Vision Quest

Beach Nationals, 2016. Playing with Grave Error. Looking pale. And, look, my shoulder has tape on it because it was injured.

I’ve finally gotten a chance to play ultimate again. The first time was a month ago, and I played for just about 30 minutes. It felt good, though I was rusty. My first throw in a game missed the mark, and I misread the first pass to me. But after that I settled down a bit.

This past Saturday I played again, this time for a couple of hours. It felt much better, and I ended up running nearly 6 miles. Throwing felt good and I made no bad mistakes. However, there was one startling development from not playing for a year: I lost my “field vision”.

Let me try to explain what I mean by going through the stages of learning ultimate. This will apply to any sport or repetitive task, of course.

When you first play, it’s all about catching the disc. And a little about throwing. Most beginners aren’t expected to throw it very far and experienced players usually rush to get close enough for the new player to get an easy throw. You get introduced to the concepts of cutting and defense and positioning, but that usually takes a few games to start making sense.

So now you’ve played for a few weeks and understand general concepts and you start trying to make good cuts and good plays. Still, usually, in a very self-centered way. You understand the team concepts, but really need to focus on your technique.

But after a few more weeks (months perhaps), now you are starting to see the field more and understand why some cuts are good and some aren’t. Why taking a certain angle on defense is better. You start to understand the different roles of players and perhaps know how to cut for certain people’s throwing tendencies. It’s all starting to sink in.

This stage, in my experience, will last several years if you stick with it. You’ll start to understand more nuances and be able to explain to newer players how to do certain things. If you are on a team, you’ll really be able to understand how everyone fits in. Each year more aspects of the game make sense and this is where it really gets fun playing. I mean, it’s always fun, but really understanding the concepts and how they work helps to elevate your game and enjoyment level. 

Some people stay here and get really good and are happy. But there’s another level that kicks in at some point.  For me it really started clicking after about 15 years of competitive ultimate. I’m assuming the best players have it kick in in just a couple years, and I also am pretty sure it doesn’t happen for everyone. I also imagine you could actively cultivate the skill. But for me it took a long time, and I didn’t realize it was happening.

It is the ability to see a play in real time and predict the next few seconds before they happen. I think of it as taking a picture and processing it instantly in my brain. When I’m really in the flow my body will sometimes start me moving in the optimal direction before I’ve fully comprehended in my head. 

The upshot of this is that I am able to get to a place to receive a pass that hasn’t happened yet, and it is really helpful as I get older and have to play against younger players. To be clear, I may take the picture, predict the next three passes and start moving to catch the third pass, and have the defense knock down the second pass. It’s not an infallible ability. But it is very useful the older I get. 

It also works for diagnosing other players’ (and the defense) cuts when I have the disc. Which makes it easier to find the best throw. 

Now that I think about it, this also manifested itself when I was training a lot in martial arts. Sparring got easier, not just because I was getting faster at moving, but because I could much more easily predict where an attack was coming based on body language, and I could simply not be there when it was launched. 

Well, on Saturday at one point I caught the disc and turned to scan the field to decide where next to throw it and it was complete gobbledygook. I was trying to process, but I think had forgotten how. I actually stood there stunned for a couple seconds before I found an open receiver. 

I tried to focus on paying more attention after that, and I felt like it was all coming back to me by the end. But I think I’m going to need a few more games before it’s really back. So, now I have a goal before Nationals in July: get my vision back.