Folks -

This just in. Stanford Campus is closing fields for this weekend (March 6-7) due to ongoing rain. We’re moving to Plan B for Stanford Invite: The Stevinson Invite. Stevinson, CA is about 100 miles from Palo Alto, so our suggestion is to rebook a closer hotel (Turlock, CA is the closest “major” city). We’re in the process of emailing captains now, but please know that all scheduled games will happen over the weekend.

New Field Location:
Central Valley Polo Club
Van Clief Rd & 1st Ave
Stevinson, CA 95374

There is absolutely no way fields will be shut down this weekend. The fields are built on a deep sand base, and they, literally, flood the fields when they water them.

Stay Tuned,

Skip

Third annual Siege of Limerick (Castletroy, Ireland) saw a little bit of everything over the weekend. A little bit of sun, a little bit of snow, some Guinness for the lads,  a new division for the ladies.

Congrats to Ragnarok of Copenhagen, Denmark for walloping through the Open division on the way to first place, and Jabba for coming back from a first day loss to take prize in the women’s division. Many thanks to Jim Heneghan and the UL Ninja crew for having us over for the weekend and keeping everything around the event in top form. Special shout outs to capital-D Daragh, Junior, and Elaine for helping us keep the trains running.

Pictures from the event can be found in a few different places:

Ragnarok’s images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ragnarok/sets/

Ragnarok FB: http://www.facebook.com/ragnarokultimate

Mark Early’s Images: http://picasaweb.google.com/earley.mark/SiegeOfLimerick2010

Do drop us a line if you have more photos to share – and thanks to everyone for helping make Siege 2010 such a

success!

Skip & The Cultimate Team

We struggled for the entire week over how to write a final statement on TiV2010. For sure, it was a tremendous disappointment for everyone involved, and like a lot of you, we’re frustrated with how the tournament unraveled over the weekend. What follows below is a more detailed account of the events that occurred and decisions made from our perspective – but the most important thing for us to express is that we are a company that is both from and of the ultimate community, and that we’ve dedicated and continue to dedicate the majority of our lives to creating opportunities for others to pursue our shared passion. We hope to learn from the events surrounding TiV2010 so that we can provide better tournaments for the community in the future.

Skip Sewell
Co-Founder, Cu1timate
————————–

Overview
There is no worse outcome than having to stop a tournament mid-stream, especially one of the magnitude of College Trouble In Vegas. This ending resulted in teams having invested money in the one of the most important events of their season, to little return. Additionally, with the added requirements of the new regular season, many teams are in jeopardy of not logging the 10 games necessary to receive a UPA ranking heading into The Series.

As fellow ultimate players, we empathize completely. The sheer loss of the excitement of College Trouble In Vegas puts a damper on the 2010 college season.

Rain Conditions / Cancellation Before the Weekend
We are as hopeful as all players who look at the weather reports and still want the tournament to happen without a hitch. In this case, because of the damage done to the fields last year, we had to be extra cautious as conditions deteriorated. This past weekend fell right on the border of what was reasonable to continue, and in fact, we likely erred toward the side of caution. If either the overnight Friday rains or Saturday afternoon rains had been a bit less or halted entirely, we would have been able to resume play. As it was, the sun shone on the fields on Sunday, such that similar conditions on Saturday would have meant we played on.

For Club Trouble In Vegas, the forecast was clear, the fields were closed early, and an alternate plan was possible (the tournament being only 1/4 of the size of College TiV), specifically with the hope that College Trouble In Vegas would be able to continue as scheduled, even through some rain. As the weekend approached, the chance of cancellation was present but not prevailing. Even with the forecast, it appeared as though we would be able to, at the very least, delay in the case of a hard rain, and resume play during the weekend.

Back-Up Fields
Since the tournament’s inception in 2006, Cu1timate has searched for alternate field locations around the area of Las Vegas, to no success.  Simply based on the field quality, without rain, an upgraded site would be best for teams. Unfortunately, other locations are either dominated by soccer or aren’t interested in hosting Ultimate Frisbee.

On Saturday afternoon, with cancellation impending, we did search for any place that teams could continue to play, outside the purview of our organization, as simply, there are not enough fields for us to fairly distribute among the teams attending, and any damage done to fields would certainly lead to Ultimate not being welcome in the city for some time.

With 115 teams participating, the location of TiV is naturally fixed. Any other park of that size can not be held open without cost. Therefore, having a back-up field site, or even being able to pay for the ability to continue through conditions like this past weekend, would require a steep increase in player fees.

Saturday Communication
In an age where one can tweet, facebook, blog, text and swaggle – it seems almost incomprehensible that we were not able to keep in more direct contact with captains throughout Saturday. The unfortunate fact here is that technology completely failed us in our time of need. After the initial closure of the fields on Saturday morning, we used the latter (swaggle), a text aggregator, to broadcast updates on the field conditions. Txts were sent at 1:20 PM, 2:20 PM, 4:00 PM and 4:45 PM to all captains via this service — but were only partially received. We were not aware that our broadcasts were not being received uniformly until Saturday evening. For the future, we will use a more battle-tested medium (most likely twitter) to keep captains and players apprised of any tournament changes.

Refunds
Even before a tournament starts, there is an investment made, from all parties, in the event happening on the weekend scheduled. Flights now carry $150 change fees, and man-hours are invested in the months of prep work it takes for such a large tournament. From the time the tournament is scheduled in October, there is an unrecoverable investment made. Similarly, once the tournament is in motion, the investment has been made in the entire weekend, not day-to-day, with the only variable being the field costs, should the site be closed. Thus, no refunds can be issued.

The field organizers left the responsibility of deciding to stop play to us, with the statement that damage anywhere near the scale of last year would result in a lawsuit. With play on Friday and Saturday, and the judgment that the fields didn’t appear as they did when we started play, the entire field costs were paid.

For this weekend, we made a judgment that may allow for a future for College Trouble in Vegas. Obviously there are many players in their last season for whom this seems unfair. Unfortunately, our sport is at the mercy of those who schedule fields, and have no understanding of what the game is. We are also at the mercy of weather, as adjusting from one weekend to the next for teams flying from around the country is simply not possible. The tournament is only possible at the site scheduled on the weekend scheduled.

The future of College Trouble in Vegas will also require the same understanding: No refunds will be given after the Thursday release of the schedule (one week before the tournament).

We want Trouble in Vegas to continue because, for so many people, it is a highlight of their College Season. We understand that many will look back to the 2010 cancellation and be unable to remember the typical excitement and enjoyment that surrounds the event. Even with the undesirable weather conditions of 2009, more teams than could be accepted signed up for 2010. The future of College Trouble in Vegas will require some adaptation, including an increase in player fees that will allow for insurance against the weather.

For teams who attended Trouble In Vegas 2010, a $10/player credit will be issued for 2011 Trouble In Vegas. Thus a team with 14 players will have a $140 credit next season, and a team that had 23 players will have a $230 credit. The same players need not attend to receive the credit.

We could not be more disappointed that College Trouble In Vegas 2010 came to such an unfortunate ending. We wish all of you the best of luck the rest of the season.

The Cu1timate Team

Five Ultimate’s goal is to grow ultimate at all levels and in all countries. In many places where ultimate is still developing there is a dire need for discs, old or new. To answer these needs, Five has founded the Discs for Development program.

At every tournament Five attends, they’re inviting players, spectators, coaches, and organizers to donate discs so that they can channel them to developing ultimate programs around the world. Five is making sure the discs are put to good use, and highlighting the beneficiary programs on their website for all to see. They hope to make the worldwide ultimate community stronger, and look forward to seeing the impact a few discs can have on ultimate programs around the world. Ultimate players are a unique breed of fantastic people–let’s spread our love to all reaches of the globe!

Please bring discs to donate! If you’ve got a slightly warped practice disc, a new one from a tournament you’d rather not remember, or just one that has seen better days, bring it by the Five Ultimate booth and drop it into the Discs for Development bin. You’ll be able to see the impact your disc has on the worldwide ultimate community at www.FiveUltimate.com/TheSport/DiscsforDevelopment.

On April 3-4, 2010, 72 college squads will reign supreme on the Gateway City, biding through souls and hucking dreams. Don’t miss on the opportunity to be a part of the magic that is Huck Finn TwentythousandAND10.

Please note: This year Huck Finn is at a new field site closer to the airport and closer to St. Louis.

Submit your bid here!

The time to be a part of the biggest event in East Coast Ultimate is now. Sign up your squad now for the third annual Roll Call. Roll Call (March 27-28)  held just outside of Washington DC at the Capitol Polo Club.

The tournament will be a great opportunity for taking stock of your squad’s strength, and making final team adjustments before heading into the UPA Series. The field will be composed of 64 open and 32 women’s teams.

This tournament promises to be everything people have come to expect of a Cultimate event, with great competition, gear for sale from FiveUltimate, and plenty of top notch amenities for teams.

Submit a bid here.

Are you or anyone you know interested in becoming a certified UPA observer? A training and certification clinic will be held in conjunction with the 10th Annual PLQ BBQ tournament (March 13/14, 2010). Participants must register beforehand and clinic space is limited. The clinic will take all of Saturday and most of Sunday, so participants cannot play in the tournament. Contact jonotc@shumi.org if you are interested.

My name is Ben Wiggins, and I’ve spent the better part of my life striving to play better Ultimate. I’m an average athlete, and I’ve had to find ways to compete against bigger and better jumpers and runners. I’ve been lucky enough to play with and against some of the greatest players in the game and around the world, and I’ve stolen liberally from their training methods, strategies, and techniques. Along the way, I’ve won more than my share of tournaments from Paganello to Potlatch to UPA Nationals. The skills of this game can be mastered without being the tallest or swiftest natural specimen.

I love teaching Ultimate. Do you want to learn more?

Thanks to Cultimate and the directors of the Siege of Limerick tournament this February, I’ll be traveling to Ireland to learn and teach as much as I can. I’m available to put on mini-camps for individual players (either near Dublin or Limerick) or to work through training sessions with teams at any level that want to find new ways to master their craft. Below are the synopses of two camps I’ve run recently: one is a training session with the Boracay Dragons (the World 2nd place beach team from the Philippines) and the other is a mini-camp focusing on individual defense that I hosted in Medellin, Colombia.

If you are interested, please contact Jim Heneghan at toreadordivinity@hotmail.com to make arrangements. Costs of the sessions will be kept as low as possible, are negotiable, and will be used by the tournament to help subsidize travel costs (with any overage going back to the tournament itself). In addition, we may be able to do bye-round practices or sessions at the tournament itself, schedule willing.

Please feel free to contact me if you are interested and have more questions about myself or the types of sessions that we could run. I have been fortunate enough to coach players ranging from the Seattle Sockeye to the Team USA Boys to 4 different University teams to Seattle youth and women’s teams (Moho and Viva).

I will promise you the same thing that I have promised every other player I have worked with: I take coaching Ultimate seriously enough to give you the same level of training and techniques that the best players in the world use against each other in the biggest games. If that sounds like fun to you, we should talk more before the Siege!

Sincerely,

Ben Wiggins

Read on for training session breakdowns

Boracay Training Camp (March 2009, Boracay, Philippines)

Start Time: Short discussion of team goals and approach to Paganello 2009

0:05: Scouting the standard 5-player horizontal beach offense

-Chalktalk

-Offensive shell reps

-Defensive reps against a live offense

0:30: Neutralizing physical defensive play

-1v1 cutting footwork (talk and individual reps)

-1v1 handler goals

-talk

-1v1 demonstration

-1v1 drills, 2v2 application

0:55: Short water break

1:00: Defending taller players

-1v1 goals

-1v1 techniques

-body positioning on stacked players

-helping from offside positions

-limiting cutter angles towards the goal

-a short series of drills to work on preventing these cuts from several angles without allowing physical contact

1:35: Short 3v3 scrimmage

Focus: applying techniques to beat physical handler defenders and preventing deep cuts from cutters

1:48: Short discussion of call resolution vs veteran European and US teams

1:55: Conditioning, recap, finish, done.

Individual Defense (Medellin, Colombia, December 2008)

0:00 Discussion of individual and clinic goals, and why we LOVE defense

0:05 Warm-up game and plyometric stretching

0:20 Section 1: The Mark

-individual body positioning and footwork

Drill: 1v1 footwork (without discs for greater focus)

-marking across the field

Discussion of different angles

Short drill for visualization of different cutter angles

-marking in motion; stopping cutters from advancing the disc in the first 2 seconds without committing fouls

Drill 1

Drill 2 with live action

-putting it all together: Live 1v1 drill with marker simulations

-Marks are only as good as legs….Conditioning

-recap of marking section

0:55: Water break

1:00: Section 2: Marking cutters downfield

-Body positioning (Talk, show, drill footwork starts)

-1v1 cutting (no disc, working on hips, angles and anticipation)

-2v2 vertical stack cutting (including timing and field vision)

-2v2 horizontal stack cutting

-Box Game: working on defending ‘hot’ positions on the field in a series of 1v1 moves

1:40: Section 3: Aerial defense discussion: What is ‘winning’ a sky?

-1v1, no jumping, special angled drill

-1v2, no jumping

-1v2, only offense can jump

-1v1 jumping, focusing on winning before the jump

2:00: Section 4: Putting it all together: The 2v2 BoD drill

-each player getting 2-3 reps through, enough to taste the synthesis of the skills but limited to a few reps each

2:15 Conditioning: defensive focus

-sprints requiring eyes up, anticipation, and footwork (and not knowing the duration of the sprint)

2:25 catch breath, recap, discussion of goals from the first section, done

Parkland’s own, Pacific Lutheran University Ultimate Club in conjunction with the world’s most eminent tournament management organization, Cultimate, is pleased to announce the first PLU BBQ of the decade.

Join teams from across the Northwest for a weekend of top notch games, top notch fun, top notch FiveUltimate gear and top notch BBQ on Saturday.

The BBQ can currently accommodate 16 Open and 8 Women’s teams, but we’re working to reserve a large field space that can host more teams. We will announce this if it can be secured. Sign ups are handled on a first come, first serve basis. Bid cost is $295 per team. All bid payments must be received by March 1st. Your team will receive an email once your bid has been accepted. Your squad must be paid before your spot is officially reserved.

Get your disc on.

Tournament website – http://cultimate.com/plubbq2010/