The Kids Aren't Pop Song Reference

So for those of you not in the loop, the structure of Youth Nationals has changed this year.

Rather than being held in Sydney, as it has every year since 2005, it has split up into two regional championships: East, which is basically the Open/Women's Eastern and Northern regions, and South, which is everywhere else.

This is a change for the better. Given the recent explosion in youth ultimate, continuing to hold Nationals in Sydney would have turned the event, which is really about development and recruitment, into a stifling exercise. It's hard enough to justify the expense and hassle for a junior to get to Sydney from Melbourne, let alone kids travelling from Perth, Darwin and Adelaide.

It's also a step towards my junior development-related Final Solution - regional youth tournaments acting as the basis for selecting merit teams from each state to compete at a roving Youth Nationals event every year.

If you're a player or coach I'd encourage you to get involved. Volunteer to help out at regionals, coach a youth team, or just teach your younger siblings how to forehand. Every new face to the sport could be the next John McNaughton or Ju Birchall.

The Kids Aren't All Right

Youth Nationals is a very different event to Opens and Womens, and it's a very difficult to satisfy the interests of all involved.*

Junior Worlds players are the driving forces behind most of the teams, so ensuring their attendance is pretty vital. But in a Worlds year (which come twice as often for the little tykes) fitting them in the actual tournament is testy: you are competing with training camps, as well as the usual school/uni timetables. Hosting Youth Nationals at a date that does not coincide with a training camp means excessive travelling/money/effort/time, whilst hosting the event at a date that does coincide with a Worlds training camp runs the risk of the event being a complete write-off.

There is also the question of what we want out of Youth Nationals: should it be focused on development, or high-level ultimate, or both? If it's the continuation of the Sydney-Victoria (or Sydney-Sydney) hegemonic ultimate then by all means, hold the event away from a training camp somewhere in Sydney or Melbourne. In terms of development, though, there are two major complications I can see that prevent Youth Nationals from reaching its full potential as an event on the ultimate calendar:

1. Recruitment infrastructure: currently, the majority of players are there on a friendship circle, word-of-mouth basis. At this year's event, one team was there because of the ultimate program in place at their school. That is where I see the future of youth ultimate's recruitment - high school. Especially in regards to states that do not have historically strong youth development (here's looking at you, TAS/SA/WA/QLD/NT) and weaker (or geographically less fortunate) players who have not been snapped up by club teams in their respective states. At the NSW High School Gala Day, a 'Merit Team' is selected from the best players. This team serves no function, at present. Imagine if the merit team from the SA High School Gala Day were selected to compete as a team at Youth Nationals - the words 'representing the state' add a lot of legitimacy to a sport like frisbee, and you could bet parents would be more willing to shell out the cash if this were the case.
2. Pricing. Last year, we got a hat, a disc, two days of high-level coaching and two days of ultimate for about $80. This year, we got two days of ultimate, a hat, a disc and a party for $75. Unfortunately, swinging the tournament fee either cheaper (for development, talking $20-50 just for fields for two days) or more expensive (for discs, hats or social events) runs the risk of alienating either entire teams of prospective new players (as was the case this year, with the cost for just the tournament being prohibitive enough to ensure at least one team didn't attend) or the hardcore travellers who want the extra tidbits to show for their journey.

So that's about all I can think to say on the matter right abouts now.

*This isn't a dig at how youth nationals was run this year or last. I had an absolute blast this year, Lisi did an incredible job and was amazingly patient and deserves to be thanked with a big big hug if you see her in Vancouver. Also, the party venue was amazing- it had showers, a movie theater, a sound system and more hot pizza than the hungry youth crowd could eat.

Day 2 Youth Nats

Well, today wasn't really as good as Day one.

First game against HOSY half our team was away getting the youth nats medals in neutral bay, we lost they played very well and we played horribly, we lost pretty badly.

Second game against Chatswood well spirited fun game they have al ot of surprisingly good up and coming kids I think Eshan was the best of the new group of CHS kids. We won that one.

Last game against Big Mac Small Fries, fun game they surprised me with how well they handled just they had no real strong receivers to back it up and we won.

Semi-finals were HOSY (1st - Undefeated through round robin) against Discgraceful (4th) and In-Tents (3rd) vs PUMSAT (Princess Unicorn Magical Sparkle Action Team) (2nd).

Hosy won their game and PUMSAT vs In-Tents was probably the worst game for us all tourney. In-Tents took 15 minutes to make the first pull, meaning it was only a 30 minute match, time cap score was 5-2 (In-tents) 6-2 game to 7, we lost i think 7-4 or 7-3. They played about as well as they did the last game, but we played a lot worse. Noble played for them that game and made some excellent throws. He has improved a lot as a handler. This game wasn't anywhere near as angry as the last game, there was some extremely bad calls during the game but everyone on PUMSAT had no heart since the start of the day. Tiger probably gave them another 10 for spirit.

The highlight was probably a catch from tom tullet managed to catch some crazy blade throw completely vertical on the trailing edge with his knuckles facing towards his body (if you can imagine the crazy position you would have to be to get a lay out catch in yoru hand with your knuckles facing down and towards your body on the trailing edge)

After a quick chat with Discgraceful there was no 3/4 play off.

HOSY vs In-tents was a great final HOSY dominated with their awesome lineup, Lewis Broad pulled some awesome forehand hucks and not so good backhand throws, Buttons and Tarrant were solid and great. Jake-as was huge. Lochies were strong stringy receivers.

Lex was absolutely amazing pulled probably the best and most beatiful d's of the entier game with some hectic layout blocks. he is going to be a huge asset for Thunder... as long as he doesn't injure himself!

I think the only bad thing about this youth nats was probably the timing.

For most of the worlds players on our team it was something none of them really cared about as much as the non-worlds players. For the worlds players it became a tourney that was just exhausting and could injure them, so they had much different expectations to the other players on the team and its pretty hard for a team to play to its potential when half of its players dont give a crap about the outcome. This was reflected by the lack of girls games where sydney was too injured.

Good tourney, good fun, well organised and the last youth nats for a lot of us.

I am a mean bastard who should not play Frisbee... on the upside though...

Day 1 of Youth Nationals...

All the worlds players were groaning in pain saying how much they weren't looking forwards to playing and how no one was taking it seriously and how bad it was going to be becuase they were all sore and not wanting to play.

First game against G-Stanes the u/17 champs pretty quick easy game. We put all our newer players on, Dan was a surprisingly good cutter, Evan was getting some sweet D's, Hingo was throwing well, our pickup Dan Clenton was throwing a bit tooo much (he stopped in the next games when he stopped stuffing around).

Our game against In-Tents as usual another game with absolutely no rivalry at all, not many foul calls but a bit of dirty play (but nothing was called) 2 things really annoyed me was their first pull of the game was so bad that they were able to hit it down, annoyed me becuase it would have gone about 5m towards their endzone if he had left it. A quick look at wfdf rules I can't find the penalty for interfereing with the pull beyond:

Interference: No player on the throwing team may touch the throw-off in the air before it is touched by a member of the receiving team.

The other one that annoyed me was there was a giant pick that left one of our players bleeding becuase he got decked, and so someone called pick on it. In-tents had managed to get a long throw off the pick and started complaining and swearing, I was pissed off, I saw Graham swearing at us I yelled out in the most ironic comment of the day "Come on show some fucking spirit!" (very angrily) before people laughed and pointed out Graham didn't know what happened. I felt bad and apologised to him at the end of the game.

They also tried to call a Dans winning score out who left a large skid mark from a slipping cleat whose mark started and finished in. Surprisingly it was Jackson who called it in. Thanks Jackson.

Lex again did some amazing layouts, Peley got some sweet D, Tiger is laying out a lot more, Calan surprsied me with some very good one handed sprint catches into fast throws and was a solid game.

Funny thing is, it was probably all a 2 way thing and I just see one side.

Last game was against Discgraceful, all our newer players and pickups played fantastically it was a very fun and a lot more spirited game we won.

I'm thankful there is no zone in this tourney becuase on today when it was windy and full of inexperienced players woudl have torn apart our team.

see how it goes!

youth nats party was fun
nathan is an alcoholic.

Tomorrow is the rest of the teams including HOSY who I'd tip to see in the finals and chatswood then semis and finals.

Go PUMSAT.

My mean funny for the day:
Nathan made a sweet bid for a disc, got absolutely decked by another player laying out into his legs, and it looked like a very painful hit, I think i said something like "HAHAH OUCH THAT LOOKED PAINFUL THATS EXACTLY HOW I GOT INJURED BUT I CAUGHT IT"










Aggression in sport and its place in Ultimate

As I mentioned before, I played a fair bit of Waterpolo. I wasn't all that great, with my strengths coming from being able to exploit weak players very well, quick hands/plays and having decent catching skills. I played a centre-forward position, and had a decent goal count for the season. But again most of my goals came from exploitation (bringing in one of their weak players into the crucial centre-back position) and from quick hands (being able to shoot quickly straight off the hand and off the water) It was a great 4 years of fun.

One big difference was the getting angry factor. In waterpolo there was so many more things to get angry about, mostly the number of jerks (referees and players). One particular one I remember...

It was a final against Asquith in our second season of opens, of our eventual 3 seasons of Opens. We played in the North West District School Sport competition, which was the most competitive zone for sports in Sydney Highschools (public schools) it was always one of our teams that went to regionals during the state knockout. This season we had managed to take down Homebush after a terrible early season in the 4th vs 1st semi final, (we were 4th) which upset them, and set us into the finals against Asquith. Asquith were an extremely angry team who won their games through violence and one or two players, particularly Daniel Arnemart (can't spell it... Marko called him armenut) who was extremely fast... which was only confirmed when we saw him on TV competing for a spot in the Commonwealth Games... and doing very well, who was a complete idiot with terrible ball handling skills but he was huge, amazingly fast and angry. I remember one game having to mark him and him just grabbing me around he neck, thumbs into my throat. The whole asquith team was like that, idiots, but big and violent.

Before big games against angry teams, I never wanted to be one of the starting 7. I always felt slow and sloppy in the water, even after warm ups for big games like these. I think it might have been a confidence issue as well, since I knew in a game like this meant that I was going to get punched and kicked, and I'm a pretty soft person by nature...

A few goals into the game we're in it and I'm aching to get into the pool, feeling every turn over and drop like a punch to the gut and every goal scored giving that rush like I'm flying down a hill or diving into a pool. I want my turn to change the game my way.

We have an awesome referee who knows what hes doing and isn't taking shit from anyone and making good, fair unbiased calls - which usually worked for our team because of the way we played. We were either even or close for goals, we're playing our game and dictating where we want to go, but we're not that far ahead.

I want this. I'm ready. I jump into the pool.

As expected I get marked up on some angry huge idiot who has a baby face but a huge body, and is very agro. He is punching all over the place and kicking a lot to try and make distance on me on his swim offs. Asquith were idiots since they didn't know how to use their aggression for anything apart from intimidation. Homebush were able to use it to scare their opponents into playing softly.

I'm sitting at top shot position (position about 4-7m out from the goals directly in front). Legs pumping away pushing at the blonde haired ape in front of me. I see a pass coming, I ram my left elbow up to his chest to hold him away (Pushing is illegal when you have the ball) and the pass comes in. He can't reach the ball and I hold it away, I push him by mistake and notice the ref didn't call it. I look for the open pass... nothing is happening. This guy has been giving me the shits with his over physical play. He goes for a punch at my stomach since conventional methods are getting the ball. I give him another push with my hand, my arm is now at full extension, I give one shove away kick my guts out get up in the water and shoot over his shoulder.

I scream, I yell.

To beat the bully is the most satisfying feeling I ever got in Waterpolo. It felt amazing to have this asshole push you around for a whole game, and you to send the shot flying over his shoulder because he let his hand drop for just one second.

When you watch Waterpolo at high levels you can tell when some brutality has happened underwater that you can't see above because usually you will see a player just stop for a second while his player swims off while he waits there looking like he just wants to quit and get out of the pool looking dazed before he shakes it off and gets back into it.

The second goal I think I just kicked him in the stomach, gaining a good push off, got a wet pass in front of me and just picked up and shot.

It felt good. Fucking good.

I was psyched. Fucking psyched.

I was angry… fangry.

So this brings me back to frisbee.

Aggression in many team contact sports is a huge factor. If a team feels like it cannot win, it will not win. If a team knows it cant win, it will not win. Aggression, hyper aggression even can do this, I remember in Water polo, a guy kept punching me in the neck every time I went near him (luckily I was able to swim faster than him and he had close to zero balls skills). We had a fucking useless ref who wasn’t doing anything about it. I had been punched in the face by lads trying to take my money in the afternoon and I was not in the mood to take more beatings, and I asked Tmac, our state player to mark him. He got the ball and drew a foul when he knew the ref was watching scoring a send out for brutality (and a school suspension).

But its situations like these that can make a team or a person be scared to play to their ability since they want to avoid the physical abuse.

This never happens in Frisbee. In fact, if it did, it would be highly looked down upon if anything like this occurred. Sadly there is no system to stop it, fortunately there’s no one whose that much of an asshole playing Frisbee. They’re all playing soccer.

As I said, beating the bully was one of the best parts about waterpolo, taking a win away from a team and seeing one of their players punch the pool wall in anger needing to stitch up his knuckles. In Frisbee, this never happens, in most games, I never get that fired up that I could perform those amazing feats of strength and skill. I play hard, and I play as hard as I can, but I never get that same feeling. I mean, I was playing waterpolo at a school competition level and getting this psyched… compared to Frisbee? Not really close to it.

It can even be looked down upon.

At youth nationals, on the first day last year we received a spirit score of 4 on more than one occasion.

Why?

A few things.

Loud sidelines – Piers at the training camp said hey fire up and talk and yell. We tried it… it just made us seem like jerks when the other team wasn’t doing it.

Me being a jerk (which I realised afterwards and felt very bad about) for trying to tell people to make calls on the sidelines. I just remember feeling annoyed seeing picks as beautifully set up as when you screen in basketball for a score, or waterpolo when you pick as a team mate breaks past. I got angry that the rules were not being enforced. But that just made me seem like a jerk – and yes I realise now that was me just being a huge jerk and shouldn’t have done it. Still annoying to not see the rules of the game followed … which was the whole point of spirit.

So is there room for aggression in Frisbee?

There is in being psyched up. I remember the 4 games I’ve played where I’ve been truly psyched up. Compared to Waterpolo which happened just about every week.

1. Against Killara for the finals at the NSW Gala day last year – they lost a game to us in early rounds to get an easier later game against us in the final. We thought it was a stupid draw our last 5 games were Chatswood, Killara, Chatswood (Semi), Killara (Final) We won.
2. Against Chatswood at Youth Nats – I was a complete jerk about it, didn’t make me play better and we ended up not winning properly ending the game before it should have. We pulled a comeback from 7-3 I think to 8-7 win.
3. Against Church St. at Youth Nats – Having no ex worlds players on our team meant we had to find ways to shut down extremely strong players in a field of not so strong players on their team. They had the Robbie huck to Tarrant and the Tarrant huck to Robbie play. It was so awesome to find a way to play differently and adapt to their play. We pulled an amazing come back from 7-3 (the same as the Chatswood game) to 9-7 or 9-8 win.
4. In-tents vs Panic! Youth Nationals Finals – Probably the most unspirited game I’ve ever played from both sides, but it was hell fun. The win was a very controversial universal point, (would have been nicer to do it in style) Corner throw from Mark to Sali, Jackson gets a handblock but the disc is still up, I think Tom D’d it properly. The two stories differ here – Jackson says that Mark hit him in his follow through after he’d released the disc, meaning that Mark was just stupid. Mark said Jackson hit his hand before he released the throw. What do I remember? A slap sound and a shitty throw from Mark. So I don’t know. But Fouls happen in games, and in heated ones like this it’s expected.

So I’m still not sure what role aggression can play in Frisbee especially in mixed as in intimidation tool, maybe I just need to learn how to channel it into non physical ways. But hell from 4 years of Waterpolo its hard.

From a Waterpolo coaches hand book distributed to all our players:

For your first match up CB/CF (Centre forward sits 2m in front of the goals, while the C.Back tries to push him out it usually equates to a lot of wrestling and dirty underwater moves) be more aggressive and violent than usual, push as far as you can without the ref sending you out. Even take the send out to show how crazy you can be. Work hard to dominate your first match up to leave your opponent intimidated and second guess their moves for the rest of the game.

Hell. Waterpolo was a game just as much about playing the players as it was playing the ref.