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From: "Anna Winter" <eng9aw@ARTS-01.NOVELL.LEEDS.AC.UK>
Organization: University of Leeds
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Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 16:05:17 +0100
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Subject: Women and the Tour
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>However, the majority of women who compete at this level will get
>less disc, less pitch time and less opportunity to develop their 
>skills as players.

Couldn't agree more. If you are a woman playing in a mixed-open 
team and do not feel this is the case then I personally think you 
are particularly lucky. Furthermore, as a woman, no matter how 
valued you are as a player by your own team, I can guarantee that 
if you play against a men-only-open team they will take advantage 
of the difference in height, speed and even weight on some 
occasions (if I'm about to jump for the same disc as a big bloke I'll 
always back off rather than be wiped out mid-air).

>As for hosting the women's tour on separate weekends, it's 
>already been mentioned that we have a pretty packed calender in 
>our relatively short outdoor season, so I doubt that this is a 
>practical suggestion anyway.

Anyway, isn't it great that we still all get to party together? I'd much 
prefer to play with women on pitch (be it mixed or women's), but on 
the dance floor it's nice to have the chance to play with men too! 
Keeping the tournaments side by side means that the community 
stays strong and you have more supporters (always nice).

As for numbers of women, I think Tour 1 and 2 are difficult as quite 
a few women players are students (fantastic growth in the sport) 
and with exams and course work deadlines looming Ultimate has 
to take second place to academia, just for the next month or so, 
it'll be interesting to see how this is reflected in the number of 
women's teams at Tours 3 and 4. 

The strangest thing is why in countries like Canada and the US 
men's ultimate continues to be called 'Open'?

Looking forward to the weekend.

Anna
BAPS