From The Ground Up

Before I get to the big news, I have a favor to ask: please help the Kickstarter for my video game by following this link – www.jack-nimble.com.

It could really use a hug from the ultimate community. We even made a special demo for you all. If you like me, my writing, or my creativity, or even just enjoy watching me play, please consider backing us. It will be an awesome game if it gets backed, plus we have decided everyone who backs us will get a free mobile copy of the game as well!

For over two months, I’ve debated with what to do with my ultimate career. There are so many options and the sport is growing so quickly; it’s awesome to be a part of. One thing I keep trying to do is grow the sport in a positive way. A lot of people call me an ambassador of the sport, which is a title I struggle with because I am, first and foremost, a competitor.

The easy road, as a competitor, would of course be staying the course and playing a third season with the San Jose Spiders. They are a great team with great players who are great friends, and I have a really awesome relationship with the owners. It would easy to keep the Spiders program running as smooth as a freshly charged Tesla. (By the way, Tesla, how many times do I have to mention you in my articles to get a free car? Come on, Musk…)

However, I’ve decided to take a challenging road, as an ambassador.

I’ve decided to be a part of building a new team from the ground up, the Dallas Roughnecks.

Why? I have five good reasons, but before I elaborate, the biggest reason is one very important to me: Jim Gerencser.

As with any close friend, I will start by acknowledging his many faults. Jim can be bull-headed, overwhelming and constantly tries to finish your sentences with the wrong endings. His passion for the sport can cause enough friction to burn down bridges, and his ideas and concepts are shot out into the world like a sawed off shotgun. If ADHD had a poster, he would be on it, except he wouldn’t because he would decide halfway through that posters suck and we should make trucker hats instead.

All of the above pales in comparison to the positives, the most important of which are his intentions. Jim wants to grow all levels of ultimate, fight cancer with his nonprofit E.R.I.C., and give more power to the players. Whether you call him superhero or a supervillain, I am proud to call him a friend and am super excited about this adventure we are about to begin.

Five Reasons I’m Joining The Roughnecks

#1 – Every year, I get hundreds of emails and messages about training and tips for ultimate. I try to respond to all of them but I can be forgetful or lazy. So I came up with an idea for a free show to teach training.

Here’s the elevator pitch: Cassidy and I, with maybe one other walrus-looking person, go around the country and spend one day training with the top athletes in other sports, learning from the best in different areas. We are good at training, but we know we could be a lot better. The videos would be put up on the internet for free.

For example:

Episode One – Speed training with Michael Johnson.

Episode Two – Olympic lifting with the best olympic lifter.

Episode Three – Agility with a NFL player or jumping with a NBA basketball player.

I think it could be extremely helpful for the ultimate community, and really, the athletic community in general, to have all the training with top athletes in one place.

As you can guess, this will cost money, and since I spent all my money making a stupid video game I needed someone to cover all the expenses. The Roughnecks and the AUDL have agreed to do just that, and I will be trying very hard to make sure it happens.

#2 – Building a team. This is the next most popular question. How do you build a team? How do you practice? How do you prepare? This one is going to be difficult to capture, but we are going to try. Think of it kind of like the Hard Knocks combined with Real World with a sprinkle of Entourage. Sound like a terrible concoction? Oh, it will be. But hopefully we can get a good video editor to make it somewhat watchable. Again, this will cost money and again, that money will be coming from the Roughnecks.

#3 – Better coverage. I hope you all are on board for this one, because I negotiated heavily for it. The amount of complaining about coverage of high level ultimate games is too damn high… but also correct. I want to try and figure out how to capture our sport properly. This is going to require lots of cameras, lots of angles and a lot of smart people and tweaking. Our games will be the most covered games ever. High cameras, low cameras, cameras on trains, cameras on a boat. So many places that “Green Eggs and Ham” will be jealous.

#4 – The drama my exodus to the south creates. What will happen in the west? Who will step up? Where will the top players play? Will Revolver all play on one team? What will happen in the South now? What would happen if the Roughnecks meet the Spiders in the finals? What if Tinder sucks in Dallas? What if Tinder doesn’t suck and I end up getting married and moving to a ranch and raising horses?

#5 – Unity. This year, USA Ultimate will have the opportunity to assemble the greatest team ever to represent the USA at Worlds. Yes, that sounds super cocky, but I believe it to be true. This is very important to me not only because it showcases the sport at the highest level, but because it will showcase spirit at the highest level. Thanks to WFDF’s no ref policy, teams at Worlds in London have a chance to show what the sport could aspire to. Knowing the coaches that were selected, I guarantee the US teams will not only play well, but play with spirit. Because this is so important to me, I’ve come to an agreement with the Roughnecks that the US National Team comes first. They have wholeheartedly agreed and even offered to provide coverage of the process. Fingers crossed that USAU lets us provide you all some in-depth coverage of all the hard work that will go into making this team.

Hopefully you all see at least see some benefit of what I am trying to do and will join me in this new crazy undertaking.

Remember to please back the Jack Nimble Kickstarter and try the free demo. After you have done that, come back here, leave some comments on the game, any of the five ideas I have listed above, or any new ideas you would like to see us try. Hugs.