THE INNER GAME OF ULTIMATE
By Jim Parinella


In the last couple years, I have become a big believer in the concepts behind sports psychology, and so, as with any new convert to anything, I will now preach about why you should become one, too. The best team isn’t necessarily the one that would win a tabletop or computer simulation based on the statistics, but the one that emerges at the end of the tournament with their heads held high, trophy in hand, and a comfortable feeling that they did what they had to do.

The basic premise of The Inner Game is that the self is composed of two parts, the Ego and the Body (named Self 1 and Self 2, respectively). Self 1 is the overbearing parent that barks out orders all the time to Self 2, which actually has to perform the task. Unfortunately, Self 1’s orders usually take the form of "Now don’t screw this up, Jim", or "Make sure you spin this one enough, not like last time, you idiot", or "Don’t think of white elephants with pink polka dots", and sure enough, what Self 2 thinks of is exactly what it shouldn’t, and it’s unable to perform. This can easily turn into a vicious cycle of self-doubt and underachievement, and if it’s allowed to continue, Self 2 will believe that it is incapable of doing anything right. Self 2 has to overcome Self 1’s nagging to achieve.

I noticed a long time ago that there can be some peculiar phenomena in some games. Often times, one team will jump out to a large lead, and the other team will come back. It is how these teams view the big lead and the comeback that determine who is going to win in the end, rather than which team is really the more talented. Let’s look at a couple of the scenarios.

A. Two relatively equal teams, or two teams that aren’t familiar with each other.

In this game, it is not clear that one of the teams should be winning by a lot, either because prior experience has shown that the two teams are roughly equal, or because the teams don’t know which one is better, but suddenly Team A is up by a lot. Team B fights back to tie it late in the game, and how the game ends depends on their attitudes. The first phenomenon that I observed was that often Team B make a big run to tie the game, but will then fall apart and lose. This could easily be explained by random chance, but I believe there is another explanation. Team B decides at 8-2 that they will be satisfied if they can just catch up to A. Once this goal has been accomplished, they feel no need or desire to win the game, and they don’t. They no longer have the confidence in their throws or defense, and they begin to believe that their run was just luck, and defeat is inevitable. The other outcome is that Team B continues their comeback and wins. Here, Team A is the culprit. They get their lead, then become distracted by thoughts about how talented they are and whether they should incorporate 50 yard hammers because they are so good, and forget to remain involved in the game. As B catches up, A becomes aware again, but their only memories are of making mistakes that allow B to score, and each new mistake reinforces the previous ones, until catching the pull becomes a dangerous task. Team B, meanwhile, trusts themselves and their judgments, and they aren’t second-guessing whether they should throw the curving forehand, they are just doing it, and successfully.

B. Superteam vs unknown.

For whatever reason, the Unknown team jumps out to an 8-3 lead, might trade goals a little in the second half, but then crumbles and loses 15-10. Overall, they certainly shouldn’t be expected to win, but neither should they expect to be outscored 12-2. What happens here? Well, Unknown is in an uncomfortable position at halftime, and is afraid to take that risk to be good. It’s much easier on the psyche to be average, where no one expects anything from you. If Unknown wins, then they might have to be playing in the finals in front of people, will have to train harder, might have to have tryouts and cuts, and will generally have to become more arrogant to live up to the status of being an elite team. If they lose, though, there is no such worry, and they can console themselves while drinking nice cold beer during the finals that it could easily have been them out on the field. They don’t believe they are good enough, and are looking for an easy way to confirm that. Superteam, on the other hand, believes that it will win, especially if it’s been in that situation before, and never doubts that it is possible. Sometimes they can overcome Unknown by sheer force of will, and every crumbling act by Unknown feeds Superteam’s drive. Certainly, Superteam will crumble sometimes, too, but that defeat is driven by Self 1’s pushiness. Believe me, it makes for a long winter when your season ends because you were afraid to win when it counted.

The brain needs to keep out of the way of the body. The individuals need to remove judgment about whether something is good or bad, and just be aware of it happening. Trust in yourself, and allow the body to perform actions that it knows how to do. Remember, you learned how to walk pretty well without needing to make conscious statements about how straight your leg should be or where to position your arms. After enough practice, your muscles develop memory of how they should be acting. Equally important, the brain needs to practice winning. Visualize events before they happen. While practicing your throws, visualize the path the disc takes, see the label spinning as it releases from your hand, and see it going directly to your target, all of this happening in your mind before it happens. Then execute the throw exactly as you had envisioned it. Similarly, picture yourself winning a big game, and catching the winning goal, and then going on to win your next contest against another team that is supposed to be better than you.

The mind is a great tool in ultimate. Winners are separated from the pack as much by how strong they are in their heads as in their legs and arms. While not everyone will be playing for the National championship, all of us can strive to be better.