This is and article Coach Jam wrote after returning from the World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC) in 2018 with Devon. We are kicking off our blog section with this as it still stands as a good starting point for the direction we are trying to go in.
I’ve been having a think about Ultimate in the UK. And how can it be improved. Have a read, have a think, comment if you like (good and bad). Just remember, the futures bright, the futures Exeter City Ultimate #ECU
Inverting the pyramid
Look at all other sports. They have this pyramid with this tiny top of elite level players at the pinnacle then it trickles down to Sunday league, Hackney marshes, kids football with loads of volunteers and villages in the middle of nowhere playing.
Now look at frisbee. We’ve got a strange shape. We have this very small elite group, the you drop down to some dedicated players trying to push those above them, then there is a large group of people who like to play for fun. Then a big gap to some scatterings of youth players and a very, very small number of coaches and parents.
So what can help us? There has been talks of a 5 nationals type of event in places that don’t play, but look at when the UK hosted WUC 2016 they had the final at Alliance Park (the Saracens Rugby Premiership ground) how many of the crowd were not related to Ultimate? How many had been reached by adverts or social media and thought ‘yes I’d like to see that’ a very small number of any I would guess.
So how do we invert this shape? How do we increase numbers? Well the UKU’s new inclusion into school curriculum is a great start. But then it comes down to the players.
Look at the current crop of football managers. In my teens they were all players. During their playing time they studied and got coaching qualifications. And then when they finished they took up jobs coaching. Yes this is all good and we’ll for those who get paid. But let’s go right down to the other end of the pyramid. Devon currently share their training pitch with the Alphington under age teams. They have a huge amount of teams from under 7’s up to 3 adult teams, 10 teams in total. All run by volunteers. All helping with their free time. All trying to get qualified via coaching schemes so they can get better at what they do. Not a penny made. But all these kids love it.
Now to me Ultimate is 100 years behind most established sports. It’s history is small. It’s understanding is limited by the non-player. So how do we solve this?
Be the change you want to see. Get yourself some coaching experience. Get some qualifications. Offer to help. Think about ways to get non-players involved. Do you need people who have knowledge about funding/coaching/training space availability/just wanting to help. Is there an organisation that is already there to help? In Devon we have Active Devon. They put on displays all over and we get involved. We point people in the direction of the level they want. We have school teams in Exeter and Plymouth. More starting in Torquay. It’s a start but we need more. More kids play. More parents know about it. You could even start a volunteer program to stream them in or go way out on a limb and have a child and parent league! (A bit like parent and baby group but aim at 11 years up wards and make it mixed ability and it ends up forming a community). What if the idea and love of the sport spreads?? People want to play more, they want to help with stuff. Players who want to try harder can get pointed towards extra coaching or the local big team. Do you end up with a mixed aged league? Do we sit in that hole where there’s no football, no rugby but parents want to stop their kids somewhere for a few hours?? Do we pimp out a play scheme during half term to test the water?
‘But we’re already do this’ some might be saying. Then shout about it. Share how you started it. Let’s increase the size of our pyramid and blow its top off. Ask not what Ultimate can do for you, but want you can do for Ultimate.
It’s now August 2020. Somethings have changed. Yes there’s been a mass global pandemic to deal with but some good things have come out of it. In 2019 Devon Ultimate became the elite club team in the South West that host trials and aim to be top in the UK. Some saw this as a professional step forward. Some saw it as destroying what was already in place., leading to the end of other clubs in the South West. What has happened has been some slow progress, but still progress. Bristol Open have had a big recruitment drive and have had a lot of new blood in their Bro Squad. Plymouth Ultimate are growing stronger pushing up through the UKU Tour rankings. And the new kids on the block Exeter City Ultimate.
We’ve had a slow start training was happening saturday mornings from September at 10 am. Turn out was between 4 and 6 people. Was this all in vein? Was it going to blow up in my face? We started getting some of the students coming along. We started getting out there with some social media. I started interactive with all the ultimate people locally I could get my hands on. We had plans for a bigger and better Exeter Spring League, getting all of our players involved in the Jeremy Moore Hat Memorial Tournament (JMHMT) and maybe even trying to get us to a UKU Tour event. Then COVID popped up. Lock down. But then lock down was lifted and we good do ultimate type fitness and throwing technique. While home schooling my kids I started to design drills we could do without endangering each other and following social distance guidelines.
Our first socially distanced session had more people than we’d been getting to training all year. And it grew. Our drills have been adopted by other clubs to help them train. And on Tuesday 18th August we go into Phase B in our return to play. Its a slow progress, but it is making more people access local ultimate who want to play local. Who knows what the future of Exeter City Ultimate holds. But I’ll keep you posted
#ECU #backstronger
Exeter City Ultimate 