Tom, Wiggy, BD,
Fair points all.
Perhaps I was too concerned at people who had been playing during junior years maybe feeling shunned when they got to eighteen-ish, rather than appreciating the need for beginners not to get whooped in their first taste of competition.
Certainly side-by-side tournaments and development tournaments can be ideal answers to junior/beginner quandaries.
Alex The Prince Of Leisure EMO #34
From: "Chris Jackson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "'Alexander Minshall'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CC: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [BD] 'Freshers' tournaments Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 20:44:01 +0100
Alex, BD,
As I heard it: Beginners rule of thumb is that they must not have played competitive ultimate for longer than 3 months, I'm not quoting anything but its always been an unwritten law from everyone I've spoken to.
Allowing Juniors to compete would be unfair on the beginners as they would be more experienced. The tie with Beginners events and Universities is coincidental as Universities tend to be the places where there are most beginners.
The trend in beginners' events this year has been to allow non-student
beginner teams as well to make the tournament name more accurate and open to
more new-starters. It also allows more scope to play different people and
get the most experience from 1 weekend possible. My point being that there
is a strong difference between what Beginners Tournaments are and what you
are implying a "Freshers Tournament" would be.
I also think that quality of ultimate is not the key to successful beginners
tournaments, the success is in getting plenty of pitch time and a well
organised event so new players can just get on with enjoying it and
learning. I think it would be quite demoralising for the majority of new
players to be thrown in a tournament with players who have been playing 6
months-1 year as even in that short time difference the skills and awareness
levels have greatly increased. In my opinion, beginners need to play
amongst other beginners to experience the most possible.
As an aside, a large portion of Purple Haze's new intake last year were not freshers but second years, no-one (except maybe me!!) wants to be tarred with the "Fresher" brush more than one year in their lives!!!
Just my thoughts, not my clubs blah blah...
Wiggy
Purple Haze
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alexander Minshall Sent: 03 September 2004 09:56 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [BD] 'Freshers' tournaments
Just an idea, but couldn't 'beginners' tournaments, which are primarily aimed at University freshers, become renamed as, for instance, a 'freshers' tounaments, and lift restrictions on length of time people have played the game.
Limiting (or at least appearing to limit) these touraments to people who have only been playing Ultimate for a short time may alienate players who have been playing Ultimate during 'junior' years.
Renaming these tournaments as 'freshers' or similar, may encourage players
who have adopted the game earlier (perhaps from Smudge's St. Vincent Academy
- wahey!). This might also increase the team standard of such tournaments,
causing true beginners to see what levels can be achieved in the sport,
while still allowing room for these people to play in what are generally fun
events.
I suppose renaming to 'freshers' may then discourage non-uni junior teams, but most such teams will read BD and as long as the TD's (subject to TD's own agreement) announce that non-uni teams which meet an age criteria can enter, renaming to 'freshers' shouldn't have too much of a negative effect.
Alex The Prince Of Leisure EMO #34
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