Don’t just stare and watch your team play. Speak to them! Here are 4 things to keep in mind as a sideline.

#1 – Pair Up

The easiest way to utilise the sideline is to pair your players up. It is always good to pre-determined which are the pairs prior to every match, so that each players can keep the other in check. It would be great if you can pair up players who are in similar roles – a pair of deep players or a pair of wing players.

The pairing up is always essential when it comes to Zone D, as wings, short deeps and deep deep would need to know where to move about. In addition to that, each player can then provide feedback to the other at the end of each point/game as you will know what your teammates would be up against on the field.

A very useful scenario to apply this is when you as a sideline (on offence) take notice of the player who is marking your deep teammate is always giving up the in cut. With that you can point it out to him/her that cutting in would be more effective than going deep.

#2 – No Break, Strike and No Dump

3 important phrases all Ultimate players need to know. These 2 makes a big difference when your team is on defence. Assuming the force is a Forehand Force. Shout “No Break” when you see the player your team mate is guarding is going to break the force for a backhand throw. Shout “Strike” when you see an opponent is cutting to the thrower for a forehand disc. And “No Dump” would be applicable when the opponent has a player going to the back of the thrower for a dump.

Always practice using these phrases on the field. Once there is a throw on the break side (here would be a Backhand throw), your teammates will have a harder time defending, especially against a professional team. Ask your captains or the more experience players whom you play with to explain to you better on how to communicate the 3 phrases above.

#3 – Up Calls

Simple, when the discs leaves the throwers hand to a receiver, call “Up” so that your teammate would take note and look out for the disc. This is majorly important especially for the deep markers to look out for long hucks.

#4 – Waterboy

Whenever there is a timeout, the sideline should automatically bring water to the field for their teammates. Believe me, it means a lot to them for having just a few sips of water to finish off the point. It’s all about helping out your team on every aspect of it, even if it’s providing water for them.

Just apply these 4 simple tips above consistently and you will slowly see your team gel better and improve as a whole. Below are just some comments from players on the importance of the sideline in Ultimate Frisbee.

“It’s just not possible to be aware of every single thing happening on the field at every moment. Players – on both O and D – need a solid voice in their ear to point out the things they cannot see nor know. If nothing else, the sideline may be the push for a sprinting cutter who needs to bid for that disc that looks just out of reach.” – Bryan Chong, player of Cornell Buds.

 

“Sidelines is essentially your 8th man on the field. It provides you with the extra “eyes”, communication and help that could make the slightest difference in tight games. That difference could be THE difference between winning and losing.” – Benjamin Ho, founder of UltySports LLP.

 

“The sideline is there to remind the players who and what they are fighting for. The sideline is there to remind the players how to play defense, how to run the offense, to make a bid, and to give them water when needed. The sideline is meant to support the 7 on the field with their voice and in spirit.” – Sean, captain of Badgers

Note: Rules were different, especially with the changes to the pulling rule. Some of the teams did not understand the rules fully but everyone learnt from each other to ensure all players were aware and educated – Spirit of the game!

Style of play for indoor is definitely different, with many stack layout and zone D variations. Teams who did well on the outdoor field may have to cope with the shorter burst of runs for indoor ultimate and the timely short passes. Hammers and blade are major plus for teams as well!

The finals of the beginners’ matchup saw Spitfire beating Spacechimps by 3 points. It was an end to end stuff with the experienced players in each team holding a strong backbone support for their teammates. Towards the end, the stamina and athleticism of Spitfire proved useful and managed to snatch the win. It was definitely a great scene to see how much Ultimate has grown in Malaysia with the number of new players in this pool.

On the other hand, the top 4 teams in the winning pool were SWAT7D, Islanders, Inti and Oops. AUR failed to qualify to the top 8 after failing to convert in their pool games – probably the shock of the day. SWAT7D was doing really well on the court, with Ida showing great composure handling the disc. Islanders were going all out again to increase their medal tally. This time they had Adrian and Ethan Law back into the squad, taking the place of the injured Wai Onn. Inti Stingrays had some great players and their gung-ho(ness) brought them into the top 4. And Oops fielded their usual squad, with the vast indoor experienced Kent “Brothers”.

The finals was between Oops and Islanders after seeing Oops trashed SWAT7D 9-1 and Islanders beat Stingrays 12-7 with their wall zone. Oops was definitely looking to make amends for their previous lost to AUR in Nottingham Open. Oops got to a good start with their SS Combo between Sam and Sean, but Islanders’ never give up spirit helped them to peg back a tie at 2-2. It was definitely end to end till the score was 4-5 in favour of Oops, which then saw Oops went uphill all the way from there to 4-11. Oops finally managed to rack up their first Gold Medal in a major open tournament this season, while Islanders had back to back medals in their hands.

Qing Ying from Oops was probably the best player of the matchup after burning her marker to rack up several points for the team. Her basketball athleticism was probably the key, making her a female prodigy to watch in the future Oops team.

Recording of the final and the Layout Show can be viewed below. Credit to the organiser for making it a smooth one. I’m sure many players are longing for more to come.

Photos

The toughest group was probably Pool B with KBU, Oops, Sate and SWAT7D fighting for spots in the top 8. The 3 most surprising scoreline in the pool stage would probably be Oops trashing SWAT7D 9-0, Islanders beating Carebears 5-3, while Spoo put up a good fight against Inti Stingrays with the final score being 4-5. Every team did give out their all in the group stage. 3 fields of action under the hot sun was a great scene to watch from the sideline.

The schedule was welled organised with lunch served at 12.15pm. Thankfully it rained during the lunch break, keeping slippery hands at bay. Islanders were probably the only team that did not load themselves on carbs, with bananas and isotonic drinks as their lunch. Game resumed at 1.30 after the organisers tabulated the pool results.

The top 8 were AUR vs Sate (a big rival match), Islanders vs SWAT, Oops vs Wildcats and Mojojojo vs Carebears. Islanders continue their upset against SWAT7D, edging them 6-4 in the quarters, while AUR receive a comfortable 7-3 win against SATE. Oops and Carebears managed to get pretty easy wins against their opponents to proceed to the Semi-finals – where the heard pounding moment of the day began.

Field 1 saw Islanders putting up a good fight with AUR. With their vast experience and speed, AUR went up 5-2 after half time; but with Islanders being very “hungry” and determined, they managed to create good flows to bring the game to universal. With Islanders not having their strongest line with Wai Onn and Michelle injured during the last point, they had to surrender their last point to AUR who did a fast score. At Field 2, it was neck to neck for every single point between Carebears and Oops. Carebears decided to throw a 3 woman cup at the start when the wind decided to show it presence and got the lead against Oops. Oops’ handlers had height advantage over the cup and their patience paid off to give them the comeback they deserve. Carebears then levelled the game at universal 3-3. The last point saw a well put huck from Caleb (Oops) to Kam Hing in the end zone to create yet another all time favourite finals – the AUR-Oops showdown.

AUR did not have their top female player, Jijah on the day, but their fitness and fast breaks have always been a big threat to Oops. As for Oops, they had a pretty strong line up with the “Kent Brothers” – Sean and Caleb playing alongside each other. It was definitely an highly anticipated final. Both teams created a high energy huddle before the pull.

Oops got to a excellent start with the lead always on their side. Sam Ng (Oops) was a big thread in the end zone and with Sean’s great hucks to him, he was quite unstoppable. Probably one of the best combo (SS Combo) in Oops at the moment. Being down by 4-6, AUR managed to get their points with their fast breaks, bringing the gap closer. Oops then lost 2 of their very experience players – Caleb and Kam Hing who had to pull out due to injury, creating a big dent in their handlers options. After that it was downhill for Oops, losing the lead for the first time when the score was 7-6 to AUR. Nontheless, Oops still put up a good fight to push themselves to bring up the disc up the line. You could see the late game advantage for AUR players from having a good fitness level. Unfortunately, with 13 players going up against a squad of 15 fast players, Oops couldn’t engineer a homeground victory, with the final score being 10-7 to AUR. Full highlights of the final can be viewed below.

As for the third place, Islanders won Carebears on universal (it was indeed a universal day) giving Islanders their first ever medal since they started their team. Perhaps more things will come from this hardworking bunch of Penangites. Take 1 took the spirit award, while the Female MVP went to Emily Lim (Carebears) and the Male MVP went to Sam Ng (Oops).

It was indeed a great tournament with full credits the organisiing team. Many people congratulated Carson Heng and his team for a smooth tournament. On a day with great weather overlooking the green mountains and the awesome grass (wtih some female shorts hype on the field), this year’s Nottingham Ultimate Open was indeed the best one over the previous 2.

Photos

Photo credits to Wee Kiat

Officially dubbed the Big Phat Phnom Penh International Women’s Day Hat Tournament, the tourney may have the longest name of any tourney in Asia, but it’s the smallest – and at four-years-old the youngest – of the three main hat tourneys in SE Asia (Saigon and Bangkok being the others). The small size and the somewhat exotic locale of the tourney appeals to many. You get to know everybody at the PP hat. Women are honored with all-women points – one per game in the round-robin phase (and sometimes in the playoffs too).

Seven teams competed this year, up from six in 2011. Seven teams can be tricky to work with; they went with a modified round-robin format, with each team playing five of the other teams in the round-robin stage (except the team in 7th after the 4th round, which locked up the 7 seed and got the lone bye on Sunday morning).

Gray went winless on day one and grabbed that bye, which proved to be useful as the ‘60s-themed Saturday party was off the hook. Two bands with frisbee-playing members ripped it up, the Fumes and the Grass Snake Union Band. The latter just wouldn’t stop playing and were jamming at a level that made it impossible to leave. Peeps were in costume and the dance floor was pumping. Without question one of the better Asian disc parties in recent years.

The bye didn’t do gray any good the next morning as the red team, fresh off winning an 8am battle for second seed with orange in their 5th round-robin game, managed to dispatch gray in the quarters. At hat tournaments it can certainly help to have that first game on Sunday to get the juices flowing, regardless of the previous night’s shenanigans. That set up a rematch between orange and red in the semis, with undefeated top-seed lavender opposing teal in the other semi (the psychadelic colors reflecting the party theme – electric blue and forest were the other colors). Speedy orange turned the tables on tall and veteran-laden red, engineering a comeback and scoring the last three points to win on universe. Lavender kept up its winning ways in the other semi with a 3-point victory.

On to the finals, and it was epic alright. Orange was led by top Saigon handler Vu Anh Vu, team captain and Angelina’s Orphan Nathan Levin (based in Taiwan), experienced Swiss gurl Yela Mas Bakal and fresh-from-Korea Tonya Nelson. With several Vietnamese players and two quick Cambodians, Orange was fast with good handlers, but lacked height. Lavender was stacked with a lineup that included two of the best women players in the tourney  -  veteran Cambodia-based handler Fatima Yousif, and Vietnamese all-around stand-by Lien Ngo. On the men’s side they had height in the form of Bangkok veterans Pieter Funnekotter and Tyghe Vallard and several other expats, and speed in the form of heretofore unknown Mindanao commodity Drian Verdeprado. Vegas was picking Lavender to win this race to 13.

But it was orange who jumped out to a 4-point halftime lead. Then Lavender – the shoe on the other foot for once – called for one of the two Women’s Day ‘fun rules’ (optional but agreed-to by the captains in the final), which can only be invoked when down by 4 or more points. A throw to a woman would be worth two points. They converted and the game was suddenly close. It stayed that way to the end of this marathon match, which was held up by several long cramp timeouts. Lavender never led until it scored the last two points to stun orange 13-12.

The traditional PP Hat slip n’ slide contest took place *after* the final this year – which made the contest that much better as the participants were inebriated and fearless (check the photos). It was a Vietnamese sweep of the MVP awards as Lien and Vu walked off with hardware. The masses left extremely satisfied. Hard to imagine the PP Hat will be a secret much longer.

Video footage of the finals of the Phnom Penh Hat is here and you’ll find plenty more photos on the Angelina’s Orphans Facebook page (click here for party pics, here and here for slip n’ slide layout pics, and here, here or here for on-field action!)

Photos

Photo credits – Stephen Sonderman (mostly) and John Shaw

The one-day Borneo Headhunters Hat (BHH) tournament held on 25th February 2012 at Padang Sukma, Mile 2.5, Kota Kinbalu showed its tremendous potential for growth as a new international sport in Sabah.

Ultimate, a fast-paced game that combines the strategies of rugby, the athleticism of football and the defensive skills of netball is slowly but surely gaining ground as the latest sporting event to hit Sabah’s shores.

Ultimate is a relatively new and under-rated sport in Sabah. Barely 5 years old, the sport is gaining momentum in Borneo. The Borneo Headhunters Hat – now in its third year – saw participants from all over the world coming to Sabah to compete. Over 100 players from UK, United States, Brunei, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and hosts Sabah were in Kota Kinabalu for this tournament.

For a Hat tournament, names are drawn into lineups based on a player’s level of skills and experiences to form balanced and competitive teams. Eight teams comprising of both male and female players competed for the Borneo Headhunter’s Hat championship this year – Pink Panthers, Bloody Blue, Red Hot Silly Divers, Dark Knights, Gang Green, Orange Crush, Mellow Yellow and Polar Bears.

Each team displayed determination and strength under the hot weather conditions of the Sukma field. The choice of venue this year allowed for more participants to display their athletic prowess and dexterity.

This year’s tournament was won by Red Hot Silly Divers, with Orange Crush in second place. The award for Most Valuable Player (Male) went to Malaysia’s Erwin Wee from team Dark Knights, while Most Valuable Player (Female) went to USA’s Katherine Wiley from team Mellow Yellow.
Meanwhile, Gang Green received the coveted Spirit Award given to the team that displayed the most ‘Spirit of the Game’, a term that embodies the values and sportsmanship ethics of the Ultimate sport.  Ultimate is unique because the sport is played without referees or umpires, with the players themselves making their own call-out decisions based on rules and fairplay.

You can check out the highlights of the video here.

The tournament garnered a respectable crowd of supporters. Among the spectators were local students from SMK Kolombong who have also formed an Ultimate sports club since 2011. It was their first time watching an Ultimate tournament in Sabah.

According to BHH 2012 Tournament Director Dinoza Maaruf, the positive values embodied by the game is one of the main reasons why Ultimate is gaining popularity as one of Asia’s fastest growing sports.

“The quality of players this year was good, with many younger players aged between 18-25 coming in to join this tournament. Our advice for first-time Ultimate players is to enjoy the game and take part in more Hat tournaments – which are designed to expose new players to a higher competitive level of this sport”.

“For the BHH 2012 organizers, the experience was great, we learnt a lot and we hope to do a bigger and better tournament next year”, he said.

This year’s tournament was sponsored by Imperial Boutec Hotel, Kasigui No.1, The W Group, Core Fitness, Datuk VK Liew, Reena James, Tropical Holidays Paradise, Green Borneo, Sasa, Loft Clothing, mvgreen and Tiny Robot.

Photos

Photo credits – Charles Lai and Dinoza Mahruf

Flashback to the 1st VN HAT in 2004 when only 4 teams and roughly 60 players played during a cold winter inHanoi. A group of expats then decided to try and bring the Vietnam HAT toSaigon. In late 2005 they eventually foundRMIT International UniversityVietnamand their students. The future of Vietnam Ultimate was born and the new chapter of Vietnam HAT started.

Year after year the number of participants has increased along with the quality of games, food and sport facilities. The 8th VN HAT proved to be the most successful to date with a record of 230 players, making it one of the most attractive tournaments in the region. Despite the potential to grow even bigger, the Vietnam Ultimate Committee decided to keep their HAT this size “To be intimate and make everyone feel like a family.” Now everything seems to be in place for the dream of having the Best HAT ever, for the 10th anniversary in 2013.

Similar to last year,Singaporestill outnumbered other nations with over 70 players, and interestingly one third of them were 20 or younger (17 being the youngest). They were mainly from the National University of Singapore (NUS).Thailandshowed its Hat spirit with 16 players, followed by Hong Kong andTaiwan(11) andJapan(10). To accommodate the greatest interest in the Hat, four fields were arranged for 12 teams (about 17-19 players per team) and teams were divided into 3 groups. Round-robin and Crossovers were followed on Day 1 and knock-out, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals were on Day 2.

The registration party was organised at our tournament hotel, Elegant Hotel, where teammates got to know each other, check their schedules and pick up their kits.

Three buses left on a cool Saturday morning to bring the players from the backpacker’s area to the field. Many players were surprised at the beautiful field – ready for ultimate action and a newly constructed stadium, a great view for the final.

After the first day of the tournament, the top 4 teams (i.e. Black, Grey, Purple and Green) qualified for a bye on Sunday morning to recover from the ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ party on Saturday night at Seventeen Saloon. At the party Nicole won the best Costume Award with great support from her Pilipino troops and other party awards also went to the last 6 people leaving the party.

Day 2 marked a lot of surprises from Olive who ranked low after the 1^st day and the break down from some of the best teams on day 1. With two back-to-back games on a sunny Sunday morning, Yellow, Red and Olive qualified for the semi-final A along with Purple.

Purple had a tough A final against Yellow with an outstanding performance by the Aussie captain (Toff) and two Freakshow members (Bryan and Jon).

Most people thought the final would be boring once Purple easily produced an early lead to 5-2 with a great effort on behalf of David Jensen’s four consecutive points. However, Yellow made an amazing comeback to 8-6 by playing a smart defensive zone strategy.

A time out was called by Purple to gather their composure and settle back into the game. By doing so, they scored 3 very important points to bring the score to 8-9 when the soft-cap was called. Immediately Yellow scored a point with Freakshow’s connection from Bryon to Jon bringing the game to universal point. (Yes, universal championship point in the final!)

Purple had the advantage of receiving the disc and put in their strongest line-up with the expectation of scoring a fast point. After a few swings, the disc was hucked to David Jensen, the scoring machine of the final. However, he did not have the best position in the end zone and Steve Gosselin got the disc and brought hope back to Yellow. Steve picked up the disc at the corner of the field and tried to look for a swing or a cut. Nonetheless, there was no real in-cut for a short pass as everyone on the Yellow team was rushing to the end zone and expecting a huck. Steve threw the disc at the 8 stall count and luckily Lien played some great defence as she was hanging around that area (and won herself the female MVP award). David picked up the disc and mercilessly finished off Yellow with a perfect throw to Praveen who scored the championship points putting him into the Mythical 7 list of the tourney.

Although Yellow did not win the final, they played a wonderful game with Jon as Male MVP and Daphne as one of Mythical 7. The other players making the mythical line-up include; An Luong (Green), Tuan Do (Red), Ida Kaled (Olive), Wan Fong (Grey) and Magnus Wilson (Black). White team was voted to be the Spirit team of this year.

Congratulations to team PURPLE as they are the champions of the 8^th annual Vietnam Hat and many thanks to all players as well as volunteers in making it the biggest and most successful Hat yet.

Photos

Photo credits – Trieu Dinh Nam

Day One

The weather was kind to everyone, even though it rained on the previous evening. It was always a pleasure to see players all around the world coming down from their cabs and walking into the army base camp. Breakfast was served with lots of fruits and Bagels (my favourite)! The “Dechamp” electrolyte packets (this is the “bomb”) were also already made available for players to recharge themselves.

Similarly to all hats, it’s always a beautiful scene to see players gather around with their new teammates and introduce each other. This is where friendships are created in Ultimate Frisbee and it is truly a unique experience for all players. After 8am’s silence for the Thailand National Anthem, it was time for teams to get pumped up for their game.

This time, there were 20 teams, which makes 5 teams each  group. Format is round robin in day 1 and elimination in day 2. The great thing about Bangkok Hat’s format is that even if a team were to lost all their  games in the day 1, it is still possible for them to be champions the next day. Every team has a chance to win and this is where the saying “it’s how well your teams gel in a hat tournament” comes in.

Round 1 saw a close encounter when Sky Blue faced off with Dark Blue (the battles of the blues). As the day goes by, the matchups were getting tougher as teams are starting to find their chemistry touch. Group D was probably the toughest group among the 4 with very tight matchups. From our observation, Purple, Dark Blue, Neon Green, Dark Red and Red seems the top favourites to win the game. These teams has a pretty fine balance team in terms of depth, handlers and speed.

Highlights and interviews of Day 1

At the end of day 1, the results were as follows:

The unbeaten teams who went 4-0 were Neon Green, Dark Red and Red. The depth in these 3 teams proved to be vital to gain an edge over the others. We were putting our money on a Red vs Neon Green showdown in the finals. It is always rare to see a team go unbeaten all the way to win the title. Could this be one of the rare occasion?

As for the day 1 party, many players came dressing with various uniforms at the AmBar, Fourpoints by Sheraton (lovely place!) to get their free flow alcohol. There were scouts, girl guides, Cambodia “police”, pilots, navy captains, air stewardess and lots more. Lester Sualog, from the Philippines, came with probably the best costume for the night, dressing up as a girl. Highlight for the night was probably the alcohol toasting session by the Malaysian invasion.

Day Two

The morning started off slowly, with only a number of teams appearing at 8am for their first game. Teams which went at least 3-1 had a one game bye, giving them time to recover from the after party effect. Everyone knows day 2 is the vital day. It is always possible for a team to win all the way in day 2 to be crowned champions. We were wondering whether teams like Gold and Pink who went 0-4 would create a comeback story. In fact Gold did manage to snap up their first win of the tournament with their speed and composure, while Pink crashed in their match.

Day 2 Captains’ Interviews

In the quarterfinals, Neon Green and Dark Red was shocked by Dark Blue and Purple respectively, leaving Red as the only unbeaten team to go to the next round. Neon Green was punished by their drops in front of their own end zone, allowing Dark Blue to capitalise on them. Costly! On the other hand, Dark Red’s game was really close against Purple but the speed of Kerry was definitely one of the bigger threats that proved too much to handle. The last remaining team in the top 4, who came as a surprise, was the Black team as they improve tremendously as a team as Day 2 went on.

In the semis, it was extremely heart pounding on both fields, with Black facing off with Red, while Dark Purple was playing Dark Blue. Black got up to a pretty good start. Their flow and good defence did really put Red’s Championship hopes in doubt, but with the depth they have from Steve Thomas, Nelson Chan and Adrian Thor, they managed to power their way back through to snap it. As for the other matchup, it was really tight when softcap was called, as Dark Blue came back crawling from 3 points apart to universal point. Unfortunately for Dark Blue, the experience from Purple proved to undeniably useful in such moments – which leads to a Red vs Dark Purple final.

These two have played each other in the group stage in Day 1 where Red came out winning against Dark Purple, but the finals could really gone either way. If you were in Bangkok Hat 2010, you would remember the fallen of the unbeaten Pink-Blue to their group mates, Light Purple. So it was definitely an highly anticipated game.

Red got off with a good start, with Steve Thomas influencing the game a lot with his height, bringing the game to 9-3. Red lost a bit of steam when Steve had to leave half way through the game, allowing Purple Haze to plough back into the game, closing the gap to 4 points apart. Kerry from Purple Haze was definitely a big thread to Red, but Adrian, Nelson and Aun from Red managed to step up to cover deep and go deep to keep the lead. Red Menstrual seemed to have more flow and they managed to capitalise on Purple’s sloppy passes. In the end, the score stands at 13-9 in the favour of Red Menstrual. Check out the recording of the finals below.

Finals Hightlights (Part I)

Finals Hightlights (Part II) and Post Match Interview

The awesome tournament party, free flow beer on the field, awesome ribs and chicken served during dinner and the 2 days of pure fun just make Bangkok Hat a tourney not to be missed. If you are travelling around the South East Asia early next year, please do sign up! It’s usually during January or February.

Till then, hope to see everyone again at the 13th Bangkok Hat.

Photos

Photo credits – Alvin Chia, Zoe Lee and Wee Kiat

Not forgetting our Bloopers

Fast forward to 2012, the number of female players has skyrocketed, especially in Asia. Even my ex-university team had more than 50 female players signed up. There are many all women tournaments and leagues nowadays to encourage more women to get involved. In fact, the level of play for the women has increased tremendously as well, forcing the top teams to headhunt for great female players all the time.

We took the opportunity to interview 6 female players during our trip to Bangkok Hat (yes, we still owe you the Bangkok Hat coverage, it’s going to be up soon). Hope you enjoy the short clip we made below. Apologies for the lack of professionalism.

]]> http://www.ultiasia.com/2012/03/01/development-of-female-players-in-ultimate/feed/ 1 http://www.ultiasia.com/2012/02/22/show-them-what-you-can-do/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=show-them-what-you-can-do http://www.ultiasia.com/2012/02/22/show-them-what-you-can-do/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:15:44 +0000 Tay Yi Ping http://www.ultiasia.com/?p=707 In conjunction with this month’s theme – Female Ultimate Month, the editors of UltiAsia have asked me to share my Ultimate experience here for the female Ultimate community.

Ultimate has been the world to me. I started playing Ultimate in 2007 and decided to play competitively at the end of 2008 when the Malaysia Ultimate League was held back then. That was when I made up my mind to take the game seriously, perhaps it was because my KBU team mates back then – King, See Leong, Mark, Kevin, Wilson, Michael and Mart etc, who have encourage me throughout the season. All of them never gave up on me. They taught me how to run deep, how to perform good cuts, how to read and catch the disc and how to play defense in the most effective way. Not forgetting the layout training sessions, I really enjoyed myself, but it was not always as fun now when I started.

#1: Don’t Give Up

When I started playing Ultimate back then, I did not get a hold of the Frisbee much, and I think most new female players might feel the same way too. I always felt that I was being looked off and I was often annoyed about that. But I remember King telling me “Sometimes it is not that people do not what to throw the disc to you. It was perhaps the timing of your cut, sometimes your defender was too close to you, sometimes you cut to the wrong side, sometimes it was just bad luck.” There are so many reasons on why people cannot throw the Frisbee to you which may not be done purposely. In fact, I think the female role now in Ultimate has developed over the years with many captains now are female players. To all female ultimate players, please do not feel discouraged when the male players do not throw the Frisbee to you. Work on your catches and cut, become a better player and show them what you can do!

#2: Level Up through Persistency

After playing with KBU for a year, the Carebears team then came along with the aim of helping anyone who wants to become a better player in Ultimate. The training was pretty intense, I remember having to run 10 rounds around the field weekly as the warm up, followed by suicide runs, lunges and all sorts of physical training. Before the night arrives, we try to squeeze in some time to do horizontal and vertical plays.  It was exhausting but everything was worth it. From someone who completely does not know how to throw, catch, read the disc, run deep, layout, I could do most of them decently. I still have heaps to work on but at least the training taught me the basic of everything. Carebears did well in the 2010 Malaysia Ultimate Open, it was the first time a Malaysian team actually got into the winner pool. All our efforts for training were paid off and I realised that persistency was the key to all the success.

#3: Stay Positive

Injury strucked when I sprained my ankle twice in the year 2011, once before Bangkok Hat and another time during Shanghai Ultimate Open. Those were the toughest times in my Ultimate days. Injuries are bound to happen and it’s important for us to rest our addiction a little bit so that the injury does not worsen in the long run. Always take care of yourself for the longer term, hence it is essential for us to stay positive when we are injured!

I’m glad now that I am currently training with an all female team – Wildcard in Australia. All the female players in this team play like “monsters”. They can throw, huck, jump, run really fast, have great defence and do great cuts. After watching them play, I am pumped up to push myself further again. I want to be as good and as fit as them. It is not impossible to become as good as the male players. We just have to focus and train hard.

Good luck to all female ultimate players. I hope the female playes in Asia can participate in Gendermah, a single gender tournament in Singapore, 5v5 Women Open in Malaysia, Manila Spirits and also Worlds Frisbee tournament. Train hard and never give up on yourself, training makes everything possible. Join me on bringing our game to the next level and help encourage future other new female players in the game. Good luck girls!

*Photo credits to Anson Chun

]]> http://www.ultiasia.com/2012/02/22/show-them-what-you-can-do/feed/ 0 http://www.ultiasia.com/2012/02/08/bears-hugs-too-much-to-handle-for-panthers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bears-hugs-too-much-to-handle-for-panthers http://www.ultiasia.com/2012/02/08/bears-hugs-too-much-to-handle-for-panthers/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:46:05 +0000 Wee Kiat Teoh http://www.ultiasia.com/?p=693 UltiAsia is testing some new features - highlights and interviews videos, for this tourney coverage. We are still learning to make them better. If you have any feedback or comments, feel free to share them below.

16 teams turned up for the 2012 Malaysia Intec Wildcats’ Open tourney on a cooling Saturday morning. Fortunately the fields were not too wet after the rain on the day before. The teams who came consisted quite a good mix of quality, with fresh teams like Cheras Underdagwz, UFO and Red Squirrel making into list. The organisers did a great job to ensure each group has a fine balance of teams for the pool stage.

Eyes were on several top teams as the day began, with many players pondering whether the finals would feature Oops and AUR for the 4th time running. The pool stage saw a number of exciting matchups with Oops vs Carebears, Rojaks vs Wildcats and U8 Soar vs Wildcats. The main highlight for the first half of the day was probably Aaron Herman’s awesome layout to catch the disc 3 inches before it landed on the ground.

AUR, Islanders, Oops, Carebears, Wildcats, Rojaks, KBU Panthers and Sate topped their respective group, moving into the winners’ bracket. In the quarters, it was heart pounding for Oops and Carebears as they both edged past their opponents (Wildcats and Rojaks) at universal point. Moving into the Semis, the Panthers came from behind against Oops to secure their spots in the final; while AUR lost their steam third quarter through the game to Carebears, making it a non AUR-Oops final for the first time after 3 Ultimate Tournaments in Malaysia. There were also some ruling discussion going on during the Semis which left some players confused.

The finals proved to be an interesting matchup nonetheless, as players from both Carebears and Panthers have been playing and training together for the past year. The game started off really close, with both teams played a slow tempo game. Both teams have great long hucks and good Ds (Isaac vs Jason matchup). Loads of hammer points as well; the crowd went crazy everytime that happened! It was head to head for both teams until half time, but it was the experience from Carebears which proved to be valuable for them to beat the Panthers by quite a large margin. Aaron’s hammer and Carroll’s (a senior veteran) awesome fitness were key to their win. Check out the full highlights of the finals and the post match interviews below.

Finals Highlights (Part I)

Finals Highlights (Part II) and Post Match Interviews

The Tournament Directors were very delighted with the turnout. There were more than 16 teams bided for the spots but only the earliest were chosen. This shows how competitive Ultimate Frisbee has become in Malaysia. Hear what they have to say below.

Interview with Tournament Directors

It was really fantastic to see many new teams joining new tournaments to gain more exposure. Perhaps the new team to watch this year would be X-Cross from Kampar. Their level of enthusiasm got them to the top 10. It was an action packed day as a total of 4 fields were filled with teams playing at the same time. Coupled it with a small stadium view, it was indeed an awesome tourney to watch…..

Photos

Photo credits – Billy, Jun, Khai Sim and Faith

To all female players from each team, the recording we made for each of you will be uploaded in the coming weeks separately. We shall update it on our twitter and fanpage. So stay tuned….

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