John Palmer wrote: "This must be due to two things: 1. Better training and coaching at the junior and university level. 2. A higher level of/more opportunity for competition in all divisions."
I think it is also important to note the difference in attitude between the UK/Europe and the US when it comes to sports. From a very young age the emphasis on US children is to compete to win - be it local little league baseball to university games. I don't know any other country that has national TV coverage of university sports and has a paying crowd to come watch them! If we want to improve the player base then I think we need to move away from relying on finding people at the university level when the majority of people already have their sport 'of choice' to putting the emphasis on high school kids - much like what Kev Lowe (congrats on the bambino!!) is trying to do in and around Chester. By teaching them the sport at a younger age by the time they come to compete in open/womens/mixed they will have far more experience than if they only had seen the game at uni - if they ever bothered to try it in the first place! One way of doing this could be by organising visits to schools and then running coaching sessions on a weekend in the winter (like local footy clubs do). Obviously this would take a lot of time and effort but maybe look for funding with local councils - possibly by getting a press release from UKU showing what the sport promotes - e.g. fair play, friendship, respect, fun - to help sell is as the ideal sport for children?!?! Then imagine the rewards in 5-8 years time when we suddenly have a glut of new fresh talent who have hopefully learnt from the masters of today - then we could compete with North America Just an idea Matt __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
