The Ultimate Party-Play Trade Off

When I go to an Ultimate tournament I have the same two objectives:

• to play as well as I can
  
• to party as much as I can (using alcohal as a catalyst)

The trouble is you can't have both(or can you?), there is a trade between each of these objectives. This has been a tough lesson for me as I have had made a few mistakes in the past and I have paid the price for them. In past tournaments I have got drunk and the next day my play would be affected - the worst experience I ever had was at Copa.

It was the day before Copa Cobana 09, in Nottingham, England. Drinking had started earlier in Belfast City airport (team tradition) and continued later on when we arrived. I didn't go to bed until 4:00am. I'm not sure how much I drank, but I rememeber being very drunk - the team bantor that night was epic. The next morning I got up at 8:00am and headed to the pitch. I didn't feel bad at all. I remember feeling really "happy" and it took me a while to realise... I was still drunk. I played the first point of our first match then came off with a splitting headache which didn't go away for most of the morning.

 

I travelled a long way to play Ultimate, yet I felt like shit and didn't play many points for the first few matches. I just wanted to go back to bed (which I did in the afternoon and missed out on team bantor). This is when I realised I had to change my tactics.

A month later at Tune-Up in Stirling, Scotland, I was in quite a similar situation. At the party I had got very drunk on those "shark buckets" (3 vodka, 1 shark) and was lying in my sleeping bag falling asleep.

I knew that the next day wouldn't go so well so I had to act there and then (and act I did). Self-induced throwing up is always a laborious task, especially when your in the most boggin bathroom in the world. However I knew I would feel the benefits of it in the morning.

As I lay with my head over the toilet bowl with two fingers down my throat having a poke around, the minutes seemed like hours, not much was happening. There was frequent wretching, but no cigar! It must have taken 20 minutes or so but I finally did it! Helped by some of team who where cheering me on from the other room(I think) as I wretched, which was cool.

Next, it was time to get the water in me. So basically every time I woke up I would have a sip of water. The end result was I didn't feel too bad the next morning and felt pretty good on the field.

This is a tactic I will take with me to tournaments in the future. I'm still going to develop it at each tournament I go to. The next thing I'm going to try is drink water and alcohal at the time (or something like that), as I'll still be getting drunker but my body will stay hydrated, which is good for not getting hangovers(not that i'm an expert).

So remember, Linter says: if you get drunk at tournaments, don't forget to throw up!