Firestorm training continues ... this week starring Chris and Spinner!
Well the torch has been passed to me this week to jot down some of my thoughts about Firestorm and some of my past experiences, and Mikey has asked that I reflect on what I think about "team culture" and "attitude".
So I didn't really know where to start, though I knew I wanted to share one of Firestorm's highlights at last year Nationals. It was a game against Fakulti, the team that eventually came second at Nationals last year, so obviously a very strong team. Anyway the conditions were very tough, it was our third game of the day, it was very windy with fading light, and more importantly, we were down 14 - 9 in a game to 15 in a game where no one was expecting us to win. The entire game we had played within ourselves; we hadn't been out classed we had just slowly let the score get away from us with a couple of untimely errors in poor field position.
Now like in every great comeback story, there is a point where the penny drops, where realisation sets in that you can still win if only you believe you can win. There was a definitely point in the game where happened for me...I was standing on the line with Al Don and the rest of the Firestorm boys - these were all guys that I had trained hard with for the last 3 - 4 months, busted my balls for, and with some of them like Al Don, John McNaughton and Brett Matzuka I had a long history of grinding victories and narrow losses countless times before whether it was at BPL, Mixed Nats, Uni Games, World Clubs etc and when you have that common experience all it took for the penny to drop for me was the simple look from the steely determined Al Don and that was enough to speak volumes and that game was still ours to be won.
For me there was something special about running off a line and trusting all your team mates. As I ran down the field I just knew that they were not only going to do their job, but that they'd be doing everything they could to make my job easier by shutting their man down, putting harder marks on the disc, and just running the hard yards. You just knew that there was no way they were going to let you down.
In hindsight it is funny that despite having played in countless games where I have lost, there is only a select few times where there was this sort of unspoken comradery that you knew you could rely on when the going got tough, and it was definitely present when we were 5 points behind against Fakulti with all the odds stacked against us, yet in that game the notion of losing never creep into my mind. I can honestly say at 14 - 9 down, I still thought we were going to win.
Anyway to continue the story, for those final 6 points of that game I was marking a guy named Ant Dowle, one of the best receivers in Australia standing 6"4 tall and by no means a slouch for speed and can jump like the best of them. In the windy conditions we were marking the unders fairly aggressively with some mongrel straight up D on the thrower (our traditional mongrel man defense). Fakulti was on an upwind point, and Ant Dowle with some fancy footwork from the front of the stack cut long on me and had me fairly well beat when the throw went up.
I hated myself as the throw went up as I realised I had let my man get free, but as I scrambled after Ant none other than Al "the little general" Don, the most unlikely character to see poaching off from the back of the stack, sprints long and out positions Ant for the disc despite only standing only 5"10 in stature and I'm sure possessing a slightly less dramatic vertical leap!
With commitment like this throughout the last 6 points from every player on Firestorm we managed to come up with the win and I believe set the precedent for the attitude/culture that the club is looking to carry on for the upcoming Nationals season.
Before I round this Firestorm diary entry up I thought I would just quickly touch on my personal "attitude". Now for me I believe in a fairly simple motto: "success is a choice." That's it; it's not complicated. For me success in anything is completely achievable if I want it bad enough and are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it.
Now I was also lucky enough to be able to attend the National Selection Camp down in Canberra on the weekend, and I think one of the AIS strength and conditioning coaches touched on it when he said, "the difference between success and failure is so slight that it is so often just the little things that make the difference between being the champions and being just one of the pack."
So for me the little things aren't just showing up to training, they are putting in 100% when at training. They are setting small challenges within training like completing the 100 throws with zero drops personally, running the last lap of the warm up bloody hard, or not turning the disc over or being scored on in the scrimmages, treating the training drills like they were a game making genuine cuts and attacking the disc, getting advice from more experienced players about your throwing technique or the purpose of a defensive/offensive strategy. It is the focus on these little things combined with the right attitude that will get us to where we need to be to be competitive at Nationals.
Anyway I'll leave it at that. It's been an awesome last couple of weeks and I'm really starting to get excited about the potential for these two teams this year!
And now over to the new man ... Spinner!
"Every man experiences pain - either the pain of hard work or the pain of regret"
Cheesey i know but i am a man of cheese and with this thought in my mind i started tuesday night training pumped up for a big night. Tuesdays are great for me, as a beginner in every throw but backhands in terms of being in a situation to work on different types of throws (100 throw drill) with hopefully having someone catching the throws that has had some experience at the crazy throws (scubas, push passes etc) that can help me with the techniques of these.
That being said, if you consider yourself pretty good at a certain type of throw and you can see your partner struggling feel free to give some friendly advice, i would definitely appreciate it and i reckon most of the beginners would too.
After this we worked on focussing our cuts on up and down with not much side to side which was also excellent for the newer players coz it seems obvious to go for the most open spot, sometimes not realising that is not the best spot to set you up for the NEXT throw. The ground was in excellent shape for a bit of a game which finished off the night nicely.
Thursday!!! : With less people training and Mike and Chris keeping an encouraging eye on those of us waning in the second set, it was on! From what i saw everyone eeally pushed themselves and this night is so good for team spirit and of course learning how to push through those imaginary(?) pain barriers that your mind sets up. Don't believe your brain!!! After all was done with a thorough warm down i got home for an ice bath. I promised myself i would stay in it until i at least finished
my beer and i did but i reckon i got through my beer pretty quick. maybe next
week i should try to stay in for two beers? after i warmed up and my penis came
out of hibernation it was out and straight to the table for a big pesto pasta
(prepared by my girl) and a big sleep. Bring on week 3...
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