With all the sectionals news, a hot debate on CUPA rules, and the UK tour heading into tour 2 I'm cleaning out some of my older ideas for posts. I'll chime in soon o
Imagine you were about to retire from the world of Ultimate. Where or what would you go/do next? Many people invest in relationships, which is healthy. I've started to think about this. The first option for those of us who like the teaching element of Ultimate is to head into a coaching role. This, however, is not for everybody.
The first thing I know I would miss from Ultimate is the community. It's amazing how great the people are who play the sport. Sure there's lots of variety, but in general, the people make a great community that welcomes all sorts. Of course, this is an internal opinion of the community. Anyway, what other communities would be good to join?
I've heard a few people mention surfing and snowboarding/skiing. Both these groups seem to fit the good community category in terms of relaxed fun people, but I've boarded for years and never felt a strong community that is welcoming. This is likely because the number of people in the sport and it does not involve a lot of team interactions.
Of the sports that I will consider:
- Snowboarding (definite)
- Hockey (definite)
- Golf
- Curling
- Martial Arts
- Watchmaking
PJ
13 comments:
Personally, when I retire from ultimate, I hope to be in a position to coach. I think I have to get much better at ultimate to reach the level of respect where people would be interested in having me coach them at a high level, but failing that I could hopefully coach at the Juniors level.
In terms of physical activity I think I'd want to replace ultimate with a more endurance-oriented sport, as our endurance tends to peak later than our quickness. I think adventure racing would be a really good candidate for me.
At some point I'd like to start doing martial arts, but as a complement to ultimate, rather than a replacement.
My very limited experience with triathlon has taught me that it has a very similar level of camaraderie to what we find in ultimate. I think that's going to be my next big thing when I retire.
I think martial arts + ultimate is a successful and underrated combination. I'd love to hear what you think about it as you progress.
Ultimate + Martial Arts is a good combo; depending on the discipline, the emphasis on balance, flexibility, leg power all transfer over.
I actually just picked up Karate and I'm hoping to keep that up throughout my Ultimate career. We'll see how that turns out.
I took up karate in January. I used to do it back in high school. I find that it's great for flexibility and stability and definitely give it some credit for getting rid of my shin splints. The thing about martial arts is that 9/10 dojos are shit. Do your research.
I think the lean towards endurance sports is good as you age. One thing I'd love to do more of is cross country skiing. Amazing exercise, beautiful scenery, and low impact. I imagine if you joined a team/club there'd be a bunch of interesting and friendly people. I've also found triathletes to be very friendly.
When I lived in various places, the community I tried to plug into, other than Ultimate, was the rock climbing community. Climbers tend to have that mixtures of laid-back in life but intense in the moment, and the work-out is great for strength and flexibility.
You start at your local climbing gym where there is always a list of people looking for partners, and you could end up seeing parts of the country you would never otherwise visit. The UK in particular has some excellent crags...
I'm also wondering what to do next. What I really like about ultimate is being outside and the team aspect of it. I'm definitely not going to try coaching b/c this weekend, my team went 0-4 at the goat invite. When I was younger I played soccer, but I also mt. biked a lot. The only thing stopping me from biking more is that bikes in toronto get stolen so much. I think gardening is the way to go: low impact, outdoors, it won't get stolen.
watch those tomatoes Shawn cause I know where you live...
Due to injury, ACL tear #2 this year, I am forced into a position that needs me to question my return to the sport. Obviously, my body does not agree with the physical requirements that Ultimate demands. I know for a fact that had I not done my second knee in, my retirement from Ultimate would still be a long way off.
So now on to coaching? Luckily, my connections as a player have brought me to the area of coaching, either through teammate recommendation or the respect that I have received as a valid and reliable player. I do enjoy coaching and could find myself doing more of it simply to stay in the game. One thing I question is, is Ultimate ready for coaches? I feel it will be very difficult to approach a new Ulti group as coach rather than a random new pickup. How would one show their coaching "skills" to a group that has never seen them before. I personally feel a bit awkward and believe that unless you show yourself as a player first, coaching is a difficult position to be welcomed into a new Ultimate community.
Sailing (racing). Tactical, competitive, outside. Healthy knees not required. :-) I retired from competitive ultimate a few years ago (I was hurting and figured it was time to move on) but miss the camaraderie so much that I'm now back playing Beer League Ultimate [tm] and hoping that the joints all hold out. :-)
sailing is a good option, especially in england. i don't know about the knee comment, though... i suppose it depends on what kind of boat you're racing.
i loved the tactical aspect of racing. it gets into you're head, sort of like tetris. instead of dreaming in falling shapes, i'd dream in upwind tacks and downwind surfing.
If you are the outdoorsy type, and want a challenging/thinking activity that's fun and thrilling - look into fly-fishing. Can be done with lots or little physical extertion. It will also take you to some really scenic places. The community aspect is also quite good in my area.
I think when I'm done - which could be sooner rather than later judging by how I feel this morning post tryout - I'll go back to triathlon/swimming.
I think this time around, I'll do tri's on a banana seat bike and in an elvis costume just to shake up the spandex clad, gear-head scene a little. From my first go around in that sport, and from coaching masters swimming, it seems that a lot of those folks are a little too dependent on their gear and quick fixes to problems best solved by hard work. Enter the Elvis.
Swimming. Swimming for me is like going back to the womb, albeit just as boring as it ever was for 18 years. But the benefits are huge - balance, proprioception, whole body work-out, aerobic, anaerobic, no impact and your weightless while you do it. I keep eyeing the 30-35 Canadian 100Fr and 200Fr records and thinking: "so doable". there's also masters waterpolo: the full-contact version of swimming. There's a little more impact, but it's confined to your face and crotch.
Like another poster, I'm liking fly-fishing. Much more active and much more clever than its 'sit n spin' counterpart. You can do it all over the world too. I'm not so sure about the active part, though. Last year while fishing in Montana I did get a blister on my hand from casting all day. That was sort of unprecendented. But if you want something that will take your mind off of spring ultimate...nuttin' better than the spring hatch and a new fly-rod.
Post a Comment