As with all projects, success is determined in large part by planning, anticipation and good knowledge. Now that I’ve settled on my first two hobbies, Ultimate Frisbee and Crafts, it’s time to make some secondary goals and a plan of action. I’ll just tackle Ultimate Frisbee for this post.
The reasons I picked Ultimate are because I really enjoy it, it’s low-cost, social, provides a hell of a lot of exercise and my time commitment can be adjusted easily. To be really engaged in the sport I need a secondary goal. My goal is to be a star player – someone that everyone believes is a major asset to the team. This means superior physical ability, fantastic throwing and catching skills, solid knowledge of offensive and defensive plays and “field sense”.
Right now the physical ability is my weakest area. I have trouble keeping up with all but the slowest girls on the field and I can’t play for more than a couple of points at a time. My focus will be on bringing this area up first. Time to make a plan.
Step 1: Find opportunities to play the game.
Playing is the best way to increase all these skills at once. Fortunately for me, there’s a huge amount of Ultimate in DC. With a quick Google search I find all kinds of resources. I’m thrilled to discover that there’s a pickup game *every weekday* at noon just a mile and a half from my house, as well as a Saturday pickup game. WAFC, the Washington Area Frisbee Club, also operates many different leagues throughout the year. Score! As I play more I’ll discover ways to support my efforts here with other exercise – sprints, sit-ups, who knows.
Step 2: Make sure I have all the supporting equipment.
Frisbee is a low-cost sport but that doesn’t mean you can run around in dress clothes. I have a pretty good pair of cleats and some shorts, but winter is coming and not having warm enough clothes is a quick way to kill my enthusiasm. I’ll need to buy workout pants, long sleeved shirts, and new jogbras. It would also be great to ride my bike to the pickup games – I need a bike pump and a way to keep my bike easily accessible. It takes me a good 10 minutes to get it out of the garage right now. Unfortunately this is going to interfere with my debt-payment plan, so I’ll have to do some planning to make these purchases.
Step 3: Commit to the time
How realistic is it that I go to Ultimate every day? I’m not really sure. There are some constraints I’m already aware of. I only live in DC part-time right now, it’s a balancing act I’m trying to figure out. Currently I’m planning on being in Baltimore Sunday evening through Tuesday afternoon, which means that I would be available for pickup games in DC Wednesday – Saturday. This seems pretty reasonable. I’m assuming the noon games are only an hour, which I can swing during the work day.
There it is, a tentative plan. I still need to figure out how to budget for my equipment expenses but I can play this week by walking to the games and wearing shorts.
