Successful Moments in Procrastination, volume 1

I get bored at work quite frequently, and find that number crunching various things is a great way to pass time. So here is a new segment that I call Successful Moments in Procrastination, or SMP.


Volume 1 - "Super Nationals"

So here's the concept - instead of four separate Nationals (Open/Womens, Mixed, AUG, Youth), how about one big week of Nationals at a nice location (Gold Coast?) where we run all 5 divisions at once? Do we have the numbers for that...

I went through the registrations for 2007 Nationals, Youth Nationals, Mixed Nationals and AUG to see where people doubled up over the year. First off, the people who only went to one...

• Open only - 120
• Women only - 94
• Mixed only - 111
• AUG only - 154
• Youth only - 66

...which totals 545 players. That would give us 6 or 7 open teams, 6 women, maybe 8 mixed, 10 uni and 5 or 6 youth. Not much, hey? At the Australian Open it is not uncommon for players to double up in divisions, playing singles plus doubles and whatnot. So how many played two events?

• Open & Mixed - 89
• Women & Mixed - 87
• Open & AUG - 23
• Women & AUG - 18
• Open & Youth - 2
• Women & Youth - 3
• Mixed & AUG - 31 (remember these two tournaments were one week apart)
  
• Mixed & Youth - 14
• AUG & Youth - 1

268 players, giving us 813 in total. Now we're up to 13 open, 12 women, 20 mixed, 16 uni, and 7 youth teams. Not far off the actual teams entered in each nationals in 2007. Then suppose you have the workhorses choosing to play three divisions...

• Open, Mixed & AUG - 26
• Women, Mixed & AUG - 13
• Open, Mixed & Youth - 3
• Women, Mixed & Youth - 1

...throwing an additional 43 players into the mix, bringing the total to 856. No one managed to make it to all four.

Now there's a handy fact - 1 in every 4 ultimate players (ie: current AFDA members) played at a National level tournament in 2007. Imagine 5 years down the track (sustaining membership growth at 20% for 2 years, then 10% for the next 3) having 6,800 members - with 1,700 playing at a Super Nationals tournament in October.

Ultimate on television

On the way home from training last night (it was a "Nigel Trip") I got to thinking (among other things) about the possibility of ultimate being on television. And so I asked myself the question - "With an unlimited budget, how would you present ultimate on TV?"

Cameras
I'd start out with the standard sports angles of one-zoomed-in-one-zoomed-out at the halfway line that you see with pretty much every sport. You would have to have the cameras up pretty high to make sure the view wouldn't be obstructed by sideline players - maybe enforce a 3 metre clearance zone on the sidelines for players, and another 2 metres further back for spectators. That way the cameras would only need to be 5-6 metres up without being too far away.

One camera placed behind the endzone Ultivillage-style for your replays and NAB Analyser segments, plus a roaming camera on the sidelines for the close up "war zone" action. Maybe also have a roaming boom mike to pick up conversations between players for foul calls and whatnot. I also think a crane camera behind one endzone would be awesome to catch different views of scores and endzone D's.


Commentators
A team of three would be great - first off a play by play person, who wouldn't necessarily have to be an ultimate player. I think a PBP role wouldn't vary too much between different sports. I think football (aka soccer) benefits greatly from just having one commentator, but ultimate would need that extra explanation of why something happened, rather than just how. So you'd have a current or former player - preferably with Dingo/Aurora appearances plus coaching gigs on their resume to give that credibility - in a 'special comments' role. Third would be a sideline commentator - their job being to relay what's happening on the field to the other two/people at home, such as foul calls.

Sponsors
It seems televised sport these days would be nothing without sponsors. With a break between goals being around 45-60 seconds, and a typical game having around 30 goals, that's plenty of time for a score, replay, ad then back to the action. Timeouts and half times are also obvious spots, without being intrusive on the game. Then of course sideline signage...and perhaps painted endzones?

Other flashy bits
A great aspect of Channel 7's rugby union coverage are the little "Toohey's New Rules" pop-ups that explain what has just been called. Ultimate doesn't have the luxury of an umpire giving hand signals, so instead the sideline commentator could simply say "Contact on the throw, so the disc goes back to Player X" and we have a popup saying "Uncontested foul. Stall count resets to 0."

I've seen posts on RSD on this topic saying that there would need to be some sort of stall count display for the people at home to follow but I disagree. In basketball there are a few rules relating to time allowed - no more than 3 seconds in the key, no holding for longer than 5 seconds once done dribbling, and getting out of the backcourt in 10 seconds. We don't need a clock counting that - we just know that the ref is counting those seconds in his head and will call a violation if time is up. All the audience would need to know is that the player has 10 seconds to get rid of it.



OK, so what makes ultimate so different from any other sport on telly? There's a few differences I can think of...

• Female commentators - there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't have a female PBP, special comments or sideline commentator. They are rarely seen outside predominantly female sports (eg: netball, women's tennis) so a simple gesture of having a female PBP or anchor for, say, a NUFL event, would be seen as quite innovative.
• Unique camera angles - this is why I'd love to see a crane camera in the endzone. Imagine a shot following the disc's path as it comes down to a laying out receiver, or a sweeping shot around a pack going up for the disc. Not many other sports have the luxury of a large scoring area where they can film from almost any angle.
• Talking to players during the game - no other sport has the access to talk to players during breaks in play. Picture this - while the disc is getting retrieved out of bounds from a wayward throw, the sideline commentator quickly grabs a comment from the captain as to whether their zone or man D is working best, and what opposition player they're keeping their eyes on. Now try picturing a similar scenario in AFL or rugby league. Not likely, is it?

Now the only experience I have in television production is being on Deal Or No Deal once (guessed $200k, it was $1k. Shattered) so I'm certain there's potential innovations I'm just not thinking of. It'll be worthwhile to pursue one day down the track, but I think we've got a bit to go before we have a presentable product in Australia.

Ballarat ultimate in 2008?

Been a while, hasn't it? Now that I've finished uni I seem to have some free time.

Nearly five months since the last post. Since then, BUUF finished 13th at AUG (and won spirit), and Ballarat was represented on 3 teams at Mixed Nats - Station 59 (Dan & Wood - 4th place), MUCUS (Amanda & Troy - 11th) and Gary (Sizz, Spanka, Major & myself - 17th). The 2007 BUUF (Buufies?) went down after the North/South game (North triumphed 15-5). Congratulations to the award winners...

Most Improved Player: Kieran Moloney
Most Outstanding Player: Dan Rule
Spirit Award: Greta Hunt
Clubperson of the Year: Kieran Moloney
Coach's Award: Maria Antoniou & Freeman Trebilcock
Rookie of the Year: Sam Cass

Female MVP: Amanda Eastwood
Male MVP: Sam Kuchel


Four more players reached milestones (Spanka & Mon 50 games, Sizz & Timmers 100 games), and Woodley pulled on the green and gold at the Asia/Pacific championships. Timill was appointed assistant coach to Aussie Thunder for 2008. Three regional youngsters (Tarrant, Lyra and Mel) earned places in the Australian U20 squad. And of course the biggest news of the last week or so is "Dingo" Dan Rule being selected on the Australian open team for Worlds 2008.

For the first time, Ballarat entered a team in Albert Park summer league this year. Straying from the BUUF or B-Town Massive banners, we've opted for a more summery name - Ballafornia. We've got a few alumni back on board (Troy, Major, Rohan), and also a few rookies (Jo, Mark, Jarrod and Nathan) in addition to the usual crew.

Plus there's the now usual slew of Ballarat players running with Nationals sides - Heads of State claiming all but one of the boys (I'm trying out with Chilly for 2008) and the girls trying out with Team Box. A Ballarat women's team was talked about but never eventuated, and I think a Ballarat men's team is still two or three years away.

So now that you're up to date, how is 2008 looking for Ballarat ultimate?

BUUF has lost "The Buds" - Wood, Timmers and Sizz - to that pesky 'graduation' thing, and Dan's Dingoes campaign rules him out, so 2008 is looking like a "rebuilding" year for the uni side. O-Week will be more important to the team than ever, with a lot of new faces required to get a solid squad together for AUG08. It won't be easy, especially with the senior players (Doobie, Greta and Amanda) tied up with Nationals commitments, but I've got faith in the 2007 recruitments to step up this year.