Keeping OSU Safe

somehow i manage to function.: Dear collegiate Quidditch players,

myquidditchlife:

witlessinchicago:

I’m attending Illinois State University in the fall and I was wondering about the Quidditch teams. I’m athletic, I was a swimmer for five years and was on the varsity and sectionals team, I have a strong build and can take quite a few hits.

However, I have the WORST knees on the planet. Wish I…

There is very much a place for you.  Some positions do require more running, but that also depends heavily on your style of play and your team’s strategy and style of play.  If you let ISU’s team know up front about your knee issues, they should be able to help you find a position and style of play where they aren’t an issue.  There are many players in the quidditch community (myself included) who have been able to have wonderful experiences with the sport despite having different health problems.  The variety of positions and strategies in quidditch does a wonderful job of opening the sport to those who have some sort of minor physical limitation.

Yeah you can find spots in quidditch with most any nagging/chronic injury as long as you take care of it. I’m tempted to suggest beater to you as it traditionally involves the least amount of flat out sprinting and changes of direction, but that really depends on your team and your individual style of play.

But by no means should you let bad knees keep you from trying it at all. If it doesn’t work out, hey, you tried your hand at the coolest sport ever and I guarantee if you stick with the team you’ll make some of your best college friends. And if it does work, well, ISU’s a pretty damn good team and you’ll have a blast playing with them.

Quidditch Elitist: Butts and Brooms Presents: The All-Americans

takingmytalentstoquidditch:

buttsandbrooms:

Male Chasers: Simon Arends and Kody Marshall (Texas).

Defense wins championships. Arends and Marshall are two of the best defenders in the business. However, unlike many great defensive players, these two are just as unstoppable on the offensive end, having the…

I….I… agree with Luke? I agree with Luke!

It’s weird when that happens right?

theblackbludger: The Future of Quidditch: The Quaffle

theblackbludger:

(this is the first of a multi-part article about the future of quidditch and what will need to change for quidditch to survive until our children are old enough to play.)

Oh the quaffle, after playing years of competitive sports it was new for me to have to adapt to varying ball specs from one…

This. All of this. Quidditch would be so much more exciting if our scoring ball was easier to, well, score with.

theblackbludger: Why Do People Play Quidditch?

theblackbludger:

osuquidkeeper:

theblackbludger:

With the Rules Team’s recent poll on the future of quidditch, a lot of very interesting game play changes have been discussed. My favorite ideas tend to be those that are immediately followed by a string of comments about how that change will cause them to quit.
“If that happens, I’ll quit.”: No…

Well, I think what *most* people are talking about when they claim that quidditch isn’t like other sports or that quidditch is the only sport they like has more to do with the quidditch community, rather than the rules of quidditch.

I did play a lot of sports growing up: baseball, basketball, soccer, track, football, golf, tennis, and played quite a few more for fun. Basketball, golf, and tennis I played in high school and in independent leagues all around the great lakes area, and thus, I got plugged in to the basketball, golf, and (mainly) tennis communities in my area.

The quidditch community is very different than those ever were. Those communities were very much ran by the “jock” stereotype of athlete- those who put winning at the bottom line as the only thing that matters/the thing that matters most. The pros of these communities being run/occupied mainly by these sort of people is that they were extremely competitive communities, where you had to work very hard to stay with or ahead of the curve. The cons were that these people were no fun to be with at all, as they saw you ultimately as a competitor and someone who would stop them from winning. Even if they were on your own team, the stereotypical “jock” would be your best friend when you helped your team win, and would ignore or unconstructively criticize you if you lost. Not the sort of person that I would want to hang out with, and I feel like I’m far from alone there.

Quidditch, in my opinion, has a different makeup of its community. For the most part, I have felt that the quidditch community is run by what I like to call the “smart jock” theory: Yes, winning is still very important, but it’s #2 on the list of importance behind making sure our sport is taken seriously, grows, and lasts. Even the most competitive of teams, from what I’ve seen, are much more likely to help out newer/smaller teams in their area in terms of becoming more competitive, organizing and running tournaments (sending referees and snitches), and just plain becoming friends.

I think the difference can be seen clearly looking at the relationship between Ohio State and BGSU. These two teams are very close in proximity, have pretty clearly taken the throne as #1 and #2 in the state, and did not play a match this season that was ever out of snitch range. In a “jock” community, these two teams are immediately rivals. OSU would be licking its chops at another chance to play them, drive them in the dust, and assert itself as the best team in Ohio while making a claim to the rest of the IQA that we can play- we took down a Final Four team.

And I think, for the most part, that’s true. I would very much like to take BG down the next time we play them, for all the reasons above.

But I have a lot more than that. Our team has seen BG grow from dead last at MWC 2011 to WC VI semis, and we’re incredibly proud of our Midwest and Ohio brothers and sisters. We wish we could have had the success BG did this past season, but we’re going to use that as a healthy motivator to improve ourselves next season, rather than a personal vendetta for revenge.

I’m not saying we’re not motivated to become the next Texas, or that we don’t want to beat every team we play. Our goal, which I’m sure a lot of other teams share, is to become the best team in the IQA. I’m just saying that our team does not let that desire completely overtake our personalities to where we’re acting cold to other teams. Teams being able to work together is an integral part to the growth of the IQA, and I’m very proud to be a part of that as quidditch continues to shoot up in popularity, athleticism, and cultural relevance.

Everything you’re saying falls under “I’ve tried other sports and quidditch is the only one I liked.” It sounds like you don’t have a lot of experience with team sports at higher levels, as tennis and golf are very much individual sports when it comes to competition.  I can tell because most other serious athletes will tell you that, more often than not, teammates (and often rivals) are your best friends growing up.  In my experience almost all of my friends growing up were teammates, or at least someone I played with at some point, and these relationships are the only ones that lasted.

I know quidkids love to think that the hallmark of other competitive sports is that everyone hates each other, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  In fact, if you talk to most athletes you’ll find that they’ll compete harder the better friends they are with their opponent.

As far as the support of other teams goes, don’t fool yourself, it’s not some altruistic goal, teams are supportive of newer teams primarily because they need teams to play.  As soon as quidditch teams become common, that aspect will disappear.

Intense rivalries are well on their way, the signs are already visible.  I know it’s hard for you to believe, but quidditch isn’t any different than any other sport.

Well, I played basketball summer leagues and high school ball (up to Varsity level), and although tennis is an individual sport, the high school format is still teams. Yes, what I do during my match does not really influence my teammates directly, but I guarantee that the team spirit and camaraderie is still there at similar levels to what I experienced on my basketball team. I live with two of those teammates in college and they’re some of the best friends I have, and they wouldn’t have been if it wasn’t for our high school team sophomore through senior year.

That being said, I don’t really think you’re wrong here, I think we’re just on slightly different timelines. I can definitely see quidditch becoming more and more exclusively competitive between teams. There are a few teams that OSU has that strange mix of wanting to play (because we want to beat them into the dirt) and not wanting to play (because we personally don’t care for them), and that number grows every year.

Now, I don’t know if this is a regional thing (I don’t know exactly where you’re from but I’m pretty sure it’s not the Midwest), but I think quidditch is still closer to the “let’s stick together so our sport grows” than the “let’s beat every team senseless” mentality. It’s definitely headed toward the latter (much quicker than I ever thought it would), and I think that’s a good thing in the long run for quidditch’s longevity and relevance.

theblackbludger: Why Do People Play Quidditch?

theblackbludger:

With the Rules Team’s recent poll on the future of quidditch, a lot of very interesting game play changes have been discussed. My favorite ideas tend to be those that are immediately followed by a string of comments about how that change will cause them to quit.
“If that happens, I’ll quit.”: No…

Well, I think what *most* people are talking about when they claim that quidditch isn’t like other sports or that quidditch is the only sport they like has more to do with the quidditch community, rather than the rules of quidditch.

I did play a lot of sports growing up: baseball, basketball, soccer, track, football, golf, tennis, and played quite a few more for fun. Basketball, golf, and tennis I played in high school and in independent leagues all around the great lakes area, and thus, I got plugged in to the basketball, golf, and (mainly) tennis communities in my area.

The quidditch community is very different than those ever were. Those communities were very much ran by the “jock” stereotype of athlete- those who put winning at the bottom line as the only thing that matters/the thing that matters most. The pros of these communities being run/occupied mainly by these sort of people is that they were extremely competitive communities, where you had to work very hard to stay with or ahead of the curve. The cons were that these people were no fun to be with at all, as they saw you ultimately as a competitor and someone who would stop them from winning. Even if they were on your own team, the stereotypical “jock” would be your best friend when you helped your team win, and would ignore or unconstructively criticize you if you lost. Not the sort of person that I would want to hang out with, and I feel like I’m far from alone there.

Quidditch, in my opinion, has a different makeup of its community. For the most part, I have felt that the quidditch community is run by what I like to call the “smart jock” theory: Yes, winning is still very important, but it’s #2 on the list of importance behind making sure our sport is taken seriously, grows, and lasts. Even the most competitive of teams, from what I’ve seen, are much more likely to help out newer/smaller teams in their area in terms of becoming more competitive, organizing and running tournaments (sending referees and snitches), and just plain becoming friends.

I think the difference can be seen clearly looking at the relationship between Ohio State and BGSU. These two teams are very close in proximity, have pretty clearly taken the throne as #1 and #2 in the state, and did not play a match this season that was ever out of snitch range. In a “jock” community, these two teams are immediately rivals. OSU would be licking its chops at another chance to play them, drive them in the dust, and assert itself as the best team in Ohio while making a claim to the rest of the IQA that we can play- we took down a Final Four team.

And I think, for the most part, that’s true. I would very much like to take BG down the next time we play them, for all the reasons above.

But I have a lot more than that. Our team has seen BG grow from dead last at MWC 2011 to WC VI semis, and we’re incredibly proud of our Midwest and Ohio brothers and sisters. We wish we could have had the success BG did this past season, but we’re going to use that as a healthy motivator to improve ourselves next season, rather than a personal vendetta for revenge.

I’m not saying we’re not motivated to become the next Texas, or that we don’t want to beat every team we play. Our goal, which I’m sure a lot of other teams share, is to become the best team in the IQA. I’m just saying that our team does not let that desire completely overtake our personalities to where we’re acting cold to other teams. Teams being able to work together is an integral part to the growth of the IQA, and I’m very proud to be a part of that as quidditch continues to shoot up in popularity, athleticism, and cultural relevance.

Goddamn, I love the way I am: Gender Equality in Quidditch: Part II

savagenosh:

Apparently, some people are missing the point of my last post. I’ve been hearing a lot of responses like “I’m really good and people still don’t utilize me!”, “guys still don’t pass because they are sexist!”, “I don’t get enough personal attention at practice!” blah blah blah. You guys are…

(via divinewolfwood)