Planting some ideas in some heads

So the price war on the LA to Sydney flight routes is heating up, with Delta joining the party. Direct quote from the article...

"US analyst Rick Seaney, from Fare Compare, said fares to Australia could drop to $320 each way before tax."

So let's say that happens in January/February, which tends to be a slow period for travel in the US because November/December are flat out. And that's our summer, as well as club season.

So let's get a tournament going on the east coast somewhere (I'm looking at you, Sydney and Gold Coast) where we invite some college and club teams from the US west coast. Advertise it as "Australia vs USA" around the area and in the media. Push it as Australia's premier non-Nationals tournament.

Alternatively, some southern-based clubs might look at a US tour in January/February since Nationals is in their home region this year.

Hmm.

Mobile technology in ultimate

My housemate has an iPhone and he won't bloody shutup about it. I can usually shut him up by sending him an MMS from the pub with the text "hey check out this hot chick i'm talking to that has a fetish for short guys." But there's no denying that the iPhone is a handy little contraption (I am pretty jealous of the iDaft app), as is my Nokia N95 - cracked screen and all - now that I've bothered learning how to fully use the mobile side of Twitter. Couple all this with the link I read about a UPA Rules iPhone app (link is now dead so won't bother posting it) and it got me thinking about how we can use mobile devices for ultimate.


Stats tracking
At the juniors vs allstars game at last year's EUGs I spent some time on the sideline with Timill who had a PDA with a stats application. This little bad boy kept track of everything - passes, completions, points played, whatever you can think of. Only troubles were keeping up with the play (it's a two person job - one calling, one entering) and the poor light making the thing difficult to read. I don't imagine it being too difficult to make an iPhone application to keep track of simple stats (goals, assists, blocks, turnovers).


SMS scoretracking
2008 Worlds had a great system where the volunteers on the sidelines SMS each score and the website would update with a timestamp, the thrower and the receiver. All well and good, but requires a lot of people to make it happen effectively so not much good for local weekend tourneys. Andrew Olennick's system in Australia is a great little setup, where the captains SMS the scores of the game to a number, and the website updates. It also sends out each team's draw every morning and whenever pools get redone. We tried to use it at AUG last year but it was very last minute and some people struggled to get the hang of it. The interface could be a little more user friendly but I suppose if we set it up earlier it would have been much more effective.


Mobile videos
I have messed about with some video conversion software and managed to find a way to download Youtube videos and store them as video clips on my mobile. I had a couple of highlight clips for when I'd be talking to people about ultimate, and instead of yapping on about hucks, force, picks and skies, I'd simply show them a video. My favourite one is the trailer for Ultivillage's Disc 4: Year Of The Monkey. I struggled to find a really good video for women's and for mixed, so if anyone out there knows of some great clips from these divisions I'll certainly add them to my collection.


Twittering
I love Twitter. Actually scrap that. I like Twitter as a friend. It's a fun little tool that I have found no real use for apart from following sites that link to funny stuff on the internet. For those who are not sure what Twitter is, it's basically Facebook with only the status updates. I twittered updates from Nationals this year and 'covered' the finals on the last day. This got followed by a few folk on the eastern seaboard so it got me thinking about how we could further use it.

My thinking right now is to round a few folk up from various unis and teach them how to set up a Twitter account with mobile support. Essentially that means they SMS a certain number and it posts an update to Twitter. If you add a 'hashtag' it makes it easier to search for a certain term. So if everyone who is posting an update from Southern Uni Games or Eastern Uni Games adds the term #unigamesulty to their post, people from home can just run a search for #unigamesulty and shebangabang - everyone's posts will come up in a sort of newsfeed.

The posts can be anything, really - score updates, great plays, funny stories, party rumours - as long as they are contained to 140 characters (just shy of a normal SMS) and it will provide some great coverage for the folks at home. If we replicate this for Australian Uni Games as well, it would be fantastic for not only people at home, but people there as well. The more Twitter-savvy can set up a permanent search term on their phone so they get the tagged posts as they happen to keep up with results in other pools. And while I'm getting nerdily excited about it, there's even a capability of adding photos to the said newsfeed via Twitpic.


Anyone have any other uses for mobile technology?

Ballarat Ultimate's identity crisis

So not since about a year ago has this blog been about anything remotely Ballarat related. A name change is being considered, yet I have absolutely no idea what I should call it. I have had some brief thoughts on guidelines for a new name...

- I'm not putting my name in it in case I invite future contributions.
- Something "Australian"
- Something to reflect that this is a news/opinion blog (despite the occasional 'personal reflection' post)

Suggestions via the comments.

Early 2009 uni season preview

Ok, so if I'm asked to sum up my predicted fortunes of each uni this year in 25 words or less...

West
UWA - Home-town Nationals gave their second string players a lot of valuable experience at the top level. Will be dangerous.

Murdoch - Relied too much on Ash Nair in 2008. Need two or three more to step up and be key players.


North
UQ - Women's development has come a long way in Queensland since 2007. Can the effect flow on to the Lovers? I remain skeptical.

QUT - Have developed a 'farm' system to rival UQ's. Reece Stewart is a huge gain. Expect improvement.

Griffith - Tom Tulett will be a massive boost for the club, both in skill and confidence. Early favourites for Div2 gold (if it goes ahead).


East
Sydney - Lost some core handlers. Should see it as an opportunity to bring in some B-teamers. Not as big a threat as last year.

UTS - Lot of hype on Ultitalk. Not sure why. Rach Grindlay is a great pickup, but they're not going to make the last eight.

ANU - Lack of prep killed them last year. A return to EUG will see improvement in time for AUG. Mid-table finish in October.

Newcastle - Have the lineup on paper to get bling. Will only happen if they're hungry enough for it.

UNSW - Revitalised by new blood. Might take time to find their legs on the big stage. Will miss quarters but 2010 should be different.

Macquarie - No longer the powerhouse they once were, but should still figure in the top eight. Depends on who they can convince to come.

CSU - New energy this year should see them back at the show. Potential to be Div2 medallists.


South
Flinders - Alec Deslandes and Erin Wallis are big losses. Joel Pillar needed for medal finish, otherwise will have to settle for top eight.

Adelaide - Lost Rian Dutch, Rich Klein and Steve Harfield, but still have the squad to challenge for a medal. Their girls are a significant strength.

Melbourne - Can get by without Chris Freise and John Liddicoat, but if they decide to come they'll be medal contenders, or top ten without.

Monash - Lost Owen Shepherd. Very strong farm system. Medal contenders, but lack the strong, cohesive leadership that Booboo and O-Shep provided in the past.

Latrobe - Lost Lachie McDonald, Jenica Villamor and possibly Jen Payne. Will struggle to match last year's 9th place.

Ballarat - Gained Dan Rule, Macca and Timill. Second string stronger than ever. May also get some mid-year starters. Will be the big improvers of '09.

Deakin - Virtually the same lineup as last year, with a couple of additions. Probably won't replicate last year's 10th place.

RMIT - Still on the recruitment drive. Need more numbers to make Gold Coast a reality.



Early days yet, so I'll review following the Eastern and Southern Uni Games in early July.

For some bonus material, here's a few players to keep an eye on this year...

Reece Stewart (QUT) - Has had a pretty successful year so far. A trip to Nationals with Firestorm, and a win at Eastern Youth Championships. Will be captaining QUT in his first AUG outing.

Nathan Wong and Rory Connell (Macquarie) - Started out as rookies last year and have quickly evolved into target players. Both were outstanding for Fakulti at Nationals, and will be leading Mac into battle at AUG.

Pete Nixon (Melbourne) and Shane Ausselbrook (Deakin) - The first Geelong players to enter the uni scene. Both are ridiculously good for "rookies".

Fiona McDonald (Sydney) - Didn't make the cut for SUUFA last year, but with a National title to her name she can book her flights to Coolongatta right now.


Indignation and outrage can be expressed here. Have a nice day.

New addition to the right - Ultimate Frisbee in the UK

There never seems to be much online news coming out of the UK. A bloke called Dave is hoping to change that. I've added his blog to the illustrious list to your immediate right. Have a read.

The UK Tour is an amazing concept and sounds incredibly difficult to pull off. 17 women's teams and 50 open teams! All in one weekend. Well, a few different weekends. The Tour is made up of 3 events over the 3 summer months, that then culminates in UK Nationals.

I'd love to see this in Australia, but with the UK being a much, much smaller country and subsequently lower travel costs it is easier to run over there. Maybe implement something like this on state-based scale? I remember something being done in NSW a couple of summers ago (Summer Series Of Fun or something like that). Maybe I'll have a look at a Victorian one this year.

Handblocks!

So after however many years of never, ever getting a handblock, all of a sudden I'm finding I'm getting them with alarming regularity. Once every two games or so, more if I'm playing pickup. And for the life of me, I could never figure out why. I don't recall making any conscious changes to my marking, I never got told "do it this way" and I didn't watch any videos/read any blogs. It just kinda...well, happened.

But I got to thinking about it and what I do now as opposed to what I did, say, two years ago. Two years ago on the mark, I'd simply look to contain. Keep the force and trust the upfield kids to do the rest. Over time I've made small adjustments and it seems as if all the pieces have now fallen into place.

1) Usually I start the stall count about two metres back to stop any "flow" passes. I stand up tall in front of the thrower (or slightly to the break side) and put my arms wide. This is to, quite literally, get in their way so they can't see past me. Also useful for taking away the early huck option.

2) By stall 3 I've come in right to their hip and have my arms out wide. I stand square on their hip, crouched and on my toes. I'm still a bit lazy at this point, but by 4 or 5 I'm very close and aggressive on the mark. Being big helps at this point because of an intimidation factor - as the count gets higher and the thrower becomes more anxious, I'm becoming more hectic.

3) I'm never looking at the thrower's face or the disc itself. Until about stall 6 my focus is slightly upfield to see if there are any cuts coming in. I also look at the thrower's arm - a lot of people don't have their wrist cocked on fakes, only on actual throws.

4) A really bad habit I used to have (and sometimes still do) is swiping at the disc on the throw rather than simply sliding my hand out in front of the disc. This irritates the shit out of me if I see the throw coming, but miss the swipe or get a fingertip on top of the disc without altering the flight too much.

5) When I get to stall 6 or 7, the thrower is usually looking for their dump. I go back to standing straight to block their vision again, and if I can see the dump cut in my peripheral vision, I'll shuffle around to follow them. If the dump is in close, I sometimes reach out on the thrower's opposite side and swipe my hand in front of the disc to distract the thrower.

6) By 8, I shuffle back out to about a metre or two directly in front of the thrower and return to the stand-tall-arms-out position to once again discourage the huck. About now I'll bite heavily on any fake because it's almost certainly going to be a throw.

7) I make a really conscious effort not to fast count at 9 and 10 and undo all my work. Instead I just keep the tempo of my count and if they don't have the throw off by the 't' in 'ten', I call stall after I finished the count rather than going "nine...teSTALL".


I'm always looking to get rid of bad habits and often make small adjustments to things I do and use "learn by doing"/"trial and error" to reinforce new changes. This is something that works for me, but I couldn't guarantee that for anyone else. In tune with that, I'm trying to eliminate a lot of tactical bad habits (eg: where to cut) by playing with new teams this year. I'm back playing Albert Park with OK Campers in Division 2, and after the unfortunate withdrawl of BUUF from this season of G-League, I'm looking to hook up with a new team there.