Walking into the dome was a veritable who's who of NY club and Connecticut college ultimate, with a smattering of good New England players. I'd put myself around the middle of the pack, that might be self aggrandizement but I'm surely guilty of worse.
The tryouts were split into 12 small groups (6 0r 7 each), each group having a pair group that it did most of the exercises with. My group started out playing a half hour of mini (each activity had a 15 minute time slot) so we were in on the action right away.
That was followed by the 40 yard dash, vertical jump measuring and a throwing drill (throwing breakmark passes to in cuts from a vert stack, with some sprinting similar to big dick).
After a short break, new stations were created for group discussions, a 300 yard shuttle run (that hurt - not up on my cardio), a big dick variant (hella fun) and serpentine.
The tryout was tremendous motivation and fun. Met some of my personal heroes in the game, and wasn't even too awkward about it.
What helped it be a positive experience was my resolution going into the tryout to play it casual - I was not invested in the result, only the experience. That helped me to play confidently.
It also gave some insight into the thought process and plans of the people running some of the audl teams. Talking with the owners of the Connecticut and Rhode Island teams made it clear that they are professional, focused and willing to work with the established ultimate community to create a new and important stage of the game's development. I really hope they are successful. Let's go to a game, all.
Meant to finish this post last night, but the energy bean crash was too much. Heck of sore today, hiked in the woods for a while which helped a bit.
I got cut, fair enough. Was hoping to make it to the next phase so I'd get another chance to mix it up, but my stats are just not good enough. Great motivation to become a better athlete - my throws and gameplay were pretty strong but my athletic stats were not even close. I saw Hus jump 43" - holy crap.
ENERGY BEANS
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