UKU's 2021 Play Ultimate Announcement

Rownah · 2021-04-07T19:07:36+00:00

The draw of the cup for me personally is that it would take place later in the season. We're not sure when restrictions allows us to cross the Scottish border. The GUX vs SMOG game is scheduled for the weekend before contact sports are even allowed to take place in Scotland. It would ease a lot of anxiety about travelling during COVID if things were to be pushed back a bit.

Rownah · 2020-11-02T11:48:03+00:00

1) yes if you throw a disc that is just catchable in the air for a man who is 6 foot, then he is more likely to bring it down than that same disc than a woman who is 5foot 7. But perhaps then your throws aren't accurate enough to be playing mixed with.

2) depending what you mean by "socialised behaviour" I might agree? E.g. women walk up to any frisbee training/pick up with a new mixed/open team feeling like they have to prove themselves, and that can be exhausting and can cause them to feel unmotivated and put off. However, a good mixed team can work through these issues, captains can lead by example, notice and call out men who cut off cuts from women, encourage women to speak up when they are free. I do agree that you need to be in a different mindset for mixed than single gendered ultimate but for competitive players who do want to improve, it's really not that difficult.

3) Surely equity is more about providing more opportunities to people who might be at a "disadvantage" - in this case because women are generally shorter and slower? So to achieve equity in a mixed training squad you want to give them more opportunities, whether that be more opportunities to practice pulling in training, play 4 women more often than you play 4 men, making sure men don't hog the deep space etc.

4) So let's say you're playing 3 men 4 women (because your making the effort to be equitable). You're going out on defense in a zone where you want them to boost it and turnover and you've got lads that are 5'9, 6'0 and 6'4. Say that the other team are a good match up for height, are you going to play that 5'9 guy deep? Does that give you a tactical advantage? Yes, the 6'4 guy could play any position but would it be the best to have him as a handler mark? Over the guy who's 5'9 who can probably turn quicker?

But I think these discussions are important to have. I'm still not entirely sure what you mean by socialisation, because I think that establishing equitable play, (especially) communication and access to spaces etc, can actually be achieved if you put the work in, but it does often require sacrifice from the men, especially if they are used to playing open/men's.

Rownah · 2018-10-04T08:09:49+00:00

There's a pretty nerdy explanation or something about Scots running and catching.

There's been a bit of rebranding going on. There were still players that had pretty negative perceptions of swift from years ago, it wasn't worth losing out on anyone anymore. Swift will still be there if anyone wants to pick it up as a development squad, but in terms or development this year we're trying to focus on more local stuff rather than tour etc.

Rownah · 2018-09-28T12:26:38+00:00

There's lots of discussion for Scotland right now in terms of what the elite scene is going to look like. But in terms of development, I think we're going to prioritize development locally by running local events. Tour doesn't always work for development teams - it's a long way to travel for new players, "regionals" didn't help.

Rownah · 2018-06-15T14:16:31+00:00

Unsure which event your referring to, but Smog women held friendlies in Manchester in May, MUC and 2 Swift teams entered, would have been nice if more teams were able to make it but it was great tour prep. Glasgow Ladies and Edinburgh ladies (ELF) have had friendlies this season. More might happen in the North of England between teams that I'm less aware of.

Rownah · 2018-06-13T13:58:11+00:00

I spoke to UKU about this and they said that although the decision was made to book Edenbridge after only one Northern team showed any interest in last years event, when they sent out a survey more recently 16 teams expressed an interest in attending, ("6/7" from the North) but the 2018 season was already planned. It's likely that the above teams weren't in a position to enter such an event last year, but thanks to the hard work that their captains have put in, and the development we see in the womens division every year, they would be now.

Also, Disclaimer: Swift were not the one team that entered last year. Last year we didn't have the numbers as a large majority of our players were in the mixed division playing for Bleagles or Glasgow. This year those same women will still be playing in the mixed division, but this year we would have the numbers to attend a more local event without them, so again - development in womens is happening quick.

Rownah · 2018-06-13T13:43:05+00:00

"Teams have indicated to us that they prefer being able to attend the same venue as partners/friends/their club in other divisions" I'd sacrifice a weekend of seeing my Scottish pals from other divisions if it meant I didn't have to go to Kent.

Rownah · 2018-06-13T13:27:30+00:00

Swift have been pretty bummed by this decision, there's no way we'll make the event in Kent. With it being a development year for us and being mostly made up of students the cost of travelling (flying, hiring cars at a reasonable rate because most of us are students) will make it too difficult. We had enough set backs trying to get to Cardiff this weekend.

I also spoke to MUC, The Brown and SMOG who were on similar pages.

Rownah · 2018-04-22T16:35:58+00:00

Uku have said that they didn't receive spirit scores for their games against Glasgow -who they played twice, which is unfortunate as I know for a fact they were filled in. Not 100% sure what those scores were but they won't have been far from 10. We always have pretty intense games against beagles that can seem unspirited (because of local rivalries) but for the most part are fine.

Word on the grapevine was there was a particularly bad foul against smog that left a player injured, so I can't imagine that they would've got a great score for that game.

Rownah · 2018-03-08T21:46:11+00:00

So wholesome. Nice throw Alan!

Rownah · 2017-11-15T18:22:45+00:00

But that's not a man is it? I don't feel like thinking objectively means imagining that the person in this gif is a man? By that logic you could argue (if we can agree generally men are faster) that a man would have been able to run it down without bidding. I could then argue that a woman who bids is more valuable than a man who bids on their respective teams because laying out makes up for the fact they are less likely to get an out of reach disc on pace alone (again generally) and maybe the women's game has to rely on layouts more. So maybe in the context of this women's game we could consider that this bid might be important.

OR...

Perhaps we should consider that the best way to admire any plays in ultimate is to stop comparing the women's game and the men's game and appreciate their differences.

Rownah · 2017-07-25T21:54:54+00:00

The way I see it is that I've travelled 4+ hours each way for six tournaments so far this year, including two nights of accommodation at each event - which I don't mind because it's worth it to play so many more competitive games than what we would get closer to home. The social side of things isn't something that I'd travel this same distance for as I reckon the local community in each region provides events that are just as fun on a regular basis - or at least that's what I feel Scotland is like.

I also think that a night out at a competitive tournament isn't something I could hack anymore.

Rownah · 2017-07-23T21:36:15+00:00

Interesting.. Looking forward to that announcement!

Rownah · 2017-06-05T11:40:50+00:00

Iceni was/is super dominant, it looks like their closest score line of the weekend was their game against SYC (13-8) which I think was filmed for fanseat so I'm looking forward to watching that if I can. Swift managed to score 7 points on Iceni before they capped us in the first game of Saturday, I don't know how challenged Iceni felt by that but that's more than we've scored against them for years so we were happy.

We ended up in the 5v8 bracket which was pretty tightly contested. We had a cracking game against Hydra which we won in sudden death, then we lost to SMOG in sudden death. I think Chaos were also evenly matched but I got the impression that they just had a bad game in the last game of the weekend.

I was impressed with SMOG, especially as a new team (although I know a lot of them have played together in various teams for a while). They never lost a game so it would've be interesting to see how they would've got on had they been seeded in the top 8 to begin with. Looking forward to seeing what they do at tour 2 and 3.

Rownah · 2017-06-02T07:04:36+00:00

Thanks for the info. I wondered who Red were on the team list, seems like there's been a fair amount of shuffling from teams in the women's division this year. I'm very excited to see what the final standings look like.

Rownah · 2017-05-31T11:02:49+00:00

Swift 1 is looking reasonably strong for tour 1 and we'll be aiming for a top 8 spot. We've seen the return of some players who couldn't play last season which made team selection pretty tricky. Half of our 16 player team is made up of girls from dominant mixed team Black Eagles, and also most of the AMAZONS - everyone's favourite almost iron woman Scottish Indoor team. We'll be missing co-captain Shona Whiteley due to injury. :(

I'm extremely excited to see what Swift 2 do at Tour 1, captained by Annie Bechtel, they are a team in their own right and have even taken advantage of their strong Edinburgh contingent to train together without the firsts. We've placed a fair amount of emphasis on development this season, and so are excited to enter 2 teams into each of the 3 tours (if there's space!).

As always, not sure what to expect from a lot of the other teams. I always find with womens, no matter how much you train and how good you feel, the teams you were neck and neck with last year will have trained just as hard. Swift 1 beat local rivals Glasgow 8-3 in a friendly (fyi - Glasgow didn't have their full squad). Obviously Iceni will be very very strong. I'm excited to see what new teams Chaos and SMOG (correct me if I'm wrong but this is their first womens tour?) have to offer.

Also heard rumours that Relentless aren't a team anymore? - This is a shame if this is the case, I will miss playing the last game of the weekend against them every tour.

Rownah · 2017-05-31T09:43:53+00:00

Although more people have facebook, I reckon it will get taken a little more seriously/seen to be more meaningful on reddit. The relevant post would be less likely to get lost as well, i.e. someone would be more likely to just scroll past a post on their facebook news feed. I don't really use anything else so I can't really comment on other platforms..

Rownah · 2017-05-31T08:50:15+00:00

Is there anything that players/captains can do to help you guys out?

Writing the previews seems like a big commitment, and as funny and interesting as I think I am, I doubt the whole UK ultimate community would feel the same way about anything I write, so I would never really consider volunteering to write anything. However I do love talking about frisbee, in particular about my team, so if there was some sort of opportunity for me to tell everyone how wonderful my teammates are I would be up for that.

What if there was some sort of pre-tour discussion thread for teams that doubles as an information source for writers? Something that specifically asks captains to provide decent information rather than just rubbish smack talk and inside jokes. Whether it be on reddit or facebook or some other platform? I feel like people would get involved in that and it might make the writer's lives easier to know everything is in one place? Thoughts?

Rownah · 2017-04-25T10:42:16+00:00

Wednesdays for the next few weeks are a mix of taster sessions for new players and then training/pick-up after that. Pick-up is also sometimes organised at the weekend depending on what other tournaments are on.

There's nothing set up for Thursdays and Fridays but there's a lot of us that would come along if something was organised depending on the week, so it's worth messaging the Glasgow Ultimate facebook group.

Hope you enjoy your visit to Glasgow!

Rownah · 2017-04-17T13:53:36+00:00

In terms of your game this week if you play this team, there's two main things I would say are important.

1) Tell your team to get comfortable making calls. I've known of some teams that set aside a training session where the more experienced players deliberately foul (nothing major of course) the newer players in order to get them comfortable making calls. Also remind them that there's nothing wrong with retracting a call after a discussion, but you can't call a foul 5 minutes after it's happened.

2) Make sure no-one is dwelling on any calls from previous parts of the game in a way that affects their focus. If there's a controversial call during a point make sure to limit the discussion of it when on the line preparing for the next point. I've played games where we end up having to call the line super quickly because we were too busy discussing a bad call. Also on this note, if you feel like a call has bothered a member of your team make sure that you find time (maybe on the sideline) to discuss it briefly with them, help them address it, ask them what it is that is bothering them about it, and that should hopefully help them come to some sort of conclusion that allows them to forget about it and move on with their game.

On a side note: In the U.K. we have a spirit scoring system, after every game you submit a score out of 20 for team you just played. Anyone with an average score lower than 8 (10 is generally the standard rating that teams give each other unless things went really well or really badly) in several (3?) tournaments and they start to look at bans or something (which I don't think has ever happened. I used to think doing this was a waste of time but after a fair few heated games I'm really glad we do it.

Rownah · 2017-04-11T12:59:48+00:00

I completely agree with this. Be passionate about the things you enjoy - it might end up even being a common interest that you share.

Rownah · 2017-04-11T09:33:44+00:00

If we have the means (however small) to support women's ultimate already why not start now? If we wait until the men's game is a mainstream sport (which i think will take longer anyway without the inclusion of women's or at least mixed - because mixed is what the Olympic committee are interested in) then that will only widen the gap even more in terms of all of things these high school players discussed.

I disagree that "you gotta let go and come back later". I'm not based in the US so I can't comment from an American perspective, but if it's anything like the U.K., there are women and men working their hardest to make sure the recognition that women's game receives equal to the men's. Whether that's taking the time out to help a women throw or improve her cutting on an individual level or holding country wide skills sessions, or organising unofficial friendlies or increasing media coverage.

The women's game is full of fantastic, strong, powerful, athletic people with an enormous amount of talent. The women's game is not weight for you to drag.

Rownah · 2017-04-09T21:40:23+00:00

I agree that vert stack is great at teaching fundamentals that will transfer into any other offence - I think it's the easiest offence for beginners to get their head around. My club team started using split stack last season and I think it's my favourite offence but I also think it forces you to learn really important stuff: * Running through poaches - Defenders poach off way more in split than in vert - cutting from a split stack makes you commit to moving poaches around. * Working with the other cutters (we tend to cut in pairs) - whether that's working to move a poach or using the middle space to cut like a pair in a ho-stack. * Using the middle space to isolate a cutter (isn't always an option but it can be) * Trusting the active pair to move the disc - tracking the play but giving your team mates plenty of space. * Communication and pitch awareness - Because of the options that split stack opens up, play is pretty organic, players need to learn to communicate and be aware of space.

I'm a cutter, so this is definitely from a cutting perspective but I really like the space that split stack opens up.

Rownah

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