…over the weekend the first team/players from abroad are flogging to the Munich area. The Munich Open team M.U.C. will scrimmage against Colony and Heads of State from Down Under on Monday and Wednesday.
Looking forward to sharing some quality time and some beers with the Aussi blokes.

I am starting to feel the excitment. WUCC is one special event and this year will see the best competition WUCC ever had to offer!!! Bring it on y’all!!!!!

Jens #91 M.U.C.

We woke this morning to bad news; our friends from Venezuela’s Warao cannot attend WUCC this year.

Venezuelan teams have an annual battle in obtaining visas to leave their country, and I expect that this is probably why they won’t be in Prague. This same reason kept them out of ECC ‘09.

We (Sockeye) were lucky enough to be able to play them twice in Medellin’s great TEP tournament, and we know them to be fierce competitors with outrageous athleticism. They have a few terrifying players, but what we were excited about was that their full team has a depth and conviction that would have made them our top pick to rise massively in the WUCC rankings. While we might breathe a little sigh of relief (Warao was scheduled to be in our initial pool, so we might have been their first victim) it would have been really fun to watch, play and party with them.

Here’s hoping that the tournament directors can find a fill in team on short notice to join in the fun. Our thoughts go out to Warao, who must be tremendously disappointed…someday soon we will play again!

blw (Sockeye)

Hi all! Its been great to hear from Huddle founders and the many other contributors ahead of next month’s Worlds tournament. I appreciate the invitation to participate and send back reports about the competition and experience.

First off, my name’s Ben Spears and I live in Atlanta, GA, USA (proud host of the ‘96 Olympics). I learned about competitive ultimate in college in Washington, DC (played for the “g-dub” Hippos) and this is my fifth Chain Lightning season. The city of Atlanta has had a great ultimate culture for several decades – thanks mainly to organizers, lots of talent, and spirited played throughout the area – its no accident that elite teams do well here (including Ozone and others).

Coming off last year’s national championship, expectations and hopes for Chain Lightning 2010 are high. That championship and this Worlds trip are firsts for most of my teammates… and while I expect Chain to be in a good place this Fall to defend the UPA/USAU championship, the Worlds tournament is a rare opportunity for international competition and camaraderie — strong emphasis on both.

What I’m hoping to talk about in short and possibly rambling bursts during Worlds is the following:

1. the feel of international ultimate games, including communication, gift-giving, and general spirit between competing teams on the field
2. the Worlds experience, like having a week-long schedule of ultimate, leisure, tourism, and partying
3. the inter-cultural social scenes we find ourselves in in Prague, such as world cup bars and dance clubs, impromptu singing and storytelling on shuttles, sideline games and more

Since I’m starting my Europe travel tonight, I have already packed, made a list of my goals at the tournament, and printed my boarding pass. I’m excited! Feel free to send along ideas or questions, feedback or encouragement. I’m at benjamin (dot) spears (at) gmail (dot) com.

Looking forward to traveling, playing, and huddle-ing!

     It’s been tough to decide what to write for the “Sockeye 2010 Worlds Preview,” because

a) I’m not sure what you want to read (you’ll already have scores, write-ups, etc)

b) I don’t want to give away trade secrets (or say something that my fellow captains would consider helpful to another team– my fellow captains are paranoid), and

c) I feel like I should be saying “something smart” (I lean towards dumb and simple or rambling)

     With that said, I’ve decided that our trade secrets are really quite simple concepts– nothing new– and that I could offer a more intimate look into how a club team competing at Worlds thinks and operates. So here we go. On to the blogging!

     If you didn’t know already, Sockeye has had a ton of turnover in the past few years, losing more superstars than many teams dream of having. You know the names- Nord, Chase, etc – and now the roster is filled with a lot of people who’ve never been featured on Ultivillage DVDs or played in a National or World Final. This year’s team was faced with the difficult task of discovering its own identity, one that every player — from the seasoned veterans like Bestock and MC to the young noobs like Frank Barich and Phil Murray — could feel a part of. This isn’t an easy task, but for Sockeye, is an absolutely essential element.

     And this is one of the “trade secrets” I was talking about above. I’ve never been a part of a more cohesive team than Sockeye. More work is spent on creating ways to bro-out, act like morons together and create perhaps the dumbest inside jokes than I thought possible. And trust me, it is work. But it’s this relentless enthusiasm for the game and for each other that allows the team to practice and train as much as it does, consistently bordering on too much, and without it I do not believe Sockeye would compete at the level that it does.

     An example: as a warmup, we often start practices with a mini-game, 4 on offense and 3 on defense, played in tiny rectangular field that is only about 3-4 yards narrow and 15-20 yards long. Start at one end, try to get to the other, normal ultimate rules, that’s it. Way, way more fun than any warmup I had known before joining, and one of many of the small things that make Sockeye a team that simply enjoys the game of ultimate.

     Another example: our new, crazy offense. In Marc Seraglia’s (of Furious) words, “Your offense looks terrible.” He might have said “worse than ever,” but you get the jist. Basically, we barely know what’s going on. It’s like free form jazz without the structure. Watch us, and if you can figure it out, I will buy you a Pilsner and then you can explain it to me. A lot of it is based on the principle that most every member of Sockeye plays some form of small-sided disc game often, be it Mini or Goaltimate, and there’s a level of creativity and skill there to leverage and apply to ultimate. Simply put, we find what we enjoy, and try to do that, a lot.

     Last example: we overdo it at tournaments. Some teams mandate staying in, no drinking, stay healthy for Sunday. We did the opposite this year; in Texas we had already mapped out our downtown bar crawl routes and bought Seattle Hoops basketball jerseys (fitting, since our offense uses basketball terminology) before arriving, and we made Flowerbowl a “Big Buck Hunter” themed tournament, with half the team hitting the town on Saturday night as hunters and the other half as game. Did staying out late hurt us in the finals? Maybe. But was it an overall win to create those relationships and that trust that are now our foundation? Undoubtedly.

     This gives some insight into Sockeye2010. For us, smiles creates success, rather than vice versa. If you can tell we’re having fun playing the game, we’re probably playing as best as we can, and we’ve found that this makes for a much more enjoyable and rewarding season than one based upon fear of punishment or a results-based enjoyment of any particular game or play.

     Current seeds would (I think) put us (5) with Australia’s Heads of State (20), an unknown team to be determined(29), and the Dominican Republic’s Domino(44). [updated 6/24 with correct teams] What to expect of these teams? We’ve seen Domino recently in Colombia, and know their athleticism and talent can give any team fits when they’re on, and Australia always field incredible teams, so that should be a great game as well. Having a TBD team in our pool is fitting, as we’re going in focused on us rather than who our opponent is, and on playing our game throughout the tourney– fast, fun, and fair.

     Finally, what to expect from me at Worlds? Well, logistically, I hope there’s easy computer access/WIFI in the dorms. Given that, you can expect daily recaps of our games, notable events, and insight into what the players are seeing around the tourney as best as I can give. 13 days till first games!

TK

tkinley@gmail.com <– email me if you want any specific focus or info, feedback is helpful and encouraged!

ps- on a personal note, I worry that the “Sockeye Throwing Happy Hour” comes across as pretentious, or snooty, or something other than what we intended, as if we’re the masters of throwing or something. We aren’t. But, we have developed some drills that have helped us get a bit more out of every day throwing, and we think sharing them, as well as creating an event for people to meet, get in some throws, and get off to a great start would be fun, and we hope it ends up that way.

Since a couple of others have taken the time to introduce themselves I thought I would jump on board as well. I’m Simon Talbot and I reside in a small city in Australia called Ballarat, which most of you probably haven’t heard of. I’ve been playing ultimate for just over 5 years, and this will be my second WUCC. I’ll be playing for Redbacks in the Open Division.

I’m not blessed with the skills and athleticism of some of the other authors here, but my passion for the game runs just as deep as anyone else’s. Those who knows me would refer to me as an “ultimate nerd”. I don’t disagree for one minute, but I much prefer to be thought of as an “ultimate fan”. As well as playing and enjoying ultimate, I love to watch top level teams in action and dissect what their gameplan and playing style is. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve watched the likes of Colony, Heads of State, Dublin, Chevron Action Flash, Clapham and Fire of London in the flesh. Throw in the online clips and highlights and that list gets much bigger. Off-field the aspect of WUCC I’m looking forward to the most is inter-continental match ups – how do the South Americans defend Asian dynamic offence? Will the conservative European offence be more effective than the risk-taking Australian style? And can anyone topple the North Americans?

In between Redbacks games I’ll be doing my best to catch the games between higher seeds and other games I think will be close. As well as posting to my own website Force Sideline throughout the week, I’ll also be stopping in here to give you a fan’s perspective on the tournament – who is playing well, who isn’t, who is punching above their weight and who could be doing better. I’m sure there will be plenty of coverage for the well known teams, so if there are any other teams you would love to read up on, get in touch with me (forcesideline at gmail dot com) and I’ll do my best to report back.