Setting your Goals High
One of the most important things that you can do as an improving player is to set your goals as high as you possibly can, strive to be the best player on the field even if you are seriously under experienced or overcome by the athleticism of the players around you. One of the biggest shifts that I experienced last year that I think made a huge difference in my improvement was that after winter break I really stopped viewing myself as a freshman and stopped comparing my abilities to freshmen but instead I tried to compare my abilities to the players on the team that were above me. I wanted to play shut down defense like myles and vereb, have sweet throws and decision making like Niji and the rest of our senior handlers, and be a beast cutter like acie.
Obviously, I was unable to match up to the performance of these players best qualities due to lack of experience and probably general impossibility which made practicing and games slightly frustrating at times for me, a great example of this is that I would get down on myself if I perceived that I had made a bad decision even if it turned out well also I probably underestimate my own value to a degree. However, I know that this mentality enabled me to push myself really hard on defense and helped me become pretty solid on D. Furthermore my throws and decision making improved tremendously to the point that I got chances to handle in practice towards the end of the year, something that no one really envisioned to start the year and I hope that more experience will continue to improve. The biggest thing however was my focus on cutting as it was the thing that has given me the most trouble, I often watch the upperclassmen and feel that I could be able to get the disc with as much ease as them but when I'm on the field I somehow this does not completely translate. I set my goals high and I felt that was unable to reach them, however this does not mean that I set them too high as the drive to reach them definitely made me better as a player. Just now remembering back on looking at the stats for roll call I realize that I actually had a good amount of touches on the disc, and far more than I remembered having and I realize that this mindset helped me improve tremendously and I need to focus more on my accomplishments and progress towards these goals than my inability to reach them immediately as a freshman.
As my dad always cornily but truthfully says, "set your sights high, and you will go far"
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Similar to how Niji describes the Buzz Bullets. Set your sights high and work from there, constantly questioning how one plays.