ACTUA update

Howdy Ya'll,

ACTUA had a pretty informal meeting last Tuesday. We were missing a bunch of members to other commitments and overseas travel but we needed to get together to sort out our request for field allocations for the summer 08-09 booking period. It looks very much at this stage like we won't be allowed to wear cleats at Dickson so it seems the long-awaited time when we have to split our leagues may have finally arrived. The current plan is to run divisions 2 and 3 at Dickson on Tuesday nights and division 1 at O'Connor (which has newly upgraded and very swanky lights) on Wednesdays. The change in daylight savings (which now starts at the beginning of October, rather than the end) means we can also add in training fields for league teams to use without needing to raise league fees. Nice, eh?

Now we need coaches. We aim to offer league teams training fields and coaches each week for individual players or their teams to use to improve their games. If you're out there and you're interested then get in touch with me at "who dot is dot the schmooze at gmail dot com". We should even be able to offer you some kind of token payment for helping out.

We also need league organisers. Anthony "I do all the work" Perry will be away for some of Spring league and we're looking for a replacement to run divisions 2 and 3. Again, email me if you're at all interested, you'll get plenty of help and support form ACTUA. We pay people a modest honorarium for that too.

There is also a possibility that divisions two and three might be run in different time slots to free up field space for the leagues to expand. Expect (if you're a div 2 captain) to receive an email from me or Anthony asking about some of the possible details. That's definitely not guaranteed at this stage, it'll depend on how captains feel and how much demand we get for places in those divisions.

In less exciting news we only got two allocations for mixed nationals, and we were hoping for three. We might get a third one if another region can't find enough teams to fill their desired number of spots, but that's not particularly likely. If we can get enough keen players we'll try to send a development team to NSW mixed championships in early September, but it would be great to get that team to Mixed Nationals instead.

I'm going to be on the hunt for organiser types to run four club teams in division 1. These clubs are expected to run perpetually and are a necessary step in the development of high level ultimate in Canberra. There will be two drafted teams as well for those players looking for the traditional mixed bag experience. If you're hankering a secret ambition to run a strong ultimate team in a dynamic and competitive competition this might be your big chance. Again, email me.

We look forward to improving the ultimate on offer in the ACT. Let us know (via an email or leave a comment) if there are any projects you think would improve the ACT scene or if you're interested in helping out in any way. We're always on the look out for new ideas, especially if those ideas come with keen volunteers.

Kaboom - Mixed ACT Ultimate

Its my pleasure to announce the formation of the ACT mixed club Kaboom.

We are looking to produce a more cohesive and organised effort during our mixed season this year. We hope this will be a longer standing mixed club that gives opportunities for all Canberrans to play for.

This campaign will be a building phase in our wider plan and will set our men's, women's and mixed teams up for 'great success' in the future. We are aiming at getting three mixed teams to tournaments and to qualify as many as possible for Mixed nationals. The teams will share style of play, training and administrative functions but will all have a different focus and goal for their campaign.

There will be a top level team, a competitive but more relaxed team and a development team. The top level team will be aiming to put itself into a position to win nationals and will play the smartest and cleanest ultimate in Brisbane. The 2nd team will be for those that want to have a good competitive tournament but also want to indulge in the more social aspects of the season. The development team will hopefully consist of players from the current Winter Outdoor League and previous div 2 leagues, with a core leadership of players that have played tournaments before. Its purpose is to expose new players to the tournament scene.

The campaign is effectively already under way. WOL and the development clinics on monday nights are new features of ACT ultimate that will prepare players for the mixed season. We are expecting to start training in mid August, giving us a ten week lead up to mixed nationals. This training will be run by Pete "Mad Dog" Hemphill with support from John Horan and conceptual guidance from G. Training will be held at O'Connor Playing Fields (the fields nearest the O'Connor Shops off Pedder Street) at 6:15 on Thursday nights, starting on the 21st of August (with an introductory bridging session held on the 14th). Details about selections and tournaments will be announced at a later date.

We are hoping that the merry batch of players heading off to Brisbane in October will all contribute to the improvement of Ultimate in the ACT and our eventual goal of qualifying for and winning World Clubs 2010 in the mixed division.

If you are interested in playing competitive ultimate with the ACT during the mixed seasons then please register your interest here: http://afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=509

Thomas Watson, on behalf of the current stewards of Kaboom, John Horan, Mica Hartley and Thomas Watson.

Plan B wins Halibut

Several lovely Canberra players were involved in the multi-state team that won Halibut just last weekend. This team was called Plan B and was the brain child of Erin Wallis and myself. The ACT players were James 'Jesus' Ley, Thomas 'Chumpy' Walcott, Sarah Jones (who is now moving overseas) and myself. We played with Erin, Alec, Ali (formerly) and Allison from SA; Alex Ong, Jo Creswell and Luke Stephens from Victoria; and some chump called Jmac from Brisbane. Good times

The tournament was its usual good self. Good fields, food and people. The party did seem to suffer from terrible music selection. Apparently the DJ had been involved in a car accident and thus the manager was in control. The outcome was a big turnout early in the night but rapid losses from the party as halibutters attempted to find a better groove.

The most challenging game was (unsurprisingly) the final. Mind the Gap shifted off to an early lead, going two nil up. Plan B settled and the first half saw the team slowly gain control of the lead, taking half at 8-6. In general, there were very few turn-overs from both teams, with the wiley cuts and undefendable throws of Mind the Gap matching the quick moving, high work rate offence of Plan B.

Half-time looked tense over in the Mind the Gap camp but the Plan B players had other things to worry about....just what exactly was going to be our last dance move? Every half over the entire tournament, we added another sequence to our dance. This was to be our last effort, so we settled on the addition of our team cheer "Plan B - Good enough for me" to close out the dance. Our last performance of the dance was met with wild acclaim and cheers (jeers?) from the crowd and once finished, we were ready again to play.

The second half saw Plan B tightening their defensive efforts and further lock the game down. Mind the Gap rallied briefly at around 14-8 to take the game to 14-10 but Plan B settled to take the game 15-10. Working the way up the field against a 2-3-2 zone defence, Plan B swung the disc wide and punished the defence with several backhands into the middle of the field from the right-hand side. This throw was to be the game-winner, with a wide swing and some gaps upfield giving me a clean backhand shot into the middle of the endzone where Tom 'Chumpy' Walcott, our 6'7'' receiver, had gone into stealth mode and was unmarked. Victory again, my third tournament win for the year.

I was really happy with how I played over the weekend. In the final I had a strong game, with 5 assists and two blocks. I really enjoyed playing as a O/D handler and I am really giving serious thought to giving up on cutting (which really screws the skin on my feet) and working on my core-strengthen handling ability. We will have to see about that....

The highlight of the tournament was seeing a multi-state team come together so strongly on and off the field. At the end of the tournament, our offence was exceptionally clean for a team that had not played together before. The crazy random way our half-time and timeout dance had come together was also a crazy organic happening that was enjoyed by the whole team aside from Chumpy, who is far too cool for us.

There are plans afoot that will see the return of Plan B at another time but it seems likely that I will be going with Plan A for next years Halibut, the ACT mixed club. I look forward to defending the title next year with a different batch of trouble-makers.

I am a man!

Hello all,

Recently it has been brought to my attention that it is not entirely clear what gender I am simply from the posts on this blog. This not only makes me feel inadequate, it might also alienate a possible blog reading audience who might benefit from occasional updates on stuff that's happening in the local frisbee scene. Plus it gives me something to write about on yet another slow ulty news day.

Thus, let's quickly profile the authors of this blog so you can get to know a few more of the movers and shakers (we're all definitely shakers, rather than movers) of the local community.

Twats started playing ultimate in Canberra at the very end of 1999 as a proud product of the legendary recruiting power of Nikki Shires. Nikki (who was teaching at a local boys school now found in the paper for all the wrong reasons) combined with PE teacher Pat Belgard (who apparently has some brother who played on top teams in Canada) to found a number of school teams loosely connected to the more established snow-sports program. These teams flourished briefly in the local leagues with the voraciousness
of a virulent fungal growth. Unfortunately, the departure of Nikki to greener pastures and the loss of Pat to a long-term injury proved the "Easy-Off Bam" to this renaissance of junior ultimate in the ACT. Without the administrative drive of these two, most of the juniors teams (which once numbered four in one league. In 1999. Unheard of!) folded. Only Team Pov, the most virulent strain of the infestation, had the drive to continue playing as a team and collected most of the left over players to continue playing as a juniors team. Twats was drawn into the Pov fold after his original team collapsed and was a stalwart of the Pov "Stampede" offense from 2000 until 2002. During the Pov exodus of 2003 (as players left school and moved to new cities for uni) Twats headed overseas and insodoing missed a significant period in the development of men's ultimate in the ACT. Returning for nationals in 2005, Twats was one of the develoment players brought into the Deathstar training camps and acquitted himself admirably as a cutter. Unfortunately, he had to wait until 2006 to play with Deathstar at major tournaments, including nationals and the world club championships and his experience on that deeply troubled team was formative in his attitude to and goals for ACT ultimate.

Since then, Twats has worked hard to provide cutting firepower to a number of ANU teams, played on the highly successful Barefoot NUFL campaign of 2007 with rave reviews and contributed to the Fyshwick United campaign of 2008 as a selector, admin director and through his dangerous on-field presence. Twats also holds the highly coveted record for the first head-spike on national television.

Bags started playing ulty in the prototype Nikki Shires juniors team in mid 99 before becoming one of the driving forces behind Team Pov. Unfortunately, some confusion between the distinction between a driving force and a leadership figure plagued Pov then and echoed through Bags' playing days until present day. Pov did not have leadership, rather team behaviour emerged from a number of conflicting internal drives. As a central element behind many of these drives (including many successful initiatives like the throwing of forehands and some less successful ones, like the growing of hair) Bags had a key role in directing the team without ever having any conscious direction of his own behaviour or the behaviour of the team more generally. First appearing in ACT representative teams at nationals in 2001, Bags was frequently included in teams in the hope that investing in young players would improve the player base ACT elite teams drew upon. In 2002 he attended the world club championships in Hawaii in what might turn out to be the stingiest appearance of an Australian player at any international tournament held outside Australia. Highly regarded for his ability to withstand sometimes enormous strain upon his body and digestive system, Bags pioneered the "coffee and doughnuts" approach to the transition from cutting to handling.

Bags and Twats combined in 2006 during the university season to try a new approach to team management in the ACT based on evidence suggestion a strong correlation between the amount of time spent talking during game time and the number of games lost. Unfortunately, Bags tore his ACL before his dream of playing ultimate informed by 19th century German nihilism could be fully realised by the ever suprising "Verfremdung, das Springspiel" at Mixed Nationals in 2007. Bags now directs his will for power into the local ultimate administration, rehabilitative gardening and a column on meditation in a local alternative lifestyle magazine.

Pookie has written a post on this blog if we include that one I wrote while accidentally logged in as her, so she gets a profile too. Pookie arrived in Canberra after growing up in upstate New York. She was quickly recruited into Team Pov after she betrayed her background of social ultimate in the US by throwing a suspiciously decent backhand to the Pov kids at a school function after collecting a stray disc. After a period of overseas travel during the great Pov exodus of 2003 Pookie returned with a renewed enthusiasm for competitive ultimate and worked her way into the ACT women's team Phoenix, which won spirit at world clubs in 2006. Since then, Pookie has continued to play as a cutting utility on a number of local women's teams and has made major contributions to a series of university campaigns. She has also pioneered the breaking of bones playing ultimate, breaking one collarbone twice and a leg. These injuries, combined with several periods of overseas travel, have ensured that Pookie continues to suprise opponents who don't recognise her soon enough to respect her committed cutting and dangerous throwing range. Strong seasons with the Factory Girls in 2007 and 2008 seem to putting an end to this luxury.

Pookie is currently committed to the ANU push to unigames and continues to take a direct, persistant and personal approach to recruitment.

So there you have it! The innermost details of the blog authors revealed! One day I'll learn to post photos and that'll make recognising us a lot easier. Can anyone else feel the rapport?

Critics Agree! Dev clinics "Good"

That's right folks, contrary to the predictions of many significant climate change scientists, the Monday night development clinics that started last Monday are officially "Good". 15 hardy souls turned up to fine tune their throwing, catching, pivoting and marking skills. Thanks to Twats for helping with the first session, he's off to China to present the International Olympic Committee with the WFDF bid to have ultimate included in the next Olympic games (his trip was kindly subsidised by the AFDA with proceeds generated from their weekly meat raffles)*. Sadly, this means he won't be there next week.

Next week we'll delve into the hearty soup of tactics that is Match offense and defense. If you're keen to add to your league repertoire you're all most welcome to attend. The clinics run from 6:30 until 8:30 on Monday nights at Willow's Oval at the ANU. If you're thinking of showing up for the first time then write your name in the comments section so I can get the bouncers to put your name on the door list.


*The preceding sentence is false.

ACTUA meeting on Tuesday

Hi all,

There's an ACTUA meeting at the House of Twits on Tuesday the 29th of July at 7:30pm. We've moved it ahead from the following Monday to ensure we get our field allocations sorted before the relevant ACT sportsgrounds meeting on August 1st. Tuesday also allows Mica and John to attend, since they're both busy at various training sessions on Mondays.

Stuff is on!

Yesterday saw the second thrilling installment of the WOL quartet. We were all finally reminded of why people play indoor during winter, as the overcast conditions that lasted through the first game gave way to rain for the second game slot. Each team bravely sallied forth into the wet weather to face some persistent zone defense and difficult handling conditions. Nevertheless, glory was there to be had and the soft and slick ground made for some excellent O and D bids.

The first round saw fairly close games between the ever-reliable Dam Beavers and the Mavericks and between Dynoshite (now with REAL Dynoshite players) and the vastly improved Bolivar Floaters. The Mavs, missing big playmaker Tom Walcott, made use of the speed and hops of Richard and Damo, their key receivers, and benefitted immensely from the firepower of the returning Carrie Flynn and ACT stalwart Dave Lowe. The Dam Beavers looked to their offensive utilities Brett Ringland and Asher Gentle but were unable to connect deep to Rachel Gentle who was, as usual, open all day. The Mavs took the game 12-9.

Dynoshite finally (and quietly) arrived with their sunglasses firmly in place after a large night at Elise's birthday do. A veritable unknown in WOL, Dynoshite looked for an early win against the Bolivar Floaters. The Floaters had no intention of going down easily, and it took several flushes before the superior throwers on Dynoshite were able to remove them from the bowl. The Bolivar Floaters seem to have greeted the return of Karl and Mel Adamson with some enthusiasm, looking positively dangerous at several points during the game. Final score, 10-8 Dynoshite.

Despite the return of their captain James Kingsmill, the ANU were caught off-guard by the pink shirts of the Devolutionaries and suffered something of a hiding, going down 15-6. Last week the Dev's lacked a bit of handling stability and it seems the arrival of James "All Air" Ley has solved this problem and then some. The Devolutionaries' solid cast has been looking for a superstar to bring big returns at the box office and James clearly has the credentials required. These guys might be a team to watch over the next few games. Final score, 15-6 Dev's.

As the hooter sounded for the end of game one, the clouds that had threatened all day finally let go, and all the teams huddled under the shade tents for a bit of mutual groping. With this out of the way, they returned to the field for round two.

The Devolutionaries faced off against the Mavericks, with Adam and Mark of the Mavs pointing out that every time James Ley left the field the Mav's scored. Clearly, James needs to work on his fitness because, despite some great end-to-end plays, the Mavs snuck away with the game 13-10.

Dynoshite proved that squeezing out some Floaters was just the beginning by beating the ANU 11-6. The ANU seemed to be lacking a bit of cutting drive upfield and despite good lateral movement had trouble moving forward. Expect this to end with the return of cutting workhorse Ryan Ickert who is always ready to offer strong options upfield. Dynoshite, on the other hand, seemed to succeed most with fewer, more penetrating throws, chalking up a number of one-pass offenses for goals, with the Andrew to Myall connection seeming to be strong and faithful.

And finally, the Dam Beavers seemed to be hungry for blood after their early loss, savaging the Bolivar Floaters 17-6 (yes, there was supposed to be a points cap at 15). The Floaters seemed less enthusiastic in the rain and lacked options upfield, while the Beavers looked to a number of new-ish recruits to do heaps of work (both on O and D) in the mid-field while wet-weather specialist Asher Gentle made the Floaters pay for any offensive error with reliable and dangerous throws.

With four games completed, the season's ladder looks like this:

Team	Wins	Losses	Draws	Points	Goal Diff
Dynoshite	4	0	0	8	23
Mavericks	4	0	0	8	18
Devolutionaries	2	2	0	4	2
Dam Beavers	1	3	0	2	1
ANUDE	1	3	0	2	-18
Bolivar Floaters	0	4	0	0	-26

Remember, the ACTUA Development Clinics start tonight at 6:30 at Willow's Oval, ANU. We're working on fundamental skills and any league players are most welcome to attend. See ya'll there!

WOL on Sunday!

Hi Ya'll,

Just a reminder that WOL is on this Sunday at Downer playing fields from 1:00. Come and get your monthly fix.

Also, sign up on the comments section for the development clinics on the previous post, the comments section no longer requires a google account, so anyone can post.

ACTUA Development Clinics

ACTUA is running development clinics at the ANU at Willows Oval on Monday nights from 21/7 until 18/8 from 6:30 to 8:30. Willow's Oval is on the intersection of Barry Drive and North Road on the South (lake) side of the road. Don't go to the other side, we're not allowed to use those fields (ever since the Great Ultimate Frisbee Catastrophe of 1907) even though the turf is superb.

These clinics are designed to give league players and their teams the edge and provide a way for players looking to learn more to move into more demanding leagues or even move towards tournament ultimate.

The current schedual for the five weeks is:

Week 1: Foundations - We'll improve our basic skills of throwing, catching, holding and breaking a force, reading the flight of the disc and hucking.

Week 2: Match - We'll build on players understanding of Match defense and offense (you might call it Man-on-Man, but soon you'll call it Match), looking at faster disc movement, using more of the field and maintaining possession.

Week 3: Junk - We'll all learn how to play a form of zone defense which is more aggressive than traditional cup zone.

Week 4: Variations - We'll add some simple changes to the basic strategies we've learnt to make them less predictable and more effective.

Week 5: Smack Talk - We'll develop the highly important skill of looking and sounding better and more knowledgeable about ultimate than any of us really are.

If you're interested please sign up by leaving your name and any other relevant details in the comments section.

This development program is officially endorsed by James "Kiss These Guns" Ley.

Time for Business

The other night I heard Cadel Evans say that the task ahead of him is simply to "Do the business". Awesome.

Anyway, I'm slowly divesting myself of one kind of business (finishing my essays) so that I can get back to the other. We had an ACTUA meeting last Monday, where among other things we confirmed the latest interesting dates for upcoming frisbee stuff.

DEVELOPMENT CLINICS:

We'll be running coaching for players from Divisions 2 and 3 to help them give their teams an edge in the upcoming leagues. The clinics will run on Monday nights at Willows Oval at the ANU and, pending confirmation, should run from 6 until 8 (I'll see if we can move that back for all those people who finish work at 6). They start on the 21st of July and run until the 18th of August (5 nights all up). The sessions will be focused on giving players some ways to improve their own games and give some extra firepower to their league teams offense and defense.

If you're just looking to improve your game or you're thinking about moving into a more challenging division these clinics will be a big help. Plus they're free. And fun.

THE MIXED SEASON:

We've asked the AFDA for three spots at mixed nationals later this year (October 18-20 in Brisbane) and we're guaranteed 2 of those. If you're looking to get some game time in, we can probably get a couple of teams to NSW Mixed Ultimate Championships on the 6th and 7th of September. We'll also run a lead-up tournament at the start of October (we've just got to fit it around Unigames) at which NSW teams will be most welcome to attend.

OTHER STUFF:

The locals worlds players had their last night of local training. It takes a great deal of commitment for these guys to get their throwing sessions, sprints, fitness training and these weekly sessions in as well as the weekend training camps. Congratulations to Jonno Holmes (the Dingos, open division), Keah Molomby and Helen Osmond (the Firetails, women's division), Leon Smith, Damien Jaccoud (both Taipans, master's division), Charli Kesteven (not sure of the team name, under 19 women's division), Max Wheeler, Laina Hall, Vickie Saye, Lucy Stevenson and Adam Mortimer (all Barramundis, mixed division) for earning their place on our rep teams and good luck to all the green and gold players in Vancouver in August. Thanks to the punching bags for braving the crisp nights to provide some opposition.

HOT RUMOR:

The details for the ACT tilt at Mixed Nats this year should be coming out very soon. I know that a number of local factional headkickers have started negotiations with the various wise sages of the local scene. It feels just like the Labor Party.

That's all for now. I've got proofreading to do!