Nice guys finish last? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A word from the UKUA Chairman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Paganello, Rimini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7Eating properly for ultimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9University Ultimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Offence is easy! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11The first cut.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Spirited away? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13The UKUA Mixed Tour and Nationals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-15Don’t question The Management! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Ultimate preparation: winter fitness work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17The ‘A’ Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18The ‘B’ Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19World Ultimate Championships 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-23A short history of The Worlds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-25How to be a totally excellent ultimate player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Crossword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2

Index

As I put the finishing touches toUltimatum 2004, I find myself thinking“This is the last time I’ll be doing this,next season I’m going to retire fromserious ultimate – just play for fun; this ismy final Ultimatum.”

Is this the first time I have had thisthought – or do I have it every year? Thelatter, I guess, this is my fourth time. It’snot that I don’t enjoy editing Ultimatum –I do, but while Ultimate is being playedmore and more throughout the UK, Imyself am playing less – and I don’t feelthat I can shoulder the responsibility..

But wipe away that tear I see moisteningyour eye – the truth is, I enjoy everymoment of it, and I have lots of help. Ihave always been a collector ofmemorabilia, and that’s exactly what thisedition of Ultimatum is. Hopefully it’ll helpyou remember this year's Ultimate with asmile if you were a part of it, or inspire youto be a part of next season if you werenot. At the very least, it’s something youcan show yer folks back home toconvince them that you are not part ofsome crazy underground cult that nobodyhas heard of; “look mum; IT HAPPENS!”

People often ask me how to get a photoof themselves in Ultimatum. It’s realsimple: Spot the people who are talkinggood pictures (they often have really bigcameras), and then make spectacularplays whenever they are around. It helpsif you about 10-15 meters away, andideally facing the camera. Getting goodphotos of ultimate is really hard, andphotographers often seem to follow aplayer rather than the disc (which movesmuch faster), so if you can also developa reputation for always being in the thickof things, and generally a play-maker,you’re made. International fame andrecognition are just around the corner.

Jack Goolden, Editor

Point of Note: Why are we members of‘UK’ Ultimate, yet our National team istagged ‘GB’? Although UK is moreinclusive (GB does not include NorthernIreland), GB has been our traditionalname when playing in internationalchampionships. Sammy explains:

In 1983 we had no fancy team kit andplayed as the "Samurai", but we werekind of thrilled to also be considered as"England" as it was a national team,rather than a club event. The "England"label was used in the team strip for thenext two years. In 1986 the BUF hostedthe event and consequently there was achange in our labelling to "Great Britain"or "GB". The shortened form "GB"became very popular for cheers andchants - much better than "En-ger-land".The less 'cuddly' term "UK" seemsclumsy for cheers and I predict willremain unpopular with national teamplayers and supporters. Throughout theyears, few people outside the UK/GBwere even aware of the differences inthe terms. Indeed Charlie Mead wouldoften print official schedules with usdown as "England" even when we wereofficially "GB" - then he would call us the"UK" in match write-ups ... it drove apedant like me mad!

To brighten this edition up, I asked GBhandler Rob 'probably the safest dumpin Devon' Mitchell to catalogue some ofthose special accessories that help us allget through the day as ultimate players.

Special Thanks:

Paul Hurt for the format, and AF Litho foreverything they do. Rob Mitchell, RichHims, Steven Stevenson and Katie DJfor creative criticism and corrections.The photographers who make thispossible, and the people out there whohave nothing better to do than thinkabout ultimate, dream about ultimate,and maybe even write about ultimate.The UKUA for funding the whole thingand everybody out there for gettinginvolved, playing the game, and justbeing there. Not to mention paying yourUKU membership fees.

ultimatum2004

COVER PHOTO: MALCOLM CANNON AT SAUNTON SANDSPHOTO: © JIM WILEMAN 2004

www.jimwileman.co.uk

STU MITCHELL AND RICH HIMSTHE FINAL - CHEVRON VS LEEDS, TOUR 3, MANSFIELDPHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

“THE ONLY THING I'D SAY WOULD BE THAT STU DID CALL AFOUL AT MANSFIELD, AND THE CZECH PLAYER DIDN'T (SEE PAGE 13).”“A BUNCH OF PEOPLE IN FINLAND WHO SAW THE PLAY ANDPHOTO HAVE SAID THAT IT LOOKS A WHOLE LOT WORSETHAN IT REALLY WAS, AND I DIDN'T HORSE THE GUY ASYOU'D EXPECT.” “I'M STARTING TO SOUND DEFENSIVE, SO I'LL SHUT UP”RICH HIMS

PORTUGAL: THE WORLD BEACH CHAMPIONSHIPS:

DANCING TO THE SONG ‘MORTO MUITO LOCO’ STARTED BYTHE BRAZILIAN TEAM. JUST AFTER THE CLOSING AWARDSCEREMONY THIS MASSIVE ONE KICKED OFF WITH JUSTABOUT EVERYBODY INVOLVED.

NICK ‘HARGREAVES’ BILDNER, GB MIXED.

PHOTOS © STEPHEN GIGUERE 2004

www.lookfly.comwww.beachultimate.org/wcbu2004/morto.htm

3

CLEATS: PRICE: £20-UP

IF, WHEN YOU PLANT YOUR FOOT FOR ANEXPLOSIVE CUT YOU MORE OFTEN THAN NOT ENDUP PLANTING YOUR FACE INTO THE MUD WITHYOUR LEGS SOMEWHERE UP IN THE AIR, YOU'REPROBABLY WEARING TRAINERS. BUY SOMECLEATS. IF YOU'RE HAPPY WEARING TRAINERSYOU MUST BE INDOORS. BUY A HACK.

Winning requires toughness, perhapseven ruthlessness. A phrase perhapsbetter known as “nice guys finish last” –a saying attributed to baseball veteranLeo Durocher. The self-refereeing sideof Ultimate makes it unlike any othersport. The responsibility for fair play isplaced on the individuals. The Spirit OfThe Game, if you will.

Spirit could so easily become somethingfor the teams languishing at the bottomof the pecking order to aim for. Theycan’t realistically compete at the top, sothey’ll have a good time and try to winSpirit by turning up drunk to the pitches.Thankfully, I don’t know too many whowould subscribe to such a mind-set. Weshouldn’t be giving our Spirit votes tolower teams if we only feel sorry for

them. We should be giving them to theteams who played hard, but also playedfair – the teams who deserved it.

So what can be counted as good Spirit?There are many different feelings outthere but I believe it is more than simplythe singing of pre-rehearsed songs andthe clapping of hands in a circle. Don’tget me wrong; calls can be a great endto a game. (Imagine the scene… lastgame of the World BeachChampionships… terrific Portuguesesunset… back massages from somelovely Canadians… a whole bottle ofCanadian whiskey gone in a matter ofminutes!). Ultimate is obviously the sporton the pitch, but the friendships madeand the activities that go on off-pitch cancontribute much to a tournament. Many

a non-game situation springs to mind…“Ve vant to take sand from all over zeworld and put it in zees trophy” – theGerman Co-ed team after winning at theWorld Beach Championships. “Thereyou go for world domination again” –was the reply from a slightly drunkenIrish chap. The important thing is totransfer this sort of attitude andfriendliness onto the pitch.

So what about playing fair during thegame? Surely Spirit should be about theattitude and manner in which playersbehave on the pitches. Hands up whohasn’t called a foul when you’re on ahigh stall? Well, maybe you knew thatdisc was down but you called it up?Being horsed by a top team can hurt, butit feels so much better if they played you

as if you were a major threat and pulledout all the stops to beat you. At least thatway you can look at the game and seewhat they were good at and learn from it.

My (somewhat biased) example wouldbe Positive Mojo – 2004 UniversityChampions at indoors and outdoors aswell as Spirit winners at both – a trulyremarkable feat which shows thatplaying at the top needn’t compromisefair play. Mojo simply have genuinelynice people. They made me, and manyothers, feel welcome even when wecaught/dropped our first 175g disc insunny Seaton Park. Of course wewanted to be a successful Universityclub, but the jokes and badimpressions are never far away. In fact,they were usually encouraged to helptake away the pain of yet another BPtraining routine.

The fun and the banter were central tothe success. At 9-3 down in the outdoorfinal at half time to Leeds we could beforgiven for thinking it was all over. Soclose to the double. Yet we felt as thoughwe’d had a good time and played prettywell during the weekend. Getting to thefinal is a pretty good advert for the sportback home, I thought. But to then turn itaround and win against a terrific Leedsdefending their crown was an addedbonus (OK, a huge added bonus). Somany of us across the UK enjoy thesport regardless of the final result. That’swhy we play it and devote so much ofour time to it.

My first experience of a non-Universityevent involved being told by an off-fieldplayer, “No, I will not clear the line” whenwe were trapped on the line. But he wasjust in a bad mood and others on histeam apologised on his behalf. In fact,they turned out to be a far more spiritedteam than their first impressionsuggested. So it isn’t just Universityteams that learn to play with Spirit,although I think that’s what appeals to somany first timers. Take Leeds at Tour 1.Winners of both Spirit and the Tour. Infact, it’s not unusual for Spirit to end upgoing to one of the top teams attournaments.

Yes, winning is central to every singlesport. Otherwise it would merely be apleasant hobby. Ultimate has shownover and over again that winning is notthe be all and end all of the game. Niceguys finish last? Well yes, nice guys canfinish last. They can also finish first.

John Dixon, Positive Mojo #10

nice guys finish last?

4

'Exciting' - I think that is the word I wouldchoose. Every year I play (and beforeyou think it, there haven't been thatmany!) I see more people in more teamswith more energy playing at moretournaments. This slow, steady growthin the numbers of people discoveringUltimate is in itself exciting, of course,but even more exciting is the enthusiasmand energy that you all bring. I've said itbefore but the spirit and camaraderie,rivalry (and revelry) and sheerenjoyment that is evident at everytournament and in every team is truly'exciting'. Combine that with the driveand commitment to constantly take oursport to higher levels and you can seewhy I think the UK is a very excitingplace to be playing Ultimate right now.

One of the most exciting developmentsthis year has been the sense of newbeginnings in both Women's and JuniorUltimate. The growth of a successfulWomen's Tour and the first Junior onlytournaments for several years (not tomention the dedication of both male andfemale Junior teams in Finland) reallybodes well for the future.

It is exciting for me to see how muchenergy goes into the development of thesport from players from across the fullspectrum of our community. Although weare still a very small community(probably around 22 hundred this year)we are growing and are beginning toface some of the consequences of thisgrowth. From the local to the national

level individuals and groups are steppingup and taking responsibility for the sportthat we play. This is vital. Not just forthe future development and growth ofUltimate but also so that we cancontinue to enjoy the sport today.

There are a few people I feel deserve amention for all their hard work over thelast year. Catherine Moore deservespraise for her continued dedication to theJunior Women's GB team. Alia Ayub hasbeen very influential in the developmentof the Women's Tour (working with manyof our top women players including TaraJewell, Laura Pearce amongst others)and our recent PR activities. MariaCahill and Jamie Cross were responsiblefor the success of the Mixed Tour. Rich

Hims (along with the rest of theUniversity Committee) have continuedthe sterling job the University Committeealways does. Tina Collier, ourAdministrator, has been a star. And lastbut far from least the UKU Board wouldnot have functioned without the efforts ofLaura Pearce (Treasurer), Wayne Retter,Alia Ayub, Adam Batchelor and ChrisHughes (DoC). There are, of course,many more deserving of our thanks - Icould go on listing names forever.Without these people we wouldn't havebeen able to play the sport that we alllove throughout 2004. Next time you seeany of them why not shake their hand. Orask how you can help. Or just say'thanks'. They deserve it.

Barry O’Kane

a word from the UKUA Chairman

5

MISSED! TOM GAMESTAR (URIEL). ALEX EVANS (JEDI) THINKS HE’S JUDGED THE THROW BETTERUNO (UNI OUTDOOR NATS), ST ANDREWS. PHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

PORTUGAL: THE WORLD BEACH CHAMPIONSHIPS

FRANCE VS USA (OPEN DIVISION FINAL)

ALI SMITH - GB VS. GERMANY. MIXED DIVISION

PHOTOS © STEPHEN GIGUERE 2004

www.lookfly.comwww.beachultimate.org/wcbu2004/morto.htm

HACK: PRICE £18

PROVE TO YOUR FRIENDS THAT ULTIMATE IS MORE THANJUST A PASSING FAD MINORITY SPORT BY SPENDING WHAT'SLEFT OF YOUR FREE TIME (I.E. PITCH-SIDE BETWEEN GAMES)PLAYING THIS PASSING FAD MINORITY SPORT.

For what now seems like forever, theItalian City of Rimini has hosted the biggest,bestest beach-based Ultimate tournamentin the world each Easter weekend.

This year, the 14th edition of Paganellowelcomed the usual array ofdysfunctional Frisbee playing flotsamand jetsam to the party, for another fourdays of dry-feet, party-till-dawn, red-wine-vomit, running-in-treacle, sand-in-your-contact-lens, perfect-pasta, and tip-top Ultimate. With twenty-somethingcountries represented across 3divisions, predictably Great Britain wasnot backward in jumping on the firstEasyjet out of town. Probably delayed.

Thursday. Opening Night Party.Traditionally, I spend the Thursday nightparty becoming so stupidly drunk on freered wine that, months later, people comeup to me and tell me what I was doing onthat night, and I have to nod sagely, withmy best I-don’t-remember-please-go-away look on my face. Not this timemethinks. Controlled vino rossoconsumption is the order of the night.Getting the hang of this concept Imanaged to see everyone I wanted tosee and avoided all the ones I didn’t. Thefireworks fired. Children played. Oldfriends were reunited. Got well pissed.

Friday. Day One proper. Freezing. Thecoldest, wettest day in my 5-year Riminihistory. Chevron - Rimini version – geton with the job of dispatching Pool Kwhipping-boys Klopstock, thenpredictably losing to former BeachChamps, Collard Greens. The finalgame was the cruncher - winner staystop 24 – against old hands XLR8ERSfrom France. In a close game ofreasonable quality Ultimate, halfwaythrough I was taken aside by the captainof the opposition. Apparently there wassomething wrong with our Pulls. Yes,they were too difficult to catch. I wasinformed that this represented bad Spiritin France. Ignoring the heavy irony ofthat statement, I responded that theywere probably in for an upsettingweekend. The game restarted, quicklymoving towards its jingle-ladenconclusion, and by using the twinweapons of throwing better andcatching more, a Chevron victory wassecured. With another Pool gamedispatched, a life-saving hot, frothycappuccino was sought out of the windand rain. Elsewhere results were goingaccording to plan. Bliss, Catch Twenty-Stu, UTI and PoughKeepsie all wadingthrough the opposition unconcernedwith Paga-caps.

Friday Night Party. Glass of Coke 4Euros? Yes please! Rubbish Euro-rockband? Give me more! The Friday partyin Rimini is always the poor relation tothe big events later in the weekend.Young, frisky people still manage todance the night away on a packed floor,little knowing how much energy theywill need to save. I manage to last till2.00am when one too many poodle-rock classics wears me down.Stumbling home along the coast roadwe remark on how far it is to our hotel, and vow to spend more onaccommodation next year.

Saturday – Day Two. Hangover?Check. Sore feet? Check. OK lets getstarted. Now known in one suburb ofManchester as Black Saturday, it wasthe day Claire Parker lost her first evergame at Rimini after xx games withBliss. Then just to prove it wasn’t a fluke,they did it again. But it proved merely asharp reminder that they had to up thestakes if they wanted to bag anotherBrolly. Still funny though. Poughkeepsiewere yo-yoing between inspiration andmediocrity as they tried to find their styleto take them back to glory. Chevronfound a new consistency not sincerevealed. We lost every game.

Around the ground Mavis looked verygood and Princess Layout were pickingup a nice couple of wins. Sun shone aswell - very nice. Britain’s Open divisionheavyweights carried on picking up thethree points with style.

Saturday Night Freestyle Party – AltroMondo Studios. Freestyle night is alwaysa strangely beguiling spectacle. Hundredsof sand-worn Ultimate children take thechance to be entertained by people moresocially unacceptable than themselves.The Freestyle genre has magicallycombined the grace and athleticism ofgymnastics, with the fashion know-how ofRod, Jane and Freddy.

From what I can gather, they are judgedon technique, artistic merit, and howinappropriate their clothes are. To call

them social misfits would be to massivelyunderstate their oddness. One talentedteam looked like two thirds of the long-lostJohn Purdey triplets. These were soonfollowed by the gayest pizza-menWestern Europe has ever witnessed.Nevertheless, the crowd love it all. Theywhoop and cheer every perfect move,and sigh a wistful sigh for what mighthave been with each dropped disc. I haveno idea who won, or even if there was awinner, but once again it proved to be theperfect support act to another night ofpartying. And as the first few beats ofOutKast’s ‘Hey Ya’ pumped out, the stagewas instantly sardine-full of beachUltimate’s finest movers and shakers.Litres of free wine had oiled the limbssufficiently for everyone to be dancing likelunatics. Tables were crammed withgyrating people, the Princess ladies orallyapplying fake tattoos, and all over theplace were outbreaks of love. Then, 4amarrives – and you’ve got to get that lastbus home. Two of our boys - to protecttheir identities lets call them Ryan andStan - missed the last free ride and, toodrunk to care, decided to walk the 4kmshome. They got lost. Badly. Only whenthe beer haze lifted the next day did theyrealise that their player pack containing aperfect map of the route home, had beennestling in their shirt pocket. You can’t buy stupidity.

6

Paganello, Rimini

Sunday. Day Three. Nicely warm. Hmm.Catch22 were playing like a team who hadplayed together for decades. Helpfullyboosted by a couple of senior GB players,Sweeks and Mitchell S, they bulliedthrough the opposition to reach the Semis.Chevron fell victim to the C22 machinemid-morning. Si Hill bemoaning ourrefusal to capitulate and give them a restbefore the Quarter final. Yeah Sic, whenhave you ever given any team an easyride? Victory in this battle of the Roseslevelled up the scores for the week-end,as Chevy had blatantly won the party thenight before after a Yorkshire no-show.We agreed to complete the fixture in theRose and Crown on Monday night. Fullmatch report to follow. Beach-combingsome other scores showed thatPoughkeepsie were still getting the sort oferratic results that reflected their new styleroster. But, even losing two 2nd roundpool games wasn’t enough to stop themmaking Semis, after outclassing and out-fighting the highly seeded Americans, LickMy Love Pump. Mini-squad UTI’s long-shot bid to regain the title fell to the Kings-of-the-beach No Tsu Oh in the Quarters.But, showing predictable quality they latergrafted their way to 5th place.

Paga Semis often overshadow the Final.With a heavy GB presence in the crowd,Catch22 attempted to overturn thesuperstar-laden SeXXXpensive. But,despite running down every disc, it provedtoo much to hang onto them. Not throughlack of effort though. An anonymouswatching American remarked that, “thoseguys in green have a lot of spunk”. I thinkhe meant Wigsy. Bliss settled an earlierscore by taking out Absolut Oppen toreach their 300th final. Chevron continuedour rich vein of consistency. 0 and 3.Again. The last game of the day being agreat match against Mr Twister ( orClapham Lite ™).

Sunday Night – Cross-dressingParty. Have you ever waited an hour fora bus on an Italian high street dressedas a woman? Many Italian womenprobably have. Sadly, so have I. Aneventful 60 minutes was passed as asmall contingent of GB transvestitesattempted to get to Sunday night’s partyvenue. One after another buses packedwith strange people passed us by.Accounts vary, but I’m told that wedidn’t miss much, althoughphotographic evidence proves thatsome revellers looked a whole bowl ofwrong. To think, I even shaved off mychest hairs. Both of them.

Monday. Day Four. Last games andFinal glory. Genital-shrinkingly cold.TheDruids had made a strangely rare visit toPaga this year. GB Ultimate’s erstwhilepurple-people spent the whole week-enddecked out in regulation Action Mankhaki shirts. Unfortunately, so effectivewas this camouflage design that theyappeared unable to locate their end-zone receivers. Final placing 34th. Mavistook a very creditable 5th place.

For Chevy a rare win saw us end with athat-will-do 23rd place, before weheaded to the stadium pitch for theFinals. Only beer can help us now. It waslike being in Bristol. Wearing every pieceof clothing, hats and waste paper youcould find, the crowd attempted to keeptheir spirits up as the rain battered usdown. Poughkeepsie just couldn’tcapture the magic of yesteryear and wentdown honourably for second place. Nosuch troubles for Bliss. They pulled awaymid-game and eventually won with easefor the 5th time. It was still raining. By thetime No Tsu Oh and SeXXXpensive werebusy trading hucks all feeling in my toeshad been lost. The only way through itfor Britain was verbal abuse. With aseemingly one-sided final opening upbefore us, the Catch boys started a

personal campaign of heckling no TsuOh’s Mike Grant. He of shit hair under hisshit hat - as the song goes. Even thoughthis mind-meld of abuse managed tobring an hilarious 4 turnovers from ‘thebest player in the world’ SeXXXpensivewere not good enough to stop a fourthTexan championship.

Monday Night – A bit of Bully. TheRose and Crown is the only pub I knowin the world where you can get burgerand chips at 4.00am. For this and otherreasons it is always full of BritishUltimate players on Rimini Monday.Strange things often happen in the R&C.People fall asleep and wake up withsalad balanced on their head. JaimieRogers walked to the toilet with his pantsand undies down. Scientists have yet toprove why.

Anyway, it was 3.00am and there was amatch to decide at the Oche. Chevron vCatch Twenty-Stu was locked at one-all,and a game of arrows was to decide it.Teams were selected, and darts werebought (yes, bought - 10 Euros to you,slightly soiled). Some of the Chevy teamcouldn’t hit the board. Some of Catch22were unaware they were playing darts.All were shit. To cut a long story short,

we won, C22 didn’t. Like the road toDamascus, sometime around dawnRyan was hit by a blinding light, and withvirtually his only scoring shot of thegame managed to hit the double withone shot to secure victory. I hope theyare not too bitter. As 5.00am threatenedwe were politely asked to leave.Paganello number 14 had flattened thedeck-chairs for another year.

Good night.

If you haven’t already sussed that youneed at least one Paga on yourfrisbee CV then there really is no hopefor you. What else are you going to donext Easter?

Steve ‘Kenny’ Kennedy.

7

PETE ‘RODDERS’ WRIGHT, CATCH 22 VS. SEXXXXPENSIVE

THE PAGANELLO SIGN POST, IN CASE YOU ARE LOST

PHOTOS: © BARBARA ZONZIN 2004

www.paganello.com

MEL ZLOCH (PRINCESS LAYOUT), MARKSINE LANCKRIET ON THE BELGIANWOMEN'S TEAM O.B.

PHOTO © STEPHEN GIGUERE 2004

www.lookfly.com

HEALTH WARNING: CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR ETHICALCREDIBILITY, YOUR BASIC HUMAN DIGNITY AND YOUR HAIR CARE REGIME.PHOTO: © JIM WILEMAN 2004

www.jimwileman.co.uk

KEITH HODGESON MANAGES TO GET A PASS OUT, EMO VS. FUSION. OPEN NATIONALSPHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

Training diet

To reach your ‘ultimate’ potential from along term dietary point of view, it isgenerally advisable to eat a diet basedon whole grain carbohydrates (pasta,rice, bread, potatoes, whole mealcereals, porridge oats and grains),regular (at least twice daily) sources ofprotein from meat, fish, eggs or pulses,and small amounts of fat (unsaturatedtypes are best, as in liquid cooking oils,oily fish, nuts and seeds) from variedfluid and food sources. Make sure youget in your daily 5 portions of fruit andveg. Eat plenty of foods high in iron andcalcium too. If you concentrate on eatinga variety of foods every day, you shouldbe able to meet all your requirements.

Of all these nutrients, carbohydrateplays a vital role in exerciseperformance. Glycogen, wherecarbohydrate is stored in the body,provides the critical fuel for exercisingmuscles and must be continually refilled;the more you exercise the more yourdietary carbohydrate needs are. Proteinrequirements are usually met through abalanced diet and artificial proteinsources shouldn’t be needed.

Competition preparation

There are two primary dietaryconsiderations for Ultimate players:carbohydrate amount and timing, andfluid intake. This is due to the particularintensity, duration and frequency ofexercise involved, as well as the mental(eh?) tactical and coordination skills.

In the final days before a tournamenttherefore try to:

1) Stay well hydrated. Aim to drink atleast 6-8 cups (1200-1600ml) of non-alcoholic fluid every day. Mostcaffeinated drinks count for non-trainingrequirements if drunk regularly as wetend to adapt to their diuretic effect. (Thisisn’t the case for alcohol).

2) Ensure glycogen levels are toppedup. This can be achieved through a 24-36 hours rest and a high carbohydratediet. Carbohydrate loading is a popularidea but often misunderstood. For mostUltimate players, it is probably notnecessary as the only benefits are reallyseen in endurance sports (triathlons,cycling, marathons, cross-countryskiing), which involve continuous high-intensity exercise for over 90 minutes.Most Ultimate games either don’t lastthis long or allow short rest periods(subbing off) in which you can grabsnacks. There can also be adisadvantage to lugging around unusedsuper-loaded (and heavy) glycogenstores around the pitch. If you decideyou will benefit from it, try eating 8-10gcarbohydrate per kg body weight (this isa lot!) and don’t make it an excuse to pigout on anything that takes your fancy(i.e. cakes, chocolate biscuits, chips) asyou will just end up gaining body fatrather than glycogen.

On the day…. Fluids

Try to train yourself to drink to aschedule, rather than waiting until youfeel thirsty. If you do, you’re alreadysignificantly dehydrated which will affectyour performance. As a guide:

� 15 minutes before the game: 300-500ml (about two glassfuls or half abottle of sports drink)

� During: 150-250ml every 15-30minutes, use the points you sub offeffectively to down the equivalent ofa glass or mug of fluid

� After: rehydrate as quickly aspossible. To do this you must drink50% fluid more than the fluid youhave lost through sweat. That meansdrinking 1.5litres of fluid for every kgof body weight lost to cover ongoinglosses through sweat and urine andto cover you fluid deficit. As a guide,most players loose around one litreof sweat per hour, depending onclimate and the individual.

Plain water is not always the best drink,unless you train once a day for less thanan hour at low intensity. The best drinksupplies some carbohydrate (glucose,sucrose) and salts, which help the bodyabsorb and retain more of the fluid aswell as restocking what is lost throughsweat. Normal strength sports drinkssuch as Lucozade Sport, Powerade, SisGo are suitable. But if, like me, you thinkthey’re a bit pricey, you could try thishome-made ‘sports’ drink recipe: 50ml (5dessert spoon) of Ribena or similar highsugar concentrate, 450ml water, and asmall pinch of salt (eat your heart outDelia!).

It’s worth remembering diet drinks willnot give you the benefits of carbohydrateand the caffeine content may make youpass slightly more urine, delayingrehydration.

BANANAS 87p

THEY COME IN THEIR OWN BIODEGRADABLE PACKAGINGAND YOU DON'T NEED A FORK TO EAT THEM.

a step by step guide: eating properly for ultimate

8

Food

For pre-event meals choose somethingyou know and enjoy (don’t try a new foodjust before an important event as it maynot agree with you). It should be:

Easy to digest, low in fibreHigh in carbohydrateModerately low proteinLow in fatInclude fluids with it

An appropriate eating plan could be abowl of pasta with red sauce and 400mlfruit juice 3-4 hours before the game,then a 200g pot of low fat fruit yoghurtand snack pack of sultanas 2 hoursbeforehand, then with one hour to go500ml of sports drink.

See the table below for ideas. (LF)indicates lower fibre options for thoseprone to pre-match Delhi-belly.

Pre-Exercise meals/snacks

Breakfast cereal or porridge with semi-skimmed milk and fruit or fruit juice

Fruit salad with low fat yoghurt

Jacket potato with baked beans/tinnedspaghetti/sweet corn Smoothie basedon semi-skimmed milk or fortified soyamilk, low fat yoghurt and banana /mango / berries

Muffins or crumpets withhoney/jam/syrup (LF)

Jelly with tinned pears

Toast or roll with honey/ jam/ syrup/baked beans/ banana and honey Lowfat muesli or cereal bar and a banana

Low fat rice pudding and tinned fruitLiquid meal supplement e.g. SustagenSport, Maxim Original Energy (LF)

Pasta with low fat tomato sauce (LF)

Sports drink - Lucozade, Powerade (LF)

Between games

This is difficult but important to get right.If it has been a long hard game, yourglycogen stores are likely to have starteddepleting by this time (between 45-90minutes) and football studies haveshown this can significantly affectendurance and high intensity exercisecapacity later in the day. Some peopleare more susceptible to this than othersand it has been shown if carbohydrate isconsumed just prior to the game and athalf time, such as in a sports drink, apositive effect on movement and skills(less mistakes) is seen in the secondhalf due to fatigue delay.

So what do you eat? It is very temptingwhen you have an hour before your nextmatch to shelter in the clubhouse with abowl of chips or a sausage sandwich.These ‘snacks’ may contain somecarbohydrate but the high amount of fatand protein slows their digestion and youare more likely to find its turned into abrick in your stomach during the next fewhours. The best between-game snacksare low fat and fibre, high quick-releasecarbohydrates that are not too filling,such as Jaffa Cakes, jelly babies,cornflakes with semi-skimmed milk,muesli bars, canned spaghetti on whitetoast, fruit or sports drinks, flavouredmilk, jam sandwich or bananas.

After the last game

This is the chance to do as much as youcan to optimise your strength and fitnessfor the next day, knowing that a long,hard night of drinking and partying isprobably ahead of you….

You need to rehydrate and restore youglycogen fuel stores as soon as possibleafter exercise (within 20-30 minutes), byeating around 50-70g of carbohydrate.The kind of snacks that will provide thisare 2x500ml bottles sports drinks, abread roll with banana and honey, 200gcarton of low-fat fruit yoghurt and 1 multi-pack box of breakfast cereal, or a bottleof flavoured milk together with a mueslibar and an apple. If you can handle alarger meal any of the pre-event mealideas are suitable too.

A word about alcohol…

Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Despite what you may have heard aboutbeer and carbo-loading, a few pintsbefore a tournament will not fuel upmuscle glycogen stores; alcohol canactually interfere with glycogensynthesis. Basically, alcohol should notbe consumed just before, during orstraight after exercise; it can lead todehydration (as it acts as a diuretic),poor fuel stores, delayed recovery,impaired skills and coordination and agreater risk of hypothermia in coldconditions (Scandinavia anyone?). Takespecial care with bruising and soft tissueinjuries sustained during a match asalcohol will significantly increase thedamage and prolong time forrehabilitation due to its vasodilatoryeffect, increasing swelling/bleeding, soavoid it for 24-48 hours if you are injured.If you are watching your weight alcoholis also very high in calories.

The morning after(or damage limitation)

If you didn’t take heed of the lastparagraph then it’s too late mate!

A high carbohydrate, low fat breakfast(cereal and marmite on toast) ratherthan the traditional fry-up is probably thebest option as well as plenty of fluid(water, dilute squash or sports drink). Inmy experience a hair of the dog may wellhave the same effect by this time. It’s notas though you’re going to be in the finalanyway…

Laura James MA MSc SRDwww.eat5aday.co.uk

9

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10

Considering how to approach this article,I've been able to take much appreciatedcounsel from two great contributors toUltimate journalism, but none of it has letme escape the fact that there's only onestory from the season past: Aberdeen.What Roy and Will have done with thatteam, and the way in which it's beendone, cannot be overstated. Assomething of an Ultimate historian, I waspainfully aware that the Far Flung teamof 2002 were inheriting anIndoor/Outdoor double mantle not wornsince the departing Catch 22 of '97, but Iwas ecstatic when we were able to wearit the very next year. Those three'doubles' have now been eclipsed by aPositive Mojo team that have redefinedthe phrase by winning not just the titles,but also the Spirit award at each event.

Indoors: Sheffield

Looking back at the results, it's all tooobvious that seeding Universitytournaments is nigh impossible, evenafter Indoor Regionals, with only oneteam finishing as seeded, and anaverage shift of more than 3 places. Atthe start of the weekend, neither of thefinalists were predicted such a place, buttheir possession game was impressingeveryone as they topped their respectivepools, in stark contrast to the looseplaying style of the previous yearsfinalists that saw them drop out at thequarter final stage. As the semi finalsplayed out and the all-Scottish fixturewas confirmed, an ankle injury toAberdeen's much hyped Roy Van Cleefhad the spectators resigned to anEdinburgh victory, but the depth of thePositive Mojo squad had other ideas.Whether it was perennial runner-upGeoff Legg's presence on the Edinburghroster or an inspiring layout block by BenPrice, at 3-1 Edinburgh the tide seemedto turn and the crowd began cheering forAberdeen with greater expectation.Expectation that was utterly satisfied asa low-turnover possession-fest saw the30 minute clock run down with the scorea mere 6-5 to Mojo. Continued sublimeplay and a tense final point culminated inthe disc being punched into the cornerfor an impressive 8-5 victory.

Women’s Indoors: Warwick

Two years on from the first Women’sIndoors, and the attendance hasdoubled. Hosts Warwick fielded asuperlative five teams, while elsewhererostering concessions were made toallow clubs with fewer X chromosomes

to put out joint teams. Early on itbecame clear that the finalists of 2003were likely to set up a rematch, and so itpanned out as RoShamBo took a goaldifference of 86 into a final against thesimilarly dominant Oxford. The twoteams could not have looked moredifferent as the black-clad WoW! linedup against an Edinburgh teamapparently competing for the MostGarish Skirt award. Just like last year,Edinburgh's play was primarily throughtheir mini dynamo, Karen Levey, but thissquad had a greater number ofcompetent deeps and handlers to varytheir game, and contributions from thewhole team saw them revenge thedefeat of Cardiff.

Outdoors: St Andrews

The inauguration of Outdoor Regionalsallowed for a more informed seeding ofOutdoor Nationals than previouslypossible, and this was reflected asnearly half the teams finished within aplace of their seeding. The new 16 teamformat made for a number of close,exciting games on Saturday afternoonas Portsmouth's lead was overtaken byAberdeen to push them down to themiddle eight crossover, a crossoverround that saw a well-drilled Brunel teamupset the seeds to earn a place in thequarter finals. Since no Women’s teamswere able to make the trip north, theformat had also been arranged to allowfor a showcase England v ScotlandWomen’s game after the first two roundsof pool play. With the Scottish teammade up primarily of the RoShamwomen, and no WoW! girls in sight,many of the crowd took the result forgranted, but some visionary hucks fromBrunel's Gemma Taylor, and solid playby Leeds and Loughborough girls had avocal sideline cheering the English teamto a jubilant win.

Two tough semi finals evidenced theneed for deep sidelines as Aberdeenbested a Loughborough team with a pairof Clapham stars, and an experiencedJedi squad overcame Edinburgh'sathleticism. So, to a final that has beendescribed as 'one of the most excitingever to be played at student level'. Fourof the ten nominees for this year'sUniversity Player of the Year matchedeach other play for play as Jedi took acommanding lead, only to becomprehensively reined in by adetermined Mojo. As everything was puton the line, it was only fitting that thegame should go to sudden death, and

the winning point completed a perfectyear for Aberdeen.

On a personal note, while that loss wasutterly devastating, I can say with someconfidence that I'll be able to look backcontent that Aberdeen executed such acomplete accomplishment. It is onlyfitting that, when asked for comments onthis article, Will should remain true toform in his humility: "I look back withsome disbelief on this year, as I'm sureyou do. RoShamBo were great, Sublimewere really impressive, and I think any offour teams could have won eithertournament." Perhaps, but everyonewho was there knows that only one teamdeserved to.

Rich Hims, Uni Coordinator

university ultimate

HARRY PUTS IN A BIG FAKE DOWN FIELD - BEFORE MAKING A SAFE DUMP. GB VS. CANADA (MASTERS), WUGC TURKU 2004

PHOTO: © PAUL HURT 2004

www.pope.smugmug.com

INDOOR ULTIMATE IS QUITE GOOD REALLY. PERHAPS I’VE BEEN TOO SCATHINGABOUT IT IN THE PAST. BRISTOL OLD GITS WENT TO AN INDOOR EVENT EARLIERTHIS YEAR - I THINK IT WAS CALLED ‘NATIONALS’ - AND EVERYBODY TREATED ITLIKE A TRIBUTE EVENT, PRESUMABLY IN THE HOPE THAT WE’D RETIRE AND GO

AWAY IF THEY LET US WIN. SORRY GUYS, BUT IT’S HARD NOT TO WANT TODEFEND ANY TITLE, EVEN IF IT’S NOT REALLY ULTIMATE.

FAR FLUNG V MANCHESTER MINGERS @ UIN (UNI IN NATS), SHEFFIELD.PHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

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DESIGNED TO SQUASH DOWN SUFFICIENTLY BADLYWHEN YOU LAYOUT ONTO THEM AS TO IMPAIR YOURCHANCES OF PRODUCING TINY ULTIMATE PLAYERS INTHE FUTURE.

What shall we blame for GB Ultimate’s‘poor’ performance at Worlds 2004?The format of the tour? Mental fatigueafter a long season? A failure to attracttalented athletes to the sport at an earlyenough age? All convenient excusesthat players can fall back on to avoid thefact that when it comes down to it theysimply failed to complete enough passesand score enough points. Their Offencewas not up to scratch. It’s no surprisethat this has not been a major focus ofthe post Worlds discussion - a lot ofBritish Ultimate players have strongopinions but sadly over 93% have noidea what they are talking about. (Only6.7% of competition entrants correctlypredicted Chevron’s Tour finishingposition). Unfortunately the people mostlikely to give you advice about how toplay Offence are most likely to beHeroes or Boffins and they are not goingto be much use when it comes to thehighest levels in the game.

Remember your best ever layout, or that40 yard hammer you threw for a scoreon a high stall or when you out skied amelee of players to bring down awayward huck? Great moments that stillsend shivers down your spine when youthink about them but they are not thekind of Ultimate that you should be tryingto recreate as part of your offensivestrategy. Heroes feed off thosemoments, celebrate them wildly and tellthe tale in the pub for years to come.What they fail to realise is that full lengthlayout was only an inch away from beinga desperate, hopeless bid at a poorthrow, if you had turned and looked forthe dump on stall 6 you would not haveneeded to throw the hammer and as youout skied three defenders two of yourteam mates were being poached off andconsequently were wide open for aneasy swing. Their approach to Offencemay be great to watch and great to play,against a weaker team, but as soon asthey come up against any oppositionwho know what they are doing their stylewill let them down – it’s simply too risky.They will do a lot of fitness work to getinto good enough shape to make thosekinds of plays but if you want to makethe best use of the Heroes in your squadget them on the D line because sooneror later you’re going to get so fed up withthem giving up offensive possessioncheaply that you will stop bothering tochase your man to get it back. (If theyinsist on playing Offence advise them tomove to Leeds).

Boffins are harder to spot, some arevery good players, many have lots ofexperience and all have studied thegame and will give you a detailedexplanation of how to react to any givensituation. They spend hours devisingcomplex and rigid offensive strategiesand waste hours of team practicerunning through them. What they do notrealise is that even the most drilledOffence in the world needs to be flexibleand adaptive, Ultimate players cannotthink about more than a couple of thingsat once and just because a particularcut or throw tends to work for them thatdoes not necessarily mean it will workfor everyone else. Boffins can also playa valuable role on the team – ask themto learn the rules just in case you areever in a situation where someone calls a time-out whilst simultaneouslycompleting a ‘greatest’ on a pass thatwas thrown during a contested travel.Do not let them anywhere near the teamtactics. There are two good tests forBoffinism (Boffinitus?): Firstly, look atthe frequency and length of theirBritidisc posts. Secondly, when they areexplaining an offensive plan ask ‘Whatwould you do if the third defender in thestack was poaching up a couple ofyards inside their man preventing theinside out threat?’ If the answer islonger than the question, you can safelyignore it.

Once you have reached an adequatelevel of fitness and mastered the basicsof throwing and catching, playing goodOffence is easy and all it comes down tois making good choices – the easiestchoice is always the right one. I thoughtthe Open Final in Worlds was pretty dullto watch, neither team had an offensivestructure that was particularly obvious,until the last few points very few huckswere thrown; every point was just 7guys working very hard graduallyworking the disc down field, turnoverswere few and far between because bothteams were taking the easy pass everytime (the 70+ calls did not help either).It may be a blessing that very fewgames in Britain are ever played likethat because sooner or later we canpretty much always rely on a few peopleloosing their heads and do somethingstupid / exciting, but it explains whyBritish Ultimate is still several stepsbehind the best in the world.

To improve your Offence you need firstto analyse the choices you are makingon the pitch. Did you look off an easy

short pass early in the stall beforehaving to resort to something hard lateron? Did you cut deep and call for thedisc when you know the thrower cannotmake good throws over 20 yards?When a play was called why were youclose enough to let your defender poachoff and get a bid? These are all badchoices – sometimes you would havegot away with it and there would nothave been a turnover but sooner or laterif you keep making bad choices they willcatch up with you. Most importantly; areyou concentrating properly to make sureyou do the next thing right, or are youbrooding on your mistakes, getting angryabout a harsh foul call or working outhow to look good in front of the sideline?Until you begin to concentrate properly,rather than practicing and pretendingyou are playing quality Ultimate, youmight as well stay at home to do a littleneedlework on your toga or work on themelodies of your team song becauseyou are not going to be able to cut it atthe top level.

Once you have begun to eliminate thebad choices from your game you need torecognise two situations where you arelikely to be loosing concentration:Firstly, when your adrenaline ispumping. How many times have youseen a great catch followed by a lousythrow? Why do teams that have beenworking the disc patiently down the fieldturnover on an assist? Are yousomeone who gets angry with yourselfafter a mistake and try to make thingsright by pulling off something harder thenext time? All examples of lapses inconcentration as adrenaline kicks in.The other time is when you arebeginning to get tired. Maybe you havebeen playing a flawless game and thensuddenly things start to go wrong for youand you cannot understand why you areturning over. It will usually be becauseyou are getting tired. You may feel OKbecause your body is pumping all theenergy to your legs to keep you running,but bits of your brain are beginning toshut down and the bad choices arecoming. Spotting when you are loosingconcentration is difficult, learning how todeal with it even harder (I wouldrecommend taking some subs and tryingto do nothing more than dumping thedisc whilst you get through that rockypatch). The secret to real success isbeing able to see when it is happening toyour team as a whole and stopping therot before it sets in.

There are few things you could try atpractice to improve the choices peoplemake during matches; do not wastetime on complicated pull plays, learn afew simple patterns that you can use alot during the game (e.g. how to dumpthe disc, what to do against a line-trapand how to score from 10 yards out)and then practice them, against adefence, until they become secondnature so that in a game you knowexactly what is going to happen andyou are responding automatically –choices do not come into it. When youare running drills make sure you are notencouraging bad choices, do not forcepeople to throw the disc if they do notthink they can complete a throw, allowthem to look passes off and pretend todump it instead (and make sure youblame the receiver for not cutting intothe right area at the right time). Don’tjust do push ups and sit ups every timeyou make a mistake, pick on one of theHeroes and get everyone in the team todo punishments every time they areinvolved in a turnover – eventually theymay realise how often it happens. Ifone of your team-mates thinks thatrunning, catching, throwing andTHINKING is something that anaverage Ultimate player can dosimultaneously, stop countingcompletions in a drill and play fiz-buzzinstead, see how smoothly that goes.

Harry Golby

offence is easy!

11

12

“First cutting” Jack said, “just a shortpiece about what it entails and how tobe better at it”. No problem, I figure,without bothering to consider theimplications, and take it on. Well I’vebeen pondering it for weeks now andreached the following conclusion; Ishould have lied, said I was too busyand turned down the assignment!

Fortunately Parinella and Zaslow (2004),in their excellent book ‘ULTIMATE:Techniques and Tactics’, have donemost of the spadework already, and for amore detailed analysis of cuttingtechnique there is a chapter on thesubject in that book.

First cuts are those that provide a throwerwith his/her first options to throw to,usually from a static position as opposedto being a continuation / flow cut. Goodfirst cutters are invaluable at the start of apoint or after a stoppage of play, when theOffence and Defence are set and a cut isrequired to initiate the movement / flow ofthe disc. Any time that the flow is haltedbecause there is no continuation passavailable, the Offence will tend to resetand a first cut will be required to get thedisc moving again.

First cutting is a high pressureassignment: the defence is set, the openspaces are easily identifiable and theglare of the spotlight is focused firmly onthe battle to complete the first pass. Thegame is effectively reduced to a one-on-one contest in which the first cutter isresponsible for defeating their markerand providing the thrower with the optionthat s/he and the team expect. If ateam’s first cutters are unable to winthese battles the Offence will struggle tofunction, turnover more often and willoften concede possession and goodfield position.

A first cutter must: • Know where they are expected to be

cutting to.• Be able to time his/her cut: this

means not cutting at the same timeas a team mate or too late in the stallcount.

• Be able to beat their marker and get free.

• Know when the cut is over and clearquickly to make way for anothercutter. If the thrower looks at thecutter and “looks them off” the cutshould be terminated immediately.

As with all cutting, speed and agility arevery helpful but often insufficient on theirown to defeat an attentive defender. The

defender must first be out-witted and/orout-manoeuvred. If a player has a speedadvantage they should be able to getfree almost at will, however there israrely a big enough disparity in speed forit to be decisive on its own and wily,experienced defenders can be capableof negating this advantage. Fast playersoften become blasé about cutting,relying entirely on superior speed to beattheir defender but are often unable toadjust and compete when they findthemselves being marked by a player ofequivalent athletic prowess.Consequently other techniques forescaping the attentions of the markermust be employed. Timing, guile anddeception are the keys to getting free,combined with the ability to plan andexecute the right cut at the right time.These attributes will allow a cutter todefeat a better-positioned, more athleticdefender.

The position of the cutter should offer atleast two viable cutting options otherwisethe defender will have the upper hand bytaking the optimum position on the routeto the one place that they can cut to.Starting somewhere that providesopportunities on either side will allow thecutter to fake one way and cut to theother. Also it means that the defender willfavour one side, probably the side that theforcing defender is trying to deny thethrower. A good general principle ofcutting is to take what the defender isgiving, that means cutting to the side thatthe marker is less intent on defending. Ofcourse a cutter must be able to beat thedefender to the side the marker isdenying as well but this battle will alwaysbe more hotly contested: so there is atrade-off between offering a harder,break-mark, throw to a freer cut, and aneasier throw to a more tightly covered cut.

Here are some tips on opportunemoments to cut; things that will enable acutter to spring free of their marker:• Cut when the marker is off

balance, back on their heels.• Cut when the marker isn’t looking!• Cut when the marker gets their body

position wrong or their feet crossed.• Cut after having made the

marker move away from the space to be exploited.

An experienced player does these thingswithout thinking, it’s all just a part ofcutting. For less experienced players theprocess will require more thought,planning and application but the endresult can be equally productive.

Having established an ‘apposite’ positionthe first thing the cutter should do ismove the defender; back-them-up ordrag them to a space away from thetarget of the cut. If a cutter is at the frontof the stack the defender is almostcertain to set up between them and thethrower, probably shading to the openside. By walking (or jogging, whatever)forwards, the defender is forced to back-up to maintain their position between thecutter and the disc. Moving directlytowards the thrower optimises the spaceon both the sidearm and backhandflanks and keeps the marker guessing.The initial direction of the movementdoes not have to be towards the throwerbut from the front of the stack it definitelyopens most options. However, considera first cutter starting from deepest in thestack, the marker is probably deep ofthem protecting the endzone, in order toback-them-up the cutter would moveaway from the disc before faking andcutting hard back towards the disc.

Any cut will usually contain a distinct andswift change in direction, allied with rapidacceleration and is often preceded by afake to further unbalance the defender.Moving the defender, taking a smallbounce-step, faking one way and cuttingthe other can facilitate all of these things.The bounce-step is nothing more than asmall hop, followed by a two footedlanding and a knee bend. This storesenergy in the legs and allows forexplosive acceleration in any direction.The last point is key: the defender will beback on their heels, not knowing whichdirection the cutter will choose and thusthe cutter has the upper hand.

If after the bounce-step the cutter doesnot feel confident in their ability to simplyout-accelerate the marker, they shouldmake a fake prior to starting the cutproper. The fake will ideally be no morethan a few steps (one or two are oftensufficient) but those steps must look likeor at least convince the marker that thecutter has just started sprinting/cuttinghard in that direction. If the markerbelieves this they will commit themselvesto following. Once they have, the fake iscompleted by not taking the next step,absorbing the energy into the leading leg,by sinking over the planted foot (thedeeper the knee-bend the more energy isstored) and then using that energy toreverse the momentum and leave thedefender floundering.

Once ahead of the marker and headingfor an open space, it should be possiblefor the thrower to throw the disc so that

only the cutter can get it. Crucially it alsomeans that upon catching the disc thecutter will have an opportunity to makean immediate unmarked pass. The morelateral or away the cut is, the harder itbecomes for the defender to be able toget into a position to stop thecontinuation pass. A trailing marker,intent upon stopping a continuationthrow, will ‘bite’ hard on any fake of thisthrow and will often over commit to givethe opportunity for the thrower to pivot tothe other side and have an unmarkedthrowing opportunity on that flankinstead. Consider also that the morelateral or away the cut is, the better theopportunity to throw down field andspecifically throw long down field.

Which leads on to the end of the cutwhere there are another set oftechniques that a first cutter will need tomaster in order to maximise theireffectiveness. These are:• Knowing where the next

player will be cutting to. • Having the correct grip on the

disc to enable a swift release.• Stepping into the correct

position to facilitate that throw.• Being balanced.• Having the confidence to complete

the immediate continuation throw.

A players ability to perform these tasksand the efficiency with which they can doso will determine the exact moment atwhich the next cutter will start their cut:the more skilled a player is at catching-and-releasing, the earlier the next cutcan commence, conversely the moretime it takes them, the longer the nextcutter will need to delay. For short cutsthe right moment to start is probably asthe disc is being caught or fractionallybefore; too early and the cutter will findthemselves running out of space and notbe a viable target.

First cutting is but a cog in a fullyfunctioning Offence and all the othercogs need to be well tuned andlubricated in order for it to be fullyeffective. However first cutting is a veryimportant cog, the one that sets all theothers in motion, the one which initiatesand determines the pace and direction ofevery attack. By improving the quality ofit’s first cutting, a team will find it easier tomove the disc, be less restricted by theopposition and commit fewer turnovers.

Simon Moore, GB Women’s Coach.

the first cut..

SI MOORE AND CLAIRE PARKER, GB WOMEN TIME-OUT, WUGC, TURKUPHOTO © TOM STYLES 2004

www.lookflynews.com

RICH HIMS. GB VS. CZECH, MIXED DIVISION, WUGC, TURKU PHOTO: © PAUL HURT 2004

www.pope.smugmug.com

What I have to say is partly a responseto the photo that appeared on the insidecover of the last Ultimatum but promptedmainly by what I saw at Worlds thissummer. It is something that has beengrowing in our sport for some time and isa threat to the very fabric of Ultimate.I’m talking about a blatant disregard forcertain laws of the game and constantviolations of the S-O-T-G that can turnour sport into a farce!

This is what it says at the start of therules to Ultimate:

“Ultimate has traditionally relied upon aspirit of sportsmanship, which places theresponsibility for fair play on theindividual player him/herself. Highlycompetitive play is encouraged butnever at the expense of:• mutual respect between players• adherence to the agreed-upon

rules of the game • the basic joy of play.

The purpose of the rules of ultimate is toprovide a guideline, which describes theway the game is played. It is assumedthat no ultimate player willintentionally violate the rules; thereare no harsh penalties for inadvertentinfractions but, rather, a method forresuming play in a manner, whichsimulates what would most likely haveoccurred had there been no infraction.”

Take one example as a microcosm of thesport as a whole and apply the sameprinciples to other parts of the game,even if they are less black and white.Catching fouls, it seems to me, should befairly simple to resolve. As a defender,you know if you've given someone a slap!Equally as a receiver you know if youhave dropped the disc before there wascontact. If players are prepared to behonest, as the S-O-T-G demands, thereshould rarely be any dispute. But fewerand fewer players seem prepared to betotally candid; too often scared to ‘let theteam down’ or to be seen to have madean error! Good ultimate players are fineathletes and generally dexterous too, soin most cases there is no way they “don’tknow” if a foul has been committed.Sometimes there will be doubt and therules allow for that, no problem. Othertimes ‘fouls’ will result from incidentalcontact, the result of two players going tothe same spot at the same time: oftenmisinterpreted, often wrongly called andalmost always contested.

My point is this, there needs to be morehonesty in the game, especially in big

games where the stakes are high. If adefender has hit the hands of the receiverand adheres to the rules they can nevercontest that foul, that’s obvious, I think?But it happens all the time.

I would like to share a couple ofexamples from Worlds that stick in mymind. The first is from the open final: itwas a pretty dour game and in front ofpaying customers and a major TV crewthe two contestants paid only lip-serviceto the S-O-T-G; when a demonstration ofit’s virtues were called for, from theWorld’s best teams, playing Ultimate’sbiggest showpiece game. Consider theone occasion when a catching foul wasnot contested (shock, horror), there wasa huge cheer (the biggest of the game?)as if something amazing had justhappened, when in reality it was an eventthat should be common-place in a gameas closely contested as that one was.

The other incident is rather moredisquieting. I watched a defender, whowas pursuing a cutter towards the disc,hit the elbow of the receiver as the catchwas attempted. It was dropped andthere was a “foul” call. When the throwerasked if it was contested, first anuninvolved team-mate answered, “Yeah,it’s contested” then the fouler responded,“Of course it’s contested!” This allhappened barely five meters from whereI stood, open mouthed with disbelief.

This example suggests to me that it isnot solely individuals who are to blame.Experienced players are all more thancapable of judging situations and beingable to have a good idea as to theveracity of a call. Yet how often do wesee a team-mate intercede and attemptto reason with a player making aheinous call? How often do we seevociferous team-mates suddenly turn ablind eye and go quiet? The choice ofplayers to accept, without question,every call made by their team makesthem equally culpable for these dubiousactions. Whilst at Worlds I suspect that,for certain teams, some calls weremandatory e.g. ‘always contest acatching foul, whatever’!

If the moral imperative for ‘fair play’ isremoved our game will becomeuntenable! At least in ‘refereed’ sportscheating requires some subterfuge, orguile, or timing, some sort of skill to conthe adjudicator, at the very least luck! InUltimate none of these are required,there is no one to hoodwink, all that isrequired is a certain moral laxity and awillingness to cheat. Apart from

personal integrity the only check is theattitude of team-mates and, to someextent, external peer pressure from theultimate community at large (I believeblatantly bad calls should be boo-ed byany neutrals present!). But no oneseems to care; no one seems preparedto make a stand. If a team is notprepared to challenge the calls/attitudesof players making poor calls then ourgame is in deep sh*t!!

The other thing that is apparent is that asplayers climb to higher levels of playing,they feel less constrained by the rules,less need to abide by the spirit of thegame, as if being an elite player excusesthem from these bothersomerestrictions. It is a shame that the bestplayers/teams don’t also have the bestunderstanding of the rules, have the bestspirit and take responsibility forsafeguarding that spirit.

As I said at the start, these are not newor startling insights and I probably wouldnot have been moved to write anythinghad it not been for a game so dire, interms of lack of spirit, that I had to leave.Both teams became embroiled by a tit-for-tat mentality which spiralled the gameinto the depths of spiritlessness! Certainfactions amongst the elite of ultimate

have embraced the ‘willing-to-cheat’mindset in an attempt to makethemselves more competitive amongstthe highest echelons of World ultimate.The North Americans are well ahead ofeveryone in this department and if weEuropeans do not make a stand andmake a positive effort to reinvigorate thebeleaguered S-O-T-G, cynical calls willbecome more and more common place.We will end up with observers or evenreferees making our calls and ultimatewill lose one of the fundamental featureswhich distinguishes it from all othersports and which contributes to making itthe greatest game on earth.

It takes courage to be honest, to admitthat you were unable to prevent anopponent from getting the better of youand to accept that your team–matesmight be pissed-off with you. Well that’show it has to be! Individuals have totake responsibility for their actions andbe honest. Let’s eradicate thewillingness to cheat from our game; let’sbolster the S-O-T-G and make it strongagain; let’s glory in being different fromother sports and not rush to join them intheir spiritless, refereed world.

Simon Moore, Personal Rant.

13

spirited away?EDITOR'S NOTE:SIMON'S ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN AFTER EXPERIENCES AT WUGC 2004. THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT REFLECT THE SPIRIT OF THE UKTOUR - WHICH HAS IMPROVED NOTICEABLY IN RECENT YEARS, ESPECIALLY AMONG THE TOP TEAMS SUCH AS CLAPHAM ANDLEEDS. THERE SEEMED TO BE A MARKED DIFFERENCE ON THE WORLD STAGE.

14

The UKU Mixed Tour returned in 2004with a continuing trend towards“geo” teams, as new outfitsLeedsLeedsLeeds, EMO, Ltd Release,and Cardiff all made their mark intheir inaugural season.

The GB Mixed team, looking to build ontheir success at Europeans, enteredTour 1 playing with two teams, theLeedsLeedsLeeds heavy O-line GB A,and the Scotland heavy D-line GB B.Also fancied were 2003 Tour winnersRampant X, and the home team BristolPlastic Factory 1. The ‘peer pools’ formatused all year produced close, excitinggames, with a 5-12 crossover before QFgiving the top 16 teams a chance to winthe title. Whatever, the 2003 NationalChampions fielded a weakened side inBristol and finished 7th. Both GB sidesprogressed to the semi-finals, with GB Bprevailing over BAF, and GB Asuccumbing to Rampant X in a mud-bath. The conditions had become so badthat the teams, who were concernedabout the safety of the players, called offthe last game of the day, the final.Failure to consult the tournament

director resulted in both teams being‘fined’ 50 ranking points. A subsequentappeal by Rampant X to the UKUACACwas rejected.

The inconclusive finish to Tour 1 gave asense of added importance to Tour 2,and it quickly delivered with the Tour 1‘finalists’ meeting in the QF. Rampant Xtook an early lead, and survived a latefight-back by a unified GB team, to setup a SF against host Si Weeks’ LittleSheff. Sheff (playing their only Tourevent) rode their trio of deep threats -Sweeks, Rodders and C-Lo - into thefinal. EMO and Ltd Release usurpedWhatever and Shocker’s places in thetop 8, and Spirit went to Spoon winnersSalt ’n’ Sauce. A full strengthLeedsLeedsLeeds, although still missingtheir GB contingent, proved the surpriseof the tournament, defeating BPF in theother SF before falling to the rampantSheff in the final. The news on thegrapevine was that Sheff would returnfor Nationals, and the qualification slotfor European Clubs given to the winners.On this performance, it was hard to seeanyone stopping them.

Great weather in Swindon for Tour 3produced some of the most excitingUltimate of the year. Ltd Release andEMO contested the Plate final afterdropping out of the top 8, with Ltdreversing the outcome of their 7v8 matchat Tour 2 to take their second Plate of theseason (Tour 1). BPF 2, playing theirthird Tour, maintained their improvementfinishing a very creditable 13th, the bestresult of any 2nd team this year. BPF 1,having lost to the still unified GB team inthe SF, shared a sudden death gamewith co-joint Spirit winners Leeds, thenortherners coming out on top. WithRampant X winning another epic suddendeath SF against LeedsLeedsLeedswith a last ditch run, the final was arepeat of Saturdays match between thetwo teams which also went to suddendeath. GB, in great form all weekend,repeated their victory with their own laterun in the cap.

With qualification for European Clubsdependent on each team’s finishingposition at their best three events, Tour 4gave teams the last chance to improvetheir Mixed Tour Ranking. GB again split

their team into two lines, but the clubteams fighting for those qualifying pointsdominated. A resurgent Whatever andthe ever consistent BAF forced the GBteams to playoff for 5th in their lasttournament before Worlds. Despiteneither having won an event, the jointleaders of the rankings Leeds andRampant X knew whoever finishedhigher would take the title. Results onSaturday meant they could not meetuntil the final and the seeminglyinevitable occurred with both teamswinning tough SF against qualityopposition. The final proved to be atense affair with both teams feeling thepressure. However, it was Rampant whostarted in the more assured fashion andjumped out to an early lead. However,LeedsLeedsLeeds regrouped, stormingback into the game, and, with the help ofa dropped pull and a run of clinical O,taking the lead. A combination of halftime and Rampant X’s zone D seemedto break LeedsLeedsLeeds’ momentumand Rampant finished on top, repeatingas Mixed Tour Champions. CardiffUltimate won Spirit.

the UKUA mixed tour and nationals

National’s, held at the end of August,was only attended by 13 teams, by farthe lowest of any event this year. Theclash with the self-proclaimed WorldBeach Ultimate Championships deniedWhatever the chance to defend their titlefrom 2003, and also denied thetournament many other players whochose Portugal over Colchester. WithGB choosing not to enter, the playersreturned to their club teams, throwingseveral wild cards into the mix. Unlikethe knockout format of Open National’s,Saturday’s pool play gave fifth seededBristol an early chance to improve theirseeding, and they did so with victoryover LeedsLeedsLeeds. This leftLeedsLeedsLeeds a tough QF againstBling It On, a guest team featuringseveral Australian medal winners.LeedsLeedsLeeds won through after aclose start, leaving Bling to finish 5th andshare the Spirit prize with the ever-friendly Shocker. Ultimately, the pre-tournament favourites Little Sheff andRampant X proved too strong for BPFand LeedsLeedsLeeds in the SF, leavingLeedsLeedsLeeds to have the final sayin what had become a yearlong battlewith BPF.

The final lived up to its billing, with Sheffdesperate to qualify for EUCC, and

Rampant keen to erase the memory ofthe previous year’s loss to Whatever.Sheff, continued to find success withtheir long game, although unusually SiWeeks turned provider picking up maleMVP for a series of long assists.Rampant played a faster paced gamekeeping the disc moving, and with thehelp of female MVP Tara Jewell tradedwithin a point or two for most of thegame. With the game heading towardsthe cap, it was the Rampant zone thatstepped up getting some crucial blocksto take the game 13-11.

Overall, the Mixed Tour seemed to be agreat success, with high-quality, wellspirited Ultimate being played from topto bottom. I am sure all those playerswho experienced it this year will belooking forward to next season (inwhatever format it may take), and I verymuch hope that more of you will getinvolved next year. Play Mixed Ultimate,do it….. do it….. do it!

Finally a big thank you to everyone whomade this year so successful, the TDsand their staff, all you players, and ofcourse Wayne Retter and especiallyMaria Cahill who, despite being ginger,has done so much for Mixed Ultimateover the past two seasons.

Jaimie Cross, LeedsLeedsLeeds

15

MARK EARLEY GETS THERE TOO LATE, IRISH OPEN TEAM, BRITOPEN

TENT CITY, BRITOPEN

PHOTO: © ROB WALKER 2004

rob@mysys-imaging.co.uk

MILJA (INBREDS) VS. SHOCKER, MIXED TOUR 2, BAKEWELL

STU MITCHELL (LITTLE SHEF) AND CHRISTIAN ‘WIGSY’ NISTRI (LEEDS), THE FINAL. MIXED TOUR 2, BAKEWELL

JILL VANDER MEULEN. STEAL 1 V FLYGHT CLUB. OPEN TOUR 3 B QUARTER FINALS.

PHOTOS © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

Once, Shunryu Suzuki was asked bysomeone, “How much ego do youneed?” to which he replied, “Justenough so that you don’t step in frontof a bus.”

All competitive teams come fromdifferent backgrounds, but in the end,their aim is the same, to win. Too often,the route taken towards intended victoryis the most direct path, and the result isfailure. How many times have you beenon a team where the main talking point isthe victory that lies ahead? Answerprobably is, all too often.

Contrary to popular belief, it is notimportant to have a team whereeveryone is great friends from the start.Sure, it can help in the early stages, butit is the feeling at the end of the seasonthat is the goal, not the one at thebeginning. Camaraderie will be builtthrough a team acceptance of a singlepurpose, not through gags.

The value of some common sufferingcannot be underestimated. The littlethings, like carrying on with practicewhen it’s under subscribed, or in crapweather, can make a big difference.They show that when the team’s back isup against the wall, people will carry on.Even if the whole team is not there tosee that, the ones who are willremember. Fitness training in smallgroups is also a fantastic way to showeach other that effort is being put into theteam. Sure, doing fitness alone is stillhelpful, but doing it as a team has somany positive externalities that will onlyreveal themselves later in the season.Who knows, if you really dislike the guyyou are training with, maybe somecompetitiveness will even push you a bitharder. By the end of the session, at theleast, you will have more respect foreach other.

The installation of a benevolent dictatoris another step in the direction of unity.The team should choose someone (twopeople at the very most) at the beginningof the year that will do the speaking atpractices and on the pitch and in thehuddles at tournaments. This does nothave to mean that this person’s ideasare the ones that the team will live by; itmeans that the team will have one voice

to focus on and one attitude to becomealigned with. If two people are chosen,only one should ever be allowed tospeak at a time. As with any dictator,there are always the puppet mastersbehind the scenes, and these peopleshould have an open and positiverelationship with the dictator to makesure that the team’s needs are beingmet. Dissention and recommendationscan be had by all, but only in a smallforum (i.e. an e-mail or pub discussionwith the leaders of the team).

Although a dictator will be in place,responsibility lies with every player, fromthe worst to best, from the youngest tothe oldest. Every player’s responsibilityto the team may be different, but everyplayer has one. The puppet mastersand the dictator should come togetherand decide what the team wants fromeach individual player and communicatethis to them. If a player is unhappy withtheir projected role, it is up to them tomake their case, or prove themselvesotherwise. While trying not topigeonhole players, it is important to givedirection and personal goals to eachplayer. The leaders of the team alsoneed direction, they should lean on oneanother for advice on their own play andwhat they need to improve to help thecause of the team.

Belief is where it all begins and doubt isa very necessary ingredient of belief.When you put so much time, effort, andenergy into a team, it is only naturalthat you will wonder if it will all pay off.The key is to always try and takesomething positive away from eachteam event. Find something that ateam mate has done well and take it onboard. This is not a carte blanche toput on the rose coloured glasses andignore all faults, but there is a need tostay on the “sunny side” of life (wow, 3clichés in one sentence, Si Hill wouldbe proud!). Don’t worry if you doubtyourself at times, it is only natural.Find belief in your team mates and thefunny thing is that you will find yourself-doubt fading away.

When the big day arrives, focus on themoment, not the big picture. Theadvantage of the dictator system is toallow the other players to get on with

their tasks at hand rather than concernthemselves with everyone else’s play.The motivation will be there becauseyou will have worked together for solong towards creating a better team.Since the focus of the training has beentoward improvement in yourself and theteam, you will find yourselfconcentrating on the task at hand, not

the consequences of not winning. Whilea twist of fate may go against the team,there’s no need to dwell upon it. Acceptit and move on with the knowledge thatyou and your team can bounce back toplay your best. It’s an incredibly fineline; the goal is to find it.

Rob Alpen, Clapham.

don’t question The Management!

16

NICK ‘HARGREAVES’ BILDNER, (CLAPHAM) VS. IAIN THACKRAH(LEEDS)OPEN NATIONALSPHOTO: © WAYNE RETTER 2004

BEN MITCHELL HUCKS DEEP FOR A QUICK SCORECLAPHAM VS. LEEDS, THE FINAL, TOUR 1. BRISTOLPHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

As another long season comes to aclose, every Ultimate player’sthoughts turn to winter training; thejoys of long, hard training sessionson dark, damp evenings... thepleasure of early morning runs incrisp, cold air...

Well, perhaps.

If you’re anything like me, previouswinter training regimes have typicallystarted with a few aimless evening runs,which quickly fade into weeks of couchpotato sessions moaning about the lackof daylight and the appalling standard ofBritish television.

In order to avoid this scenario this winter,try the following simple steps:

1) Be realistic. It’s all too easy to startwith a bang and let it slip. Slow andsteady wins the race here.

2) Plan your weekly routine. Write itdown. Review it when you’re done,and build up gradually.

3) Be flexible, but be consistent. We allhave bad weeks where it’s tough tofit in training, but you’ll get muchbetter fitness gains if you trainregularly, rather than five sessionsone week, and none the next.

4) Make your training specific to yourgoals. If you understand the reasonsfor doing each part of the training -and how it relates to playing Ultimate - you’ll be more motivated.

The Components of Fitness

Let’s flesh that out a bit. We can split thecomponents of Ultimate fitness into sixbroad areas:

Stamina StrengthSuppleness SpeedStability Springiness

Ideally a balanced training programmeshould address all six components everyweek, with the main focus changing atdifferent times of the year (this is knownas periodisation). Fortunately there’s afair bit of overlap between thecomponents - I’m not suggesting thatyou need to do a minimum of six trainingsessions every week!

In the context of Ultimate, stamina is theability to play two or more hard games aday - and still recover overnight to do itall again the next day. Developing

stamina for Ultimate is pretty simple inone sense; regular exercise willcondition your body to recover morequickly from each training session,which will translate to an improved abilityto recover from game to game (and dayto day) at tournaments.

In-game recovery (i.e. betweencuts/points) is best addressed bysimulating the demands of the game intraining. Rather than going out for atraining run at a constant speed, do aFartlek (‘speed play’) session. Thisinvolves running at various speeds -much like you would on the pitch - withjogging recovery periods in between.You can either make it time-based (e.g.2 min jog, 1 min medium pace, 30 secsprint, then repeat) or distance-based(sprint to next lamppost, jog three, sprintone etc), the key here is variety.

High levels of suppleness, stability andstrength together combine to make youas resistant as possible to injuries.Ultimate is a particularly unforgivingsport, particularly on the knees andankles; if you want a long and healthyplaying career a little regular work herecan really pay off. A detailed breakdownof the kind of training needed is beyondthe scope of this article - the easiestapproach is to go to an organised classat your nearest gym or leisure centre.

In simple terms, strong and supplemuscles will be better able to protectyour joints in tricky situations, e.g. rapidchanges of direction, take-offs andlandings when skying or laying out.Some combination of yoga, pilates, andcore stability classes would be ideal.

The final two components, speed andspringiness, can be thought of as thefinal pieces of the fitness jigsaw puzzle.Again, I won’t go into details, but the keypoint is that if you want to cut fast, jumphigh and layout spectacularly you needto improve your explosive power. The buzzword here is plyometrics, butbe warned - you should have a goodbase of strength and stability beforeembarking on intensive plyometrictraining.

A good initial approach would be tocombine skipping and shuttle runs.Skipping is great for improving the‘spring’ in your legs - build up fromdouble leg hops to alternate foot work.Likewise shuttle runs involve short burst

of acceleration and rapid changes ofdirection, perfect for improving yourcutting. As the competitive seasonapproaches, more emphasis should beplaced on speed and springiness; thinkquality of training, rather than quantity.

Time To Get Specific

Ok, so there’s quite a lot to pack in toyour training week - how best to goabout it? With the proviso that everyplayer is different in terms of theirstrengths and weaknesses, and howbest to use their training time, here’s asuggested weekly programme.

Sunday: Outdoor team practice (orWinter League matches)

Monday: Active rest day (at least 20 minbrisk walking, plus a stretching session)

Tuesday: 30-60 min Fartlek runningsession

Wednesday: Yoga/Pilates/Core Stability

Thursday: Strength work plus shuttleruns, or a Circuit Training session

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: Cross training day (e.g.swimming, cycling, rowing - havesome ‘fun!’)

Don’t forget to warm up and down properly, and stretchthoroughly after training.

Last, But Not Least

A final thought: no training regime is asubstitute for actually playing Ultimate.In my opinion, training throughout thewinter has been one of the key factors inthe development of the sport in thiscountry over the last decade. Playing indifficult weather conditions will improveyour throws and catches, and is goodfitness work in itself. Regular practicesallied with a coherent fitness programmewill get you in the best shape ever fornext year’s Ultimate!

Jeff Jackson, Fire of London.

ultimate preparation: winter fitness work

17

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When GB had great success in France at last year’s EuropeanChampionships, the Tour was laudedfor the way it prepared our players forinternational competition. Since thedisappointments at Worlds this yearthere has been much analysis of howwe could improve our domesticseason. Some now feel that our seasonis too repetitive, too tiring, and doesn’thave enough meaningful games.

While it is right to have this debate, weshouldn’t forget that the Tour this yearhas still functioned well as a competitionand has been great fun.

For most of the teams there were plentyof close matches and definite signs ofprogress. Bristol, BAF and the talentedFusion gave higher ranked teams morecompetitive games. There were alsonew teams – Fire of London, Abstract,EMO and Limited Release. It climaxed inEdinburgh with the first ever Tourdecider and we had three differentteams winning Tour events.

Although Chevron Action Flash werewritten off at the start of the season, theyended it firmly the third best in Britainhaving collected only their second everTour event victory at Tour 3 (notincluding Chevy South). They did this bycoming from behind againstLeedsLeedsLeeds (my team) in the finalwith Steve ‘Kenny’ Kennedy winningMVP. Pity he wasn’t as good at collectingtrophies as winning them that day.

There was much talk about Fire ofLondon at the beginning of the season,especially as they won Winter Leaguefinals. That their final position of fifthdidn’t quite live up to the expectation isunderstandable. They needed time togel the new squad and get their gags perminute rate up. By the time we playedFire in the Tour 4 semi- final, they wereplaying the way many had expectedthem to at the start and we had to makea big comeback to make the final on thatoccasion.

The Tour creates many rivalries over thecourse of a season. One interesting onewas Bristol Plastic Factory v Blue ArseFlies. Both had recruited well during thewinter and were gunning for the higherranked teams. But their finishing positionin the Tour was determined by the seriesof games against each other and BAFjust came out on top. It is interesting tonote that BAF are reasonably satisfiedwith how they’ve done whereas Bristolfeels they’ve under-achieved. It is

possible that such feelings aredetermined by just a couple of games, ormaybe even a few key points in theseason.

This year a new format was introducedfor Tour A in order to take intoconsideration the changes in standardsince the Tour began in 1997. Theschedule for the first two Tours gave the5-12 ranked teams the opportunity tofight for their position in the top 8 on theSaturday and then have a crack at thetop 4 on the Sunday. That was good intheory and in fairness it was right to trysomething different. But after one day ofpretty meaningless, and frankly quitestrange, top 4 pseudo-competition,Leeds, Clapham and Chevron started tocomplain. Rob Alpen came up with anew schedule, which UK Ultimate, aftergiving it quite a bit of thought, decided totry - and it worked very well. Saturdaywas meaningful for everyone and at thefirst tournament the new schedule wasused (Tour 3 Mansfield), its benefitswere fully demonstrated… by Leeds. Bylosing to Chevron on the Saturday(having beaten them in our four previousmatches) we gave ourselves thechallenge of beating Fire then Claphamto reach the final. We produced one ofour better performances of the seasonby beating Fire 15-7 while Claphamapparently had to work just as hard tobeat Bristol in their quarter 13-10.

Before Tour 3 Clapham and Leeds hadplayed each other four times with Leedsonly getting one victory. That was in thefinal of Tour 1 in Bristol when we hadshown the rest of British Ultimate that wewere not to be written off as we hadbeen in a recent Lookfly poll. At Tour 2 inEastbourne the final was close all theway with Leeds edging the first half andClapham stepping up just enough to win15-12. We came away feeling that wehad missed an opportunity to win,though heartened that we had playedwell with a tight squad.

In the semi at Mansfield, however, wewere full strength and it looked as if thewhole Tour would be decided that day.The match turned out to be an almightystruggle, which went on for over twohours. It involved thirty-three extremelyhard fought points, neither team was ableto move the disc easily and the intensityof the D made the game very physical.By the end both sides’ Offence was reallysuffering and this culminated in somepretty ugly points. The worst of these wasat 16-15 to Leeds (game to 17) when

there were countless turn overs, mostlyat the end we were attacking. EventuallyClapham found a way to get the discdown the other end of the field and tookthe game into sudden death. We wonthe game by somehow smuggling thedisc to Christian Nistri in the zone andour feelings were more of relief thananything else. I think that Clapham feltthat in losing that game they had lost theTour, but it wasn’t to be as Chevronplayed their best game of the year towin, and thus kept the competition alive.

Clapham showed their determination towin at Tour 4 by fielding only one team ofover 20 players. That meant they wouldalways have a fresh D line and oncethey got going, they proved to be veryhard to beat. Leeds had made the earlyrunning in the final, but at 9-5 theClapham D line took good advantage ofthe deteriorating weather with a modifiedjunk that completely stopped us in ourtracks. Our failure to move the disc downfield turned the game on its head and

before we knew it we were behind andneeding something inspirational to lift us.Unfortunately the opposite happened asour hands froze up in the driving Scottishrain and I had the ignominy of the pullhitting me on the toe to give Claphampossession on our end zone line! Beforewe knew it, it was all over and Claphamhad won the Tour. In the end they hadplayed very well and deserved it, but itmade that defeat to Chevron inMansfield even more significant.

So there are still many positives aboutthe Tour. Next year changes will bemade to freshen up the formats andkeep the competition meaningful.Without the distraction of GB and withthe extra motivation to do well at EUCC,Britain’s best clubs should be able tofocus on reaching a higher standard ofUltimate and I look forward to seeingthat in Tour 2005.

Ben Mitchell, LeedsLeedsLeeds

18

the ‘A’ tour

MATT ’HICKEY’ WOODS CHALLENGES IAIN THACKRAH.THE FINAL, TOUR 2. CLAPHAM VS. LEEDSLEEDSLEEEDS PHOTO: © JACK GOOLDEN 2004

www.malago.co.uk

KENNY DROPS ONE

STEVE PORTER (STEAL 1) GETS SHOWN THE DISC BY HAMMERAGE, 15TH 16TH PLAY OFFS, TOUR 2PHOTOS © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

the ‘B’ tour

19

The new season brought a new feel toUK Ultimate. For the first time theTour was split into two divisions; onefor the teams who want to win and theother apparently for those who wantto ‘sing songs and wear togas’.

The philosophy behind the move wasfirstly to improve the standard ofUltimate, to make the top teams andplayers truly competitive on theinternational stage and secondly to givethe ‘less experienced’ teams anincentive for improvement. Now I likephilosophy; it sounds cool and makesyou sound cool, but I feared that the ideato split the Tour might cause someantagonism or differences in opinion. Ifeared that the elitist attitude of the Uber-teams might be at odds with the Marxistcomrades at the lower tier of BritishUltimate who were already fullyoccupied in their own battle to scoreupwind points. I feared that thesegregation might just make Frisbeeless fun.

Being more of a sceptic than aphilosopher, I was sitting on theproverbial fence. Perhaps I sat on thefence because I had a sense offoreboding that that’s exactly what I’d bedoing all season; straddling the dividebetween the A and B Tour. Thankfully formy groin and contrary to the opinions ofsome, the quality divide was not agaping chasm. In previous years, the top16 was effectively separated from the

lower teams anyway. Under the newdivision, however, the battle forpromotion was all the more fierce.

Teams who wanted to go up felt that theyhad a good chance not only of beatingteams who had just dropped down butalso of staying up come the end of thenext Tour. In reality British Ultimate hasretained the same quality divisions. Fouror five teams compete for the top spot ateach Tour. After that, groups of eightequally matched teams tend to contendfor the next eight spots and so thesequence goes all the way down theTour. The only difference that has reallyoccurred is that the era of the ‘phone’team may have had its day (although thelegend of Marty McFly lives on).

Geo teams have tended to concentratetalent, making training more intense aslarger squads increase competitioninternally. It also means that the topteams now benefit from larger squadsizes. If the Geo team surge hasoccurred because some teams andindividuals feared being ‘relegated’ tothe bottom tour, I guess the divide hasworked and is more cunning than I couldhave imagined. The quality hasundoubtedly increased in the A Tour andthere has been a psychologicalimprovement in the B Tour. Althoughsome ‘second’ teams in the B Tourstruggle without some key players, thelevel of ambition and commitment totheir game has increased as the players

have a greater desire to get into the firstteam and thus the A Tour.

The B Tour should not be under-estimated; a few A Tourers have usedthe divide as an opportunity to over statetheir comparative quality. It is sometimesas if the B Tour is a curse-word, or abackwater for players with no potentialor desire to improve. Often suchcomments are made by the exact samepeople who started their Ultimatecareers playing for similar teams(although under a different, amusinglyeuphemistic team name). However; asthere is life in a swamp, so there ispotential a-lurking out there: The B Touris full of future A Tour players.

It’s nice that The Nationals gives theopportunity for some tenacious scampsto pounce on ‘bigger teams’ and to ridethem with energetic and semi-athleticexuberance for all they’re worth. It is alsogood that at no venue this year has theB Tour felt isolated physically from the ATour. Young players need to see highquality contests and importantly everyplayer who has paid their membershiphas a right to the same facilities andpitch quality. I feel that if Tour A and Bbecome physically separated thensomething would be lost. Yes, it isimportant to improve the standard ofultimate, but it’s also important to retainthat sense of a collective spirit thatmakes the Tour circuit fun. Taking thegame seriously and having fun whilst

doing so is not incompatible. UK teamsshould be aiming to win internationaltournaments and when they do they’llprobably sing a crude, tuneless songabout it, even on the A tour!

Looking back we should all realisesomething; from the winners to the lastseeds, from fresh-faced beginners to theAdam Batchelor, we were all out in thatterrible weather at Tour 1 (althoughAdam did launder the entry fees toacquire a little Filipino boy called Min-Min to make him hot beverages on theside line – sordid but wise). The thing is,that weekend I played some truly awfulgames in the B Tour and I watched sometruly awful games in the A Tour but thedesire shown by all teams was huge andmost importantly it was still fun. As thatbird from ‘Sex in the City’, watching aFrisbee event might comment: “Aren’twe all just trying to score upwind……..?”

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I’d never been to Finland before August.I imagined an inhospitable place withfew trees, lots of furry hats, and wookiesfor pets. I’d packed at least three thermaltops to keep me warm while watchingthe GB.

And during the first three days theweather was indeed inhospitable, notleast during the open ceremony where itdidn’t half rain on the parade. “40gymnast wet t-shirt streak throughTurku” probably wasn’t the headline theorganisers were looking for, but it keptthe GB Juniors entertained.

The friendly Finns were justifiably proudof their sporting facilities, though therain had turned some of them into aDagobah swamp. Unfortunately thedistances between them weren’tconducive to just nipping to watch one

of the other teams play. Buses wererequired to get between the 4-6 sites.The organisers would have liked you tothink there were 4 sites, in reality therewere closer to 7 depending on how youclassify them and how much rain there'dbeen. That said the organisers did apretty good job of making everyone ascomfortable as possible.

Our hopes were high for all our teams,and after the first day the only evidencewe had went to reinforce our belief thatwe were in for some history changing,bling collecting, ultimate watching.

Before I go on I should mention thatWorlds in Finland was a fantastic week,just being surrounded by friends,watching great ultimate, cheering for GBfor a whole week was amazing. If I’dknown nothing before I went it may well

have been the greatest week of ultimateever. But I did know. I knew we could dowell, Open, Women, Mixed, Masters andJuniors all had the ability to make semifinals, and once you’re in a semi, heavenknows what might happen. The forcewas strong, I could feel it.

GB Open started by roaring past theRussians and making light work of theDutch in a bit of a bog. They crushed theDanes, and dispatched the Brazilians.Awesome. GB were indestructible. Hugeperformances all round. Then a chink inthe armour; the nippy Japanese. With SiHill, Wigsy and Randy being rested theteam struggled to dominate, theJapanese got their nose in front andliked it. When the Japanese sent it long,GB never got near. When GB sent it longit hovered and despite our physical

advantages the Japanese invariably gotthe D. Open finished second in their pooland would face the USA and Canada inthe second pool stages. Canada weretoo much for GB, but they did have agood crack at the yanks, taking the halfbefore giving way. The victories over theSwiss and the Italians were comfortableleaving a quarter final with Sweden.

GB Women won all their pool gamesapart from the matches against Canadaand the USA. They walked past theItalians, but met some tough oppositionin the Japanese, only a five point victorywould actually change anything, and theone point victory they managed was justenough to put them into a head oncollision with the Finns.

GB Mixed’s fortunes were, well, mixed.They started with strong performances

20

can we learn from The Masters?A potted version of TThhee WWoorrlldd UUllttiimmaattee CChhaammppiioonnsshhiippss 22000044 from the GB sideline.

WORLDS BRONZE MEDAL

COST: MONTHS OF HARD TRAINING, FITNESSWORK, AND ABSTENTION, NOT TO MENTION THE

HUNDREDS OF POUNDS SPENT ON TRAVEL,ACCOMMODATION AND TOURNAMENT FEES.

USE: NONE. WORTH IT? OBVIOUSLY.

21

against France and South Africa, beforethe Canadians brought them down toearth with a bump. Sweden took a kicking,but the turning point came in an epic gameagainst the Japanese. Riveting stuff, thelead changing many times along the way.GB lost in sudden death. This eventuallymeant that they finished 3rd in the grouprather than second, and faced the Kiwis inthe quarter.

The Masters had to play everyone intheir event at the group stage. They beatall but the big two. They’d get anothercrack at the USA, or Canada, in theSemis.

GB Juniors had an up and down week.Highlights were sudden death wins overAustralia and Finland, disappointmentsincluded wake up calls from the USAand Canada and a humiliation at the

hand of the Germans, they faced theSwedes in their quarter.

GB Junior Women lost everything butspirit, which they won with ease. Thelack of confident throwers was a majorset back, but they kept plugging away,never stopped smiling and wererewarded with their own bit of Bling.

At the start of Thursday afternoon, theGB Women had played their quarterfinal, on some far beyond pitch whichno one could get to. They facedFinland, a team they should havebeaten comfortably. But the Finns hadproved themselves to be tough cookiesand while the GB Women played whatthey confessed afterwards was theworst game of Ultimate of the week, theFinns took the home turf advantage andput them out.

The Mixed team never really got intotheir quarter final against New Zealand.They did get turnovers but rarely scoredthem, the Kiwis on the other hand lookedstrong. They took their chances andclosed GB out of the game.

GB Masters had come to Finlandknowing that there were only two teamsthat could beat them. They didn’t meeteither of them in the Quarters. Theyrocked up, and professionally dispatchedthe Australian opposition without muchbother. The USA were waiting.

The Swedes are efficient, we’ve beengiven plenty of proof over the years fromthe likes of Volvo and Ikea, they don’tturn over very much. As the SwedishOpen team lined up the GB sidelinewere still quite relaxed, this was whatwe had been waiting for. Sure GB had

had some rocky patches in earliergames, and the Japanese result hadbeen a blow for our confidence in theteam. But we were EuropeanChampions, the Borg would crumble.

The Swedes played well enough but itwas the shortcomings on GB that caughtthe attention. Discs that would havebeen plucked from the air in a normalgame were left hanging for Swedishfingertips. The D squad could only slowthe advance of the disc and when theydid get turns they couldn’t score them.The O team seemed to turn on everypoint and despite playing someawesome D to get the disc back andeventually score they had too many 5minute points to be an effective force bythe end of the match.

With each passing point the voices got

EMMA RUTTER, GB SIDELINE

SCORE! GB BOYS CELEBRATE

GB GIRLS: NATASHA GRIFFIN-BEALE, LOUISE KITTOW, SARAH DAWSON

PHOTOS © TOM STYLES 2004

www.lookflynews.com

SAM WEBBER, GB VS. SWITZERLAND (OPEN), WUGC TURKU 2004PHOTO: © PAUL HURT 2004

www.pope.smugmug.com

more strained, the cheers ofMMMOOooooorrrreee, when we finallyscored a D point, came from desperationrather than celebration. Even a Si Hillgoal which would normally be greetedwith impassioned glee was a little flat. Itwasn’t going to be enough. You couldnever question the heart of the team.They gave everything, the side linelittered with the casualties of the week,bones broken, sore knees, “I’ve beenadvised not to play” ligaments. A weekof the toughest level of competition theWorld of ultimate has to offer had takenits toll.

As the sun set over the Kuppitaapitches, the light went out inside Britishhearts, the Open team turned to theWomen for hope, the women turned tothe Mixed team for hope, they in turnlooked at the Juniors. They were all out,and all on the same day. The hopes andexpectations of the red, white and bluesnow rested on the experienced, sturdyshoulders of the Masters.

With the Star - Spangled Bannerhanging side by side with the Union Flagon the boundary fence, every available

British voice yelled and shouted for theelder statesmen of UK Ultimate. Theyplayed, ran, leapt, dived, they matchedthe USA point for point in one of thegreatest sporting occasions. Both teamsfought hard, sometimes the rules werestretched, often the sideline saw thingsthat the players saw differently. I don’tthink anyone was surprised by this; sucha hard battle was never going to beuneventful. Some of the greatest playersfrom UK ultimate history will use thisgame to draw a line under theirinternational careers. They can bejustifiable proud of their performances.OK the Yanks won, but it was thetoughest game they played, as they laterrolled over the Canadian master’s sidein the final. GB did the same to theSwedes.

At the presentation GB Masters steppedforward to take their bronze medals withdignity and the knowledge that they hadsaved the GB ultimate universe. In myhead the John Williams’ orchestral tonesstruck up and I had a lump in my throat.

There aren’t any Wookies in Finland.

Tom Styles, The Voice.

22

SUE PIOLI, GB WOMENPHOTO © TOM STYLES 2004

www.lookflynews.com

STU MITCHELL AND JEFF JACKSON, GB VS. SWEDEN (OPEN)PHOTO: © WAYNE RETTER 2004

SAM WEBBER, GB VS. SWEDEN (OPEN)

JOE ‘MUPPET’ BOLTON, GB VS. JAPAN (MIXED)

JO DURY, GB VS. JAPAN(MIXED)

RICH HIMS, GB VS. JAPAN (MIXED)

PHOTOS: © PAUL HURT 2004

www.pope.smugmug.com

IBUPROFEN: PRICE: £2.39

PAIN HEALS, GLORY LASTS FOREVER ANDCHICKS DIG SCARS. ESPECIALLY SCARS TO YOUR STOMACHLINING WHICH COME FREE WITH OVER-USEOF IBUPROFEN. HOWEVER, WITHOUTTHESE LITTLE TABS OF VITAMIN I, HOWWOULD WE EVER BE ABLE TO PLAYOUR WAY PAST OUR PHYSICAL LIMITS ANDINTO A WHEELCHAIR FOR THE LAST THIRTYYEARS OF OUR LIVES?

The World Ultimate & GutsChampionships 2004 were theeleventh edition of this event whichbegan in 1983 in Gothenburg,Sweden. During this time I have beenfortunate enough to take part in allbut two of these celebrations of oursport and thought I should share mymemories before Alzheimers kicks in.

International Ultimate competitions hadbeen contested for at least four yearsbefore the first Worlds was staged. In theearly days, just after the dinosaursbecame extinct, England hosted anevent in Richmond in 1979 whereWarwick Bears became EuropeanChampions. Ally Pally Tossers (APT)represented England in 1980 in Parisand a team went to Milan, Italy in 1981 tocontest the European crown. By 1982,Bristol Samurai were the dominant forcein the UK - although at the time, therewere only about a dozen active teamsand nobody played Ultimate north ofStockport. In 1982 the Samurairepresented England in Obertraun,Austria and again the following year inGothenburg, Sweden.

It was not until 1983 that the first teamfrom outside Europe took part, in whatwas the birthplace of internationalcompetition, to create the first true WorldUltimate [and Guts] Championships(WUGC). Neither Canada nor Japancould take up their invitation, but thedynastic Rude Boys from Boston,Massachusetts made the trip. Asnational champions, the Samurairepresented England, bolstering theirnumbers with ‘guest players’ from one ortwo other top teams. Memories of myfirst ever trip abroad are a little hazynow, but I do recall that the team fromthe USA were a class act both on and offthe field. Captained by one of thelegends of the sport: Steve Mooney, theyachieved the perfect double of goldmedallists and winners of the Spirit ofthe Game (SOTG) award.

As the level of organisation improved -the World Flying Disc Federation(WFDF) was established in 1984 - so didthe interest in representing one’scountry. The growth in player numbersacross Britain and the broad spread ofquality players led to the first ‘selected’national teams in 1984. Still tagged asEngland, an Open and Women’s teamtook part in the second WUGC inLucerne. Canada and Japan joined theUSA in Switzerland, but did not featureamongst the medals.

Perhaps recognising the financialdemands of attending Worlds, especiallyfor the non Europeans, WFDF adopted atwo-year cycle for WUGC to alternatewith Europeans (EUGC). At this time thecountries actively playing Ultimate werepredominately European and the idea ofWUGC being held beyond Europe’sborders was a non-starter. WFDF’s firstpresident was an accomplished discplayer and experienced event organiserwho was keen to encourage the qualityof major Ultimate (and other disc sports)events ... he was also a Brit. CharlieMead, who is still a highly competitivedisc golf player in Britain, sought to leadby example and hosted the first of manyUltimate championships at EssexUniversity in Colchester in 1986.

So far in the story, the major Ultimateevents had been dominated by the Opendivision, with only a handful of teams inthe Women’s and Junior ranks. This thirdedition of WUGC witnessed asubstantial increase in the Women’sdivision with 14 teams competing (theOpen had 15). Taking advantage ofhome soil, our Women (now taggedGreat Britain) achieved the best World’sresult to date in any division by goingthrough to the final. With a solid core ofLondon-based Sirens players, the GBteam faced the vastly superior LadyCondors. Sadly, the video taping of thisgame was slow in setting up and missedthe opening score as GB went into anearly 1-0 lead ... that was to be their onlypoint in possibly the most one-sided finalof WUGC history.

Each year saw more nations sendingnational teams to Europeans and Worldsin a trend that still continues. The growthin the scale of operation meantTournament Directors (TDs) had to bemore professional in the running ofevents. WFDF and individual TDshelped to set the standards for futurehosts: competition structures wereadapted to match team numbers andfield space into a schedule that was bothdemanding and rewarding for theplayers. Some features of the late 80’sand early 90’s Worlds included aMonday to Friday set of games withSaturday as finals, ideally in a stadium.Wednesday often included a half day toallow players to see something otherthan the playing fields and also rest.

The increase in the scale of thetournament as well as clearimprovements to the standards of play inall divisions was set against a backdrop

of small but important rule changes. Forinstance the stall count in the early 80’swas 15 and was not initiated straightaway. This had dropped to 12 secondsby WUGC 1984 and had reduced to 10by the 90’s. In 1988 the GB Juniors werecaptained by an outstanding player inRafi Freire, who was so highly regardedthat he also played in the Open team atthe same event - this double-dipping isno longer permitted.

If 1986 was the year of GB Women,1988 would be the turn of GB Open. Thetotal of 16 teams made Open 1988 thelargest WUGC division ever andincluded the Australians for the first time- it would be more then a decade beforethis record would be bested. The poolformat and early upsets allowed GB tomeet Finland in the semi - a team wehad beaten in 1986. Meanwhile Swedenwent up against a strong USA team inthe first semi-final. No GB Open teamhad ever beaten either of these nations,but Sweden were considered the morebeatable of the two “invincibles”. Thecrowd watched breathlessly as theSwedes edged into an 18-16 lead (gameto 19) ... it really seemed as if we had ourbest ever opportunity of a gold medal. Atthis crucial point, GB had to leave thesideline to warm up for their biggestgame ever. Then the USA came backand won, we could hear the crowd fromour warm-up field ... our heads dropped,the bubble had burst. The Finns reactedmuch better to the result - seeing theirbig moment to finish higher than theirNordic arch-rivals - they avengedthemselves for the 1986 defeat and

reached their first final. GB played poorlyagainst a very disheartened bunch ofSwedes and ended fourth - yet this stillranks as one of the best GBperformances at WUGC. TheAustralians? ... they came last, but theywould come back again and they wouldcome back stronger.

Unfortunately, the GB successes of themid-80’s were followed by rather poorresults in the early 90’s. Worlds in Osloin 1990 is perhaps the hardest toexplain. The Open squad looked strongon paper and while the Women had anumber of personnel changes, theywere hopeful of some good results.Finishing 12th of 13 and 10th of 11respectively, GB returned homewondering what had gone wrong. TheOpen team were awarded the SOTGAward most probably because of anincredible play by new-boy Harry Golby:after proving himself in the Junior ranks,Harry was selected to play in the Opendivision. During the play-off gameagainst a low-seeded Danish team,Harry chased down a rather long,wayward pass ... his marker had givenup and left Harry to lay out full tilt nearthe back of the zone ... nobody wasthere to call him in or out, but with hislaudable sense of fair play he calledhimself out.

At around this time, a new Worlds eventwas born: the first World Ultimate ClubChampionships (WUCC) was held inCologne, West Germany in 1989.Players seemed unsure whether such aformat would prove popular. The

24

a short history of TThhee WWoorrllddss

arrangement did not seem sustainable:there was a wealth of high qualityUltimate events but only a small core oftalented players with no availablesponsorship funds. Could the top clubteams find the commitment to travel toWUCC as well as send national teams toEUGC the same year, then WUGC thefollowing year? Across Europe it wouldbe the same players competing in allthree major events.

WFDF broke new ground again in 1992by awarding the hosting of WUGC toJapan - the first non-European venue.This proved to be a little too far and toosoon for most European countries aswithout sponsorship the teams weremostly self-selected by those who couldafford the high costs involved. Thisinevitably weakened many teams andskewed the competition - GB mustered asmall Open squad who finished 9th of10. Meanwhile, to occupy the playersacross Europe who could not afford theJapan trip, the Dutch were persuaded tohost their first ‘national teams’ event inWageningen. Embarrassingly, the highlyseeded GB Open team failed to reachthe top flight in this well-organised event(finishing 7th of 12).

Essex University played host yet againin 1994 and GB saw a return to someform on home turf with the Women,Juniors and GB’s first ever Masters teamall gaining fourth place in their respectivedivisions. GB Open finished mid-tableand the GB Guts team won the SOTGAward. Two years later the spirits werehigher than ever for the trip toJönköping, Sweden. The largest evercontingent of GB players made the tripto the home of the most dominantEuropean Ultimate-playing nation.

The number of late night parties hadreduced over the years, but the Britswere still up for some beers and fungames each evening in Sweden. TheJuniors and Masters shared the cheapoption of camp beds in the sports hall,while the Open and Women opted forthe luxury of the tournament hotel.Despite this, the GB Women made theregular trek to join the Masters in thesport hall bar and the Open boys dulyfollowed... there was great cross divisionsupport in the GB camp, built on theclose knit spirit of the 1995 EUGCcampaign. This attitude obviouslycarried over onto the field as a beamingCharlie Mead announced the SOTGwinners for Juniors: GB, Women: GB,Masters: GB and also Guts: GB. This

made for a perfect atmosphere at thefinal party where GB Masters werecelebrating a fantastic fourth place afteran agonising loss to Canada in the semi-finals. Sweden used their homeadvantage to sweep three golds and asilver, losing only to the superb Bostonteam: Death or Glory (DOG). Sportingumpire’s shirts and whistles to hammerhome the message that Ultimate alreadyhas seven referees per team, DOG fromUSA won the respect and adulation of allthe players when they gained not onlygold, but the SOTG award as well.

It seemed long overdue for USA to hostWUGC and their impressivepresentation easily won the bid for theninth WUGC in 1998 which was held in afantastic sports complex in Blaine,Minnesota. Although I lack first handexperience of this event I can report thatdifficulties within the administration andlogistics meant the tournament was notthe success it had promised. The two bigdevelopments were the birth of thenewest division: Coed (or Mixed as it isnow known); and the ‘coming of age’ ofthe Canadians, who upset the US partyby taking the gold medals in Coed,Masters and Open North of the border.GB ended the 90’s in a similar vein tohow they started, with low table finishes.Maybe long-distance travel does not suitthe GB game?

The idea of a four year cycle for themajor internationals had been mooted inthe early 90’s, but it was not until thetenth edition of WUGC that this Olympicstyle began. One of the influences wasthe significant step of inclusion in the2001 World Games as a full medal sport.WUGC 2000 in Heilbronn, Germanywould be the qualifying event for WorldGames 2001 in Akita, Japan. The topfive nations, plus hosts Japan wouldcompete in the slightly compromisedMixed Ultimate event: play would be six-a-side, three men and three women.

Maybe spurred on by this incentive, GBperformed exceptionally well in Open(5th of 19) and Mixed (4th of 14) butmissed out on a World Games berth bythe odd point. Junior Women becamethe sixth division to be added to theevent and USA proved dominant, yettheir senior women finished justoutside the medals for the first time.GB Mixed celebrated their well-deserved SOTG award while the USAMixed team gave top marks to all theircompetitors, regardless.

As the four year cycle rolled round, theimprovements and expansion of theBritish domestic scene - bothorganisationally and competitively -seemed to have paid great dividends.GB achieved unprecedented medalsuccess at the 2003 Europeans with allfive teams reaching their respectivefinals then taking gold in Open, Mixedand Masters. Aspirations wereunderstandably at their highest going toTurku, Finland, but major success on theWorld stage would prove elusive.

GB Masters seemed least bothered bythe spotlight of expectation and won asuperb bronze medal. Flashes ofbrilliance in the other divisions were onlyenough to produce good-to-averageplacings and GB were once again tocome tantalisingly close to gaining aWorld Games berth. Meanwhile, Canadawere again in the ascendant with USAjust behind. Finland’s Women were theonly non-North American team to reacha final, which was excellent for the homecrowd supporters, but frustrating for theGB team they edged out along the way.Australia and New Zealand also leftFinland ‘bronzed’ after outstandingperformances in the Open and Mixeddivisions respectively.

It would seem that organisedinternational Ultimate has truly maturedon all fronts over the last twenty oneyears. The competitive structures andrules have stabilised; the quality of eventhosting is exceptionally high, despite thelimited (but growing) levels ofsponsorship; very few sacrifices havebeen necessary in gaining the support ofsponsors and inclusion in the WorldGames. The sport remains self-officiating, even at the highest level andI truly hope it will remain so.

It is hard to predict what might happento Worlds in the next twenty one years,but the growth in the number of nationswill require a re-think of the format. Iwould suggest that the number ofdivisions offered will be reduced, butonly after a seventh is added: MastersWomen. Another consequence ofgrowth will be the need to limit entry andintroduce qualifiers - something the fouryear cycle will easily accommodate. In2025 Ultimate will still not be in theOlympics, which is a shame ... for theOlympic movement, not for Ultimate.And by 2025, I will have retired fromcompetitive Ultimate.

Dave “Sammy” Neilson, GB Masters

25

GB SUPPORTER ALIA AYUB,YESTERDAY

GEOFF LEGG AT WUGC 2004, TURKU

PHOTO: © PAUL HURT 2004

www.pope.smugmug.com

26

1. Make smart cuts. The key here isto clog, clog, clog! This is the only sure-fire way to get the disc. By cutting off thecuts from your other team mates, theperson with the disc has no choice but tothrow it to you. Don’t worry if you don’tget it on your first cut. Keep makingsleazy clog-cuts until you do get it.

2. Never sub out. Well, obviously.

3. Maintain a Positive MentalAttitude. This is simply done by beingpositive that your team will win, beingpositive that all your calls are right andthat all of the other team’s calls arewrong (note that sometimes your teammates will make the wrong call. If thishappens, make the call for them andadvise them that they are wrong), andbeing positive that you are a mostexcellent ultimate player. If for somereason you lose the game, alternate toan attitude of being positively mental.

4. Make the right call. If you are theplayer with the best perspective on aplay, it’s your call. If you are involved inthe play, it’s your call. If you are awayfrom the play, but no decision is made,it’s your call. If you are away from thefield in a porta-loo, it’s your call. Don’t letanyone deny you of this right.

5. Choose your passes carefully.After you get the disc, throw a few fakes,then pose and gaze end-zoneward. Takeyour time and wait for just the right pass.This may take blowing off two or threecuts first. If the count gets high, huck itand call foul. If a pass presents itself,throw it, then immediately make the clogcut.

6. Use the right throw. Never throwa straight pass when you could throw aninside-out cross-field reverse-spinbackhanded overhead. Passes like thathave to be used to confuse the defenceand break open the field. If your teammate can’t catch whatever it was thatyou just threw, you have two handycan’t-fail excuses. 1. “It was right there!”2. “The count was on seven.”

7. Know your team mates. If aless-than-amazing player on your teamgets the disc (i.e. anyone other thanyou), cut right to them, making sure toclog, and say “take your time!” Hoverbehind them for the dump. DON’T clearout. Ever.

8. Know the other team. Sit on yoursideline in someone else’s chair andcriticise every facet of their being. Bykeeping the disparity between yourselfand others large, a Positive MentalAttitude can be easily maintained.

9. Stay visible. When you’re notdrinking the other team’s water orrelaxing in not-your-chair, positionyourself directly in front of anyonewatching the game and yell, yell, yell!!!Be sure to tell your team mates thatthey’re cutting in the wrong direction.Cringe, scream, yell, break some bloodvessels, and generally freak out at anypass longer than 30 yards... until it iscaught. Then say “yeah!” Also makesure, when wandering up and down thesideline obstructing views, to stay justinbounds. YOU have the right to be onthe field, but of course, no one elsedoes.

KEY PHRASES

“I was open!”

This is used when your team mate hasjust thrown the disc away. It can also beused in some circumstances when yourteam mate has completed a pass, but tosomeone other than you.

“Call UP!!”

This is directed at anyone or everyonewhen the offensive player you arecovering has just completely toasted youfor a goal. By uttering this plaintiveremark, the blame is obviously placed onanyone but you.

AND NEVER FORGET:YYOOUU ARE A GOD!

“Oh, weak call.”

Use this whenever any call is made,anywhere, if you’re in the mood to say it,which of course, you always will be,since a Positive Mental Attitude is key towinning a game.

“No one’s cutting!”

Your team mates don’t have the uniqueperspective that you have, so of coursethey can’t tell when they’re open or not.Sure, those early cuts may have lookedwide open to them, but you know better.

“I threw it to where you shouldhave been!”

It’s certainly not your fault if no one onyour team knows how to cut.

how to be a TOTALLY EXCELLENT ultimate player

Dear Barry,

I’m writing regarding the payment of UKUltimate membership fees. I attempted toregister on-line and pay my £27.50membership fee, however, after five minutesof frustration, I just decided to dash off acheque and post it to the address on the UKUltimate website.

Unfortunately, several weeks have nowpassed and have heard no confirmation ofreceipt of my cheque, which has beencashed! But I am still not registered on UKUltimate. Coincidentally, I have insteadreceived in the post a parcel from ‘UltimatePromotions Limited.’ This parcel contained asmall bottle holding five large green capsuleslabelled, ‘HORN: 100% Herbal Product, Safeand Natural Erection Capsule.’

As the ‘HORN’ capsules were valued at £28,this suggested to me that perhaps I hadposted my check to the wrong address.Imagine my surprise when I noticed that theaddress for Ultimate Promotions Limited wasidentical to the one for UK Ultimate!

Ideally, I would now like to swap my fiveHORN capsules with a more needy memberof the Ultimate community, or perhaps amember of the governing board . At the veryleast, I would like to not be excluded fromMixed Tour 1 for not being registered.

All the best, ‘Rich’

By Jack’s Gringos

Clue: all answers have an ultimate theme.

ACROSS

1. Grab a fisherman’s delight (5)

8. A capital guide for a period of rest (4, 3)

10. Gigolo heads south for footwear (5)

12. “I Believe,” she sang after swallowing a pillfor happiness (5)

14. Rotate 3.14, 5, 2 (backwards, we hear) (5)

15. What a load of rubbish. Call that a defence? (4)

17. Two point lead? Put a lid on it! (3)

18. Revelry found in pop art you like (5)

20. Build a house with it or bring it to the middle (5)

22. Smoke – twenty – point (5)

23. Hand’s low, no IOU allowed (2,1,1)

25. We hear poultry making a call – that’s illegal (4)

26. Her majesty is after a digit that comes upside down (7)

27. Got the stomach for this game? (4)

28. Silver cutlery for a tournament prize (5)

DOWN

2. Labour movement in u-turn to get free (3)

3. Don’t push, don’t work: just call this on the line (4,4)

4. Saturday night fever on the dance floor is incomplete without vinyl (4)

5. A 19 with less tar organises Britain’s players (1,1,1)

6. Ps. Oslo an OK rematch – a cheeky option (2, 4, 4)

7. Before taking a journey head south and you may get the disc back (5)

9. Disciple increases profit margin (4,2)

11. Out of bounds score changes view of silly throw (7)

13. Choose an obstacle in the way (4)

15. Our erstwhile editor is a bit of a knave apparently (4)

16. Bump ointment spread; with many you get prizes (5)

19. Man from Istanbul (initially from Uganda)ends up in Scandinavia for games (5)

20. High street store doesn’t sell shoes (5)

21. One bridge player before twelve good men – surely some accident (6)

24. The cutter is going very fast but backwards after losing head (4)

25. First of family answers back. Who gives a toss? (4)

1 2 3

4 5 6 7

8 9

10 11

12

13

14 15

16 17 18 19

20 21 22

23

24 25

26

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BEN “RHINO” MITCHELL, WINNER OF LAST YEARS CROSSWORD.FOLLOWING THIS SUCCESS, BEN WENT ON GET ENGAGED, AND PLAYED FOR GB! PHOTO: © PAUL HURT 2004

www.pope.smugmug.com

THE GUY IN THE ‘BAD COMPANY’ SHIRT - WHO HAS JUST THROWN THAT HAMMER - OLI WATSON,IS A VERY DECENT CHAP, AND IS IN NO WAY A ‘TOTALLY EXCELLENT’ ULTIMATE PLAYER.

HAMMERAGE VS. RED DOG, TOUR 1, BRISTOLPHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

Win: The amazing prize; Provided by www.lookfly.com - a Lookfly Baseball Cap or Visor, A Hackey Sack, A Pair ofLookfly Shorts or a Lookfly Skort. Also, from Roadie Films, a Worlds double DVD.

How to enter: Send an email to editor@ukultimate.com with the answers and your contact details.

Rules: All entries to be received by 28th February 2005. All correct entries will be put in a hat, from which the winnerwill be drawn. My decision is final, only large bribes will be considered.

27

crossword

IT'S A FLAT WORLD AFTER ALLIT'S RAINING. IT'S REALLY, REALLY WINDY. AND IT'S PRETTY DARK OUT. ALL THINGSCONSIDERED, I PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE JUST SEEN THAT HUGE HAMMER GO UP. IT'SCARVING THROUGH THE AIR TOWARDS THE BACK CORNER, YOU CAN PRACTICALLY HEAR IT HUM.THE RECEIVER SKIES TWO MARKERS FOR THE SCORE - AND WAS THAT A DISC WAGGLE? I MIGHTJUST WATCH THAT AGAIN IN SLOW-MOTION...THE SUCCESS OF 2003'S RUNNING WITH THE FLATBALLERS HAS HELPED ROADIE FILMS TAKEULTIMATE VIDEO TO A NEW LEVEL THIS YEAR. AN EIGHT PERSON CREW IN FINLAND, A TRAININGVIDEO IN THE PIPELINE AND MORE THAN THE USUAL HIGHLIGHTS CLIPS ON THE WEB. FIRST UPWILL BE THE DOUBLE DVD FROM WORLDS - CHECK OUT ROADIEFILMS.CO.UK FOR UP-TO-DATENEWS AND RELEASE DETAILS. THIS WINTER, IT'S NOT JUST WHITE PLASTIC DISCS YOU'LL WANT TOGET YOUR HANDS ON.

;;WHAT A MESS!

THE FINAL - CLAPHAM VS LEEDS, TOUR 1, BRISTOLPHOTO © CHRIS ‘AUSSIE’ WHITE 2004

www.leedsjedi.co.uk

DISC: PRICE: £7.00

IF YOU'RE JUST TAKING UP ULTIMATE, YOU'LL BE NEEDING ONE OFTHESE TO PLAY WITH. IF YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING FOR SOME TIME,YOU'LL BE NEEDING ONE TO REPLACE THE ONE THATDISAPPEARED AT THE LAST TOURNAMENT YOU ATTENDED.