Monday, February 18, 2008

100th Post Special- All Star Ultimate Ideas

Nation(s),

100 posts
9.821 visits
54 countries
Thank you!
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I have to admit that I didn't watch the NBA all star game that much last night. Had I not been at practice Saturday night, I would have been glued to the slam dunk contest though. As Dwight Howard was quoted, "The dunk contest is back".

Indeed.

The NBA skills competition has a lot of things going for it
  • Takes place at a good time (Saturday night)
  • Has great commentators (Kenny Smith and Barkley) and great cameras/replays
  • The players are into it again, as evidenced by Dwight Howard wearing a cape and Gerald Green using a lit cupcake as a prop.
  • They take the best players for each skill event regardless of whether or not these players are all star players- Jason Kapono is not an all star, but he deserves the chance to show how great he is at hitting treys.



Dwight Howard.. Cue the Music
Photo Source: Si.com/Greg Nelson


Naturally, my posts usually delve off in this direction:

Does this apply to ultimate?

I would love to see a skills event at Canadian Nationals. Maritime events that I attended at the start of my 'career' had skills events in the middle of the tournament. The best example would have to be Parlee Beach Tourney in New Brunswick, which allows for a great lay out compeition due to the soft sand.


2006 Parlee Beach Layout Winner Photo Source: Ultypics.com and J.P Rodrigue

How would we set it up? Here is my idea
  • Develop a list of skills
    • Distance throw
    • Accuracy throw
    • Layout
    • Fastest Man/Fastest Women
  • Let teams know about it
    • Ask them to host their own skills competition
    • Submit their best per event for nationals
  • Have it at Nationals
    • Taped by the tournament broadcaster
    • Get good commentators. Ones that know the players, know the game and don't have their mouths set to auto cliche. Here's a link to some poor commentators. It's pretty simple people- Get names right, don't stutter, be excited, and don't let personal bias get in the way.
    • Have judges of interest. beautiful girls, great players from the past, and so on.
This game can sell itself very easy. Do you think my idea is good or bad? Any improvements? Let me know.


Kelly Clarkson loves T-Webb Layouts!!
Photo Source: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

3 comments:

jitka said...

Congrats on your 100th post!

Love,
Your #1 fan

Unknown said...

I remember reading once that someone was showing an Ultimate video to a person who never played. They were more impressed with how far the disc was thrown whereas the layouts were merely thought of as "of course you are going to do that". I don't know if this would translate to having more people tune into the sport.

As for a layout competition, I find it a little unrealistic to have somebody laying out over four people to catch a disc. I find the best bids for layouts are ones that you see where the person comes out of the middle of nowhere to knock down the disc on defense. I don't think this would be incorporated into the contest.

Sport Management Steven said...

Derek,

One outsider opinion is just that. We need a lot more people to weigh in before we can conclude anything on what outsiders see/like.

Market research aside, I agree with you on the layouts. Outside of a beach setting, I'm not sure it is safe. It is the closest thing we have to a slam dunk contest- It's not that realistic, but it can be a really creative/dynamic event if the right people are in it.