a Beer, a Whine and The Spirit

I am desperate to blog about our weekend back in Brisbane, but until I can upload the photos, there's just no point, as they explain our weekend so much better than I ever could with words.

So in the mean time, let me tell you about a new sport Hubs and I are playing. Ultimate Disc! (aka Ultimate, flying disc). It is SO much fun and very good for our fitness. My friend from high school and her partner are very into it and invited us along for a game a few weeks ago. Actually, it was 3 games and we ended up playing for 2 and a half hours. That's a LOT of running.

It's kind of a mixture between netball and gridiron. Kind of... We play in Albert Park (St Kilda) on a field about 100m by 30m and there are end zones where, if you catch the disc whilst in the zone you score a point. You start the game and each point with 1 team at each end of the field, lined up Braveheart style. At the start of each point, one team starts off in attack, and the other team "pulls" the disc (throws it as far as they can) and are on the defense. We play either Man-D (pick a player and mark them) or zone defense (which we're still getting the hang of). You can't run with the disc (like Netball) but you can take a few steps to slow down once you have it. You're often sprinting when you receive it, though in my case, it's more of a fast jog.

As I mentioned, there's a LOT of running and it's very fast-paced. The good thing is, after each point you get a bit of a breather. The game finishes either when 1 team has scored 15 points (half time is at 8 points) or after an hour and 20 minutes has passed. It's self-refereed which makes it a very honest game and Ultimate is all about the Spirit of the Game. So much so, that they have Spirit Captains whose job it is to keep the game running smoothly.

Last night Hubs and I both had a great game. Hubs took a massive leap in defence which prevented the opposition from scoring a goal and our Team Captain was so impressed that he ran on to the field to give Hubs a high 10! He told me on the sideline that people will play for 10 years without ever pulling off such great defence. I was so proud. We both went on to score goals in the game as well - Hubs scored 2 and I scored 1. We won 15-4.

At the end of the game we all huddle in a circle, ensuring we are standing between 2 opposition players, and the Captain of the losing team (different to Spirit Captain) thanks their opposition for a great game and perhaps shares how they felt the game went, and gives the team 3 big cheers. Then the Captain of the winning team does the same. It's a bit mushy but it's actually a pleasant way to end the game.

It's a nice way to start the week on a Monday night, though when we play the 8:30pm games, we don't get home til almost 11! Lucky I'm working so close to home these days.

Posted by Renae at 11:30 AM Comments