Catch

Not to big note myself too much, but it's safe to say I have taken some pretty sweet catches in my time. And Monday night I took one of my favourite of all time. 

It was the type of catch I have seen people have the chance to take several times, but they haven't taken the opportunity. The opportunity presented itself on Monday and I took it with one hand.

I was cutting long and the disc was thrown low and fast. So fast that I could tell that had I tried to run it down I would have failed and the disc would have gone to ground.

So instead of try to run down the disc I changed course and tried to intercept it before it got past me (which was imminent). I layed out hard to my right towards the sideline.

Just as I reached my absolute full extension the disc slipped perfectly into my left hand. The vision of the disc in my hand and the feeling of hanging weightlessly in the air is one I hope never to forget (and thus the point of this post).  

Then gravity kicked back in and I slammed into the ground. As is my habit I had rolled onto my left shoulder to help cushion the landing and also protect the disc.* 

The sideline let out a cheer.

Then a teammate made an unfortunately all too premonitory statement:

"Now don't throw it away"

Obviously I threw it away.

(I tried to throw a safe dump option, but a defender got a run thru d)

The sentiment of my team'mate' was good, but not the exact execution. As we later discussed it would be much better to yell "relax" "take it easy" "calm down" etc then to mention the potential to turn it over - which is a tip I hope to remember.

But back to the catch. 

Key tip: Once the disc is up - get a look at it as quickly as you can to asses its height, speed and potential flight path. If it is a relatvley low throw, there is probably a point where you can catch the disc as it is passing you, rather than waiting for it to pass and trying to run it down. Obviously if you can run it down then do so, but if that seems unlikely, turn hard and make a bid - it feels great if you pull it off! But you have to make this call early and then commit 100%.

*Tuesday night I rolled over in bed and got a bad pain in my back - it seems I sprained a ligament in my back which was more than likely caused by that catch and now I can't run for a week - but it was worth it - I just wish someone had had a camera!