marker. No other throw can do this without first getting the mark out of position.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Surgery Adventures: Operation day till post op day 1.
..."Pay special attention to the ANAL region... FOR MEN: SCRUB the SCROTUM thoroughly" (Exact directions on Pre-Op wash instructions with capitalisations and all)
At 6:20 in the morning I woke up and looked at the clock and realised I'd set the alarm 1 hour too late and had 40 minutes to get to the hospital (which was 45 minutes away). Gave my body and in particular my 'anal region' possibly the most thorough cleansing session possibly of my entire life as per the detailed instructions given to me with the wash (the most intense cleaning session was the night before since I had to wash night and day. No food and water since midnight left my mouth pretty dry, mum freaked out and we hopped into the car and went to the hospital.
Arrived at the admissions ward, nothing exciting happened there. I saw the funny doctor from last time I was there except I think he must have been at the end of his shift very tired looking, big bags under his eyes. Was greeted happily by one of the nurses as 'the organised boy!'
Bagged all my clothes, put on some gowns, shaved my leg (and he was a she, she said hey babe take a walk on the side) and got introduced to the anasthethist. Stuck an IV into my hand, it stung a bit, told me there was going to be 2 doses one to relax me and it feels damn weird you feel cold from the inside but your skin is warm to the touch, the other to knock me out. "This one is just to relax you" and my head started spinning, my surgeon walked in with a grin on his face and a blood stained gown, "All done here you'll go in, in just a moment!" I blacked out around there.
"Do NOT make any important legal decisions within 24 hours of being under anasthetic," - Your rights and responsibilities at hospital guidebook.
Woke up a few hours later, mouth was dry, overall feeling like shit, wanted to throw up, head was spinning. In response they fed me an ice cube.
I threw up when I got to the ward and pretty much just felt like arse until midnight (it was about midday when I got there). The nurses who came and attended me were all very friendly caring and genuinely concerned (or seemed it) about my well being. I had two older women who were probably the funnier nurses who came up to me and firstly asked "How come you have lighter eyes by dark hair?" I told them how I was half asian, they commented why my sister had light hair, I said I didn't know. They asked me if I had a girlfriend and proceeded to give me relationship advice that amounted to:
"Make sure you get a girlfriend before you leave uni, becuase when you leave you will be lonely and not be able to find anyone since all the couples get married 2 years after uni so you'll have to wait till they divorce to move in. My son had a great girlfriend for 2 years, but then they broke up and he left uni and now he's lonely. Don't end up like my son. He's lonely. "
"See look at her, (Pointing at the other nurse) she didn't meet anyone at uni and now shes single!"
Room aircon was screwed up, so the room was really hot, and the guy next to me as friendly as he was when awake, sounded like he was dying or in severe pain judging by the way he snored. Around 10pm I hadn't 'passed urine,' into this small milk bottle sized and shaped container with a sloped and elongated neck which though being about 7-8 cm across my dad still joked "Ah bad luck son, still won't fit." It was too awkward to use and I couldn't go until the nurse came in and threatened "You realise if you don't pass urine for 6 hours we have to use a cathetar,"
A cathetar (I dont think thats spelt right but it is pronounced like that) is a metal rod they stick up your urethra and into your bladder to ease the process. It also hurts as you can imagine, to have a piece of metal shoved up your urethra. I was scared into peeing.
I impressed myself with a 1 litre effort of urine (the bottle had measurements) which would be the first of 3 litres 'passed' into these bottles (the last time it almost overfilled) I was pretty proud.
Morning finally came, the sickness passed and breakfast arrived. A few doctors came in, checked the bandages for bleeding (It had bled a bit the day before and was redressed) a few more doses of antibiotic into the IV and I was told I just needed an X-ray and then I could go home. This was about 7:30 and the x-ray was at 2:30. I ended up getting out at 3:30. I also got to ride a portable toilet seat and use the toilet! how exciting! and my first shower in the portable toilet seat as well. Exciting stuff.
Physio came and gave me some stuff to do taught me how to use crutches and I sat and read for a few hours.
Mum arrived and carried me home.
Physio is tomorrow, I have an exam on friday and monday, hopefully I'll be able to get to uni.
Hooray,
This is the most relieved I've felt in a long time, finally out of the hospital and back at home, and for the first time since April 4 and a bit months ago finally know where my knee is going and that I can actaully get better rather than being in a constant state of dull pain.
One question I had a lot was after reading my file (with a puzzled look)
"..."
"...So you hurt yourself playing frisbee?"
At 6:20 in the morning I woke up and looked at the clock and realised I'd set the alarm 1 hour too late and had 40 minutes to get to the hospital (which was 45 minutes away). Gave my body and in particular my 'anal region' possibly the most thorough cleansing session possibly of my entire life as per the detailed instructions given to me with the wash (the most intense cleaning session was the night before since I had to wash night and day. No food and water since midnight left my mouth pretty dry, mum freaked out and we hopped into the car and went to the hospital.
Arrived at the admissions ward, nothing exciting happened there. I saw the funny doctor from last time I was there except I think he must have been at the end of his shift very tired looking, big bags under his eyes. Was greeted happily by one of the nurses as 'the organised boy!'
Bagged all my clothes, put on some gowns, shaved my leg (and he was a she, she said hey babe take a walk on the side) and got introduced to the anasthethist. Stuck an IV into my hand, it stung a bit, told me there was going to be 2 doses one to relax me and it feels damn weird you feel cold from the inside but your skin is warm to the touch, the other to knock me out. "This one is just to relax you" and my head started spinning, my surgeon walked in with a grin on his face and a blood stained gown, "All done here you'll go in, in just a moment!" I blacked out around there.
"Do NOT make any important legal decisions within 24 hours of being under anasthetic," - Your rights and responsibilities at hospital guidebook.
Woke up a few hours later, mouth was dry, overall feeling like shit, wanted to throw up, head was spinning. In response they fed me an ice cube.
I threw up when I got to the ward and pretty much just felt like arse until midnight (it was about midday when I got there). The nurses who came and attended me were all very friendly caring and genuinely concerned (or seemed it) about my well being. I had two older women who were probably the funnier nurses who came up to me and firstly asked "How come you have lighter eyes by dark hair?" I told them how I was half asian, they commented why my sister had light hair, I said I didn't know. They asked me if I had a girlfriend and proceeded to give me relationship advice that amounted to:
"Make sure you get a girlfriend before you leave uni, becuase when you leave you will be lonely and not be able to find anyone since all the couples get married 2 years after uni so you'll have to wait till they divorce to move in. My son had a great girlfriend for 2 years, but then they broke up and he left uni and now he's lonely. Don't end up like my son. He's lonely. "
"See look at her, (Pointing at the other nurse) she didn't meet anyone at uni and now shes single!"
Room aircon was screwed up, so the room was really hot, and the guy next to me as friendly as he was when awake, sounded like he was dying or in severe pain judging by the way he snored. Around 10pm I hadn't 'passed urine,' into this small milk bottle sized and shaped container with a sloped and elongated neck which though being about 7-8 cm across my dad still joked "Ah bad luck son, still won't fit." It was too awkward to use and I couldn't go until the nurse came in and threatened "You realise if you don't pass urine for 6 hours we have to use a cathetar,"
A cathetar (I dont think thats spelt right but it is pronounced like that) is a metal rod they stick up your urethra and into your bladder to ease the process. It also hurts as you can imagine, to have a piece of metal shoved up your urethra. I was scared into peeing.
I impressed myself with a 1 litre effort of urine (the bottle had measurements) which would be the first of 3 litres 'passed' into these bottles (the last time it almost overfilled) I was pretty proud.
Morning finally came, the sickness passed and breakfast arrived. A few doctors came in, checked the bandages for bleeding (It had bled a bit the day before and was redressed) a few more doses of antibiotic into the IV and I was told I just needed an X-ray and then I could go home. This was about 7:30 and the x-ray was at 2:30. I ended up getting out at 3:30. I also got to ride a portable toilet seat and use the toilet! how exciting! and my first shower in the portable toilet seat as well. Exciting stuff.
Physio came and gave me some stuff to do taught me how to use crutches and I sat and read for a few hours.
Mum arrived and carried me home.
Physio is tomorrow, I have an exam on friday and monday, hopefully I'll be able to get to uni.
Hooray,
This is the most relieved I've felt in a long time, finally out of the hospital and back at home, and for the first time since April 4 and a bit months ago finally know where my knee is going and that I can actaully get better rather than being in a constant state of dull pain.
One question I had a lot was after reading my file (with a puzzled look)
"..."
"...So you hurt yourself playing frisbee?"
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