IFDANewsletterVolume2Issue3

Irish Flying Disc Association Newsletter

Issue 3, Volume 2 November 2009

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Note from the Editor

Welcome to issue number three of the second volume of the IFDA Newsletter. This installment is the

final of 2009 and as with the last two, arrives a couple of weeks later than originally planned. It retains

the format of previous issues with a split between articles regarding Irish ultimate and those taking a look

at ultimate further afield.

Over the past month or two there has been a lot of enthusiasm from many different players in the Irish

community to help with this Newsletter. It is great to see so many people volunteering and getting

involved with the writing of the various articles (makes my job easier too!) so thanks to all who

contributed.

Over the course of the following pages you‘ll find an interview with one of the Irish Junior team

captains, an article on the birth and growth of Ultimate in Limerick, the thoughts of Oisín Flanagan on

how a lack of referees may be holding our sport back, and even a report from the famous Potlatch

tournament amongst other bits and pieces. The IFDA Newsletter & Lookfly Photo Competition is back

too.

Finally, 2010 will see the Newsletter become a quarterly affair allowing it be both shorter and more

topical. As always, suggestions, advice, complaints, corrections and praise are all welcome. Drop me an

email at [email protected] if you‘ve som ething to say!

Take care and see you on the pitch soon!

Mark Earley

Editor

mailto:[email protected]


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Contents

Title Page No.

Section One: Irish Ultimate

- News in Brief 4 - 5

- IFDA Committee Work 5 - 6

- Lookfly Photo Competition 7 -8

- The Laws of Attraction in Irish Ultimate 9 - 11

- Frisbee in Limerick: How it all began 12 - 14

- Talking Ultimate: Interview with Dominick Smyth 15 - 16

- Juniors to EYUC: Interview with Conor Hogan 17 - 19

- Jabba the Huck go to xEUCF 20 - 23

- Self-refereeing in the competitive arena – is it still fair? 24 - 26

- Photos from around Irish Ultimate 27 - 34

Section Two: Further Afield

- Ultimate Online 35

- Irish Players Abroad: C ian Ó ‘M óráin 36 - 38

- FFound! : The story of FFindr.org 39 - 42

- Tournament Watch: Potlatch 43 - 45

Wrap Up

- Final Words 46


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Section One: Irish Ultimate

News in brief

Mark Earley

o The World Ultimate Club Championships takes place in Prague next July (3-10) and the website

is now online: http://www.wucc2010.com/. It has recently been announced that Ireland has

received a bid in both the Open and the Mixed Divisions but not in the Women‘s Division.

o The consistently excellent Cork Open 2009 took place last weekend and saw Broccoli win the

coveted title for their first time. They beat the Belgians FüF in a tight final under floodlights.

UCC 2 took the Spirit award. For more details visit: http://corkopen.uccultimate.com

o Best Game in Town (BGIT) is looking to rear its head again to keep people playing in Dublin

over the winter months. Keep your eyes on the Pookas mailing list for more information over the

next few weeks.

o The UPA Club Championships took place last weekend in Saratosa, Florida. In the Open Division

Chain Lightning beat Revolver 15-11 and in the Women‘s D ivision B rute S quad (featuring ‗our

very ow n‘ L ucy B arnes!) cam e second to F ury. P hotos, videos, reports etc. from all divisions are

online here: http://club2009.upa.org/

o xEUCF took place in September and saw UK-based teams dominate the event with Chevron

Action Flash winning the Open division, Iceni winning the Women‘s division, Brighton winning

the Mixed division and Age Against the Machine finishing second in the Masters Division.

Ireland‘s sole representative was Jabba the Huck who came 19th in the Mixed Division. Full

details on the excellent website: http://www.xeucf2009.org/

o F or the first tim e in our young sport‘s history, Ireland sent teams to a Youth Championships. The

tournament in question was EYUC in Vienna in August. Full reports of all the matches involving

the teams can be seen on the Juniors blog: http://irelandjuniors2009.blogspot.com/ The

tournament website has full results, pictures and a trailer to the DVD:

http://www.eoefc.at/typo3/index.php?id=home

http://www.wucc2010.com/

http://corkopen.uccultimate.com/

http://club2009.upa.org/

http://www.xeucf2009.org/

http://irelandjuniors2009.blogspot.com/

http://www.eoefc.at/typo3/index.php?id=home


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o Little Miss Sunshine has arrived! The ever-enthusiastic Laura McGrath has founded a new club

aimed at committed women players of all experience looking to raise their game and build

towards the new season. Long-term goals hope to include next sum m er‘s W U C C 2010. F or m ore

information get in touch with Laura via the Ladies Forum: http://irish-ladies.forumotion.net/

o The WFDF have released a new Spirit score sheet. The previous 8 categories have been reduced

to 5 and ranking within each category has been expanded from 3 options to 5. More information,

including links to the score sheets in 25 languages, is available at:

http://www.wfdf.org/index.php?page=rules/spirit.htm

o Finally, all results from recent tournaments featuring Irish teams can be seen here:

http://www.irishultimate.com/players/results.php If you want your teams results added, ask your

team captain to email the Tournament Co-ordinator: [email protected]

===

IFDA News

The IFDA Committee

As detailed in previous issues, the IFDA Committee meet on a monthly basis. The aim of these meetings

is to bring Irish Ultimate forward. We work hard to make this happen but can always use extra

knowledge, ideas and suggestions. If you have any of these, please let us know at

[email protected]

Over the past 4 months we have been working on/have completed the following:

July:

Becoming a Garda vetting operative

Creating an Irish version of The Huddle.org

Publishing a press release re: Junior Teams

Providing a Wexford County Council summer program

August:

Sending two Junior teams to European Youth Ultimate Championships

Producing an IFDA Tournament Bag

http://irish-ladies.forumotion.net/

http://www.wfdf.org/index.php?page=rules/spirit.htm

http://www.irishultimate.com/players/results.php




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Electing a new schools coordinator before the school year

Setting up permanent irishultimate.com email address in order to store all communications

Putting a media archive online

September:

Running an All-Ireland Open Championship

Launching new teams in

o St. Pats

o IT Blanchardstown

o Waterford IT

October:

Holding a disc sports tournament to promote: DDC, guts, accuracy, golf, MTA and RTC

Presenting the annual IFDA Awards at the IFDA Awards Ball

Presenting a lifetime achievement award for Dave Rosenfeld at IFDA Awards Ball

Ammending the constitution to allow mid-term election & ‗Island of Ireland‘

Selecting an "IFDA Team of the Year"

Ireland Women at Eight Nations 2008, Girona

http://irishultimate.com/


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Lookfly IFDA Newsletter Photo Competition

Lookfly (www.lookfly.com) have kindly agreed to sponsor a second Photo Competition in this months

IFDA Newsletter. Up for grabs this time around are:

1st Prize: Lookfly Baselayer (brand new design!)

2nd Prize: Lookfly disc & Lookfly gloves

3rd Prize: Lookfly gloves & Lookfly wristbands

NB: This competition will take place again for the February 2010 issue so make sure to take lots of

photos and email them to: [email protected]

Rules:

- The subject of the photo must be an Irish team/an Irish player in action (on the pitch!)

- The photo must be taken since the last Newsletter (July 1st 2009) and before next one

(November 1st 2009)

- There is a maximum of three entries (and one prize!) per photographer

The winners are:

1st Place: Laura ‗S houlders‘ McGrath

http://www.lookfly.com/



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2nd Place: Robin Giller

3rd Place: John ‗O J‘ R edm ond

All photos submitted can be seen here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/earley.mark/PhotoCompetitionEntries

http://picasaweb.google.com/earley.mark/PhotoCompetitionEntries


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The laws of Attraction in Irish Ultimate

Oisín Flanagan

Money and status have always been a problem for Irish ultim ate team s. O ften team s can‘t go to

tournam ents because their players or club can‘t afford it. O ften team s can‘t train because they are not

established enough to get university pitch or hall time. Irish ultimate clubs and representative teams have

struggled for sponsorship as long as I can remember. This limits player and club development. Many

sports clubs with less commitment from players and less athleticism seem to get money and status more

easily. Why? Why? Why?

Ireland is not like Canada or the USA, we are an older nation and less open to new ideas. Just look at

how difficult governments find it to change anything (this is not directed at any political group). We

value more traditional, established and most importantly conservative ideas. W e have all heard ―C all that

a sport‖ som ew here along the line. W e m ust realize that have to play ball w ith the Irish m entality. W e

need to present an image of being competitive athletes, which not surprisingly, we really are.

Other Irish sports are well used to fighting for their players. Secondary schools that play GAA, soccer

and rugby have had huge disagreements over teachers and pupils choosing which sport. This continues at

senior intercounty GAA and professional rugby and soccer. We must create a product to attract the good

players.

Representative Ultimate Frisbee is a physically grueling sport

requiring enormous skill, team commitment and understanding of

the game. It is a level of sport that many people would never be

able to compete at. This needs to be shown off to the public. For

example, clubs with extremely alternative names involving puns or

references to food, drink and even genitalia can mask the true

sporting prowess of the team and make potential sponsors, players

and sporting authorities immediately disinterested. Also, post

match games involving grown adults playing street fighter, mix and

mingle and various other games are often very incongruous to the

competitive nature of the match just finished. It can leave

prospective athletes and sponsors thinking that despite enjoying and being impressed by the skill and

physicality of the game, that it is just not for them.


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F or exam ple, ―W ould you like to see N orth D ublin V s O ld U C D in the league final this S aturday?‖

sounds m ore appealing to the lay person than ―W ould you like to see Johnny C him po V s B roccoli‖

w hich sounds too alternative to the average Irish person. A nother exam ple; ―W e‘re looking for

sponsorship for the Old UCD team to compete in this representative tournament. We are a team of

predom inantly U C D graduates w ho m aintain ties w ith the university in coaching and recruitm ent.‖ T his

w ill get the necessary sponsorship to play tournam ents faster than ―w ould you like to sponsor our team ?‖

―W hat‘s your team called?‖ ―B roccoli‖ ―W hy are you called B roccoli?‖ ―It‘s a long story‖ ―I‘m sure it is,

good luck in the tournam ent but no thank you‖

My first experience of Ultimate was seeing a 3-minute clip of Canada Vs Sweden on Euorosport around

1996. It was in a stadium full of cheering spectators. I was simply amazed at how skilful and fast they

were and I loved it immediately. I saw there was a club in UCD in 1999 and joined. I love the throwing,

catching, marking and sheer skill of it. I love the way you can play it at a high level and any injuries you

get are either accidents or from trying too hard, not somebody trying to injure you. I really wanted to

travel as UCD and Ireland and compete abroad like our rugby and soccer teams have. In Ireland there are

large numbers of young people like this w ho w ould do the sam e if they had the sam e ―C anada V s

S w eden‖ exposure, or som ething sim ilar.

There is nothing wrong with

Irish Ultimate at present.

Thankfully, there are more

teams than ever and largely

thanks to vast amounts of

commitment by voluntary

organizers. The sport is enjoyed

by all involved and is growing

steadily. However when it

comes to attracting sponsors,

players and sporting authorities

in Ireland it pays a very heavy

and unnecessary price for the alternative image and will continue to do so. My question is, is it worth the

price?


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The Japanese team was my favourite team at worlds. Their kit looked great and was heavily sponsored. It

was clear that as a result they could afford coaches, administrators, equipment etc. They played with

pride and passion. The Irish captain Tadhg Healy said the night before our opening match in WUGC

2008, ―T here is a lot of fight in this Irish team ‖. H e w as right; there is. A nd I just feel that if w e change

the image to attract resources, then we can be that team that grabs others attention in Ireland and abroad

as a model national team. Fortunately or unfortunately, we must take ourselves more seriously before our

fellow Irish men and women will.

Finally, we have in recent years seen both schoolchildren and the first of our ―second generation‖

ultimate players getting involved. Therefore the time to make the image of the sport presentable, polished

and inviting to all generations and to both parents and coaches of school teams is definitely now . It‘s just

easier that way.


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Frisbee in Limerick: How it all began

Jim Heneghan

I guess any story about the origins of Limerick Ultimate would have to start with the story of the person

who founded Limerick Ultimate: me (Limerick Jim). I first was introduced to Ultimate one evening when

I was playing at the pitches down the road for my house, which was the field of Columbia High School,

the birthplace of Ultimate. I ended up meeting the captain of CHS at the time Ben Haim. That evening,

Ben taught me the rules of Ultimate. The main thing, however that Ben imparted to me was his passion

and love for Ultimate, something I still feel to this day.

So after the next week of dragging all my friends to my

middle school ultimate training I started my career as an

ultimate player. This lasted until I was 13 and moved to

Ireland. At the time there was only Pookas up in Dublin and I

didn‘t have the balls to set up m y ow n club.

When I was in 3rd year of college I was on work experience

down in Cork. My first week there I was tremendously bored

so I went online and scanned the UCC clubs and Socs page.

Something made me decide to look for Ultimate and low and

behold there was UCC Ultimate and a list of training times. I went home got my gear and went on down

to training that night. By the end of the session I was in love again.

After I went back to Limerick that summer I spent the whole time pleading with my friends to play with

m e. E very w eek I‘d try to arrange a S unday pickup w ith a grand m axim um o f 5 players. Come

September I persisted, getting permission from the sports folk in UL to set up the club and have training

in our old sports hall every Wednesday. However at this point I was losing hope. No one ever came to

any of my carefully planned training sessions despite the fact that I had taught a good few players how to

throw that summer. I decided to have one last shot at trying to start up UL Ultimate and out of nowhere it

all clicked. On Monday Johnny Flahavan gave me the number of his sister, who had started college in

Mary I that year, w ho said she‘d com e and bring a friend. A nother friend w ho I random ly m et on

T uesday said he‘d com e and bring som e friends. S o com e W ednesday I show ed up and m y T uesday

friend Mike, who had already made his excuses to leave early, showed up with two friends of his own.

Thus with 11 people on the night UL Ultimate was born. Mike and friends loved the game so much that


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not only did he stay but when we went for pints afterwards everyone agreed to come up to whacking day

the next weekend. The rest is History.

Ultimate in Limerick is now equated with the annual tournament – the Siege of Limerick. The story of

the siege begins with the story of Intervarsities 2007. We were asked in our first year to host IVs. At the

time we thought this was some great honour. I now know this is something that everyone tries to pawn

off on som eone else every year… A nyw ay, w e booked the pitches, found a venue for the party and

managed to get every team

coming a place to crash on

a floor for free. We even

had a spare house after

UCC decided to get a hotel.

After running IVs that year

I realized that, even with

the IFDA calling many of

the shots, hosting a good

tournament was very

achievable. And after going

to the Cork Open I realised

that not only could we do a tournament we could do one far better than IVs and could even rival Cork.

The following summer we were granted permission to hold the Siege and I set about making it the best I

could. I got a lot of advice from all corners. I advertised on Brit and Euro Disc. I stalked every college

forum inviting them all to the event. I plagued every team in Ireland until I was sure all of them would

come.

T he biggest hurdle w e had to over com e w as accom m odation. W e realised w e w ouldn‘t be able to host

everyone on floors as there w asn‘t enough of us and there w ere so m any team s com ing. S o w e got a

contact off of the Students Union and e-m ailed Jury‘s w ho gave us the fantastic €20 pp rate w hich gave

The Siege the breath of life it needed.

With the two most important things for any tournament sorted (accommodation and the playing fields)

we had enough to run a tournament. However, on the ground, just enough was never going to be good

enough for us. We wanted The Siege to be the best tournament run in Ireland. After the previous tour 3 I


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had spent in Cardiff I realized that available shelter would be needed if it were to piss rain so we got onto

a marquee company (Party Time Ltd.) and arranged one of them. (A quick note on marquees - don‘t

cheap out on your marquee. The tent we rent for the Siege every year costs around a grand every year.

D on‘t m ake the m istake of buying one that w on‘t be of the sam e quality. A lso know that as tournam ents

grow you m ight outgrow your m arquee… ) A t S ligo the year before everyone loved the music being

blasted so we thought we could arrange that as well. After some cold pasta in Cork we realised that it

w ouldn‘t be too hard to have a B B Q to have w arm food on offer. A fter piecing together all the various

different components we went about organising the tournament and now it is the second biggest

tournament in the country and attended by Irish, English, and many other teams.

As the Siege grows, so does Ultimate across Limerick. One of the mission goals stated by our

constitution is: ―T o prom ote the grow th of ultim ate in U L and the greater L im erick area‖. T his is

som ething w e‘ve tried to do w ith lim ited success last year but intend to take seriously in the next few

years.

By chance last summer we showed up at the UL pitches for a training session to see a group of people

playing ultim ate. W e introduced ourselves and though they w eren‘t interested in playing w ith us at the

time we managed to get two of them to come fairly regularly from then on. Those two happened to be the

president and vice president of the Limerick School of Art and Design. These two led a mildly successful

campaign to get an art college team started. Though the team eventually stopped training we did manage

to get a few regular players coming to UL training (including Tom Matthews who went on to be a

successful member of the Irish Junior team). In UL w e‘d already had T oby M organ of L it playing w ith us

who also went on to represent Ireland at Junior level. T hese tw o w e‘re hoping w ill go on to set up L IT

ultim ate this year and w e‘re hoping to do everything to support them . T hings planned for the future

include a L im erick C lub team a L im erick youth team and a few L im erick S chools. A ny advice I‘d give to

anyone trying to set up new clubs in Ireland is to think big and don‘t be afraid to ask for som e help.


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Talking Ultimate

Interview with Dominick Smyth, Editor of Talking Ultimate

Mark Earley

When did you start Talking Ultimate?

The first topic went live in the middle of July but I'd had the idea for about a year before that. I wanted

some way for people to share their thoughts on ultimate and maybe start other people thinking as well.

What are the main aims of Talking Ultimate?

To share knowledge. We've had a

huge growth in player numbers in the

last year or so and I want to make sure

that everybody has access to any

information or knowledge they wish.

There aren't as many opportunities for

national team players to train with

beginners but Talking Ultimate gives

everybody a chance to pick someone

else's brains.

Who are the writers?

I've tried to ask international ultimate players as much as possible. I felt they would have the most

experience and probably the best understanding of the game. That's not to say there haven't been other

writers, just look at the recent All-Ireland Open preview.

How does one get involved?

Anybody can suggest a topic (although I might change it a little bit to get more variety in the articles).

As more topics have been published, more people have started to make suggestions, which is great. It's

tough to keep coming up with them and there is always the risk that it will only be things I want to talk

about.

Also, and I'm not sure people realise this, everybody can comment on an article. Simply log in to the site

(Anonymous mud slinging wouldn't be much use) and go to Talking Ultimate to see the comment box. I


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had always planned that if someone put forward a series of good comments I'd get them in to write on the

next topic, regardless of their experience.

What are the future topics?

I hope that's up to the readers. I have some thoughts but I'd much rather other people requested things.

That would make it much more interesting. One thing I will say is that the next topic (due out in early

October) will hopefully get a lot of people talking and thinking. It should be the most controversial one

yet.

Where do you see the project going in the future?

To be honest, I have no idea. As long as people keep reading the articles, I'll continue to ask authors for

topics. Unfortunately the whole thing is very much at the mercy of those authors. If they don't write

anything, I have nothing to publish (as happened recently when I had to cancel a topic).

It's probably going to slow down over the winter (new topic every three to four weeks) but as ultimate

continues to grow all around Ireland who knows what the demand for this will be.


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EYUC – a journey into the unknown

An interview with Conor Hogan, captain, Ireland A

Mark Earley

2009 saw Irish Ultimate take a massive step forward as 32 players made the journey to the European

Youth Ultimate Championships in Vienna. The two teams were chosen after a lengthy trial process and

were trained over a three month period by 5 of Irish Ultimate's coaches and national team players. In this

interview I talk to Ireland A's captain, Conor Hogan (recently voted Junior Player of the Year), about the

build up, the tournament and all that took place in between.

How did you first get involved in

Ultimate, Conor?

Podge and Sam put up posters in the

school to say if anyone would like to

play a bit of Ultimate Frisbee, to be at

the Mary's pitches at 11:30 on Sunday.

Well, we turned up and threw a little,

played a little and liked it a lot!

When you heard about the chance to represent Ireland, what was your first thought?

Ha, this could be some craic! I couldn't have been more excited but at the time but I had no idea if any of

us (Mary's lads) were good enough to make it. So naturally we were pleasantly surprised to have five on

the squad!

The trial process took place relatively late in the season. How did you find it?

Intense. Nerves were flying about and on the first day there were about 60 people there, I had no idea

who most of them were and I reckoned some would be really good and that there was going to be strong

competition for places. I loved it though - it was nicely timed for me as rugby was coming to a close for

the season but I think had we started training sooner we might have gelled faster and made a bigger

impact on Europe.

When you were chosen for the final squad were you excited?

Absolutely. Seventeen and playing for Ireland? Yes please.


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The training and the fitness were a bid step up from indoors schools Ultimate. How did you adapt

to it? Was it as tough as you expected?

I was somewhat fit from playing rugby all year but the level of fitness needed for Vienna was in another

league! I reckoned I could have coped well but I would have died out in Vienna without doing the fitness.

In the weeks leading up to Vienna there was a palpable excitement in the squad. Can you describe

it to us?

No... I don't say that trying to be funny, I say it sincerely because the anticipation and excitement was

unbearable and I can't put it into words! All we wanted to do was to get that green (and white) jersey on

and play Ultimate.

How did the week go from your own, personal point

of view?

I was happy with how I played and I feel my game

improved so much against all the best players in

Europe. We all have some great memories and moments

that will be brought up time and again in the coming

years, especially Sterile losing his voice and still

shouting the length of the pitch "Hogi! They're

Offside!" or my outrageously dodgy hammer into the

middle of 4 Czech players only for Toby to catch for the

score and Sam to shout onto the pitch "Hogi! Nice

hammer... but don't do it again".

What was your best memory of EYUC?

Ireland 1 vs Ireland 2 = EPIC! Or Game 1 against

Germany. We thought they could have gone all the way

this year and knew it would be our toughest group

match. We almost got off to the perfect start as Beaner (Myles) got a Callaghan but the disc was brought

back to the thrower after a contested strip. We ended up losing 15-6 but it was our first taste of

international Ultimate and for some it was their first tournament outside Dublin! I loved every second of

that match.


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And the bus home from the nightclub on our last night. There must have been around 100-150 people on

the bus all from Ireland, Germany, Italy, Austria and Sweden. We spent the bus home banging the walls,

the windows, the roof and singing songs till our voices went. How we all fit on and managed to get away

without paying I do not know!

And, the other side of it, what was the most disappointing moment over there?

Not winning against GB2 the second time around. We played some of our best ultimate, but after 3 days

of intense play we had injuries and were absolutely shattered and they managed to claw victory out of our

hands. Grudge match 2010?

If there was anything you could do differently/ change about the experience what would it be?

Do the fitness trainings as a group rather than individually. I have a feeling that some people didn't take it

seriously when left to do it themselves and as a result some of them let themselves down on the pitch at

times. But everything went so well (other than Junior leaving his bag on the train on day 1), I kind of

wish that everyone had stayed the extra day, that‘s a m ust for next year!

WJUC 2010 - interested?

When does the plane leave?

Thanks a lot for your time, and congratulations on an impressive first season.


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Jabba the Huck represent Irish Ultimate at xEUCF

Richard Buggy

After months of preparation and training, Jabba The Huck had finally arrived at the most important

tournament we have ever competed in. Only a couple of years earlier the very notion of Jabba taking part

in the European Club Championships was laughable. But we had arrived, at what is probably the most

confusingly named tournament ever: The eXtended European Ultim ate C lub F inals. B ut let‘s just say

xEUCF like everyone else.

Our squad of 9 guys and 8 girls were among a strong 20-team Mixed division. Game one would be

against Brighton Ultimate (the team that would go on to dominate the competition and take the Mixed

Title with apparent ease). However as Jabba arrived on the first morning we were to discover that for

some reason Brighton had switched groups with Blue Arse Flies. BAF were still a highly competitive

team and eventually finished the tournament in 6th place. The match was close throughout but BAF

always held the upper hand and put away their opportunities (unlike Jabba). The final score of 15-3 to

BAF was kind on them, but Jabba had learned very quickly that we would have to work hard for every

point in this tournament. Afterwards we found ourselves with a gigantic 5 hour break so it was off to the

Lookfly tent, which immediately became home of the Jabba squad for the weekend. With comfy couches,

German phrase books, connect 4 and on one occasion a box of fresh donuts, where else would you want

to be? Thanks Lookfly.

Game 2 was against Spirit on

Lemon from Poland. This game

was highlighted as our best

opportunity of winning a group

game, and so it proved. The game

was marred by extremely poor

Spirit from the Poles and it quickly

turned into a scrappy and sloppy

game with some bizarre and

outrageous calls. However the

Lemons stuck to their game plan

and never gave away their early lead. They came out 15-9 winners in a game that most would like to

forget.


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F riday m orning presented no respite w ith a gam e against the group‘s top seed S ugar M ix from S tuttgart.

The team that would eventually finish the tournament 4th completely out-classed Jabba in the early

exchanges and heads soon began to drop. Half was called at 8-0 and some serious talking was needed. An

improvement in the 2nd half resulted in a final score line of 15-2.

Game 4. UFO from Finland. Another Strong team who finished 8th overall (showing the strength of the

group Jabba was faced with). But Jabba came out fighting and took an early 3-2 lead. But the mistakes at

the back crept in with a number of self-inflicted turnovers in front of our endzone and UFO were soon

running away with the match. Thoughts had

already begun to turn to our impending

cross-over and the game finished 15-4 to

UFO.

LOL from Hungary were our cross-over

opposition. Victory would seal a top 16

place. A loss would put us in the bottom 4.

Another slow start cost Jabba dearly with

LOL taking an early commanding lead. But

a mid-game fight back from Jabba gave us

both hope and excitement. However like the

game against Spirit on Lemon Jabba were

never able to fully recover and conceded the

last 3 points to lose 15-8. A trip to the

bottom 4 meant just one game on Saturday

and one on Sunday.

After 09.10 games on Thursday, Friday and

one waiting us on Sunday morning, we made

full use of our only game on Saturday being

at 14.40. No need to set any alarms. The opponents were EMU from the East Midlands in the UK -

makes sense. A really enjoyable game for everyone involved, EMU came out with simple tactics: girls

cut under, guys go deep and exploit the comparative shortness of Jabba. Simple but effective, sadly.

EMU came out 14-8 winners, and the wooden spoon match awaited us on Sunday morning. But hey,


22

first, we had a party to go to. Saturday night saw Blockstack TV host a bowling alley party. The only

w ay to sum up the night w as the announcem ent directed at Jabba over the intercom ―C ould people please

stop abusing the bow ling lanes‖.

Sunday morning and the opposition were Tallinn Ultimate from Estonia, who had already managed to

beat EMU 14-13 and lose 15-13 to Spirit on Lemon. Jabba would have a hard fight to not finish last. And

fight we did. For the first time all weekend Jabba took the first point and eventually took half at 8-6. But

Tallinn came back to lead 12-10. The tension was clear with both teams desperate to avoid the dreaded

last place. The game was poised at 14-14 with time still remaining and confusion reigned over what the

teams had to do exactly to win. The score keeper was unsure and was forced to radio back to base. A 16-

14 score line for either team would do it. Failing that it was game to 17. But it never came to that. Jabba

ran out 16-14 winners, becoming the first Irish Team to record a victory in the European Club

Championship Mixed Division, and ensuring that we came home with our heads held high.

This was a truly remarkable tournament. Excellently run and for the most part the games were very

spirited. Jabba recorded an average spirit score of 15.14 out of 20 and this was only good enough for 9th

place - showing the level of spirit in the mixed division. Jabba the Huck would like to thank everyone

who assisted us in our Euros campaign by attending our training sessions and for all of the money that we

raised by supplying the people of Irish Ultimate with many cakes and burgers. Thank You everyone!


23

Jabba the Huck

xEUCF 2009

Back Row: A m y M offat, R ichard B uggy, E m ily V ereker, S inead O ‘S hiel F lem m ing, F inton ―F ag‖

D ‘A rcy, C ian Q uinn, Ian F rench, H eather B arry, K eith C olem an, F inola S hannon

Front Row: C ourtney H osp, S eam us ―S him bo‖ K insella, A dam W yse, M ark L oy, O w len ―O lly‖ M urphy,

Kelly Mulholland, Fiona Mernagh


24

Self-refereeing in the competitive arena – is it still fair?

Oisín Flanagan

The Irish open team played extremely close matches against Venezuela and Colombia in the World

Ultimate and Guts Championship in Vancouver, August 2008. The South American teams won both

matches. There was an undeniably different opinion on the rules and their application and many in

Ireland w ould feel this w as a ―sw ing factor‖ in these very close gam es. F or exam ple, a C olom bian team

member on the sideline even claimed that they had the right to block any attempted throws by slapping

the arm before disc release. This is not true.

The situation was very difficult to reason. Having trained very hard for six months, I have to say it was

disappointing that games on this stage had distractions like this preventing players from simply

immersing themselves in world cup games of this beautiful sport.

There are faults with self-refereeing:

1. Players and teams lose concentration. Teams often have players who make a lot of calls. These players

can occupy much of the game time with laboured discussions that other players politely allow continue


25

while actually being quite distracted from their game. Younger players in particular are more prone to

lose concentration following these situations.

2. Calls exclude other players on the field and spectators w ho often don‘t know w hat‘s going on and w hy.

3. Calls change the momentum of a game. A dubious call can upset a team and change a game. This is

not necessarily different to refereed sports except that the players have the power to enact it.

4. Teams who are more brazen in making calls can use this to their advantage without any loss other than

losing spirit votes.

5. Competitive games make being objective nearly impossible – you want the disc to be up so you may

call it so and think you are 100% correct. This was clearly shown to be so in the 2007 UPA Nationals

final, Sockeye Vs Johnny Bravo, when a player claimed a disc was up while video footage showed it to

be undeniably and obviously down (The observer was consulted who correctly called it down and a

turnover occurred when it would otherwise have gone back to thrower).

6. It would be nice to simply turn up and play while not having to referee at the same time.

There are strengths of self-refereeing.

1. Familiarity. We all know how it works. This is less important with regard to players who have not yet

taken up the sport.

2. Playing by these rules allows us to play in international tournaments. We must compete by the same

rules on paper as other countries.

3. Self refereeing is a fundamental to the sport. This is after all the sport we signed up for.

A refereed tournam ent took place in E ngland recently and an Irish team com peted. A s I w asn‘t there I

wont speculate on it.

I am not necessarily saying that the game needs referees. Having never played a game with observers or

referees I cannot say if I would prefer it. However I think Irish Ultimate could be pro-active and


26

experiment with observers, referees in matches organized specially for this. It would provide players with

experience of the two systems and develop their opinion. At the very least it would be interesting.

Observers talk over a play

In summary no refereeing system is ideal. However the current self-refereed game allows for match

swinging advantage to be gained by a team who apply the rules and make calls in a significantly different

way to their opponents. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the training and preparation (although it tested

me to the absolute limit) for WUGC 2008 and I left the tournament thinking two things. Firstly, I wanted

to go back in four years to try and finish in the top 10 teams in the world but secondly that I would not try

out for the Irish team if the refereeing situation did not change. I could not face making that big a

commitment and being that disappointed with the sport again.


27

Photos from around Irish Ultimate

Ireland Open & Venezuela/Colombia at 8 Nations 2009

Fiona Mernagh on D for Ireland Women at 8 Nations 2009


28

Pat Hayden leads the cheers for Ireland at the EYUC Opening Ceremony, Vienna

A contemplative Mike Ryan at EYUC 2009


29

Ireland A ’s D onal O ’D onohoe in action vs. G erm any at E Y U C 2009

Brothers Adam and Stephen Wyse compete at the inaugural All-Ireland Open Championships


30

K illian ‘Spew y’ B lake lets one fly

Juice’s Jim H eneghan gets his throw off against B roccoli’s D avid Sm yth


31

‘B elles of the B all’ – the ladies dress up for the annual IFDA Awards Ball

St. Marys team mates Finian Flood and Conor Hogan playing DDC during the IFDA Disc Sports Day


32

R oger ‘P odge’ B eatty show s perfect ‘split-knuckle’ technique in G U T S at the IFDA Disc Sports Day


33

D eadly B uzz’s Sparky B ooker on O against runners-up Flying Bisch in Bologna

Kevin Timoney vs. Trinity at Cork Open 2009


34

Mark Earley throws to D avid ‘Super’ M cA lester in the sem i-final vs. Johnny Chimpo

F üF ’s classy F ive U ltim ate gear


35

Section Two: Further Afield

Ultimate Online

The simple aim of this section is to share sites from the web that will be of benefit and general interest to

Ultimate players around the country.

BLOG

Name: Ultimate Frisbee and I

Address: http://ultimatefrisbeeandi.blogspot.com/

Details: A blog run by a UK-based player that covers everything from Stateside Ultimate, the best gear to

wear, musings on UK Ultimate and even warm down/warm up ideas.

NATIONAL

WEBSITE

Name: South African Flying Disc Association

Address: http://www.safda.org.za/

Details: First played in SA in 1983, Ultimate has a strong foothold there now as seen by the SAFDA‘s

simple but interesting website.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Name: Tom Styles

Address: http://tom-styles.co.uk/

Details: One half of the Blockstack duo, Tom Styles is also an excellent photographer and has been

shooting Ultimate since 2001. He uses a Canon 40D.

SKILLS

Name: Ultimate Video Papers Address: http://ultimate.lcs.mit.edu/

Details: A very thorough examination of every part of throwing, handling and even on-pitch strategies.

Fascinating watching.

http://ultimatefrisbeeandi.blogspot.com/

http://www.safda.org.za/

http://tom-styles.co.uk/

http://ultimate.lcs.mit.edu/


36

Irish Players Abroad

Cian Ó’M óráin

This August I was part of a Clapham team that went to Seattle to take part in the ECC invitational

tournament. At this tournament we faced up against the best teams in the world; teams like Seattle

Sockeye, Furious George from Vancouver and current UPA champions Jam from San Francisco. Marko

asked me to write a piece with some reflections about it, so here goes:

One aspect of the tournament that stood out

was how small the margins are between the

top teams in the US. There are about 20 teams

at the top who could legitimately claim to be

aiming to be UPA champions, and when these

teams play each other the margin of victory is

rarely more than 2 or 3 points. There is very

little difference among these teams in terms of

athleticism and technical ability. The teams

who come out on top consistently are those

that are able to minimise dips in their level of performance. At this top level a team can play well for a

whole game but lose its concentration for two points, and lose it 15-13. Mistakes are punished and 1 or 2

of them are enough to lose you a game. When teams are evenly matched in terms of all the measurables,

those that minimise unnecessary errors will invariably come out on top.

The tournament itself was pretty non-stop. We played either two or three games a day. The difference

being that these games were generally played back to back. On the Saturday, for instance, we played

three back to back games. This meant that we had about 15 minutes between each game. Although it

m eant that w e w ere effectively playing 5 hours in a row , it did m ean that w e didn‘t have to spend forty

minutes warming up and down either side of each game. I w ouldn‘t say that this form at is m ore gruelling

physically than tournaments with breaks between games. It is however tougher mentally, with little time

to regroup between games.


37

Unfortunately, we had a pretty tough time at ECC. We won just 2 of our 10 games (the first and last,

against Kie from Colombia and Jam). A lthough w e w eren‘t lacking in term s of athleticism and talent w e

sim ply couldn‘t m aintain our highest level of perform ance for full gam es. We got to 8 or 9 all in most

games but would invariably give up a few easy breaks and lose by a few scores. We lost four games 15-

12. There are a few reasons behind this. First of all we only had 17 players for the tournament. This is

not enough players to be able to compete at this level. Also, our lack of practise at this level factored

against us. While US teams will play 5 or 6 tournaments a year at this level, Clapham will be lucky to

play 3 games a year at this same level. We played against battle hardened teams who knew what to do in

the latter stages of tight games. While they were adapting to nullify our threats we kept bashing away

without changing. Personally, I had a good experience at ECC. I played offence and although I had to

do a lot of hard running had no problem getting free and throwing my throws.

There were a few things that I saw that really impressed me at ECC. The team that impressed me most

were Boston Ironside. W e didn‘t get the chance to play them but I did w atch them play twice. While

they ran hard and played some nice transitions on defence, they played with a simple stack on offence.

The precision and speed of their throws in conjunction with the intensity, speed and discipline of their

cutting was really great to watch. It was nice to see a team not automatically playing 3-4 offence. They

were playing the offence that suited them best. Generally, what impressed me most about the ultimate at

ECC was the control handlers exerted over games. All the best teams had handlers that broke the mark

and reset the disc with ease. Their handlers controlled games by using these tools. They were awesome


38

to watch. Another thing that impressed me was the discipline with which cutters cut. Rarely did cutters

get in each others‘ way. They were able to use the full pitch to isolate cutters and make it almost

impossible to defend against them.

I suppose I should say a few

words about how the spirit

was at the tournament.

There is a common

perception that there is a

higher level of spirit at

tournaments in Europe than

those in the US. After

playing in ECC I would be

inclined to think that the

opposite may actually be

true. Although the game is

undoubtedly more physical

in the US (there is a lot

more physical contact)

everybody is playing on the same page. The pernickety travel calls, or foul calls when there are 10

people under the disc that are a com m on occurrence in E uropean tournam ents don‘t happen so m uch over

there. We also played one game with observers. I found it quite novel. On the practical side they

enforced a time limit between points strictly which was great to speed up the game. They also made all

the line calls which made it easier to just play the game. These were great. We also had one call referred

to an observer (a contested force out foul). The observer ruled against us but it was a good way to

resolve a situation where both players viewed the same situation differently.

Finally, I was asked how an Irish team would fare if it went over. Sadly Irish teams are a fair bit off this

standard right now. For the time being I would say we should concentrate on trying to get to the top of

the UK before we tackle the US. For the record, Revolver (also of San Francisco) beat Boston 15-14 in a

thrilling final. It looks like these two will be the teams to beat this year. While both teams were very

strong, at this point I would have to say that Revolver are my favourites to win UPA this year.


39

Ffound! – The story of ffindr.com

Interview with ffindr.org founder, Christian Jennewein

Mark Earley

Hi Christian, thanks for taking time out to talk to me.

So, recently FFindr celebrated it's birthday. Two years

already! It seems like it had been around for a longer

time. What made you start the site?

Since the very beginning a fair part of FFindr's users come

from Ireland, so I happily take my time to give back the

Irishs' confidence. Yeah, the start in 2007 really is a long time ago, especially in the fast life of the

Internet. Look at Facebook who started in 2004, and getting really popular around 2006. Initial thoughts

about a global Frisbee tournament website started in 2007, triggered by many different factors:

- Above all the downfall of excellent Ultilinks.com in 2006,

- The new power of the mass-Web 2.0 (user generated content),

- The need of a useful tournament tool since I played more and more Ultimate,

- A specification analysis I wrote for a WFDF website task force that never caught on,

- The technical know-how to build big websites by myself,

- The motivation to devote time to a big project that would create some impact.

As you can see there were quite some "requirements" to be met to get this thing called

FFindr started. Information about Frisbee events existed plentiful, the problem was

that you had to visit many websites to get what you wanted. Many local, incomplete

Frisbee tournament calendars have been around, but you could never be sure that they

were up to date. In addition, to promote your own Frisbee tourney, you had to be

subscribed to a bunch of mailing lists to get the word out. Many inconveniences that

should not exist in times where everybody is part of this big cloud called Internet.

What has been the most difficult part of the project?

There are two major axis of development, the first is technical work the second concerns marketing

efforts. To tackle the first, many years of work experience in the world of web development, frontend

engineering and interface design helped to quickly choose and understand a powerful php framework:


40

symfony (which was quite young at the time, but continue to prosper and still proves to be the right

choice). During the last two years, symfony in conjunction with FFindr has heavily broadened my

understanding and knowledge of web development, also leading to the daytime job I'm currently doing.

The second point was very new to me. Making a service known, taking advantage of networking and

learning how to channel input from users is a big task, eating up much more time than expected. I

definitely underestimated the effort it takes to handle the latter, which in total represents half of the work

I do on FFindr.

Christian taking time off designing FFindr!

Finally, a still critical part of the project is getting people to share content. I thought it would be much

easier to convince people to promote their teams and tournaments on one single spot rather than on

multiple platforms (mailinglists, own websites, different manually administered calendars). This still is a

major issue since I still spend a lot of time on completing FFindr's calendars by searching mailing lists

and other websites. Ideally there should be one or two persons per country doing the job, but this is

unfortunately not (yet) the case.

Has everything worked as planned, or has the size and popularity of it surprised you?

Actually I thought that the service will be accepted much faster. But it turned out that the Frisbee world

has shown to be less favourable of such a new service than expected (like every other community too I

guess). This is probably a common error of "technical people" like myself, overestimating the will of

people to adopt something new. Now, two years after the launch, audience is where I expected it to be


41

after 6-12 months. I just hope that growth continues and that in 1-2 years time FFindr really gets adopted

and integrated into the Frisbee life.

What are the latest features that you're excited about on the site?

I like this question, just because I'm very excited about the site and its possibilities. Since the launch

there's feature after feature that excites me and pushes me to spend time on it. Next to my daytime job it

is not always fun to spend hours on weekends and during the nights, but their usefulness and the

feedback from the community totally endorses me.

To answer the question, there is actually a bunch of

exciting features that recently launched. For instance

the tournament registration. The tournament

director/administrator (the person who can edit the

tournament's event page on FFindr) can set up a fully

automated online registration within minutes -

including everything one could expect. Actually it is

much too complicated to describe all the process here,

better you just test it (either by setting up an online

registration on FFindr, or by submitting a bid to a

FFindr-powered online registration). While using

FFindr please keep in mind that anything can be done,

so don't hesitate to report problems, usability issues or

things that might be missing in your opinion. I also

recommend to follow the FFindr blog to learn about

all the frequent updates and new features, that's also

the place where new features can be asked and

discussed — allowing you to participate in the decision process about FFindr's future.

What’s the next step for you and FFindr?

This is a good question, and I could write tons of lines about that. I am currently working on custom team

calendars (e.g. events that a team attended or plans to attend), allowing everybody to "shop for

tournaments" and save them in custom calendars. These custom calendars can be exported to Google

Calendar, iPhone, Outlook or whatever else time management software you are using or simply

integrated into a website via RSS.


42

In the long run I have far too many ideas to list them here. I definitely should go full-time for FFindr,

which for now remains only an ambitious dream. Among others I think for instance to:

- create a basic and location-based iPhone website,

- integrate team roster management,

- integrate score reporting (with live reporting),

- integrate an algorithm to randomly (and fairly) create teams for hattournaments.

And this is only what I can think of, so imagine many more great ideas of FFindr users. By the way, the

current shape of FFindr is mainly a result of numerous demands and ideas of users. Thanks for now, I

hope that I could give some interesting insights into

FFindr. As usual, please don't hesitate to ask back. Feedback is more than welcome.

Thanks a lot Christian, and best of luck in the future!

Have a nice day,

Christian


43

Tournament Watch:

Around Europe, and indeed further afield, there are tournaments that carry a certain weight, tournaments

that you‘ve heard are good before you even get there. In this section w e‘re going to look at one of these

tournaments in each Newsletter. This time we (well, Natalie Sisson!) travel to North America for

Potlatch!

P is for Potlatch – the biggest party of the year

Natalie Sisson (both photos & words!)

S ince I started playing U ltim ate I‘ve alw ays had three ̀ m ust play‘ tournam ents on m y list. They have

becom e m y top priorities thanks to countless players extolling w hy they‘re am azing, crazy and fantastic

and that I absolutely must go. These are Paganello, Italy (need I say more), Kaimana, Hawaii and

Potlatch, USA.

In July of 2009 I finally achieved my goal when I made it to the last tournament on my list - Potlatch.

According to their website `Held every July in Redmond, Washington, Potlatch is one of the largest co-

ed ultimate tournaments in the world. Now in its 20th year, the event draws teams from across North

America (and a few from even farther away) with its potent blend of sun, fun, and ultimate. The

tournament always showcases Ultimate's unique spirit and some of the sport's most amazing athletes.‘

I‘d say all in all that‘s a fairly brilliant sum m ary. I did have four of the best days of m y life, m ade all the

better by m y aw esom e team ̀ M ile H igh C lub‘ – no guesses what theme we had, the incredible weather

http://potlatch.discnw.org/


44

and one of the most amazing settings for Ultimate. Picture brooding mountains in the background and

lush green grass spreading for miles with over plus teams playing at the same venue! Bliss.

Outrageous costumes, drinking

all day, partying all night and

top quality ultim ate to boot. I‘m

not sure how in the 30D Celsius

heat people managed to play

such intense games whilst

drunk and wearing fetish gear,

ballerina outfits, full Police Cop

regalia or lingerie. But they did

and I loved them for it.

The only people being all

serious were Team USA who

defeated Team Canada in the

finals, 13-7. I actually missed all but one point of the final as I was too busy drinking and catching up

with wonderful friends from around the world, wrestling, singing and dancing. I miss these people

already.

At the end of the day one, hundreds turned out to watch the showcase game between these two teams. As

pilots and stewardesses we were lucky enough to watch it from the comfort of a huge sofa I managed to

snag from the Five Ultimate tent. Sitting in the sun, with beer in hand, watching the top two teams in

North America slug it out was just plain stylish.

With at least three games a day we somehow got to play all the hard teams like Drop Cop (bunch of hot

superstars) who promptly gave us fines after like `drink a shot‘, be spanked... you get the picture. W e

only started winning on day two after we got our wings to fly in unison and drank a little less –

frequently.

A great majority of people camp at the Potlatch fields and this leads to some hilarious antics at night

including nude cycling dares and a moving party that just kept picking up more people as it made its way

around the perimeter. I missed that party as we were too busy enjoying the pool and hot tub at our hotel.


45

But we camped the final night and got to

the party late only to see a mile long line

up for fresh salmon and food. Luckily

w e‘d eaten at the classy D enny‘s – the

only place open in Redwood during the

long weekend. Dancing at the venue for

some reason finished way too early so

back to the campsite it was for more

dancing under the stars and a dodgy

sound system that kept cutting out.

P eople don‘t seem to care about such glitches during celebrations because P otlatch is just one giant ball

of fun and people make the most of any situation. The tournament gets its name from this festival or

ceremony practiced among Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Different events take

place during a potlatch, like singing and dancing, sometimes with masks or regalia, such as Chilkat

blankets, the barter of wealth through gifts, such as dried foods, sugar, flour, or other material things, and

som etim es m oney. I‘m pretty sure m ost of that w as going on in one w ay or another and I hope it

continues to do so because this is one tournam ent I‘ll be sure not to miss again next year. Come join me!


46

Final Words

O bviously, this new sletter w asn‘t a one m an show . I‘d like to say a big thank you to all the contributors,

the interviewees, the photographers and to Dominick Smyth, who helped out with the editing, proof

reading and layout. A s I m entioned at the beginning, I‘d love to hear m ore from people about w hat could

be included in future Newsletters and about what you think of the articles in the current issue.

Any ideas, opinions, criticisms etc. - please email [email protected]

Thanks for reading,

Mark Earley,

Editor, IFDA Newsletter

Special thanks to all the contributors: Oisin Flanagan, Dominick Smyth, Christian Jennewein, Natalie

Sisson, Richard Buggy, Conor Hogan, Jim Heneghan, C ian Ó ‘M óráin and the ever-generous Lookfly.

And to all the photographers: Mark Dolan, Mark Earley, Laura McGrath, John Redmond, Natalie Sisson,

Alan Breathnach, Robin Giller and David Perry. (A nd C ian‘s photographers!)

Until next time


IFDANewsletterVolume2Issue3

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