Coach Jam is just having a think of is there a different way to go forward.
So we are at present in phase B of the UKU returned to play. Now normally in the UK we would of just had nationals after a mixed and open season. The lucky few would be getting ready to go to EUCC, basically the champions league of European ultimate.
Now this basically come down to Clapham, CUSB, Bad Skin and maybe another team battering people and then playing each other to see who winds.
Does this help? Does this have to be the way?
Do we have to have full weekend tournaments?
What if we played on weekends or week nights?
How many of us as we’ve got older have had to make that choice of life vs frisbee?
How many players do we lose because of this system?
Now for me a big week long international tournament works well as a stand alone event. Be it national or club team but these events that come every 2-4 years in rotation work well. Does this benefit grass roots ultimate? Unless all the players attending the big events are coaching a junior team back home I don’t know how.
So what could we do to make something different? BUSA play university sports on Wednesday’s including ultimate. Now I know there are troubles to this system. Geography can be a big factor as well as fines for not playing.
But what if we had the league system but kept in really local? Most club teams have uni teams near them. Why not set a county boarder. You get a fair few teams then. If I take DEVON as a county we get Exeter City Ultimate, Exeter University, Second Wind, Shake ‘n Bake, Plymouth Ultimate, Plymouth University, St. Peter’s School (Airbadgers), Devonport High School for Boys. 8 teams. You could either go home and away, 14 games. That’s four games short of the current full weekend tournaments. Now you could say some games will be blow outs. Some will some won’t. But max travel time is 45 mins. You could play one 90 minute game. Then your done. Got more than one team at the club? Then have two games going at the same time. Play for 60 mins then swap. If clubs wanted to then have some more games after they could. If they wanted to mix it up, play Mac line or 500’s, disc golf the players that want to can, those that have time constraints get going. You could play the season out to start first Saturday in March, this means that the weather maybe horrid (it’s Britain it could be snowing in August) but it means you would finish your season by the end of May start of June. So teams that still want to push high, play in Europe could have mini tournaments similar to the Bologna Invite so they can compete.
Now the level might not be high to start with. But if I’m this new current environment you can’t travel far this means local teams might get to keep their top players for a bit longer. They get involved in the coaching set up. They spread their knowledge and skills. Teams start to build. You get a situation like most sports, training on Wednesday play games on Saturday. And everyone gets to see their families, got to work, not have to sacrifice a huge chunk of their lives just to play.
Now this is just and idea I’m playing with. Could it be a way forward? Maybe. Could it be a way for teams to prepare for a Tour series. It could be a way to get more youth playing open in our region. It could be a way to get post graduate new players involved as their is a recognisable system of play. You can get a big trophy that you can poor cheap bubbles into and drink out of it (who doesn’t love that)
Coach Jam
Exeter City Ultimate 