Some thoughts on womens' ultimate

Note to self: the apostrophe goes at the end of "womens".

So coming up at the end of June is the National Women's Development Camp in Brisbane. Fantastic idea, and my hat goes off to Nic and Piers and whoever else is behind it.

Why is it such a good idea?

Let's have a look at Worlds results for the Australian mens' and womens' teams over the last decade or so. In particular I want to highlight WUGC, so that's why they're in bold.

2006 (WUCC, Perth, AUS)
Men - 2nd (Thong), 3rd (Chilly), 6th (Fakulti) of 21
Women - 9th (Wildcard), 10th (Southside), 12th (Ishtar) of 18

2004 (WUGC, Turku, FIN)
Men - 3rd of 18
Women - 6th of 14

2002 (WUCC, Honululu, USA)
Men - 14th (Feral), 20th (King Brown), 38th (Action Men) of 40
Women - 7th (Freya), 10th (Seven Green Bottles) of 24

2000 (WUGC, Heilbronn, GER)
Men - 6th of 19
Women - 6th of 11

1999 (WUCC, St. Andrews, SCO)
Men - 13th (King Brown), 14th (Feral) of 40
Women - 15th (Seven Green Bottles) of 30

1998 (WUGC, Blaine, USA)
Men - 7th of 11
Women - 7th of 8


While the men have slowly worked their way up the table, the women still seem to be hovering around the middle of the field. There could be any number of reasons for this - increasing quality of the rest of the world, outside influences stopping us sending our best teams, etc etc etc. However I think we seem to have a bit of fundamental problem here in Australia. Actually, two...

1) There is a lack of depth in the quality of players.
2) There is a lack of women in leadership roles below the top tier of competition.

For point 1, you don't need to go far. Talk to anyone who has tried to organise a mixed team. As far as point 2 goes, I took a quick look at the registrations for last year's Mixed Nationals (top tier) and AUGs (one notch below). Now the captains who are listed on the rego pages aren't the on-field leaders, but they're the ones driving the recruitment and administration...in short, they get the team to the show. 10 out of the 24 Mixed Nats teams had a female listed captain. And out of the 20 AUG teams, only 1.

So why does this happen? Around Australia, there are numerous social leagues that are pretty much exclusively mixed. And whether we like it or not, at a beginner level the boys are going to dominate the game. So from the start, girls get used to playing a secondary role on the team. The exception to this of course are girls who start playing at a junior level, where there is a distinct separation between boys' and girls' development. Even if it is only in place to generate Thunder and Terra squads, it can't be denied that any girl that goes through the tryout process and training camps come out a much better player. Playing in a women-only environment means they get more of the disc and more confidence on the field.

So what's the answer?

Shit, I don't know. I guess it's something to think about.

Picking a "Dream Team" from other sports

Tiger's latest post about poaching players from other sports got me thinking properly about a question that sometimes gets thrown around.

If you could pick a line of 7 players from any sport around the world, what would it be?

*Warning for die-hard single gender fanatics: This line is for a mixed team.

Ok, starting out with our handlers...

Left point - Roger Federer



Tennis players would transfer to ultimate beautifully. Forehands and backhands share similar arm and body movements to their namesake throws, and the serve kind of resembles a hammer. They also have explosive off-the-mark speed, and endurance to last 3 or 4 hour long games. Federer's power and placement puts him at the top of the tennis world, and his cool head would leave him less panic stricken on stall 8.


Right point - Venus Williams



For similar reasons to Federer. But why Williams over, say, Henin-Hardene? Williams has more power in her shots than many of her peers, and her height (6'1") would make her very handy on defence.


Axis - James Hird



Ok, I'll admit, my lifelong love of the Essendon Football Club gives me, by default, a massive man-crush on Jimmy. But hear me out...Hird always had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Which translates to being open. A lot. He is a very intelligent athlete and was often able to create something out of nothing. Superb leader as well.


Primary mid - Sharelle McMahon



McMahon is one of Australia's more well known netballers, and for good reason. Her speed, agility and height (5'10") would give her a huge advantage over many opponents. Despite being subjective to a lot of aggressive defending, she is regarded as one of the most disciplined and level-headed attackers.


Secondary mid - Craig Mottram



Imagine trying to mark a 6'1" dude who won't stop running. When you look at his personal best times for middle distances, and do a bit of quick maths, Mottram can comfortably keep up a pace of 6 metres a second for around half an hour. All you'd need to do is teach him to catch and throw. Which is easy - anyone can learn to catch and throw. You don't "learn" how to run one mile in 3:48.


Primary deep - LeBron James



Do I really need to explain this choice? He's 6'9" and has an NBA career average of around 7 rebounds per game. You throw a bit of plastic in his general direction and he's going to catch it.


Secondary deep - Lauren Jackson



Again, little explanation needed. 6'5" and WNBA career average of 8.1 rebounds per game. She was the WNBA's Defensive Player Of The Year in 2007, so she'd probably be able to sky the boys as well.



Anyone care to disagree?

The push into Geelong continues...

Two months ago I wrote about Dan Rule setting up a VFDA-backed presence in Geelong. So how did it go?

From an email sent to the vic-ultimate list by the man himself...

"Step forward two months and we have the makings of something great. Pickup in Geelong has been running weekly on Tuesday afternoons with numbers regularly around 20 (mostly juniors) and often more. We have now sourced a venue with lights and fantastic fields to host a league on a Tuesday night from 7pm. The league will commence on Tuesday 13th May."

Fantastic news. BUUF will have a team in this league, competing against 3 local teams. We've managed to recruit players who previously thought Albert Park was too big a commitment. I will be sure to keep you posted on how the league goes.