Dealing with the Downs of Ultimate Frisbee

Hello Ultimate Frisbee Players!

Most of the posts up to now is about the Ups of Ultimate Frisbee. However, for every up, there's always a down, no matter the sport. Today we are going to deal some of the not so happy side of Ultimate Frisbee.

Situation 1: Injuries

You get injured, and you stay sidelined for a long while while your team mates carry on improving their skills and chemistry. You feel helpless and even when you recover, you feel that you cannot keep up with the rest of your team mates, feeling that it is your fault and all for getting injured

Situation 2: Having not enough Play Time on the field

You feel that you have worked and performed well during training. However, during the tournament, you are often by the sidelines. After the tournament however, you do not know what went wrong as no one mentions to you, and the cycle carries on..

Situation 3: Being Cut from the team

You are stoked about joining one of the professional clubs for competitive ultimate. Although you performed well, you are often not be selected for the subsequent rounds. You feel unhappy, and start to blame the club for not observing you properly.

These are the few situations that one might face during his or her ultimate frisbee career/life.

Here are some ways to deal with such negative events, or something I would like to remember as Stubs!

1) Stop being depressed.

No matter how depressing it might seem, STOP being depressed about it. Depression saps out the drive and passion that you have, and it would just go downhill from there, be it your attitude or skills. One has to be optimistic and with that, all the fears, insecurities and disappointment you have would go away with it.

2) Talk to your friends/team mates about it.

For one thing, your team mates are not psychics. They are not able to know what you are thinking or feeling at the point of time. Talk to your team about your insecurities and who knows, you might hear another side of the story

3) U are not alone.

Often times, you are not the only one that have faced these situations before. For instance, I have been through situations like these as well. I fractured my hand once and didnt got to play a few key tournaments. I was devastated to hear that my close friends formed an Ultimate Frisbee team without telling me and I never had the chance to try out with them as I see my other close friends get enrolled into the team...

The list carries on. Now you know that there are people that faced similar situations as you, you might think, "if they had gone through that before, maybe I can do it too!". For one thing, I am still practising Ultimate Frisbee and support the team during their competitions.

Moreover, it is a team and sometimes, the objective and goals of the team would supercede certain individual goals that you might have, so don't feel too bad about it.

4) Become Stronger.

If no one is telling you what you should do, find it out yourself. There are numerous resources available for you to find out what more you could improve on. Keep on improving, and eventually someone would spot your strengths and might see you as a fit for their team!

5) Stay true to yourself.

Whatever the situation is, do not change who you are. You are unique and special and you should not change your style or attitude just to fit in with others! (unless it is a glaring flaw and everyone is telling you to change it)

There you have it, S.T.U.B.S! Hope that this would life you up from any negative situation you might face during your Ultimate Frisbee career.

Here are some motivation videos that sums up what all these things are about!