As a Tour B player who has been playing for under a year, "I want the main focus of any tournament bid to be the conditions in which I play Ultimate i.e. flat, level, and correctly sized pitches, water at all the pitches, all the time, plenty of space to warm up and down, shelter, plenty of game discs, appropriate catering etc, and I would also like a score/time-keeper at every pitch. "
Different people approach any sport differently, especially Ultimate, where there is such a big focus on friendship and spirit within the game. It is easy to think that those who are at the very top of the game, in the A tour, care about playing ultimate as a sport, and those who aren't as good aren't really that bothered and just enjoy it for the social side. There are definately players who care about the party and about meeting people more than they care about winning their next match, and thats not a bad thing, its their personal choice. However, its not just people at the top of the game that care about ultimate as a sport. The people I trained with every week throughout the freezing winter were doing it to improve their game, not for any social fun, yet they play Tour B.
Everytime I'm at a tournament with top teams, I always try and go and watch some matches to learn stuff and to get inspired and fired-up for ultimate, and this has been a really important part of my development as a player this year. Many Tour B players look up to the players in the A Tour and try to push themselves on to be that good. Going to a tournament and not seeing the Tour A final would be a real loss. I think by further seperating the tours, you are encouraging Tour B to the be the "party" tour and Tour A to be the "ultimate" tour, and i don't think thats the way it should be.
I agree that it is important to try and raise this countries game to the same standard as America's, but if new players such as myself, who are dedicated to ultimate as a sport, are not given the chance to see top UK ultimate, surely it is going to be much harder for us to break though and see high-level ultimate for what it is.
I understand it must be frustrating for top team players when conditions aren't satisfactory or when they feel the wrong emphasis is being put on parties etc, but please realise that this ultimate-for-fun attitude does not cover all those who aren't YET good enough to be Tour A players. I understand that this was not necessarily what you were saying Jaimie, but I think it is a risk that that misconception could flurish.
Cheers for reading.
My views, not my clubs'. Jez utb #18
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I agree with what Rob Alpen (apart from the mixed game in this country going into decline!) and Rob Mitchell said. What is the point in splitting the Tour if everyone is going to be playing on the same pitches? What the split allows us to do is recognise that there are significant differences between Ultimate being played by the top 4/8/16, and those lower down. As an A-Tour player, I want the main focus of any tournament bid to be the conditions in which I play Ultimate i.e. flat, level, and correctly sized pitches, water at all the pitches, all the time, plenty of space to warm up and down, shelter, plenty of game discs, appropriate catering etc, and I would also like a score/time-keeper at every pitch. I am willing to pay however much this costs, and lets be honest, for most *serious* Ultimate players, tournament fees are a fraction of the overall cost of playing Ultimate. What I do not care about is whether there is a party, whether everyone in the country who has picked up a disc is there, and I certainly do not want teams in fancy dress or who feel the need to sing me a well-rehearsed song after the game, even though they do not know the rules! I want all this because I play Ultimate as a sport, and want the game in this country to develop to the point where we are up there with the North Americans, which we will not be able to do with everyone at the same event. I recognise that not everyone feels the same way, and that these things are not mutually exclusive, but splitting the Tour allows the emphasis to be different and the needs of the participants to be met.
Easy,
Jaimie Cross General Secretary #7 LeedsLeedsLeeds 078767 51813 __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
__________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
