Olympic Thoughts.. and dispelling Olympic Dreams

Nation,

I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow to watch some Olympic action live, meet some old COC colleagues. I will try and post anything interesting while I am there.

So far, here are my thoughts as a viewer

• I feel for the VANOC people that have to deal with the thrashing from hostile media, protesters over weather, accessibility and plain bad luck (Zamboni breaking down yesterday at the long track speed skating oval). When things happen at an event, despite the best efforts, you simply have to solve the problem and take crap from people regardless of how fair it is.

• At the last Olympics, Canada converted only 30% of the world championships medals they won leading up to the games. The USA converted 120%. This is something that the sport pych. team for Team Canada was well aware of and trying to solve. We'll see how our conversion rate works this time around

• Jennifer Heil really wanted that gold medal in Canada for Canada. She also wanted to be famous forever.

• I often find myself reminding others who sigh in disgust at Canadians who finished 16th in the Olympics that so many of these events are split second differences that determine final place, and so few of us will ever be 16th best in the world at anything. Makes you think differently.

• It really seems like the action has been slow... but I assume more events will take place as we enter the first full weekend

The Old Olympic Debate- Sigh.........

It never fails. Every Olympics, ultimate open forums are clogged with "Why isn't Ultimate an Olympic Sport?".

I could go on with reasons why this discussion is foolish. The infancy of the sport in terms of organization/recognition and rules, the fact we're not even really a sport in Sport Canada's mind, the politics of the IOC, the sheer size of the Olympics as it is and the competition to get in.. I digress.

I understand that we have a great sport here, and I know we outsold Rugby 7s at World Games last year and they were just selected for the summer games, but we have to be realistic. Wondering why the game isn't in the Greatest show in the world when you can't find it at any major multi sport games level (Provincial games, national games, etc) at levels far below the Olympic Games.

I feel like a killjoy... so I will throw the dreamers a bone

Did anyone ever think that we would get our first gold medal in Canada by a Canadian in a sport that wasn't an Olympic sport until 1992 and wasn't created formally until the 1960's?

Maybe Ultimate has hope some day.

World Junior 2010 Tryout Information

Nation,

The recruitment and tryout process for selecting Team Canada men's and women's World Junior teams is well under way. The tournament will be held August 3-7 in Heilbronn, Germany.

The coaches for the mens team are as follows: (teamcanada.jrmen@gmail.com)

• Kirk Nylen- Head Coach
• Patrick Mooney - Assistant Coach

Facebook Presence found here

The coaches for the womens team are: (teamcanada.jrwomen@gmail.com )

• Stephanie Chow- Head Coach
• Dan Byma- Assistant Coach

Who Can Apply?

If you are born in 1991 or later then you are eligible to represent your country at the World Jr. Ultimate Championships in Heilbronn, Germany (Aug 2-7th).

Applications and details regarding tryouts for Team Canada Jr men and Jr women are now available here:
http://www.canadianultimate.com/WJUC2010.html

We encourage all those interested to apply and look forward to seeing you at one of the three tryouts.

Vancouver 2010 Games- Be Part of the Opening Ceremony!!

Nation,

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games start next Friday and my wife has asked me to post this:

Sign up to be part of the Opening Ceremony!

Canada wants to welcome the world and—for the first time ever—people all over the world can become part of the Games. On February 12 during the Opening Ceremony, an official Olympic souvenir will be sent out digitally to those that want to be part of the action.

Everyone who is watching, listening, or reading about their favorite athletes or their most inspirational story, can receive a unique memento that will be sent out while billions of eyes are focused on the Opening Ceremony.

To be part of it, go to code.vancouver2010.com, which is the official digital and cultural interaction site of the 2010 Winter Games. Just click on the invite, sign up, and you’ll be ready to go on February 12, 2010.

Signing up is also your ticket to a global social media event that will give you the opportunity to be a virtual participant in the Closing Ceremony.

Cheer on your country, and become part of history.

I'm Back.... CUPA name Change.. World Clubs

Nation,

I apologize for a huge blog vacation I took. There has been a lot going on in Canadian ultimate during the off season.

Please note I'm probably going to be pretty terse in this review. Apologies in advance to my more "diplomatic" readers.

CUPA becomes Ultimate Canada

Just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention that Canadian Ultimate Players Association is now legally called Ultimate Canada.

Excited about the name change, and I am glad my friends in sport will stop asking me why the national sport organization sounds like a players union. :)

World Ultimate Club Championships

This issue was simple: WFDF had decentralized the roster rules for teams/countries for the upcoming championships in Prague, Czech Republic. They left the rules for composition of teams up to the national organizations. Teams representing our country can look as much or as little as the club that won the right to go to WUCC. (In canada, you had to be at CUC 2009).

Personally, I find this decentralization of roster requirements for a world championship a major mistake by WFDF. Downright stupid really. I still am struggling to find the reason why.

Having this thrown on the NSO's, Ultimate Canada assigned the task of handling roster rules to our competition committee. The committee, which I chair, is made up of competitive players of varying experiences both on and off the field. We had extensive discussion on this, and tried to cover every single point and counter point.

It would have been EASIER if WFDF had told us we had to set roster requirements, and we could have set clear rules before CUC 2009. Of course, WFDF couldn't do this. That would take some leadership.

Teams had to play in CUC 2009 in order to qualify for World Clubs. Teams knew this heading into the summer season. Despite this, some teams ditched nationals to play at the Emerald City Classic. Should we allow players who didn't attend nationals to be part of the World Club Experience? Opinions from those outside the board were polarized, ranging from giving Furious and GOAT their own bids and private jets to shutting all non CUC 2009 players out altogether. (A little puffery there on my account regarding the private jet.. just trying to keep this discussion light)

If we make rules too easy for roster requirements, good players who went to CUC 2009 and qualified for worlds would be ditched for better players who did not attend CUC 2009. If we make rules too strict, we'll get tremendous flack and we'll handcuffed captains/coaches of teams going to Prague.

In the end, we came up with a decent solution. Moving forward, I believe we need to make world clubs bids and player eligibility contingent on CUC series participation (regionals and nationals in the year leading up to World Clubs). Executing these incentives, in partnership with changing the culture and quality of the CUC series, will be vital to ensuring better attendance at our national championships from our elite teams.

WUCC PROPOSAL

PRINCIPLES
Provide rules to support Canadian club teams attending the WUCC instead of all-star teams. In doing so, rules should accommodate the regular changes a team’s roster undergoes from year-to-year. Provide a policy that is fair to all Canadian ultimate players.

PLAYER CLASSES
Please note that while Ultimate Canada may not have any roster restrictions for the number of players from a certain player class, the WFDF has a roster limit of 28 players.

GENERAL REQUIREMENT
Canadian teams attending the WUCC must have a number of Class A players equal to the lesser of the following numbers:

a) 12
b) 50% of the number of players on the team's 2009 CUC roster.

Example a) If a team's 2009 CUC roster had 26 players then they would require 12 class A players (50% of 26 is 13, so we use the lower value of 12).

Example b) If a team's 2009 CUC roster had 19 players then they would require 10 class A players (50% of 19 is 9.5 rounded up to 10 which is lower than 12).

Class A (Regular players): A member of the club who was on the club’s 2008 CUC series roster and/or the club’s 2009 CUC series roster. There are no restrictions on the number of Class A players on a team’s WUCC roster.

Class B (Practicing players): A member of the Club who:

a) has been playing with the Club since May 1st, 2010, and has not
competed in that team’s division (i.e., Open, Mixed, Women’s, Masters,

Juniors) at a National Championship or WFDF Sanctioned Regional
tournament or series with any other team during that time.

b) practices with the team and has attended two team events (training
camps/ practice weekends or tournaments) since January 1, 2010, with
at least 1 event being a tournament.
c) meets one of the following criteria: Canadian citizen, Canadian
permanent resident, Canadian work visa holder or Canadian student visa
holder.
There are no restrictions on the number of Class B players on a team’s
WUCC roster.

Class C (Other players): A player who does not meet the requirements

for Class A or B. Class C players must meet one of the following
criteria: Canadian citizen, Canadian permanent resident, Canadian work
visa holder or Canadian student visa holder. Teams are restricted to
three (3) Class C players.

Happy Holidays!

Nation,

Happy Holiday to all of you! Thanks for the support over the past year.

I will be in Vancouver over the break, putting together end of year surveys and some new articles to start the new year right!

Thanks,

Steven

TULA Invite Tournament 2010

Nation,

Torontula will once again be hosting an indoor ultimate tournament on January 15th from 9:30 - 11:30 PM. We will be playing at U of T's Varsity Stadium under the heated dome. As was the case last year wewill be playing with hat teams to encourage players from the different universities to get to know each other.

In the mix will be some ofToronto's finest GOAT players, so consider this your preseason chanceto show the club players what you've got. There will be prizes forTeam and Tournament MVPs, as well as a post-game party nearby. Costwill be $20 per player.

If you are interested playing please email me at the e-mail address below with the following information:

1) Name
2) University
3) Experience (last college or club team you played on)

Once again, please forward this invitation to your teammates.Registration is open starting now and will likely fill up.

Cheers,
Taylor Martin
taylor.g.martin@gmail.com

Torneo Eterna Primavera 2009- Medellín, Columbia

Nation,

Recently, Furious George and Traffic, both from Vancouver, participated with Seattle's Sockeye and Riot at the Torneo Eterna Primavera tournament in Medellín, Columbia.

Alex Davis, member of Furious George, provided the following description of the tournament and the experience.

The TEP television commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8wGLTiC_1o

A promotional video for supporters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9BVnPqKyY&feature=related

A Spanish news report (June): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi3St2UzyZY&feature=related

An interview with Oscar Pottinger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQTjPozUIr8&feature=related

Owen's blog: www.thinkulti.blogspot.com

Tournament Website: www.tepmedellin.com

Between November 17 and November 28, Medellin hosted a uniquely ambitious ultimate event. In conjunction with an astonishing array of public, non-profit and private partners, ACUM and an army of volunteers brought four North American teams (Furious, Traffic, Sockeye and Riot) to Colombia to promote their sport. They facilitated a series of clinics respectively aimed at schoolchildren, at-risk youth, college students and competitive clubs. They convinced the public that ultimate is a sport worth investing in, teaching, watching and playing. They hosted an international forum on spirit of the game and development. And of course, they capped it off with an exciting, superbly run tournament, with televised finals and showcase games.

There's so much I could write about, but it would be an ordeal to read. I'll try to limit myself to a few reflections. For those just interested in the raw results, I'll spare you the agony: Sockeye over Furious (15-13) in the men's final and Riot over Revolution (15-11?) in the women's. The altitude killed the wind in my sails, the turf ate holes through my clothes and into my skin, and naturally, the heat was so stifling that the tournament paused for siesta -- and it was all great fun.

First and foremost, South American ultimate is on the rise. At every stage of the event, I was impressed with the state of the game, the cultivation of the sport, and its marketing. In their current states, almost every club in attendance could have held its own at the UPA Regional level. I say that not with patronizing intent, but to set a frame of reference; at least half a dozen teams appeared able to play on a par with Voodoo or Streetgang. Among these teams, the parity in skill is tight and competition is fierce.

Strategically, like most young teams, a lot of these clubs still lack team depth in throwing skill, for which they compensate in athleticism and feats of reception. Their cutting game usually emphasizes vertical cuts with very little crossing of lanes. Conventionally, this style of cutting would limit their options, but they have compensated with sheer agility and a willingness to rely on tight throws in spite of defensive pressure. The Colombians shine in their refusal to drop anything; as a defender, I was personally frustrated by this very consistent grace under fire. Indeed, this offense only faltered in one of two cases: either the defense effected savvy switches or the receivers eventually tired. The strict employment of vertical cutting is exhausting, of course (as someone who knows from personal overuse) and without a deep bench of replacements, the offense weakens in the second halves of most games. As evidence to that effect, Furious George won most games by a margin between 3:2 and 4:3, but typically only took half by one break.

As for development, I am humbled and alarmed by the calibre of the Colombian juniors, whom we had the privilege to coach for a week leading up to the tournament. There are not many teenaged players yet, but the next generation of Colombian athletes have learned the game much younger than our own; it was alarming to discover what players as young as twelve already had achieved in core throwing and catching skills.

This appears to be because the proponents of the game in Colombia (and notably, TD Mauricio Moore) have succeeded in gaining tremendous traction within the popular community. The governments encourage sports as a countermeasure to violence and perceive Spirit of the Game as a vehicle to teach conflict resolution to local youth. INDER Medellin (a massively staffed department of parks and recreation) has heavily invested in ultimate clinics and tournaments like the Torneo Eterna Primavera, advertising the events by broadly visible television and billboard campaigns. As one of the handsomely uniformed instructors explained, the sponsorship of TEP and visiting teams (like Furious) was literally an investment in combatting youth crime.

This community emphasis on spirit was also the motivation for a series of forums and speeches, inviting an international congress of players to discuss varied topics related to Spirit of the Game and international development. I won't recount everything that was said, as it would appear stale here. As for my experience, I have always reserved spirit (or sportsmanship, if you prefer) as a very personal matter; I rarely discuss my definition (I find it a tedious exercise), and have never felt a desire to proselytize. So perhaps when I say that this tournament was the most spirited, warmest, and most respectful competition I have ever played, I mean it without exaggeration. The rituals we followed were quintessentially Colombian: simple, easy and unforced; a shaking of hands, a post-game gathering and a few words in English and Spanish usually sufficed. No songs; no silly games. It carried a sincerity of respect I hadn't noticed elsewhere before – it felt genuinely Olympic. They had brought us to Medellin at great trouble and expense to teach sport and sportsmanship . . . and I just wanted to earn their respect.