Getting (much) better

There is always time to get better. There is time to make the jump from B-team to A-team, from bench to playing, from roleplayer to stud.

Too late for you to start playing? Trey Katzenbach started at age 30 and has won both masters and grand masters titles since, as well as still playing elite open.
Too hard to make the jump from having fun to doing well? Jack Hatchett wasn't even on his B-team's universe line his freshman year of college and now is one of the top defenders in the game.
Too old for it anymore? Josh Markette was a good player when he was young, a great player when he was older, and now that he's in his mid-30s, is as good as he ever was, if not better.

There are plenty of examples of people who think they hit a wall only to realize that they had more in the tank and could keep improving. If everyone went as hard as possible, it'd be impossible to get better by working harder than others; however, that's just not the case. People rest, people get lazy, and people stop training. All of which opens up the opportunity for you to make a jump.

Influences

Sometimes, you get writer's block, and posting things seems more like work than just putting down your thoughts. Other times, you get inspiration, but it's at the wrong times, and when the right time comes, it's gone. And there are even times when you have nothing more to say. There are a lot of reasons for not posting frequently on a blog, but the main one I have for taking a 1+ month leave of absence is that if I kept writing at the same pace, I'd run out of stuff to say. I'm neither a prolific writer nor a prolific ultimate player, and while it occupies a lot of my thoughts, I'm still at the level where playing and how to get better take most of my time. So I'll cut back, posting less frequently until I'm out of season. Maybe when I'm older and wiser I can focus on looking back, but for now, I don't have a lot to look back on...

With that in mind, I'm going to look back on my 7+ years playing and thank those who have helped guide me on my career path:

ZM - Thank you for teaching me that ultimate could be a competitive game and not just conditioning
SL - Thank you for teaching me that goaltimate is more fun than ultimate
AF - Thank you for teaching me how to read hammers by consistently throwing them to me
AG - Thank you for pushing me to be better by being faster, quicker, better at jumping, etc. than I was
AL - Thank you for being my first Russian Wrestler, before I even knew what that was
BX and BB - Thank you for teaching me that deep throws end points a lot more efficiently than short ones, but when you have to keep it short, use scoobers
IR - Thank you for teaching me that some things aren't teachable, but rather you have to figure them out as you go along
TB - Thank you for teaching me what mental toughness means, even if I didn't learn how to use it until years later
BD - Thank you for teaching me how a handler can dominate as much as a cutter
AH - Thank you for teaching me than leadership and everyone liking you are not the same, and if you have to choose one, choose leadership
BL - Thank you for teaching me to use what I had
AB - Thank you for teaching me to get what I didn't have
JC - Thank you for teaching me that I can't teach everything
EG - Thank you for teaching me that champions come to play when it matters
LH - Thank you for teaching me to love to play
JB - Thank you for teaching me to love to win
MZ - Thank you for teaching me to love it all
DF - Thank you for teaching me that IO > OI, but OIIO trumps
WW and SD - Thank you for teaching me that leaders inspire
BM - Thank you for teaching me that I should always be striving to improve
JM - Thank you for teaching me that I'll always be learning
JH - Thank you for teaching me that complacency only means others will be getting better than I am

There are lots of others who taught me important lessons that are their own entries. There are countless others who taught me smaller things, either in person or in videos. I could never thank them all, because nearly everyone doesn't know how much they've impacted me to become the player I am today. But I am grateful for all of them.