Bogota to Houston, Houston to Sea-Tac Airport, Sea-Tac directly to work. It’s cold and I’m on a computer, perilously behind schedule on the job and massively jetlagged. As I manage to get these blog posts online (there was no easy-to-reach internet in my last 5 days) I couldn’t imagine a better reception, a better experience, or a better host than that in my short time in Colombia, and I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people. Next year, we better bring a whole team.

Bogota, and then heading home…

Nearing breaking point of exhaustion. A 4-day tournament, 8,000+ feet above sea level, speaking in a new language, away from home, sleeping 3-5 hours per night…I’m getting tired. The hospitality of my host family has me ready for a day of sight-seeing in Bogota, but for now, just to finish with some Ultimate-related thoughts.

The level of play here is very strong, and is ready to break into the World’s elite. Colombia has no shortage of excellent athletes, and speed/quickness are present on every team. While Colombian teams are unlikely to ever be considered tall, the jumping ability will help make up for this (and when is the last time you were on a ‘tall’ team and really felt like you could use these mismatches effectively? It’s harder than it sounds, since a 1-v-1 without separation (65% completion?) is usually less efficient than at least working for a little separation with your normal offense (at least, I hope this is true for top teams). That 1-v-1 probably gets worse when you go to the well several times.

Skills are there…but are they consistent. After seeing this tournament, I know very well that there are no throws that the Colombians do not have players than can make…but can they make them consistently? You have a long huck, both forehand and backhand, and against a mark. Now, can you hit it consistently enough that you will be more efficient than the other team’s O? Players can make straight, fast, claw-catching moves against a defender…but do they calmly take these catches 88% of the time, or 98%? That difference could be 3 turnovers, and against a top team, those are just as lethal as an opposing 6′5” defender skying for 3 D’s. That consistency will come IF the practices are focused, intense, and driven. Colombia does not have the every-weekend opportunities that some parts of the US do against top competition, and that difference will either be made up in practice, or it won’t. Colombia may be better served in sending single teams (like to Prague) than they would be if they sent a selection-based National team that can’t regularly practice, or at least doesn’t have one dominant system. Es mas importante tener una pagina que la pagina correcta (badly translated: It’s better to be on the same page, rather than the right one.).

Right now, the top three are Japan, US and Canada. Japan boasts a top 7 that might be the best in the world…but are they growing the next generation of talent to replace the Abes, the Masahiros, and the Kichikawas? If not, someone is going to look to move up. The UK, especially Clapham, is working hard (and making serious North American trips) to be that team, and eventually to dethrone the top two). Are European teams (like Sweden and Germany) on a downcycle due to talent, the victims of two straight World’s tournaments held far from Europe, or are these teams being pushed out by more aggressive teams from other parts of the globe? Prague will be interesting, and it remains to be seen how the Colombians will decide to develop. Hears hoping that scarce resources are not dealt solely for glory in Prague…the Colombian Juniors team that went to Devens was a great example of a group that did well internationally, but in a way that grew the game at home. Any advancements that help in Prague will be forgotten if they don’t help grow the Colombian scene.

Finally, the playoffs.

With games not starting til 1pm, almost the entire tournament was in attendance to watch the afternoon and evening playoffs. We started out against Mamoots, a very strong team from Bogota. Scoring early is a priority, obviously, in 50 minute games, and both teams were a bit nervous to start out. We forced 4 turnovers on the first point, but couldn’t cash in, and Mamoots hit a long strike to Nando (a quick receiver who led the Colombian Juniors way back in Boston). Nando would go on to take several Ds from us, and score 5 of Mamoots’ 7 goals.

Mamoots, like their Bogota counterparts Oso, are very good when moving forward. The dishy is a widespread tool for setting up huck looks, and as long as the cutters are not terribly distant, all options are available. Timing changes once a dump is forced backwards….Colombian teams, typically worried about long throws, often poach off of the dump. By adding some pressure on handlers, especially those in the middle of the field, we were able to get them moving backwards and have their handlers breathing a bit harder than they wanted to.

We end up on the good side of the pull for double-game point, and are patient in moving the disc down the field to take a great game, 8-7.

Semifinals: Vs Euphoria, another strong Bogota team.
The short of it is that we lost, to a team that played very well. Euphoria is a lot like our team; every player can handle the disc, making for some attractive offense. On this day, however, their best two players played great games, and the Mapache-led offense was tough to stop. Choco hit several amazing hucks; I counted 4 throws that I was glad to see him throw, and he hit 4/4. At least we lost to a team that played very, very well. For our part, we felt the pressure of a short game and, like the Mamoots game, would have loved to play it out to 90-120 minutes to see who really was the strongest on that day. Great game by both teams, and with a very high level of spirit.

Both Colombia and Venezuela came home from Worlds in Vancouver with very low Spirit ratings. I think that, on one hand, the Colombians need to demand great spirit of themselves in their own National games. This will be hard to do without some type of recourse and/or ramifications for poor behavior (currently there are none). I will say this, though: I played against European teams, Japan and North American teams at worlds…and I’d rather play against Colombia than many of those teams. I am sure that European teams rate each other’s sportsmanship, in general, more highly than they rate that of the South Americans…but how much of this is differences in how the game is played, and how much is actual behavior? Having been part of clashing-game-images in battles with other North American teams (see: differences in interpretations of the travel rule, Sockeye and Furious) I think that this has less to do with cheating and more to do with significant differences in how the game actually IS. This isn’t a sportsmanship thing, it’s a culture thing, at least to an extent.

Ok, that said….how many Colombians do you think had a rulebook with them at this tournament? It’s a trick question…because the rules are not available in Spanish. Imagine what US Ultimate would look like if there were no rulebooks available, in any form? ‘House’ rules exist, players are reluctant to make calls for fear of massive and irreconcilable arguments (because there is no written authority to go to), and the average young player is 100% dependent on the wisdom of older players to learn the rules.

I (and many others) believe this is totally unacceptable. Translation of the rules into every language is not practical, but for those languages that are dominant, a good translation should be a priority. WFDF takes money from every member country…what percentage of those dues from Spanish-speaking countries would it take to create a decent translation. Either the UPA or WFDF is going to translate their rules into Spanish first…and whoever does will be the dominant form of the rules in South America, as there is a ravenous appetite for hard information.

A storm blew in overnight, which didn’t cause us much concern until we arrived at the fields and were informed that all games were cancelled, for the day at least. Previously, large tournaments had been held in Medellin, where backup fields were on sand…which was a major cause for complaint. Now, however, sand was looking good compared to the prospect of no games at all.

Just a question for myself…does UPA Nationals have backup fields? What about College Nationals? I assume they do…but then again, I am not sure that I know where they are. Perhaps I assume too much.

We were told to stay in touch with tournament directors, and we left for a touristy afternoon at the local salt mine…which doesn’t sound nearly as cool as it was. This mine goes down forever, is a massive foray into the earth, and has been transformed into a cathedral, with statues and a grand antechamber hewn out of the rock. Really, really awesome.

I got to talking with some of my teammates about the cost of the sport, and they mentioned ‘Inter’. Inter is a government agency that provides funding for any youth that want to play sports. They get practices, equipment, some travel money, uniforms…whatever they need. The catch is that they must go through the paperwork and have a coach signing off on them…and they have to go to and work well in school. This is a high hurdle for Colombians from families that historically work hard, go to school infrequently if at all, and who believe that early work is a more family-faithful activity than sports of any kind.

In the afternoon, we were called to tell us the location of the backup fields; two small fields with a grandstand in ‘downtown’ Cahiqua. Upside: we get to play. Downside: Games are now 50 minutes, and less if the previous game goes overtime (up to this point, DV was experimenting with 90-100 minute games, a first for Colombia). Upside: all of the teams are in one spot, and everyone gets to watch everyone else, which makes for a really fun atmosphere and a crowd for all of the games. Downside: Very little warmup space, no margin for error, and the finals would be played, Monday night, at around 9pm. Wow.

We played Aire, a team that loves to put the disc out in front of their athletes, in a very smooth game for our O-team. Fields are skinnier now, which means that traditional flat-stack teams absolutely must find a way to break through saggy 3-person defensive fronts, or it is going to be a long day of gunning forehands into tight windows. With only one short game this was almost a rest day, which was much appreciated.

3 games today…starting out with a very strong performance against Disco Stu. Disco’s Esteban is an extremely talented cutter, and uses his lefty dishy very well to set up handlers for deep looks. If it doesn’t go through Esteban, it probably isn’t happening. We tell our defenders, who are doing a good job of preventing in-cuts, “if he does get past you to the disc, flair out and stop the dishy”. That is good for a block around half-time, at which point our 5 turnovers had propelled us to a 7-2 lead (half-time here is done right at the half-way mark of the time-cap, which seems bizarrely reasonable to me, although it requires another person to be watching the clock. Each field has a stat-person also performing this task.

Our second game is, at the moment, the likely pool-deciding matchup. Warao (probably spelled incorrectly) is the dominant Venezuelan team, and they are full of athletes that can throw, a very cohesive offensive handling group, and a very dangerous player (#4) that is exceptionally fast, talented, and plays with their D-team, making them a threat to score several D-point in a row very quickly. I know this because they opened the game with 3-straight D-points, and we immediately have a crisis of confidence on our hands. Can we score? Kie has never beaten Warao, and most of the Colombian teams have, at some point, taken a bad beating from this squad.

We crawl back into the game using a mix of zone and man, and an extremely patient little-ball offense when our D-team gets the disc. They (led by Idaho, Julian and Tragic) are very happy throwing 5-10 2 yard throws, just keeping the disc moving side to side and the occassional easy break. Eventually, they find the end zone.

Warao, on both sides of the disc, is lethal for the first 3-4 passes of every possession. Their defenders at full-speed are tough to shake, but forcing them to move for 10-15 seconds (and readjust) limits their effectiveness. Our O-team is considerably better when we start moving the disc sideways, instead of trying for early yards. Their O, likewise, does a nice job of getting the disc into a power position in the middle of the field within 1-2 throws, and then sending one of the hoard of jumpers deep. Against our zone, though, this is more difficult. Rotating defenses is keeping them guessing a bit more than I think they are used to.

Warao, like most teams here, uses 7-8 players on offense, and almost never rotates. As the temperature drops (remember, we’re at 8600 feet, and it gets cold) and the offense is forced to run on defense, we start to build momentum, eventually taking a great game 13-9.

Spirit level was very high in this game, which is significant. Many games here have problems with the overall level of sportsmanship, even given the generally fiery nature of the participants. Mauricio Moore (my host) has made Spirit a top priority for our team, and we resolved to keep our level high, regardless of our opponents. Against Warao, we started with a high level of Spirit…and I think many of our team were surprised to see that Warao matched it.

My take: Kie’s perspective is that Warao is the dominant team, and don’t respect Kie as a team. Warao’s perspective: Colombians in general don’t respect Warao, and incorrectly think Warao wants to cheat. End result: Both teams, suspicious of each other’s motives, usually lead with their (usually metaphorical) fists. In this game, however, Kie leads well and that diffuses the usual suspicion, and Warao is relieved to be playing in a game in which they are no longer afraid that they are going to be cheated. Result; bitter rivals play a very fair game, even given the stakes and a few calls either way which are close and contested.

Third game today: against Hermanos, a team that recently played their way up from the Open division into the Elite, which is a possibility for every team here, each tournament trying for that higher division in the next tournament. The chance for relegation is always there as well.