College Tournaments

There are a few High Schools ou there who have been wanting to get an early start on the season. They often find themselves then looking at the College Division and their tournaments as it is both larger and offers a greater range of opporunties to play.

Also, as the College Division does not contain an official Mixed Division, there is a higher number of OPEN and GIRLS options available to HS programs seeking OPEN and GIRL opportunities. And if anyone has taken a look on either RSD, here, or the UPA website, there is a great lack of tournaments for any HS Division, let alone the OPEN and GIRLS...

So, this has led me and other coaches in our area to seek college tournaments for our players. What college tournaments are some of your schools requesting, pleading, begging, and doing your best to get into?

Current HS Teams (who have or will be) Attending College Tourneys:

OPEN TEAMS:
Paideia HS Open:
-Chucktown Throwdown 02.24/25 - (seeded 15th - finished 1st)
-Mudbowl XXVI - 03.03/04 - (seeded 12th - finished 1st)

Northwest HS Open:
-PLU BBQ - 03.10/11 - (seeded 13th - tied for 3rd)
-Dirty Deeds - 03.17/18

South Eugene HS Open:
-PLU BBQ - 03.10/11 - (seeded 14th - tied for 5th)
-Dirty Deeds - 03.17/18

Churchill HS Open:
-PLU BBQ - 03.10/11 - (seeded 15th - tied for 5th)
-Dirty Deeds - 03.17/18

Amherst HS Open:
-Lemony Spring - 03.24/25 - (seeded 1st)

Needham HS Open:
-Lemony Spring - 03.24/25 - (seeded 10th)


GIRLS TEAMS:
Northwest HS Girls:
-PLU BBQ - 03.10/11 - (seeded 9th)

Churchill HS Girls:
-PLU BBQ - 03.10/11 - (seeded 10th - tied for 3rd)
-Dirty Deeds - 03.17/18

YCC early application deadline coming soon...

C/o rsd announcement by Will Deaver -

Early applications for the 2007 UPA Youth Club Championships are being
taken until Feb 28th (next Wednesday). The early bid process is for
league-based teams only, with bid priority first to UPA youth leagues
and second to UPA high school leagues. Please check out
http://www.upa.org/juniors/championships/index.html for more
information on eligibility, competition guidelines, and a link to the
application.

Will Deaver
UPA Championship Director

Deadline is quickly approaching, what leagues have sent in bids? Will it be roughly the same field as last year? Will Philly repeat as champs? Will (should?) the field be expanded to 16 teams? Are there enough competitive leagues in the US so handle such an expansion?

All these thoughts and more, in the comments....

(Remember to post your college choices in the earlier thread if you haven't already done so)

College Choices 2007 - Part 1 (of an occasional series)

You may remember that last year we compiled a spreadsheet of high school ultimate players' college choices (who intend to continue playing in college).

We are going to do it again this year, because its fun, and allows colleges to see what sweet new recruits they are going to get, it also gives a general idea of what college programs attract top talent, who might be good in the college realm in 2-3 years, and a slew of other inferences.

Just because its fun.

So I know its a bit early at this point, but I'm sure a few have made their decisions already so post a comment with -

College
Last Name, First Name
High School
HS State
HS League
Height
Right Handed / Left Handed

later we'll add Xs next to the names that get selected to YCC teams.

we'll put up a few more threads like this, perhaps one per month and ill tally all the results into a spreadsheet and post em here at some point - Lets just throw out a date, we'll say the weekend after Easterns and Westerns are over. So, May 27th - Let's call that the Official Ultimate Signing Deadline

A side note: there will be two separate lists, one for women, one for men. So lets consider it a competition as to which gender will have more players report their college decisions.

If you prefer to keep your decision a secret until the signing deadline you can email the site at PlayUltimateBlog@gmail.com

Ultimate Fitness DVD Review

Hello all,

I purchased ($23US including shipping) a copy of the new fitness DVD that is being marketed through the UPA. The title of the DVD is Ultimate Fitness: Fitness Training for Ultimate Players. I only watched it once so I may mis-speak about a thing or two here. If I do please feel free to correct me. (Picture to the left used with permission of Dan Cogen-Drew) Here is the link for the website for the DVD: http://cogandrew.com/projects/upa_dvd.htm

Short review: Bryan Doo is a very very good trainer. It would most likely cost you more than $23 to do a workout with him. Buy the DVD and use it!

Long Review: I started coaching high school sports in 1992. Since then I have been to more than my fair share of Strength & Speed clinics (clock hours for HS coaches) put on at the University of Washington. Most of the clinicians had some good ideas and I always felt I took something positive away afterwards. One complaint was that beyond taking good notes there wasn't a way to see the presentations again and again. The Ultimate Fitness DVD changes that. Now I can get the clinic whenever I want. In 65 minutes I get a variety of exercises that would be covered in an all day clinic.

The DVD contains two warm-up sections (14 exercises), one speed section (6 exercises), one agility section (7 exercises), one quickness section (3 exercises) and one functional strength development section (8 exercises).

The warm-up section is good. It has the usual about reminding people to warm up incrementally and not just go into a full sprint. The exercises are demonstrated well and there are some good teaching points. One thing I would have liked would be a more complete warm up plan that could be used for starting a practice or before a game. It could have some sub-maximal stuff from all the sections of the DVD that would cover all the major muscle groups.

The speed section was also very good. Learning how to run with the proper technique is often overlooked by coaches because of time constraints, yet proper technique has so many upsides that it should be taught several times a season. (Joe Bisignano is always reminding me of this when I don't want to give up soccer kids for cross country in the fall). The one thing I would have liked in this section would have been a little more explanation on a proper drop step with a crossover (or not to crossover is a good discussion too) for the back pedal recovery when someone goes past you. That is nit-picking though because that is a small issue and there was a lot of great material in this section.

The agility section was all very good as well. I hadn't seen the Heiden Hop before but everything else was variations of common yet often overlooked agility drills. I would have liked a little more discussion/instruction on the side shuffle step especially in the T-Drill. It seemed to me that Bryan was using a basketball defensive slide technique while the others were having a little trouble with lateral balance and quickness because they were using an inferior technique. I am a big fan of the basketball defensive slide since I am a basketball coach in the winter. I often wonder why it is not taught more on the mark and on guarding the dump cutter. Again this is nitpicking a small issue.

The quickness stuff was very good. I really liked the ball drop. I thought there could have been a little more discussion about watching how people actually seem to step back or lean back when they are trying to take a quick first step. There seemed to be a few good examples that could have been highlighted a little more. I also would have liked to have seen more quickness exercises.

The functional strength section was very good. I really like the idea of body weight exercises for functional strength and not using a lot of weights or machines. There are some good examples of functional strength and proper form.

All in all this is an excellent DVD that I would highly recommend for people at all levels of ultimate and for that matter this material is very useful for soccer, basketball, football, lacrosse, etc. This is not an end all, be all DVD but there is a lot of useful material. If Bryan and Dan want to shoot for the moon I would love to see a fitness DVD with 30 minutes for each section making for 10-30 minutes workouts for each section depending on the number of repititions. I would also like to see a little more instruction and how often these exercises should be worked into a week of practices.

Hope this helps. - Mike Mullen, Boys Ultimate Coach, The Northwest School

How to Build a High School Program

Hello all,

There was something on RSD a week or so ago about how to build/start a high school program. Tiina had some good ideas as usual and of course the UPA has some great step-by-step ideas as well. Below are some of my random opinions concerning how to build a program. Feel free to disagree.

- Get your liability covered. The first question most HS athletic administrators will ask is: "What is liability situtation on this?" If you can provide UPA documentation showing that the liability issues are addressed by a national governing body that is a great start. If you are lucky enough to have a local governing body as well (DiscNW, BUDA, etc) that is even better. It is also a good idea to get yourself covered liability wise.

- Have a code of conduct for your players similar to the code of conduct for the athletes at the school they attend. The image that some people have of the pot smoking hippie playing barefoot in a dress who is more concerned with the post game cheer and party than with playing the game is not helpful in trying to build programs. Try not to sell ultimate as an "alternative sport", just sell it as a sport.

- Communicate with parents. Show them that you are trying to run a healthy sport for their child. Parents can be a huge help with external and internal organization as well as helping get official recognition from a school. When parents see their child getting positive self-esteem from your activity, they will be your biggest help.

- Students organizing: Yes, on the internal stuff but absolutely not on the external stuff. It simply won't seem like a real program to admins, other potential players, and parents, if the kids do all the organizing not to mention that it takes time away that those kids could be using to do more internal stuff. (This is not a put down of South Eugene or anyone else who plays without a coach, this is about making it so the players can focus on what they need to do within their own team situation which in some cases means doing their own coaching)

- Build middle school teams and programs at the feeder schools. That way kids can show up to the high school with more experience and skills and their parents will ask about ultimate Frisbee when they are touring prospective schools. That equals pressure on administrators to add a program.

- Be a coach or assistant coach in another sport at the school (or a feeder middle school) in fall and/or winter. It makes it easier to get kids to come out to play ultimate and makes the sport more respectable to the community. If you want to become a national powerhouse in ultimate help coach football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, or gymnastics at a big school and get those kids to come play ultimate for you.

- Never ever bad mouth the administration or other sports/coaches at your school. Work to build bridges with admins and other programs. If you get a kid showing up for ultimate who has potential in another sport they don't play, actively work to get that kid to tryout for the other sport. If other programs know that you are trying to feed them athletes they may do the same especially because ultimate is such a good cross training sport.

- Be patient. Chances are that it will be your first generation of players youngest siblings and their friends who will look at ultimate as just another sport and will expect to be in a program that is well organized and run like any other varsity sport when they arrive in high school. That is when you will know you have succeeded in building a program.

Hope this helps. - Mike Mullen

Open Thread - just because

Care to talk about Deep Freeze? The impending spring season? Your team? Early early prognostications for Easterns and Westerns

(A side note: want to announce or recap your tournament on PlayUltimate? Email playultimateblog@gmail.com . Same goes for tips, story ideas, or anything else you would like to tell us.)

Easterns/Westerns/YCC Apps availiable now!

From the desk of the upa...

Applications for 2007 HS Easterns, HS Westerns, and Youth Club Championships are now available. Go to the Youth Division page for information about eligibility and the application/selection process and to download an application. These are some of the most exciting and anticipated events on the Youth Ultimate calendar! Talk with your HS team or league about getting involved.

Youth Club Championships - league-based team applications due February 28
HS Easterns/Westerns - applications due March 23

[...]

Meredith Tosta

Director of Youth Development

Ultimate Players Association

if you plan on applying/attending, leave a comment, lets have a really really early look at the competition...