A Tale of Two Nationals
T-Rex in 2011 on top, GrandMaster Flash in 2021 on bottom.
This week I want to compare my first Nationals in 2011 with this year, specifically how I felt and recovered from each.
In 2011 I had just turned 40 so qualified for Grand Masters for the first time. I joined a team out of Raleigh called T-Rex. The goal of our captain Garrett was to make it to the quarter final round at Nationals. We came in seeded ninth, and ended seeded sixth which is no small feat.
We had a handful of practices, had to win a game at Regionals in Delaware or Maryland (I don’t remember exactly where, just that it was a long drive) and finally qualified for Nationals in Ohio in July.
I don’t remember much from the tournament, but I found some archived game reports. We fought our way through pool play - winning the games we had to in order to advance to quarters. I do remember feeling that we could hang with all the teams until we faced one of the top-4 and got completely smoked. We had a solid game plan and a solid roster. The elite teams had years of playing together and rosters stacked with athletes.
I had been training with RJ for a couple of years, but still hadn’t fully recovered from my knee surgery in 2005. It seemed that every year I had one nagging injury or another, and looking through photos of 2011, I remembered that this was the year of a dodgy hip that eventually turned into a pulled groin later in the winter.
Every time I played an ultimate tournament, my legs would ache and my knees would barely work for days. I popped ibuprofen (“vitamin I”) and would just take it easy for a few days after.
At Nationals I vividly recall not being able to walk down the stairs at the hotel because my knees hurt so much after the first day. One of my teammates told me to walk down backwards, and that trick enabled me to navigate stairs when I needed to.
I also drove (well, rode) out to the tournament. Nearly 12 hours and on the way back that really caused my muscles to tighten up. I wrote something like this on my Facebook status: “I just played Nationals and feel like a million bucks… just stampeded across my knees.”
I was 40.
This year at the tender age of 50 I felt great at Nationals and after. I had a tight hamstring a couple weeks before hand, but got some PT from Lorraine and it was not a problem. I felt no muscle soreness the entire weekend. I made the mistake of not stretching in the evenings and my hips got tight Sunday morning, but yoga took care of that. I went up and down stairs with no problem the entire trip.
Now, I did manage to tweak my left knee a little and had to wear a sleeve Saturday and Sunday to play. But it did not slow me down or affect how I played. And I’ve taken the past week to recover and have not worked out at all except for one evening of league ultimate.
There was a time in my late 30s and early 40s where I just assumed that I’d always be in pain for a few days after tournaments. It was the price for playing at my age, is what I thought. But as I’ve gotten older I’m working out smarter and it has made all the difference. I’m confident I’ll be able to play at the level I’m used to for several more years, and that really makes me happy. Ultimate is a wonderful sport, and I’m grateful each time I get to take to the field.
