Scobel Wiggins Photography

While the Women's college and club divisions have made incredible strides over the last few years in terms of level of play, number of teams, organization, professionalism and promotion, we've still got a way to go. Much of the growth has occurred just by the natural development of the sport, but much more can be accomplished if players in the women's division take more active steps to make it happen.

As someone who started playing Ultimate at a small, two-year old women's college program in Boston, an area dense with club Ultimate players, and as someone who has taken an active role in improving opportunities to play women's Ultimate in the South and Metro East, Michelle and I have seen first hand how much the interaction from the club division in the college division can raise the level of play in ALL divisions.

College teams benefit from a closer relationship with the club division by:

• Having Club players involved as coaches.
  • College players do the same things in practice they have always done, explained things the same way it's always been explained to them, and otherwise maintain the status quo of their team. If they've always run a vertical stack and a 3-man cup, they will continue to do so until they are shown there are many other ways to play both offense and defense. It's not their fault – it's simply all they know. Having a coach with club experience raises the ceiling for a college team, showing them better or more efficient ways to accomplish their team goals, and helping them improve past what they would be capable of themselves.
• Watching Club women's players play.
  • Hopefully this makes sense: You learn what you don't know you don't know. College players and teams will plateau in skill if they start thinking they already know everything there is to know about playing Ultimate. By watching the top players and teams in their division play, college players can increase their awareness of all the things they don't already know. This helps them surpass the standards they previously set for themselves.
  • Looking at it from another angle, college players can be inspired by watching the current top women play, noticing their confidence on the field, the way they cut, catch and throw, the way teams use spacing and how they move the disc – the list goes on. If they pay attention and really watch for these things, they can see how club players get open against good defenders, or how defenders shut down great cutters and handlers, and try to emulate some of the same tactics in their own games.

Club teams benefit from having a closer relationship with the college division by:

• Increasing the level of play in college, which will eventually increase the level of play in club.
  • The better college women are at playing college Ultimate will directly trickle up to the club division, as more athletic women with more experience begin to play in the club division.
  • Improving recruitment.
    • College women's players have a choice of what division to play for, and many of them, lacking information about women's teams or just lacking women's club teams to play for, often end up playing mixed. This is not to say anything bad about the mixed division – I am simply trying to say that for women who would RATHER play women's and who end up playing on mixed teams just so they can play at all, women's club teams have failed, and the overall level of women's Ultimate sinks as the women's division loses these women to the mixed division.
    • Having your club team share a good relationship with college teams also gives your team a leg up if there are two club teams in the area – college women may feel more of an alliance to you when deciding what teams to play for.
  • Creating a “fan” base.
    • With the advancement of social media, many club teams have been taking strides to connect with any fans they might have. It can be disheartening to be playing in the finals of a competitive tournament with only your two teams and maybe the odd parent or significant other watching. Club players put themselves through the physical, mental, emotional, and financial wringer to play this sport, and it's crazy that even at its highest level, few people seem to care.
    • The first rule of getting others to care about something is making sure you care about it yourself. Club teams need to take it more on themselves to market their team, and the most obvious (and growing!) fan base are women who play college Ultimate. Much more outreach and promotion can be done just to get college women to care and follow the club division.
    • With a bigger fan base, club women's teams may have more access to sponsorships, partnerships or other resources to take some of the burden off of their own wallets. Companies often care about what audience their sponsorships are reaching, and it's usually the bigger the better.

  This was the vision behind the creation of Without Limits, a name we want to turn into a movement in the women's division for club and college players to run events for women that will strengthen the relationship between club and college teams.

  Philly Fusion was the first event we ran under the Without Limits initiative. The tournament featured three women's divisions – elite club, club and women's college. The elite club would feature USA Ultimate Club Championships qualifiers and contenders for this year's Club Championships, the club division would feature club teams who are competitive on the regional level but have not yet made it to the USAU Club Championships, and the college division would be open to any team, no matter how talented or small, who wanted to attend. Our goal was to showcase club matchups in the elite division, giving college women byes to watch the top level play, and also give club teams a chance to match up against the lower-finishing elite teams to help push the regional club teams up to the next level. The tournament also featured a skills clinic so club players could directly teach college women skills they may have never been taught before, and a trade show so club teams could plan activities and giveaways and sell team gear to ramp up excitement for the upcoming club series.

  We believe more tournaments and opportunities like these will strengthen the ties between the two divisions, and will improve the overall state of women's Ultimate in this country. The only way to pull off events like these is for all members of the women's Ultimate community to work together to create them ourselves. This is central idea of Without Limits initiative, so please contact me or Michelle if you want to get involved.

  Sara Jacobi plays for Brute Squad