Public Service Announcement: UPA Survey

Nation,

Given the recent threat to the College series, the UPA is now trying to assess their product and make changes to their service.

Here is the info the survey link.. if you're involved in college ultimate, here is your chance to have a say. The UPA is listening.

__________________________________________________________________________________
I'm sure you're all aware of the College Restructuring Task Force the UPA has set up. The UPA has created a survey to get feedback on some proposed changes that will take affect for 2009. Please take 5 minutes out of your day and fill out the survey yourself, then take another 30 seconds and send it to your teammates, other team contacts, etc. If you're a TD, RC or SC, send it to your team contacts from last year or this year. The more people who take the survey, the more accurate the results will be in helping the Board make some tough decisions. I believe the survey is open to alumni as well.

Survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=eG2NVCVWGx7i_2b8kKz_2f6agA_3d_3d

To read more about the Restructuring Task Force: www.upa.org

Survey should only be open until the end of December, so don't wait. The results could have a great impact on your 2009 season, as well as your team in future years.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Dave Branick

Metro East Open RC

Player Award Nominees- 2008

Nation,

As part of Canadian Ultimate's end of year review, I'm looking for nominees for the following awards

-Best Canadian Open Player in 2008
-Best Canadian Womens Player in 2008
-Best Canadian Coed Player in 2008
-Best Canadian Masters Player in 2008
-Best Canadian Junior Player in 2008

This includes performance in the calender year 2008.

I'll put the most popular nominees from each category in a poll and let the readers decide who would get such awards.

The Economy Hits Ultimate...

Nation,

Yesterday, I asked people to give me the storyline of the year. My focus was on the positive- The great tournaments, the great teams, the great players and the great plays that made the year one to remember.

Now a sad story might be the story of the year.

There are rumblings in the ultimate community about the death of GAIA. It is strongly rumored that their parent company is in receivership. It seems that the economy and the downturn the global market has endured has taken its toll on ultimate business. (Their website is "closed" and they thank the viewer for their patience... perhaps a very poorly worded final communication)

I discussed the state of GAIA previously. My take on their current state at that time was not pleasant. I've always wished them (and other ultimate companies) well, and found the rise and fall of GAIA particularly fascinating.

So, let's discuss what lead GAIA to this place in their history. When did they jump the shark? Will stories of ultimate business be a trend in 2009?

Storyline of the Year?

Nation,

Whether we like it or not, the year is ending. As per tradition, it's time to look back and reflect on the past year. Ultimate had a busy year in Canada, hosting a worlds and national/college championships.

So what was the best storyline of the year in Canadian Ultimate?

Was it the UBC women winning a UPA college championship? The Open worlds championship over the incredible USA squad? The third consecutive mens championship in college ultimate? Maybe that I stopped posting for months and Haig stayed vigilent in his grumpiness? lol

I could make a poll list, but I would prefer to open the floor to stories I might not know about. Tell me about the people and the event that should be considered the best story of the year.

Brian Burke is "Great"- But can he rebuild the Leafs?

Nation,

We have a lot of managers in this world. We have fewer leaders than we need. We have even fewer great leaders that can thrive in many situations. In ultimate, there are several captains and coaches that are known as being great. But would they be able to lead a completely different team?

I had a great chat at the national sport organization's annual pub crawl Wednesday night about Brian Burke. Someone disagreed with my statement about his draft record. Being the stats nerd I am, I had to look up the stats again and put something together to prove/disprove my point.

It's still too early to judge his Anaheim draft work. However, we can look at his 1999-2003 tenure with the Canucks. What I found is attached, and the numbers are very sad for Leaf fans.

Total Stats
Players Drafted 42
NHL Players 11 26%
Players Over 50 Games 6 14%
Players still in the Show 6 14%
Actual Canucks 4 10%

If you take away the number 2 and number 3 overall picks of 1999
(Sedin) the numbers are even worse.

So, hiring Brian Burke to rebuild a team's on ice product through young players and the draft is a very risky business. His track record suggest that even with five years, he can promise you 10-14% of the players he drafts will make the NHL past 50 games. Consider the Sens
had 23 NHL players from the same period, with all but one top 5 picks and many years not getting to draft until after the 20th selection or later.

Sorry Leaf fans... your new leader's fatal flaw is exactly what you need him to be best at.

Practice: Some Rough Numbers

Nation,

I've been trying to agitate some of my readers in previous posts regarding whether or not A and B teams in a city should practice together. Breaking conventional wisdom is hard.

Here's a quote that really caught my attention

"Practice Time is Limited"

Strong statement, let's try and look at the rough numbers.. Over the course of the year, you probably practice as follows:

6 months * two practices a week* 4.3 weeks per month* 2 full hours of practice minimum = 103.2 hours of practice for the average frisbee team.

Then add the offseason sessions: 4 months of one practice a week, 2 hours per practice= 34.4 hours of practice..

So, your average team spends 103.2 + 34.4 hours of practice time during one year.. about 137.6 hours of practice time.
137.6 hours is a lot of time. You have time for a lot of integration. In fact, with 137.6 hours of practice time, the issue might be complacency more than getting specific team plans rolled out and mastered.

With proper attendance (which should be a given) you really have no excuses about a lack of practice time. Oh... that's right.. practice attendance is always an issue for "elite" teams in ultimate.

So, how many hours of the practice time you spent with your team was efficiently used, in your opinion? See the poll on the right?

Leadership Crisis- The UPA College Debacle

Nation,

I think we might be the only sport that still lists executives/task forces and lists their years of playing experience. To roughly quote Mike Downey, CEO of Tennis Canada:

"When I bring in a candidate for an interview, and they tell me the reason they want to work for Tennis Canada is because they love playing tennis, I show them the door."

Now, Mr. Downey comes off sounding a little harsh. He's actually extremely jocular and very candid. However, he's been in sports long enough to know loving your sport doesn't make your leadership material in the sport. It doesn't prevent you, you just need something more.

There are many people more informed and more outspoken about the current crisis regarding the future of College Ultimate in the USA. To my knowledge, it seems like their was a power struggle between the UPA (which was the incumbent of providing college series service) and the UPA at one point felt the need to educate and discourage its membership to participate in the NCUA. It seems as thought the upstarts have relented and will be taking a backseat to the UPA in running college tourneys.

Scared $hitless, the UPA is now bringing forward a task force to make the championship series better for all involved. It's reactive management, but it might lead to a better product. Thank you cultimate.

I am sure there are many good people within the UPA brass. I hope they learn from this experience and try to make their relationship with colleges and other ultimate groups much tighter and resistant to competition. Much like the IOC lucked out when the owner of Helms Bread generously agreed to drop its rights to use the Olympic and USOC logos on its "Olympic Bread", The UPA has dodged a bullet. For more information on the bread incident, pick up a copy of Selling The Five Rings: The IOC and the Rise of Olympic Commercialism.

The fact that the college series incident got to the point that it did is a sign of poor organization and poor leadership. As the sport continues to become more exposed and more valuable, the UPA and other groups (including CUPA) will have to step up and clearly be the leaders of the sport.

How do you view the developments? Do you think groups like Cultimate should be able to easily come into the market and provide an alternative?