Dingo Tracks - May

The Australian Mens Ultimate Frisbee Team Monthly Newsletter – May

May is a big month for the Dingo boys:

- We recovered from Nationals where the majority of us played four days of mud churning Frisbee.

- We have 2 training camps in Sydney during May, 1 at the start and 1 at the end.

- We also participated in the first of two National Ultimate Frisbee League (NUFL) events which was also held in Sydney.

- We played our first game together as the 2008 Dingo team, very exciting and a great opportunity.

- On top of this action all the boys participated in their own local team and personal training program.

Its all been happening, we are building.

One of the exciting aspects of the first camp at the beginning of May was the return of our two internationally inclined Dingos, Brett Matzuka and Andrew Glover both returned home from overseas in time for this training camp. Brett arrived back in the country on Saturday morning in time to chime in with a few great blocks during the second session.

Aside from the large number of blokes who finished the weekend on the sideline through injury issues this was a great camp. Some good strategy development occurred and we spent some quality time exploring our nutritional and psychological preparation under the tutelage of T. Booth. I think I would have been alright in the visualisation session if Tim didn’t keep telling us it was alright if something strange happened like a pink elephant arrived at the visualised game. As it was I had to keep catching forehand bombs over some gun elephant playing for Germany.

NUFL 1 provided the best 80 men in the country with an opportunity to play against each other while representing their club teams in a round robin style tournament. The Dingos where on show at this event playing for both their local club teams and in a Saturday afternoon showcase game against an All Star team composed of top quality players from the Mixed team and other great players from around the country.

The game was very tight in the first half with the All Stars getting up early with some excellent long connections before the Dingos steadied to take the half by 1. The second half had the Dingos switching right on and running out to win the game with only another point or two put on against them. We are very grateful for this opportunity to play as a team and look forward to a rematch at NUFL 2.

Our final camp during May is this weekend and it promises to be a fast and furious 2 days. Our Defensive and Offensive leadership teams have been solidified and have now created a series of team structures that we will continue to refine over the next 66 days. Most players are deep into their fitness programs and I anticipate a lot of speed and strength to be on display on the field.

With the last 2 weeks having seen some passionate and strong words from our team leadership and some inspirational visual and verbal stories from team members we are all very focussed on completing May with high intensity and dedication to our team mates and our team.

Thanks for reading and continue to follow us on our push towards Vancouver and some good things.

Cheers

Mike