With the Hurting, and the Pain, and the Boo-Hey…
This past weekend, my usual crew of wallyball old-schoolers (myself, Andy, Matt, and Mike) went to another wallyball tournament in Zanesville, Ohio—about an hour east of Columbus. As per our usual method, Matt, Andy, and myself all drove down to Mike’s place in Columbus, where we crashed overnight before heading to Z-town the next morning. The tourney, which is organized by our friend Andy Zigo, has been growing pretty consistently, which makes for tougher competition as the depth of the playing field grows.
Which, of course, kind of works to our detriment. Granted, in any tournament we play in, we expect there to be competitiveness, but Andy’s tourneys—as well as the other ones we’ve played in elsewhere—are always fun. Teams play to win, of course, but with one exception, they’re not dicks about it. We’ve had the chance to meet a lot of other great players and get names and emails in the hopes of going and doing some games with them. Andy Z’s tourney is no exception, and we go as much for the socializing as we do the workout.
I say detriment, though, because these tournaments, especially the first time we ever went to one, remind us that, as good as we are, there’s a whole wide world of wallyball players out there that are on the next level. That sounds kind of immodest on my part, and I suppose it justifiably is. After almost 14 years of continuous wallyball play, I can say that I’m an excellent player. But…the first time I saw someone spike a ball at 70 mph plus at a tournament, well, I had to re-evaluate myself—and so did the others.
Normally, wallyball is split into four levels of play. Highest to lowest, it goes Pro, Open, Advanced, and Intermediate. At best, my top crew of players (Andy, myself, Matt, Matt, Josh, and Steve) are lower-level intermediate. And although we had a good time at the tourney this past weekend, we got our butts kicked. Don’t get me wrong—we put up a good fight and had some good games, but the combination of being outclassed in some regards of play, as well as the fact that Matt and I hadn’t played for weeks before the tourney, all meant that we didn’t do as well as we’d have liked.
Part of the issue is that we’ve reached a ceiling of sorts in Bowling Green, where we usually play. We have fun games with the aforementioned crew plus the others that show up, but—to be blunt—once the others show up, the level of play comes down. We’ve got another tourney coming up in April, this time in Southgate, Michigan, and we’ve all agreed that we’ll re-dedicate ourselves to improving our game. Ideally, we’ll have 2-3 teams of three players each, and I know we’d like to do better.
That said too, the physical stress of tournament play is something to consider. It’s no secret that I’ve got a good pair of nicely gimpy ankles, and since tourney play will go for 6-8 hours straight of near-continuous games, we definitely feel it. Even Josh and Steve, who are 11-12 years younger than me and in better shape than I’ve been in years, are spent. Josh nearly fell asleep in his salad at a pizza joint the last time. I’m not hurting as bad this time around, but Saturday night, after we returned to Columbus and were gathered ‘round my Settlers of Catan board, we sort of slumped.
Maybe Becky’s right…maybe it is my fault…at least, a little bit…
Which, of course, kind of works to our detriment. Granted, in any tournament we play in, we expect there to be competitiveness, but Andy’s tourneys—as well as the other ones we’ve played in elsewhere—are always fun. Teams play to win, of course, but with one exception, they’re not dicks about it. We’ve had the chance to meet a lot of other great players and get names and emails in the hopes of going and doing some games with them. Andy Z’s tourney is no exception, and we go as much for the socializing as we do the workout.
I say detriment, though, because these tournaments, especially the first time we ever went to one, remind us that, as good as we are, there’s a whole wide world of wallyball players out there that are on the next level. That sounds kind of immodest on my part, and I suppose it justifiably is. After almost 14 years of continuous wallyball play, I can say that I’m an excellent player. But…the first time I saw someone spike a ball at 70 mph plus at a tournament, well, I had to re-evaluate myself—and so did the others.
Normally, wallyball is split into four levels of play. Highest to lowest, it goes Pro, Open, Advanced, and Intermediate. At best, my top crew of players (Andy, myself, Matt, Matt, Josh, and Steve) are lower-level intermediate. And although we had a good time at the tourney this past weekend, we got our butts kicked. Don’t get me wrong—we put up a good fight and had some good games, but the combination of being outclassed in some regards of play, as well as the fact that Matt and I hadn’t played for weeks before the tourney, all meant that we didn’t do as well as we’d have liked.
Part of the issue is that we’ve reached a ceiling of sorts in Bowling Green, where we usually play. We have fun games with the aforementioned crew plus the others that show up, but—to be blunt—once the others show up, the level of play comes down. We’ve got another tourney coming up in April, this time in Southgate, Michigan, and we’ve all agreed that we’ll re-dedicate ourselves to improving our game. Ideally, we’ll have 2-3 teams of three players each, and I know we’d like to do better.
That said too, the physical stress of tournament play is something to consider. It’s no secret that I’ve got a good pair of nicely gimpy ankles, and since tourney play will go for 6-8 hours straight of near-continuous games, we definitely feel it. Even Josh and Steve, who are 11-12 years younger than me and in better shape than I’ve been in years, are spent. Josh nearly fell asleep in his salad at a pizza joint the last time. I’m not hurting as bad this time around, but Saturday night, after we returned to Columbus and were gathered ‘round my Settlers of Catan board, we sort of slumped.
Maybe Becky’s right…maybe it is my fault…at least, a little bit…
posted by Reggae Joe at
8:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home