The ShowGame Podcast

Sean finishes the series of reaction to WFDF’s decision to cancel WUGC by speaking to Aidan Kelly, ShowGame contributor and Ireland mixed player, and Emily O’Brien from the Irish women’s team. They talked about their views on the tournament not happening and about how things might be going in Ireland in 2021.

RUNDOWN

Worlds is off. How do you feel about it? (1:14)

The IFDA announced beforehand that Irish teams wouldn’t be going, how did that change your feelings when WFDF made their announcement? (4:10)

WUGC wasn’t the only thing that was called off - Emily was eligible for the under-24s tournament that was cancelled and talked about her feelings on that (7:21)

How do you think the decision-making process was handled? (08:31)

The international calendar has been cleared - what might 2021 look like in Ireland? Some good chat here about plans to still have a ‘Team Ireland’ this year (11:15)

Aidan talks about some positives to come out of this past 12 months, with a focus on fostering more elite mindsets in Irish ultimate, and more cohesion in the national programme (14:33)

Emily talks about the anticipation of the first tournament when we’ve come through the pandemic and can return to some normalcy (17:46)

In this episode, Sean spoke to players and captains from the three Great Britain teams about the decision to cancel Worlds, and how they felt about both the event being off and the process that led to the decision. There was also some great discussion about potential positives to come from this enforced break, and some valuable advice and chat about the importance of staying positive, the necessity of self-governance and realising that we’re not all in this alone.

RUNDOWN

GB WOMEN: Captain Hannah Brew on the event being off (2:16)

Do you agree with the decision? (5:02)

How did you feel about the approach from the UKU? (6:47)

What comes next - have you started thinking about the domestic season, or any club plans? Includes some discussion about getting more involved with the community and trying to work with UKU to reach out. (9:17)

GB OPEN: Captain Josh Briggs on the event being off (13:17)

What was the team reaction? (14:25)

What were your thoughts on the decision-making process? (16:16)

What do you think could happen domestically in 2021? (18:24)

Are you thinking about Clapham already? (21:11)

Josh talks about the importance of staying positive and focusing on what you can as a team leader (23:01)

GB MIXED: ShowGame editor and GB mixed player Josh Coxon-Kelly and team manager and player Lucy Barnes on the event being off (26:12)

What was the difference between this feeling and the feeling about the postponement? (30:09)

What about the rest of the team? (31:49)

How frequently were you talking as a team? (33:33)

How did you feel about the process by which we arrived at the cancellation, would you have liked more of a top-down decision to be made? (36:07)

The importance of self-governance and keeping that in the sport (43:42)

What do you think we might see in 2021? (48:54)

Lucy talks about shared feelings of isolation, and Josh talks about the importance of taking a step back from the sport so you can come back with a renewed love and appreciation for it (53:30)

Sean was joined by DP and Hani to talk about the news that WUGC 2021 has been cancelled by WFDF, and that Great Britain have qualified for the World Games through the backup qualification process. It morphs into a discussion about where we might go from here and what ultimate might look like when we all come back, and ends on a pretty positive note!

RUNDOWN

The 2021 international calendar has been cleared. Is this the right call? Is this the right time? (0:28)

With whom should this decision lie, is it one for the players or should the federations be making these decisions? (4:21)

The 2022 calendar looks packed now - how tough will it be to fit all of these tournaments in? (09:51)

How much pressure does this all put on players? What’s the impact on them? (11:41)

The good news (if there is any): Great Britain is in the World Games field. Do we deserve it, and how excited should we be? Features wild speculation! (14:45)

How might qualification for WUCC 2020 work, what will ultimate look like if nationals can’t happen as normal this year? Come for the considered views, stay for *someone* moaning about Irish teams (20:00)

What benefits might we see from the new normal following the pandemic? (26:14)

Final thoughts on trying to ensure the local set-up isn’t London-centric, and trying to harness the social trend of people leaving London, a ‘sinkhole’ according to one guest (31:33)

In this final decade review episode, Sean is joined by Hannah Pendlebury to talk about the players who defined the decade. While the open and women's division discussions are pretty straightforward, there's some disagreement about who to pick in mixed and plenty of chat about which played shaped the decade in UK ultimate and who might do so going forward. Also Hani moans about losing to draft champion Sean in 2017.

RUNDOWN

What do you factor in when thinking about the best players of the decade? (2:48)

How have the changes to the way ultimate works in the UK complicated this discussion? (4:52)

What attributes are you looking for in a player, is it playing style or team success or anything else? (9:32)

How do you factor in the mixed division? Features bitterness from Hani about historical events (12:07)

OPEN: Who is the best player of the 2010s in the open division, and is it really as simple as it seems? (14:03)

WOMEN’S: Is the discussion here slightly more complicated? (18:44)

What’s next for our two picks? (24:30)

MIXED: A much more complicated question given how transient success has been in mixed - is it even possible to pick someone here? (27:51)

Do we need two players for mixed? (38:42)

Who’s in the frame on the male side of the mixed division? (40:50)

What about on the female side? (45:04)

Who might be the players of the coming decade? (50:38)

BEST LINE: Hani picks a mixed line of people she’s played with in the UK (61:11)

Sean is joined by eternal student and longtime ShowGame uni editor Harry Mason to discuss the decade in uni ultimate, and work out who the best teams of the decade were using a highly scientific process. They also discuss the impact of BUCS, whether the quality is better now than it was in 2010 and the proliferation of divisions within the uni game.

RUNDOWN

Harry has finished his studies, finally (1:20)

What has been the biggest change in the last 10 years in uni ultimate? (02:18)

The impact of the difference between BUCS league and the usual ultimate structure (03:15)

Is uni ultimate better than it was the previous decade? (05:18)

There are a lot of divisions (08:25)

What would Harry change? (09:03)

THE COUNTDOWN (10:39)

11th and 10th (11:27)

9th (16:23)

8th (and this team’s legacy) (18:42)

7th, the only team with medals in two divisions and not all three (22:31)

6th and 5th, starting a run of four Scottish teams in a row (25:31)

4th and the biggest surprise to both of us (29:51)

3rd, the most consistent team of the decade (33:12)

2nd, featuring a special guest (36:18)

1st, which is probably quite obvious (51:13)

Who is the best single-year, single-division team of the decade? (58:08)

The decade review series continues, with Sean speaking to Fiona Mernagh, a player in the silver and gold medal winning Ireland teams in the 2010s, and Dominick Smyth, a longtime player and coach in Dublin, about what the last 10 years looked like in Ireland, how things changed over the course of the decade and what changes are being put in place to capitalise on the huge steps taken in that time.

RUNDOWN

How have things been since March? (1:42)

Where was Irish ultimate at the beginning of the decade? (4:12)

Was there a point where things started to change, or has it been a longer development road? (7:18)

How much has the college scene impacted the development of the clubs in Ireland? (10:08)

How important has it been that there’s more than one base for ultimate - Dublin, Cork and Limerick all developing teams and communities to push each other? (12:31)

Has there been a particular emphasis on physical conditioning, and being able to maintain fitness throughout a tournament and a season? (15:57)

The impact of the GAA and the foundation provided by Gaelic sports (22:21)

Is it fair to say that the depth across divisions isn’t there at the moment? How can that be changed if so? (25:25)

Are you seeing the younger generation of players coming through into the sport now? (28:00)

What plans are being put in place to ensure that the last few years haven’t just been a ’golden generation’, and that development continues? Features a discussion about the importance of good coaching (31:25)

BEST LINE: Fiona shares her best mixed line (36:35)

BEST LINE: Dominick shares his line, an open one (38:36)

In this episode, Sean speaks to Lookfly manager Jon Pugh about the fashion changes of the 2010s and what factors have changed what we all play in, including technological advances, more divergence in how people want to look while playing and the effects of more gym work! There's also some chat about changes Lookfly are making to how they describe their merch, and Pugh picks a best line.

RUNDOWN

How has the pandemic been for Pugh? (1:15)

How have things been since joining Lookfly? (2:10)

What changed for frisbee players in the 2010s? (3:35)

Have the designs and colours that are used for kit become more reserved? (8:33)

A change in socks - where have the long football and hockey-style socks gone? (11:20)

Let’s talk about shorts (and a shoutout to the skort wearer). (14:10)

Talking about the change to cut descriptions following a survey in the summer, changing to non-gendered descriptions. (19:16)

Why have there been so many changes with the different cuts? Features some advice for Valeria Cardenas. (23:23)

What’s behind the rise in tanks? (27:00)

What’s the coolest kit addition that Pugh has ever seen? (30:50)

What about the kit that has moved things on and been the most impactful? (32:30)

A moan about numbers! #keepthingsboring (33:59)

BEST LINE: Pugh picks his best line that goes against many of our rules and blames Sean for doing so. (35:19)

To kick off the decade review series, Sean is joined by the voice of ultimate Tom Styles to talk about the best performances of the decade, as well as reminisce about some of the less glamorous experiences they've had working together.

RUNDOWN

2:00: What Tom has been doing during the pandemic.

4:12: What are you looking for in a great performance?

7:34: GB’s performance in hosting tournaments last decade.

10:45: The performance by a number of parties in improving media and fan access to the sport.

15:38: The role of Game Advisors, and their performance.

21:52: GB won a number of tournaments that they came into as favourites - how do you assess those?

28:43: GB's performances on the beach, particularly in 2015 and 2017.

34:20: Bristol and Leeds winning UK Nationals.

36:20: Geo-focused mixed teams, particularly Reading, performing well throughout the decade.

39:45: The inevitable Clapham discussion and how you rate a team that doesn't lose.

44:31: A brief discussion of the best university performances (stay tuned for more).

49:08: GB reaching great heights but not necessarily performing as they’d like once there.

53:38: The red letter year for Irish women’s ultimate in 2019.

58:32: Tom struggles to pick a performance of the decade.

60:36: BEST LINE - Tom picks a best mixed line that asks an awful lot of the female players.

Sean is joined by commentator, WFDF athlete commission chair and TD of next year's planned World U24 Championships in sunny (?) Limerick, Liam Grant. They talked about all those things, what it's been like organising a tournament under the shadow of Covid, and how much they both loved Japan. Liam also turns in a stellar performance in BEST LINE, throwing shade at everyone else's line and claiming multiple players for Pelt.

How've you been during the pandemic? (1:24)

Under 24s next year in Limerick (3:30)

Why did you decide to put the bid in for this tournament? (4:11)

Is there anything else you might try to get there, any larger strategy? (7:15)

What are the facilities there like? (8:27)

How weird has it been organising this during Covid? (11:25)

Anything unexpectedly difficult? (16:38)

What's it been like on the athlete's commission? (19:20)

On commentary, has there been any event that stands out? (25:12)

BEST LINE: Liam picks a mixed team (28:37)

Sean spoke to Brummie, the founder of ultimate coaching resource Flik, longtime player and coach of several GB teams. Brummie talked about his experiences at the World Games, World Championships and what people can do during the lockdown to improve as players.

- How lockdown has been (1:00)

- Starting Flik, and how the journey so far has been (4:09)

- What's been the biggest challenge so far? (6:39)

- What can people do during lockdown and periods of other restrictions? (9:20)

- Importance of video analysis (12:16)

- The change in the availability and wealth of video footage, and researching opponents via ex-pats (16:58)

- What's next for Flik, and what else can you do? (18:57)

- What thing has changed the most during Brummie's brief, almost two-decade career? (24:21)

- And what hasn't developed as much, and how to improve at it? (26:34)

- LA28 reaction and multi-sport event experience at the World Games (29:41)

- What one thing is Brummie most proud of? Contains existential discussion on the nature of failure in sports (39:03)

- BEST LINE: Brummie picks his best line and blames Sean for any omissions he might have made (48:40)