The ShowGame Podcast

In this episode Sean talks about the mixed League games last weekend, the women’s and open games that are coming up this weekend and then discusses the women’s Cup and the women’s division more broadly with Hannah Pendlebury!

RUNDOWN

The mixed League (1:02)

Bex Palmer and Ryan Coones from Reading on their season so far (3:27)

The women’s League games this weekend (12:43)

Iceni president Cat Pope on their season and being excited for the games against Bristol and SMOG (15:41)

The open League games (24:10)

The women’s Cup draw (28:48)

Does this structure work for the women’s division? (49:40)

This week Sean and Harry caught up on another hectic weekend of National League and Cup play, and discussed what might happen next in the mixed division. Sean also spoke to Rupal Ghelani (SYC), Magnus Wilson (Clapham Legends) and Paddy Ward (Bristol) about their games and seasons so far.

RUNDOWN

Women’s division

Bristol vs Red (and some discussion about Spice) (2:19)

Iceni vs SYC (3:52)

Rupal Ghelani on SYC’s season so far, their aims and how they’re learning as they go. Plus some thoughts on Spice and the Iceni vs Bristol matchup (5:31)

Predictions on Iceni vs Bristol (17:13)

Open division

Fire 2 vs BLU (18:34)

Fire 1 vs Smash’d (21:00)

Brighton vs Clapham Legends (24:12)

Magnus Wilson on how Clapham Legends came about and what we might see from them this season (26:56)

Bristol vs Reading (34:02)

Paddy Ward from Bristol about the open teams, the wider Bristol ultimate community and how they’ve been helping the city develop into one of the strongest in each division in the country (37.35)

Flump vs Oxford (46:57)

York City vs EDI (51:01)

Devon 2 vs Bristol 2 (53:56)

Clapham vs Devon (56:16)

Chevron vs Alba (57:35)

Some off the cuff (and wildly biased) predictions on the mixed quarterfinals (1:01:55)

In this episode Sean talks to Harry Mason about the cup and league games last weekend, and previews the games coming up. They talk about the mixed results and what each team looks like with the quarter finals coming next weekend, and move on to what might happen with the women’s and open teams this weekend in the second half of the episode.

RUNDOWN

How was the first game? (2:03)

National League review

National League preview

National Cup review

National League preview

National Cup preview (46:23)

Who do we think will be the eight teams that make up the open division field at Nationals? (52:19)

In this episode Sean talks about the National League results from last weekend, preview this weekend’s mixed fixtures briefly and then moves on to discuss the National Cup, which starts this weekend. He also chats briefly to George Hudson, one of the Fire captains this year, about what his team are hoping for in 2021. Sean also makes some predictions, many of which will no doubt come back to haunt him.

RUNDOWN

Review of last weekend’s League games (1:19)

Look to this weekend’s mixed games (6:00)

The Mixed National Cup (8:40)

The Open National Cup (17:19)

A quick chat with George Hudson (25:41)

An update on the Women’s National Cup (35:19)

In the first-ever hostile takeover of the ShowGame Podcast, guest host Fi Rae talks to women in ultimate about the importance of team culture and how you can introduce and maintain it in your own teams. She talks to representatives from the three women’s teams at WUCC 2018 - Grainne McCarthy from Iceni, Carla Link from Bristol and Rupal Ghelani from SYC - as well as Tiff Anderson from UK mixed champions SMOG about the differences in mixed, and Emily Potter from new team Spice about starting a culture from scratch.

RUNDOWN

What is team culture for you? (3:06)

How do you decide your team’s culture? (08:30)

How do you introduce team culture? (16:48)

How do you introduce your culture to new players? (24:10)

What tips do you have for how to nail team culture, especially for a variety of different experience levels? (28:48)

How important is it to correct biases and to give people a variety of experiences, particularly early on? (44:31)

Can having a good team culture help address wider problems like gender equity or racial injustice? (50:30)

In this episode Sean spoke to commentator Benjy Rees about the new UKU competition structure. They discussed the merits of the new system, whether it will work and what parts might be here to stay. They also talked about the less obvious impacts that the system could have and whether players will like the drastic change from weekend tournaments, even if only for a season.

RUNDOWN

Sean talks about the recent announcement that WUCC will be in Cincinnati (0:56)

Benjy shares his initial thoughts on the new structure (5:09)

Weekend tournaments are what we're used to - what do you think of that? (6:54)

Are there similarities with this and BUCS league? Does the possibility for neutral venues offset that? (14:45)

How might this affect people joining nationally-spread teams as opposed to geo-teams? (22:19)

With far fewer games than at a weekend tournament, might we see smaller squads this season? Benjy also discusses the potential for less experienced players being given more structured roles (26:35)

Might single games mean more tailored and specific strategies since you can focus on one or two opponents? (30:45)

Do the teams in the National League look right? Sean talks about the specific cases of SMOG and Mighty Hucks, and a quick note of congratulations to RED (36:19)

What are your feelings on the Cup? Is the 3/2/3 split of League, Cup finalists and games to go right? (42:29)

The ELO league might have the best chance of sticking even when/if we return to weekend tournaments. What do you think of that? (45:50)

Does Benjy think the new system will stick around? (52:18)

How do we quantify success for this new system, what needs to happen for it to stick? (54:02)

Sean spoke with Si Hill about how the sport is going to come out of the pandemic in the UK, and what the 2021 season might look like. There’s discussion about making ultimate more accessible to a wider range of people by potentially moving away from weekend tournaments, a potential structure for Nationals this and future years and some chat about GB and the international calendar being absolutely packed in 2022.

If you’re making plans to get back to ultimate and you want to talk about it, let us know! We’d love to hear how you’re planning to get back to the field, and what you’re doing to make it happen.

RUNDOWN

How have the last few weeks been, getting the return to play protocols all ready? (2:17)

What kind of guidance have you had about numbers at training sessions? (5:55)

Ultimate as a reasonably high-risk team sport (9:15)

The statement from UKU was very definitive about Nationals; what might that look like, and why so confident? (11:16)

Away from Nationals, the importance of trying to encourage people to play games outside of tournaments (18:29)

How open are people, in Si’s experience, to experiments and testing new things? (24:52)

Do you have any concerns about people getting back up to speed and not injuring themselves after so long off? (28:10)

All the international tournaments this year have been cancelled but next year looks busy, particularly with the World Games coming up. When might we see things getting started for those? (32:24)

Next year will be busy - is it exciting? What are the feelings about it? (35:39)

What are the plans for university ultimate in the short to medium-term? (38:06)

Sean asked six indoors experts to take part in a draft to pick the best possible mixed indoors team. The only rule was that players had to be from (or largely based in) the UK, and all questions about pitch size and surface were sidestepped and ignored. The drafters: Marius Hutcheson, Andy Sluman, Jess Taylor, Giulia Newbery, Ben Bruin and Tarik 'Taz' Alrasheed. Plenty of national titles and Euros appearances between them, but who came out on top in picking the best team?

In this episode Sean spoke to Katie Flight, who's been playing for GB since she was 12 and works in a team at Imperial College that's working on a new coronavirus vaccine. They talked about vaccines, working under intense spotlight and pressure and also about the pandemic as a professional learning experience given the usual focus on science and academia. Then they moved on to frisbee, talking about playing for GB at a young age, getting back to playing soon and what else Katie has been doing to get that competitive spirit going.

RUNDOWN

How has the pandemic been personally? (2:10)

How about professionally? (6:50)

How has it been working in such a high-pressured environment with so much riding on your work? (9:26)

What stage is your work at? (11:47)

What's your sense of how the vaccine rollout is going? (13:40)

You must have had plenty of people asking your questions given your expertise, how has that been? (15:19)

What do you think this might all mean for frisbee this summer? (18:47)

What kind of things have you been doing without frisbee? (20:57)

What does this break mean for World Games and other things coming in the next few years? (25:09)

When and how did you start playing? Features how Katie's mom Ruth became the GB Junior Programme Manager (26:22)

What was the experience at Strathclyde like, when the team was so successful? And then how was it moving to Imperial? (29:35)

You've played mainly mixed in club - why is that? (33:18)

BEST LINE: Katie picks a mixed line with heavy Scottish influence (37:37)

What was it like moving from Scotland down to London? Features some insight on Australian national team training (42:58)