The ‘Skins should draft me. Can’t make ‘em any worse.

Today I played “TBA” – LIFE’s version of football.  While when I first got on the schedule to play, I was WAY nervous.  But in Sept I played three times and got a little better each time.  I knew they thought I was still in decent shape after my three week break because they put me on TBA today.

TBA here is a little like a mix of soccer and football.   We play with flags of course.  We also play without a set number of players – today we had 9 on 9 – I’ve played with as few as 4 on 4.  There are no “downs”….basically the point is to run your butt off…so what would be the point of stopping every 5 min for a new down?  If a play stops (ball dropped, pass missed, flag pulled) the other team gets the ball and play starts right away.

If you catch a ball (or pick it up) you have two options/  Option 1:  Stand still.  You have 3 one thousand to think about it – either throw the ball or start running before the other team can pull your flag (you know….one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand).  Option 2:  Start running immediately.  Once you start running, the other team can pull your flag anytime.

You can throw forwards or backwards, you can throw to anyone and they can run with it, or catch it standing and use the 3-count to throw it back to you (or anyone else who’s open).  Most of the best plays involve like, 4 team members throwing it back and forth along the field to keep it out of the other team’s hands, while moving toward the goal line.  I myself have actually MADE A TOUCHDOWN this way.  We play 3 games – the first two till 10 points, the last till 15.

We usually play TBA 2 times a week.  Tuesdays its mostly campers and a few trainers.  Saturdays is a little different – generally you get a few folks who have either been to camp before or are friends of the people who work/play here.  So there are some people playing who are SUPER in shape and some who are….well, not.  So while it can get competitive, generally people are cool – everyone plays, everyone runs.  Everyone will get the ball at some point because even the fastest folks are bound by the same rules.   Everyone covers someone close to their own abilities – so it’s not like I’m covering one the my trainers (my proudest moment on defense was grabbing the flag of one of my trainers – I got lucky, but STILL!)

The last few times I played I was covering/being covered by folks much faster than me.  I kept joking that anyone covering me was only allowed to WALK FAST.  But that didn’t work   Today was fun because I was playing against a girl who is very close to my own abilities.   That made playing defense a bit more fun for me, I have to admit.  More like I actually had a shot at making a play (even tho she totally beat me twice – once I was just not paying enough attention tho).

Don’t get me wrong – I am getting better!  I run more, and faster (than I used to anyway).  So what the heck.  I’m gonna enjoy it. A few months ago, I never would have played something like this.  I would be all torn up about how I was the slow one and that I was hurting the team or whatever cause I wasn’t a good enough player.  Screw that.  It doesn’t really matter as long as I’m trying hard.  It’s mean to be fun…and it is!  I’m finally getting over myself

Advertisement