I've got a suggestion to throw into the future of UK ultimate discussion. It concerns the A tour and is aimed at reducing the playing load at each event. At the moment I feel that 6 long, closish games over a weekend is far too many.
I would like each Tour to become a straight 16 team knockout tournament. The detailed schedule would be something like Game 1 1 v 16, 2 v 15,..., 8 v9 Game 2 1 v 8,..... 4 v 5; 9 v 16 etc.... (I'm sure you can work out the rest!) This would make 4 games for each team split into 2 per day. Here are some of the reasons why I think this would be a good idea (in no particular order): 1. We play too many games at Tour events. I've felt for a long time that 3 hard games in a day is too much. Overplaying (at the intensity now common at the Tour) is taking risks with players' bodies. Injuries (especially wear and tear) must be more likely when playing 3 games. I also think it is wrong to play back to back games at such a high level. It's too hard mentally and physically 2. It will be more like Worlds/Europeans At major events there are invariably 1-2 games per day. It would be a good thing for the top players to get more used to such a format. We've already seen the benefits of getting our players used to a competetive atmosphere, we could move things a step closer by moving to 2 games per day 3. All games will count This increases the competetive edge even more. Group stages (as we have now) allow for losses and hence Saturday is not currently as competetive as Sunday (particularly for seeds 1-4 and 13-16). In a straight knockout, every game will affect final positioning and we will get more and more used to sudden death finishes in games that matter 4. More venues would be available Clearly fewer games means fewer pitches which means that we could either: a- get cheaper tournaments (or better - afford better venues as we would need less space) b- have access to better pitches c- fewer pitches also means fewer (i.e. BETTER!) scoreboards, etc.. I think we would only need 4 pitches (and no back to back games) - or 5 if we wanted to save 1 for the final in poor conditions. 5. Easy and understandable scheduling - and a show pitch One of the bonus things I like is that if we had a show pitch (with a stand or clubhouse alongside) it's pretty easy to schedule both days so that there is always a close game on the showpitch, and most teams would appear on it over the course of the weekend. 6. Current format is tired I hold my hands up here as I was there when we discussed and agreed this year's format.However I get the impression that it was unpopular with the top 4 teams as they get many "meaningless" games. The tournament only really comes alive on the Sunday (by which time a lot of players are exhausted). This format relies on accurate seeding. This is now possible for at Tour events with the occasional exception of Tour 1. Thanks for getting this far! I just wanted to flag up the idea before we get to the UKU conference in case I'm not alone in these views Wayne __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://zion.ranulf.net/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/informed.asp
