Last weekend kicked off the first of what could be five consecutive weekends of Ultimate!
06-07/09 USM: Uppsala, Sweden (coaching)
14-15/09 SM Dam (Women's nationals): Linköping, Sweden
21-22/09 Burla Beach Cup (picking up with british people I don't really know): Viareggio, Italy
26-29/09 eXtended European Ultimate Championship Finals: Bordeaux, France (watching/volunteering, maybe)
04-06/10 Oktoberfest Hat: München, Germany
After Oktoberfest, I do not know what I am doing or where I will be. I am not 100% sold on going to XEUCF. I have some friends who will be there playing and it seemed silly to fly back north for such a short amount of time, but I think it is also a little weird to go to a tournament to not play. (feedback appreciated in the comments or other channels) I may also have a job interview that could screw all this up...
The team I worked with had some Ultimate experience: it had been taught in their gym classes for the past two years, they actually won the school tournament in May, and they had played in an indoor tournament somewhere at some point, but most of the schools in that competition had only recently picked up the sport (in one case we did an instruction on Tuesday and they brought 3 teams to the tournament on Thursday). They had some notion of the rules, but the rules used at the previous tournaments were not standard WFDF rules (in indoor you count to 8 and can drop the pull and at the school tournament you could have a meter of "disc space," since they were new throwers), so I really had to fight against these old rules. They also had basic throwing skills, but we worked a lot on taking your time and throwing flatter. We didn't make much progress on making a stack or executing set plays.
The school is located in Husby, which you may have heard about as the site of the riots in Sweden a few months back. The gym coach their likes Ultimate because of spirit and self-refereeing and is even trying to incorporate some of the themes of Ultimate into other subjects at the school. One of the keys for the week was being a good ambassador (the others were holding the force, running up and down instead of side to side, and at one point "stay friends"). There were teams from all over Sweden (okay, not really the north) and the kids needed to show them that they weren't the type of people who set cars on fire. We had some attitude issues at the beginning, but by the last game things were going really well.
We practiced an hour a day four days a week for two weeks, but that was not quite enough time to catch up to the level of play of teams that are part of established Frisbee Klubs in Sweden. We almost won a game (for bronze), but blew a 6-4 lead, losing 6-7 to Sigtuna, which is located just north of Stockholm (my club sometimes holds joint practices and combines with them when we are low on numbers for tournaments). The comeback is partially a result of them going straight up on our flick hucker (basically our default action) and us running out of gas. I'm so proud of the kids for making it that far - most of the team had never played on a sports team before. Their attitude was so much better in that game, maybe it was because they were able to get some more points on the board (we only scored 6 total in 3 games on Saturday), but they cheered, "peppa upp"-ed each other, and didn't get hung up on their (or their teammates') mistakes. The last game really made the whole experience worth it. AND it continues the Stockholm-Sigtuna rivalry!
I tried to speak some Swedish with the kids (they didn't laugh like my friends do), but was largely unsuccessful. I would start a sentence in Swedish then toss in some English for the words that I didn't know and I think that was just more confusing.
Will update with more photos, when/if they get emailed to me.
06-07/09 USM: Uppsala, Sweden (coaching)
14-15/09 SM Dam (Women's nationals): Linköping, Sweden
21-22/09 Burla Beach Cup (picking up with british people I don't really know): Viareggio, Italy
26-29/09 eXtended European Ultimate Championship Finals: Bordeaux, France (watching/volunteering, maybe)
04-06/10 Oktoberfest Hat: München, Germany
After Oktoberfest, I do not know what I am doing or where I will be. I am not 100% sold on going to XEUCF. I have some friends who will be there playing and it seemed silly to fly back north for such a short amount of time, but I think it is also a little weird to go to a tournament to not play. (feedback appreciated in the comments or other channels) I may also have a job interview that could screw all this up...
Three days before I was scheduled to come back to Sweden in Mid-August and was really questioning my decision to do so (more on that in another post... maybe), I got an email from a guy in the Swedish ultimate federation who does a bunch of youth stuff in Stockholm asking if I wanted to get school team ready for the Ungdom Sverige Mästerskap, USM (youth national championship). I had helped at some school demonstrations where we take over a few gym classes at a school and teach throwing and do some drills and had kept score and reminded kids of the rules at the Stockholm school tournament in May (basically like instructional observing), but I had never had a group on my own before. I decided to try it out - It sounded like fun and I would get paid in "Ultimate Money" (to get around wage taxes, the money gets donated to my sports club, which them applies it to my costs such as tournament fees and jerseys), plus it sort of gave me a purpose for being wherever I was during my job search (and make interviewing in Europe much easier)... I mean it was lovely hanging out with family, but I didn't have very much going on in NC.
The team I worked with had some Ultimate experience: it had been taught in their gym classes for the past two years, they actually won the school tournament in May, and they had played in an indoor tournament somewhere at some point, but most of the schools in that competition had only recently picked up the sport (in one case we did an instruction on Tuesday and they brought 3 teams to the tournament on Thursday). They had some notion of the rules, but the rules used at the previous tournaments were not standard WFDF rules (in indoor you count to 8 and can drop the pull and at the school tournament you could have a meter of "disc space," since they were new throwers), so I really had to fight against these old rules. They also had basic throwing skills, but we worked a lot on taking your time and throwing flatter. We didn't make much progress on making a stack or executing set plays.
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| A practice. In cuts! (all at once and too close, but still cuts!) |
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| An unflattering photo of me with the squad. Screen shot used for attributing the source and for the amusement of gained by reading all the hashtags, which the ultimate Sweden account manager loves. My favorite: Sport with Swag! |
We practiced an hour a day four days a week for two weeks, but that was not quite enough time to catch up to the level of play of teams that are part of established Frisbee Klubs in Sweden. We almost won a game (for bronze), but blew a 6-4 lead, losing 6-7 to Sigtuna, which is located just north of Stockholm (my club sometimes holds joint practices and combines with them when we are low on numbers for tournaments). The comeback is partially a result of them going straight up on our flick hucker (basically our default action) and us running out of gas. I'm so proud of the kids for making it that far - most of the team had never played on a sports team before. Their attitude was so much better in that game, maybe it was because they were able to get some more points on the board (we only scored 6 total in 3 games on Saturday), but they cheered, "peppa upp"-ed each other, and didn't get hung up on their (or their teammates') mistakes. The last game really made the whole experience worth it. AND it continues the Stockholm-Sigtuna rivalry!
I tried to speak some Swedish with the kids (they didn't laugh like my friends do), but was largely unsuccessful. I would start a sentence in Swedish then toss in some English for the words that I didn't know and I think that was just more confusing.
Will update with more photos, when/if they get emailed to me.
Busy, busy, busy! Now I know where you are. Very cool what you're doing for those kids. So, it sounds like you're spending your days applying for jobs and coaching, yes? (And traveling to tournaments!)
ReplyDeleteI didn't play in the last tournament I went to in Madrid; I just helped sell stuff at the table, score keep, or whatever else needed to be done. That's because back at the cut-off day to sign up, I didn't know if I would still be in Spain or not at that point, so I didn't sign up. It would have been more fun to play, but I still enjoyed cheering on the teams and being with friends. Though I didn't have to travel far, just to Alcobendas.... not sure if that helps your decision at all. Can't wait to read about all these events!
I was spending my days traveling to coaching, coaching, applying for jobs writing a paper with some of the data from my thesis, and going to World Water Week. Hopefully, I'll get some responses from the applications and connections I made at the conference. I'm planning on staying in Europe until (maybe) sometime in November, unless I find employment (+ I've been hankerin' for real Thanksgiving for a few years now).
ReplyDeleteThe idea with going to xEUCF was that transportation back to Sweden and then again to Munich were pretty expensive, but between those places and France were very cheap, it would be a lot of flying north-south in a short time frame, and I haven't been to Bordeaux, but really enjoyed other parts of southern France. Now some of the people who I though would be going, aren't, so I'm a little worried about not having people to hang out with, but I think there is a large enough contingent of stockholm area acquaintances that it could be okay.