(with reference to Pedro's email and others) I am not aware of guidelines, and I agree this is an issue. I noticed it after the last tournament I played (indoor nationals) where having taken on the task of ensuring our spirit sheet was filled in after every game, I naturally gave the system some thought. Like Pedro, I assumed that an average game would be scored average all the way i.e. eight 1s totalling 8 points. Essentially this was what on average I (well “we” as I discussed things with teammates) gave the opposition. Once all the scores were published after the event, it became clear that 8 was not the average score given, and actually by scoring on average 8, this contributed to the teams that we had played getting a lower average score than those we had not.
I assume WFDF are looking for feedback on their system and will look to improve it in future. There do appear to be a couple of issues (a similarity in some of the categories, being the most obvious to me) other than ‘what is average’. Nevertheless, I have decided that I really like the “how was the oppositions spirit compared to ours”, it prompts a useful post-game analysis, not only of the oppositions spirit, but vitally your own. This is important in helping us remain vigilant about the standard of our spirit. So overall, I think this can only be a positive thing. My view on how we could provide more feedback to teams (which perhaps betrays my background in number crunching) would be to record what spirit score a team gave on average and then rescore the teams giving them a plus or minus score depending on whether they were above or below. That way teams would know who considered them better than average and who worse. A score of 10 is very different from a team that gave an average of 13 than a team that gave an average of 8. It would probably require a complicated algorithm that is beyond me so perhaps I’m just advocating that everyone try to give an average of 8. Jaimie PS I wrote this before reading Dave T’s email. The ability to judge spirit in blowouts is very real (and acknowledged by most people I speak to). The way the tour looks to use peer pools, so that all games are meaningful, does try to address this. Recognising as a player that you react differently depending on the game is the first step to being better spirited in both situations. Consistency is (IMv.HO) an essential part of spirit. __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed
