I couldn't disagree more strongly with Hussey's previous comments concerning
the women's tour. There are a handful of exceptional female players who
can compete effectively in the upper eschelons of the open tour. However,
the majority of women who compete at this level will get less disc, less
pitch time and less opportunity to develop their skills as players. I find
it really difficult to believe that those women who end up playing for open
teams in the lower half of the Tour get to play as tactically a
sophisticated game, with as many opportunities to learn and improve there
skills as they would if they played for a team of experienced women in the
Women's Tour. In terms of separation of the sport into men's ultimate and
women's ultimate, what's wrong with that? Mixed ultimate already allows us
to compete on an equal footing, why is open so important for women? In terms
of Ultimate as a sport, speed, agility, athleticism and height are becoming
more important, and it's unrealistic to believe that all women can compete
against men as athletes. They are more likely to develop their athletic
capacities playing against other women, where they will have more
responsibility on the pitch and probably more game time.
In terms of wanting to play at a high standard, it doesn't take a genius
work out that if more women committed to playing in the women's tour instead
of writing it off as a low grade competition, then it would be (and I
certainly wouldn't dismiss the possibility that it will still be anyway) a
high standard event.
As for hosting the women's tour on separate weekends, it's already been
mentioned that we have a pretty packed calender in our relatively short
outdoor season, so I doubt that this is a practical suggestion anyway.
Finally, I think it's important to note that the nations that produce the
world's top women's teams (the US and Canada) have clearly defined and
extremely competitive women's divisions. Clearly, there are more female
players in these countries and we can't yet hope to emulate this. However,
there are 19 teams currently entered in the first Mixed series event. Each
team must have a minimum of 4 women to enter. That's enough for 10
potential women's teams. I would welcome any comments or explanations as to
why this has never happened. It's time for an honest and serious appraisal
of women's ultimate in this country if we really want to build a platform
from which we can produce an excellent GB women's team.
Sarah Gibbons
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