Hosting a Tournament - The Venue.

There are a number of ways we as a community can all contribute to the sustained growth of our sport. With so many tournaments having taken place across the UK in so many different venues, it would be great to have all of these available to view in one online resource. So if in the past few years you have been a Tournament Director or have helped run a tournament, you would be helping the UK Ultimate community if you took 2 minutes to pass on some very useful information regarding the venue. I may make this a series of posts covering other aspects of running a tournament that will help future TDs in their planning.

So either respond in the comments section below or email me directly at greenie141(at)hotmail.com. Other comments regarding +ve and -ve things about venues you've experienced will also be very useful!

Let everyone know:

What was the name and location of the venue?
What was the name of your tournament?
Was it indoors/outdoors or beach/
How many players did the venue host?
How many teams?
How many pitches did you use?
How many days did you tournament last?
Was there food on-site?
Was there on-site camping?
How much did the venue cost per day?
How would you rate the venue facilities out of 10?
How would you rate the playing surface out of 10?
Would you use it again?
Overall subjective score of the venue you used out of 10
Want to add anything else?

Great! If everyone comes together on this and actually contributes a bit of information and time then I'll put together a list of sorts and send it out. I can't help but think that a list of 100 or so venues across the UK will be a great place to start for wannabe TDs.

For everyone to do their own research seperately, when for years the same questions have been asked of the same venues doesn't make any real sense when we all have the same goal of good quality Ultimate Tournaments. Some venues are Ultimate friendly while others aren't, so let the rest of the community know!

A very useful resource to get you started on planning your tournament can already be found on the UKUA website with the UKUA guide for TDs as well as others specific to running tour events.

Related posts:

Tournaments Over The Festive Season

Pre Tournament Hype

Monkey Foo - What a Venue

Indoors, State Side

Referees?

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, for almost as long as Ultimate has existed, so has the debate about referees. There are valid arguments for and against, take a look here for some of them. The recent goings on with Henry and his now infamous handball triggered a whole load of discussion with not a great deal of new content but still. I personally think that an active linesman role is required while the players continue self refereeing.

Heres the incident with Henry



And his interesting rection to the situaiton highlighting perhaps the dangers of taking a level responsibility away fromt the players.



Heres an extreme case of what can happen within a sport here players see the opponent as the enemy and disregard all else.



This video came up when I was looking for 'Dirty womens football'...disgusting.

ED, work, bike and technology

I had planned to write a post on the recent discussions taking place on the EuroDisc mail list. There are plenty of interesting, if not original, suggestions and comments going around regarding the age old referees/observer quandry we find ourselves in. Unfortunately, I ran out of things to do at work today and so went for a swim instead. This meant I wasn't at the computer from which I post here. On the way home from work I got my 2nd puncture while cycling this week (different wheel each time) and so had to get the bus. With little to do with my time I looked to see if I could have a read online via my phone, whaddya know, I could! As you may now have guessed, I am now having a go at writing a post from my phone. I'm not technophobic, I'm sometimes just a bit slow at seeing how a particular new technology may benefit me. Once I see it however, its all good! Anyway, this I mostly just a test really. I imagine something funky will happen with the formatting. Either way, here's to technology making it all the more difficult to get away, hurrah!

Highlight Videos

Check out this video from Emerald City Classic 09. As many of you know, Clapham went to ECC and one of the teams they played was Rhino. They are based in Portland, Oregon, and have a couple of guys with decent camera equipment. The Rhino highlights (= Clapham lowlights) begin at 3:08. Rhino won 15-11.

Rhino 2009 ECC Highlights from Dave Collins on Vimeo.

Good ultimate in good quality is still relatively scarce on the internet. I personally don't want to watch DVDs of coverage from a whole game, I find them a bit, well, boring. I've never really heard of people buying DVDs of their favourite/own football teams season games. Once you have watched a game live and know the result, that's it. Afterwards, all you have is the highlights and top 10s, these I don't find boring. I actually love the NBA top 10s...






There are also some really simple rules that, when followed, produce high entertainment to time spent watching value:

Use HD recording equipment.
A tripod.
Fancy yet generic countdown animations.
Unobtrusive yet entertaining commentary.
Regular speed replay followed by:
Multiple alternate angle slow motion replay (as many as you have [that are of good quality]...)

Even rubbish highlights look good when in HD, if you are going to do it, do it properly! Grainy videos are less entertaining than no video at all. (Don't watch the video below...)



Understandably, Ultimate lacks any sort of dedicated professionals with equipment and experience and a market for coverage of games on DVD. Fine. Thankfully we do have are a number of people in the Ultimate community who still put a lot of effort into producing DVDs and they do a good job (PushPass andUltiVillage spring to mind)

As I have said before however, I think the best grabs, Ds and hucks of Ultimate rival the best dunks, bombs, tackles and shots of other mainstream sports. We just have more difficulty showing everyone.

Club UPA Nationals 2007 - Rhino from luke johnson on Vimeo.

I know this can all be seen as moot with the simple arguement, why be mainstream with all the crap that comes with it? Well, hopefully I'll be able to expand upon that in a future post.

You might also like to have a read of these past posts:

My Favourite Highlight Videos

xEUCF Update, ECC and Chesapeake

Film and Photography Competition

Muddy, Awkward, Curious and NSFW...

The Adweb Dragon Cup 2009 in Poland. What I remember winter league as...(not sure what to say about the bare-footed guy)



This isn't awkward at all...To be fair, it's part of an application to 5ultimate to get free kit, I hope it works...



Huh...?



NSFW...

Tournaments Over The Festive Season

Since the lights on Oxford Street have been switched on and the weather is consistently bad, it must mean we're coming close to that time of year known for giving, families, happiness and commercialism* gone berserk. Whether you'll be celebtraing Bodhi Day, Ashura, Christmas, Yule, Hannukah or Al-Hijira, you know that at the same time you could be playing Ultimate with other like-minded individuals.

The Christmas Cone 2009
Strathclyde University Sports Centre, Glasgow
12 December 2009


Skunks Xmas Tournament 2009
University of Southampton

12/13th Decemeber

Copa de Crimbo

(full but get ont he waiting list)
Nottingham
19/20 December


Surrey Slingfest 2009

19th/20th December.


Belfast Christmas Cracker 2009

19 December 2009

Enjoy!


*'the domination of things by business/corporate interests, or the exploitation of intangible things for private gain')

London Winter League and the UKU

The LWL and as far as I can tell, the LSL, are both now part of the UKU. In the past they were more like rec leagues organised and run seperately with a lot of effort going into the organisation and planning of each event with what was perhaps an unmatched output of fun, efficiency and worth. As a developing organisation, the UKU now has a number of branches that cover grass roots up to elite development as well as encompassing events that cater for both the social and competitive aspects of ultimate. This is great for a number of reasons, some of which are suggested in this informative article by Dan Berry.

In the wider world, I'm personally wary of organisations when they have a monopoly. Competition between companies, organisations and friends breeds advancement. When two bodies with simliar aims and targets are going head to head they have no choice but to continually strive for self improvement. Specifically when it comes to two organisations offering a service, each will be looking to provide the best to the customers in order to be more attractive enabling expansion.

When a larger and smaller group go head to head, the larger can simply take in the smaller with the promise of higher efficiency earlier on. The smaller then operates from within the larger without posing any threat to 'stealing customers'. The larger can relax without the pressures that comes with offering the best service possible. Thankfully, those at the heart of the UKU have the best interests of UK ultimate players at heart and so they will always be looking for ways to evolve through growth and improvement. The UKU is also very transparent when compared to many other organisations with opportunities for all to get involved within the actual organisation of UK ultimate as well as there being a direct line from members to organisers.

I have no doubt that it is a good thing that the LWL and LSL now operate from within the UKU and look forward to being back to full fitness so I can play in them!

Winter League 06!

For my own records, it's been 13 weeks and 3 days since I heard that damned snap, crackle and pop come from my knee. It's now also been 4 weeks and 3 physio sessions so far. Feeling pretty good about it now as I'm able to do at least two of swimming, cycling, gyming and as of last week running again every day now. It feels good to be getting back in shape!

If you found this interesting you may also like to read:

The Growth and Development of the UKU

London Summer League 2009. How Far Have We Come?

Injuries in Ultimate Frisbee, Prevention and Rehabiliation

Student Regional Qualifiers

Over the past few weeks there have been loads of Student Indoor Rregionals events being held. The UK comprises 5 university regions. Scotland, Northern, Midlands, South East and Western. These have all taken place now with the top 3 from each making it to University Indoor Nationals div 1 and 4th-6th into Div 2.

So that gives us

MUIOR: (in Nottingham)

1. Warwick Bears
2. Haze
3. Cambridge

4. UBU
5. Fling
6. Aye-Aye

NUIOR: (in Manchester)

1 Halcyon
2 Too Many Pies
3 Leeds Jedi

4 Phat 'Eads
5 Boogie Knights
6 Reservoir Discs

SEUIOR: (in Hatfield)

1 Sublime
2 Mohawks
3 Scorpions

4 Disc Doctors
5 Kent Touch This
6 Brunel

WUIOR: (in Plymouth)

1. No Frills
2. BLT
3. Skunks

4. Mythago
5. Uriel
6. No Frills 2

SUOIR: (in Dundee)

1. Dundee Stars
2. Ro Sham Bo
3. Flatball

4. Farflung
5. Blaze
6. Mojo

as well as the womens,

SUWIR: (in Southampton)

(dont know results yet...)

N&MUWIR: (in Sheffield)

1. Pies
2. WOW
3. Bears

4. Leeds
5. Cambridge
6. Halcyenne

Ultimate and acronyms....

With around 20 teams at each event that is a serious amount of indoors ultimate that has been happening over the past couple weeks. So there are now a load of teams all getting excited for both UWIN in loughborough (5/6th dec) and UOIN held in manchester (28/29th nov) on the fancy 3G rubbercrumb surfaces they have there. Well done to everyone who qualified in both divisions and good luck in your efforts to become the best university indoors team in the UK!

Recent absence and WUCC 2010!

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, mostly due to not being too busy with PhD related stuff. Yes, it seems that the more stuff I have on my plate, the more I find I am able to blog. There were a few days last week when I just didn't need to come in to work which in turn meant I wasn't blogging. It's pretty standard practice though that when there is a lot of important stuff to do I'll happily start at the bottom of the list of priorities and work up. Well, now I have more to do and so you can look forward to more posts from me. It's not like there is a lack of goings on in UK Ultimate. As I've said before there is in fact so much going on it's hard to keep up. London Winter League, Student Indoor Regionals, Training days, teams tryouts, fun festive tournaments and news about WUCC 2010! Hopefully with so much work on now, I'll be able to make time for blogging :).

In this post I'll give an update on WUCC 2010.

WFDF released the official bid distribution for each of the countries entering the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague. As expected, the UK received 3 Open, 2 Women, 3 Mixed and 1 Masters place. The teams to fill these spots are based on the 2009 Tour and Nationals results. They are:

Open
1. Clapham
2. Chevron
3. Fire

Women
1.      Iceni
2.      Leeds

Mixed
1.      Jeremy Codhand
2.      Brighton
3.      BAF

Masters
1.      Age Against the Machine

WUCC was originally held every 2 years but is currently held every
4 years. In 1989, the first World Ultimate & Guts Championship
was held in Cologne, Germany. The other cities that hosted this
event are:

1991 Toronto (Canada)
1993 Madison (USA)
1995 Millfield (UK)
1997 Vancouver (Canada)
1999 St. Andrews (Scotland)
2002 Honolulu (USA)
and 2006 Perth (Australia)

With 3 out of the 4 European Champions coming from the UK
heading to Prague next year, the UK can look forward to the
prospect of challenging the Canadian, American and Japanese
teams for medals. More to come on this in the future!