Reaper Summer Thoughts

Being one of the people who graduated this year really made me think about the team and its future, which I hope you are all doing.  It made me think about the people that the club is losing and the opportunities you have to make this club great.  One question that I constantly think about as a business major is what gives a company a competitive advantage.  This question directly translates to our club by understanding what makes Reaper a better team than others?

The key aspect that makes Reaper different is that we have an extremely hard work ethic.  That being said, the club is losing its hardest worker, Nate Kinsinger.  He is always trying to get others to improve by getting people throwing outside of practice, increasing player’s intelligence by creating power points, and being honest in the critiquing of players.  At regionals, Nate told all of us that he could not get through to the team and he wishes he could have.  We did not work as hard as we could have and I am not proud of that.  Today I was talking to Nate and he said he was up all night thinking about how to adjust his handler defense and improve it.  We need to get this trait into all of our players.  We need to be constantly striving for improvement.  We need to work harder.

With this being said, I think the new captains in HR, Kissle, Kluessendorf, and Lovie will do a great job in trying to encourage others.  Even if you are not a captain, you can still have tremendous influence on improving the team.  Strive to be a role model by making every practice, working hard outside of practice, and encouraging others.  Someone who does these things has an enormous amount of respect and is recognized for it.  Take a load off of the captains’ back and be a secondary leader.

I see our weaknesses in our throwing abilities, intelligence of the game, and conditioning.  These things all come from working harder.  It is extremely difficult to get great throws unless you throw outside of practice.  It is extremely difficult to understand certain facets of the game without thinking about concepts after practices.  It is extremely difficult to be able to run every single point unless you train outside of practice.  Think about what type of player you want to be and do what you have to do to be good at these parts of the game.

Our team consisted mostly of rookies, and you guys have tremendous potential.  You are now veterans and will show what you have learned through everything this year.  Seize the opportunity of having a very young athletic team and capitalize on it.  Also, do not forget to have fun and teach the new rookies what being part of Reaper is all about.  If you guys work hard, there is no telling how much better you will be next year.

Play this summer in any form whether it is in a club, league, or pickup.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to do one of these things over summer to keep your play sharp and improve.  If you need help finding one of these things feel free to contact me.  Do not make excuses and start working now mentally and physically.  You should be reading articles and watching videos to try to take your game to the next level.  Below are sources you should check out and be familiar with.

http://ultiworld.com/ ß Videos and articles
http://skydmagazine.com/ ßVideos and articles
http://www.usaultimate.org/index.html ßBe familiar with navigating the site and brush up on rules
Tim Morrill ß Focuses on ultimate training

Lastly, if you are not doing anything on the 24^th you should go and watch teams compete at nationals in Wisconsin.  Contact Nate if you are thinking of doing so.  There will be an extremely high level of ultimate play there.

Zach