Tuesday, March 11, 2008

BPL and Regionals - The Dedicated

Here's an interesting stat.

Passion and Rawhide both have only two players aren't playing Regionals.

At the other end, eight Dojos are skipping Regionals, along with five Lovers, four Messys and three Slipperys.

Yes, there's injury, family and other engagements, but the all teams have that.

Are Passion and Rawhide the most dedicated to Ultimate?

And if any of these guys decide they want to play Regionals - Firefighters would love to have you!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the stats speak for themselves

Anonymous said...

We at the Dojo are just far too busy resting on our laurels after Nationals 2006...

Actually JDR I think it's excellent that not everyone playing ultimate in Brisbane feels the need to go and play at the big tournaments, whether that's because we've "retired" from them or just aren't interested.

And - how to put it delicately? - it's hard to expect people who aren't interested in actually playing Nationals to dedicate a weekend of their spare time to validating someone else's aspirations, or worry about how many places QLD gets in the draw...

Anyway, one of the reasons BPL is such a flourishing league is that it exists for its own right, and not as a training ground for travelling teams. And the fact that teams with low numbers of travelling players are still highly competitive is actually pretty reassuring.

Surely it's a good thing that ultimate is established enough here to support varying degrees of committment, rather than the old all-or-nothing?

wetnose said...

Could it be a case that Rawhide and Passion have not done as much recent recruiting as the other teams?
I say this because perhaps some players in the other teams have newbies that don't feel confident in such a tournament. Whilst some people may not see Regionals as a big tournament, just the word "Regionals" may scare some people off.

JdR said...

Some good comments!

I think tournament play is a key part of Ultimate, just like League. Two sides of the same coin and such. I don't really have a judgement that one is better than the other, or that both together are better than being keen on one. But people who are playing both are more dedicated to their Ultimate.

I think experienced players should definitely try to encourage newer players to give tournaments a go.

Tournaments are a strange beast for people coming from most other sports, but they are events where your game can really improve by reflecting on a game and immediately turning around for the next game; you can really push yourself physically by playing multiple games in a row; and you can spend a lot of time with your team-mates. These things you don't quite get in the two hours each week at League.

I hope people have noticed how I've tried really hard last year and this year to market the event as Queensland's annual Open tournament, rather than it being "only about going to Nationals".

I had a go last year renaming the event Mukluk to get away from the Regionals moniker, but without much success (I think I was the only person who called it Mukluk).

But I'm pleased that half the teams playing this year aren't worried about Nationals - they're coming for a good run around of Ultimate.

And yep, I'd love to see as many people out there this weekend as possible!

Mayor said...

More on the Dojo.....

I'm not too sure about injuries, family engagements, or intimidation from the word 'regionals'..... but it has become clear that the Dojos high number of absence will be in great part to their orgy with the Sensei's Porsche. Each of them will be taking turns slamming their d1cks in the car doors. Had I not made a commitment (feeble as it may be) to FS, I would be right there along side my team mates giving the Dojo bizniss to the Porsche.

Long live the Dojo.

Pete said...

Regionals isn't just about nationals, it's about playing tournament frisbee, the best kind of ultimate. Surely it wouldn't be dedicating a weekend of time to someone elses aspirations but to the game of ultimate as a whole in brisbane which we all benefit from.

Jangles said...

I think the more important stat is how many show up too the party in costume then we will see who has true spirit.

Anyone up for anti village people -prisioner, Cowboy, officeworker, pedestrian and hippy??

Anonymous said...

last time i heard the Thor lads had a very unique idea on the party theme. Will be interesting to see how it pans out