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Date: Mon, 6 Oct 1997 14:31:37 -0400
From: Ian Stebbing <106040.3441@compuserve.com>
Subject: re: Student teams and the U8 tour
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I hate to disagree with Giles- but here goes.

I think the Tour has great intentions but is going about things in possibly
the wrong way.

> A league, as this year has shown, gives teams of the same standard plenty
of
> opportunity to play each other. This has definately raised the standard
of
> Ulimate.

It would take a huge amount of evidence to convince me of this.  Many mid- 
to lower- level teams learn a great deal from getting wallopped by top
teams every once in awhile.  They learn new plays, see real flow, and have
a chance to push themselves harder than tehy might otherwise.  The Tour has
completely eliminated this learning process, serving the needs of the top
teams, but at best ignoring (and at worst discounting) the needs of the
other teams

> You know which teams
> you are going to play and who you need to beat to get the points. There
was
> also plenty of opportunity for teams to move up and down with the way the
> league was organised..

So you learn to play for a particular situation and players rather than
learning to play solid, basic ultimate.  My guess is that the teams that
went to Worlds were actually hurt by the fact that they were facing the
same teams over and over again at home.  It's terribly easy to get
comfortable with a certain style of play which work s in one situation, but
is useless in another.  Anyone form the Worlds teams care to comment? 
After all, I could be wrong.  

As for moving up and down-  I strongly disagree.  Due to a several problems
at individual tournaments, teams at the 12-13 break had a single game
(usually the first game Saturday morning) to move up.  So if that game was
lost, the rest of the tournament was wasted- no chance to move up and a
small number of other challenging games.  This might not be a problem of
the Tour per se, as it was a tournament specific problem, but the Tour
set-up didn't help the matter either.

I hope that the organisers, who worked their butts off to pull the Tour off
and do deserve thanks and credit for their hard work, will seriously
consider the feedback they requested at the end of the Tour.

Nancy Stebbing
Village People