Offseason

Enigmen and Enigma fans,

Happy Holiday season! I figured it was time to put an end to the drought of blog posts on the Enigma page. You can look forward to a few more in the coming month or so as there are some news items that might be sort of important to our weird little community.

This post is mainly regarding our offseason improvement and the things we can do next season to be better as teammates and as a whole team. I've been working harder, earlier, this offseason to continue getting better. For example; despite not being in college, I played three college tournaments and joined Columbus league for the first time this year. It's important that we keep touching a disc (every day if possible).

Beyond just playing though, doing things to improve your athleticism is huge. Get in the weight room, go for runs, eat better; these are the things that great players tend to do and is the reason they are great. Let's put in the work now so that everything is easier in the summer!

Fudge sent this over today, and I think it's worth reading. He sent it out to Steamboat after reading about the psychology of climbing or something. I know it's hard to take him seriously with that haircut, but trust me when I say this stuff is quality:

• Adjusting how we give and receive feedback. When providing feedback try to identify suggestions or possibilities to improve upon rather then telling or commanding the individual on what should be done. Also, know going into this we are all working together for the common goal of success on the field. Someone pointing out a suggestion is not a personal attack, it's them caring enough about you to want you to improve. As each individual improves, the TEAM progresses as well. We all put in the work, let's try to get the most out of each other. 

• Self Handicapping - rationalizing a lack of effort or performance to set your or other expectations lower. Think about a time on the field where you've said or thought something like "Woah, this chick/dude is way better than me. So if I don't get open this point, that's why". This ties back to ego and acceptance. We want people to like us and to be accepted, and we feel like we lose that if we get embarrassed. Setting expectations lower reduces that embarrassment and protects our shitty egos, but at the expense of living up to our self fulfilling prophecy of poor performance. 

• Fear of Failure - when we do fail, it's super common for the individual to blow out of proportion the magnitude others care about the failure. Making mistakes sucks. But it's fucking inevitable. Everyone does it, but we can adjust how react to failure, both as the individual who made the mistake, and as supportive team mates. Let's say you've got a cutter on their way in, they cut break, you see the lane and you've got space, but when you step out throw your wrist angles ever so slightly down and you turf it. Immediately your head drops. RIGHT HERE is where we start to fix this. YOUR reaction to failure is suggesting you want others to sympathize with you, console you, and prevent you from feeling left out of this group. It's OK to fail! You've learned something from it. Be the person who uplifts others rather than puts them down. 

• Performance Anxiety - this plagues us on universe point. This eats at us when we are stepping onto the line for the first time against a team that appears to be all studs. Instead of looking across the field and having a panic attack over how good this team might be, slow your roll! Take a deep breath and focus on what immediate things you can do to help the other 6 people on the line with you. Identify where you'll be forcing the cutter so you can make a play on the disc, know that you can be chill with the disc once you get it, then make the smart decision and clear.Focus on these small steps rather than "I've got to score a goal this point!". Focus on the progress rather than the result. 

So take these things into consideration with your college teams, league teams, the Revolution; whoever you're playing with right now and they can carry over to Enigma when we start back up. It's not even Thanksgiving and I am already missing our 90 degree practices.

Last thing. If you didn't see, the Revolution are having 2 more open scrimmage type things and then their combine. If you have any desire to play for the Rev this year I highly recommend going out. Even if you don't want to play for the Rev, it's good ultimate and you'll get a chance to play with referees if I'm not mistaken.

Cheers,
Chad