IFDANewsletterVolume3Issue1 by Irish Flying Disc association

11/02/2010 Irish Flying Disc Association Newsletter

Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010

GB 1

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 Note from the Editor

H ello everyon e and w elcom e to the first issue of the new volum e of the IF D A N ew sletter. A s you can see there‟s b een a slight design change – not quite the sweeping change I was hoping for but a step towards a better layout all the same. My brother (a graphic designer) was insistent I use a programme called InDesign but in the end that was a step too far. MS Word will have to do for now!

Anyway, 2010 is set to be a busy year for Irish Ultimate with further growth, a huge variety of tournaments and an ever-growing player base. As such there will be 4 issues of the Newsletter this year. Hopefully there will be more contributors and a little more room to allow for shorter and more focused issues. The content of this one is all new but, in keepin g w ith the previous new sletters, is split into tw o sections. T here‟s articles about WUCC 2010, photos of the recent All-Ireland Schools Championships, interviews with Irish and foreign players and even a link to a better newsletter! However, this issue will not have the IFDA & Lookfly Photo Competition. The reason is simple – there w asn‟t en ough to photo graph since the last issue! The competition will be back with a bang in late April for the second 2010 installment.

Finally, on a personal note, thank you to everyone who wished me well since I broke my foot. It means a lot and is much appreciated.

Take care and see you pitch side soon! Mark Earley Editor ifdanewsletter@gmail.com

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 Contents

Title:

Page Number:

Section One: Irish Ultimate -

News in brief

4-6

IFDA committee work

7-8

Club Profile: Open Club Sandwich

9 - 11

IFDA Physiotherapy Partnerships

12 - 13

Caught on camera: Interview with Richard Buggy

14 - 17

Photos from around Irish Ultimate

18 - 26

Section Two: Further Afield -

Ultimate Online

27 - 28

A giving community: A look at different charities in Ultimate circles

29 - 31

Irish Players Abroad: Ian Cuddihy

32 - 37

From Munich to Prague: Interview with Jens Achenbach

38 - 39

Tournament Watch: Windmill Windup

40 - 42

Wrap Up

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 Section One: Irish Ultimate News in brief Mark Earley o The current season looks like being the busiest international season Ireland has ever taken part in. National teams are heading in numbers to the World Junior Ultimate Championships in Heilbronn and to the inaugural Worlds Under-23s Championships in Florence. On top of that there will be Irish club teams attending the World Club Championships in Prague and many club tournaments such as the UK Tour, Redemption and Toms Tourney, amongst others. o The proposed WUCC playoff between Skulltimate (Cork) and Dublin Ultimate has been cancelled. As a result, the two clubs representing Ireland at the WUCC 2010 will be Little Miss Sunshine (Womens) and Dublin Ultimate (Open). Good luck to all involved!

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 o An iron man team of Irish Ladies recently took part in a one day tournament in Brussels call „B elgian W om ens D ay‟ and won a tight final to take home double bling (well, a cake at least!). Read the report, written by Bommie (of Get Horizontal fame). Well done ladies! o A new year sees two new clubs take flight – one in Trim, Co. Meath, Hammertime Ultimate, run by the ever-enthusiastic Eamon Cassells, will train on Wednesday nights in the Aura Leisure Centre, Trim from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. For more information visit the clubs Facebook page. The other, called Rebel Ultimate, is aimed at experienced players in the Cork area. For the moment practices are invitational but any nonbeginner male or female player who is either living in Cork or will be living there in the near future is urged to get in contact w ith B rian O ‟C allaghan and D ónal M urray at rebelultimate@gmail.com. Best of luck to both clubs! o The IFDA are working hard at keeping the IFDA website updated, especially the tournaments section. If you have any

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 tournament results/reports or indeed upcoming tournaments to add to this please email tournaments@irishultimate.com

o The trials for players interested in attending WJUC in Heilbronn this August have been announced by SĂŠamus Murray (Squad Manager) and his team. They are: Trial 1: Sunday February 7th (11.30am in Gonzaga College) and Trial 2: Saturday February 13th (11:30am in Albert College Park). For more information email SĂŠamus and co. at juniors@irishultimate.com

o The IFDA has prepared promotional flyers that are available to all clubs. Have a look here to get an idea of how they look and then contact the IFDA President to get a batch for your club. These will be great for any club that trains in public gyms or parks as it will be a quick and easy way to tell people about our sport. They'll also be great for recruitment of beginners next autumn. o Frisbee Freestylers from all over Europe are invited to Linkoping, Sweden, this July for the European Freestyle Championships 2010. Check out the announcement for more information and then get in touch with a member of the committee to declare your interest. This is yet another opportunity to represent Ireland this summer and will be an exciting new venture for us all.

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IFDA Committee Work Dominick

Since the last Newsletter the IFDA Committee has been very busy. The following are tasks that have been completed - there are many, many more tasks being worked on at the moment.

Announced Development tournament Began the process of organising the Under 23 leadership Started the redesign of irishultimate.com Organised deals for IFDA members with 2 physiotherapists Discussed (at length!) eligibility for All-Ireland Championships Announced Womens/Mixed Inter Varsities Organised training camps with Ben Wiggins (Seattle Sockeye) Became involved with the DCU Suas program Updated results and reports on irishultimate.com Purchased First Aid bags P rinted â&#x20AC;&#x17E;What is ultimate?â&#x20AC;&#x; flyers Tendered for bids for All-Ireland Mixed Championships Awarded Open Inter Varsity hosting to Broc Ultimate Organised and ran the Indoor All-Ireland Schools Championships

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Sold advertising space on irishultimate.com Appointed a new Pick Up Tzar in Dublin Appointed a new Junior Manager 2010 Contacted Women In Sport web site Participated in Sport Matters campaign Registered with AllMyKit.com Coordinated Irelands bids for WUCC 2010 Appointed new head of coaching course Promoted ASH Hat charity tournament Submitted nominations for Amateur Sports Awards 2009 Released TD Handbook Organised a Schools beginners day

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Club Profile: Open Club Sandwich B rian ‘O rgy’ H enderson The Idea OCS was founded around the Christmas break in 2008, but the main idea to start a new club was in our heads for a while before that. It w asn ‟t until the start of the second semester in DCU that we really started getting together as a team. The Beginning When we found out about the club side of Ultimate outside of college, we saw that there wasn't a lot of choice, so myself, Louis Free and Ross Andreucetti started asking other players that we knew from beginner tournaments if they were up for starting a new team. Everyone we talked to was well up for it; we got some advice from some of the guys who set up Jabba and a few weeks later we started training. O C S’ tournam ent debut Our first tournament was „Indoors w ith F riends‟ where we came last but were able to give most teams a run for there money, I still wonder how we got in, considering our bid for entry was an office chair and Steve's first born son... After a few more months and when we became a more serious team we entered our first outdoor mixed tournament -

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the All-Ireland Mixed Championships. Our opening game was against Mixed Veg and after three offence points without leaving our own end zone we finally got a lucky score (thanks to Marko, who slipped and fell while on the force giving us the chance for a cheeky huck to the end zone). Our most memorable game would be the Jabba 2 game where we were leading 2:0 at the start. Training Since the end of the summer we haven't been out training, mainly because there have not been too many club tournaments to train for. Come March 12th we will begin training with our new recruits and new mentalities. We are upping the standard for our players and going to push each other to improve as much as possible. An OCS Evolution At the moment we are in the process of recruiting players who wish to be part of a new team and have the drive to improve and push them selves. So far things are looking good.

In the past year alone we have grown from the brainchild of three eager beginners, dreamt up one night in the pub, to a highly competitive team of more then 20 players (and still growing). We still hold true to our original basis for the club which focuses on the development of new players, as well as driving our experienced players to higher goals.

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Looking Forward With my reign as OSC captain coming to an end, my main concern is to continue to steer things in the right direction .With this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x;s A llIreland Mixed Championships getting closer and with jerseys on the way, I'm hoping to get the whole team training and playing as much as possible so that we can show what we can do when we hit the pitch.

For more information on the club, check out their website: www.openclubsandwich.com

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IFDA Physiotherapist Partnerships Dominick

The IFDA committee is pleased to announce its first physiotherapy partnerships. Beginning immediately (January, 2010), IFDA members will be eligible for discounted rates at both the Milltown Physiotherapy Clinic and Exwell Medical, located in Milltown and Glasnevin, Dublin, respectively.

Milltown Physiotherapy Clinic - www.milltownphysiotherapy.com Founded in 1993, the Milltown Clinic is currently staffed by 11 chartered physiotherapists, offers 8 private treatment rooms and has a history of working with both individuals and teams from a wide variety of sports. IF D A rate: €50 per session (Introductory rate of € 45 for first session available until A pril 30th).

Exwell Medical - www.exwellmedical.ie Founded in 1989 (as O'Neills Sports Medicine), Exwell Medical follows a phylosiphy of assessment, investigation, treatment and rehabilitation of sports injuries by Sports Medicine Physicians and Chartered Physiotherapists. IF D A rate: €40 per session .

These great rates, combined with the IFDA Emergency Fund, mean there has never been a better time to get treated and back out on the pitch as quick (and

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as healthy!) as possible. Just don't forget to say you are a member of the IFDA when you make your appointment. While these are our first physio partnerships, we hope they are not our last. If you have a clinic that you would be willing to recommend, please get in touch and give us the details. We'd love to follow up on any leads all over Ireland. Hopefully, before long, we will be able to facilitate more and more people getting treated as quickly as possible. Contact president@irishultimate.com if thereâ&#x20AC;&#x;s a p h ysiotherapist near you (especially outside D ublin ) who you recommend and who could be of use to a number of players in our community.

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Caught on camera Interview with Richard Buggy Mark Earley

Ultimate is an extremely photogenic sport with it's big grabs, layout Ds and camera-friendly physical demands. As such we've seen a lot of photographers emerge onto the Irish scene over the past 2 or 3 years with many photos of each big event. Alongside these photographers have been a quieter, smaller group of filmmakers. Darron Costello and Richard Buggy are the two names that spring to mind. Buggy took some time out of his hectic study to talk us through how he got involved in the filming side of things. So, Buggy, how/when did you get into filming Ultimate? I started filming ultimate at the end of 2008 so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x;ve only been doing it fo r on e year really. T h e m ain reason w h y I started w as because o f Youtube. Youtube has allowed everyone to share their video footage not just with their friends but with the world. Like many people I was disappointed by the lack of good quality ultimate videos there was on Youtube.

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As for Irish Ultimate, before D arron‟s epic C ork O pen 2007 video there really w as no vid eos of peop le playin g ultim ate in Ireland and ev en after the Cork video there wasn‟t much of a follow up. So I decided to go get myself a camera and see what I could do. For those of us interested, what sort of equipment do you use to shoot the footage? For those interested, I use a Sony Handycam DCR-S R 35. V ideo quality is good and it has a very strong zoom . It‟s abou t mid price range, cost m e €350 I think. For those not interested I use a shiny silver camera. And to edit? F or the first video I ever m ade “U ltim ate R esolution 2008” I used W indow s M ovie M aker w hich for a free p ro gram is very useful. S ince then I‟v e gotten Cyberlink Power Director. Cost about €70 but it allow s m e to do lots m ore than M ovie M aker. B ut if an yone is just looking to do a little bit of work then Movie Maker will do the trick. What has been your personal favourite of the videos you've put up so far? “Jabba T he H uck 2009 ” w as m y favourite. It took lots of w ork to go throu gh about five tournaments of footage and come out with a montage that‟s over seven minutes long but it was worth it. The video was a great way to celebrate a successful year for Jabba and it was fun making a video for my mates to enjoy.

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A lot of people are scared off by the price of a decent video camera. Any advice for the would-be buyer? M y advice w ould be don ‟t bu y an ex pensive cam era. Y outube really dow n grades the qu ality of videos so spending lots of extra money on a cam era w ill only produ ce lim ited gains. M ost m odern cam eras w ill be fairly good so an ythin g in the €300 -€500 ran ge is all yo u need. Spending nearly a grand is way too much unless the sight of super slow mo gets you all excited.

Important things to look out for is to make sure that your camera uses a hard disc. You would be surprised to find out that about half the cameras on sale still record on to discs. A good zoom and long battery life are helpful. The last thing to want is to run out of battery before the final like I did in Limerick last year. If you had a few tips for someone just starting out, what would they be? Filming Ultimate can be a bit tricky at first but after a while you will get the hang of it. The key is to anticipate where the disc is going to go next in order to get sm ooth shots and to capture both th e throw and the catch. S o m etim e this isn‟t alw ays possible. O isin‟s backha nd break in the dub tourney final caught me out, no one saw that coming. T he other m ain thin g is don‟t be lazy w h en it com es to editing. N o one w an ts to see team s just standing around on their line for about two m inutes or discussing the com plex w orld of the pick. M akin g m ontage videos requires lots of editin g but don‟t settle for bad footage. If someone walks in front of a camera and blocks off your view of a great catch then sadly the footage is useless, suck it up and scrap the clip. Also a little bit of comedy in your videos is always a bonus.

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 In the UK there's PushPass Productions, in the States there's UltiVillage, are we going to see an Irish equivalent somewhere down the line? I don ‟t think so, w e really don‟t h ave the stand ard of tournam ent to be prod ucing D V D ‟s or p ay per view videos of Irish Ultimate. A video section on the IFDA website would be a nice inclusion though, give us a chance to show off what we can do. Whats next on the Buggy filming agenda? No real plans, I generally just bring my camera to everything and see what happens, hopefully lots of

footage from siege and w orld under 23‟s. I w ould love som e day to group to geth er all the footage that people have got from Irish Ultimate and make a best of montage video, really could be something to rival the insane UPA videos that we have all seen and wished we were like them (without the spiking). Thanks for your time and good luck!

For more see Buggy's YouTube Page http://www.youtube.com/user/Buggy619

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Photos from around Irish Ultimate Irish

Laura McGrath with a big grab at this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x;s IFDA Rose Bowl

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A spectacular catch by St. Killians captain George at the IFDA All-Ireland Schools Indoor Championships

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David Misstear goes horizontal at training 19

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Despite the attention of Eamon Cassell, Shane R eilly gets his throw off in the final of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x;s A S H C harity H at

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C lub and country colleagues F iona M ernagh and S inéad O ‟S hiel-Flemming go toe to toe at the IFDA Rose Bowl 21

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Niall Harbourne just about gets the better of Robin Giller at Broc Ultimate training

Brian MacDevitt & Keith Coleman are put through their paces under the watchful eye of circuit trainer, Lee

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Dominick lines up a flick during the IFDA Beer Bowl in December 23

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The happy participants of 2010â&#x20AC;&#x;s IF D A R ose B o w l 24

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Dónal Murray – the essence of concentration - at the IFDA Beer Bowl 25

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Over 30 players turned up to the first Juniors trial for A u gustâ&#x20AC;&#x;s W JU C in H eilbronn, G erm an y 26

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010 Section Two: Further Afield

Ultimate Online: The simple aim of this section is to share sites from around the world that may be of interest and/or help to Ultimate players around the country.

INFO Name: Ultimate Frisbee on Squidoo Address: http://www.squidoo.com/ultimatefrisbee Details: Squidoo is a site made to find overview pages (or â&#x20AC;&#x17E;lensesâ&#x20AC;&#x;). T h e page on U ltim ate lists all sorts of sites - blogs, drill sites, team websites, video sites, books to buy, even a board game! An extensive, useful and easily-used reference page.

NATIONAL WEBSITE Name: Ultimate Players Association Address: http://www.upa.org/ Details: The UPA is the national governing body for US Ultimate and their site is comprehensive, easy to navigate and, well, huge!

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PHOTOGRAPHY Name: Graham Bailey Photography Address: http://www.grahambaileyphotography.com Details: A wildlife photographer by trade, this UK-based ultimate player has many excellent galleries, including photos from the recent xEUCF 2009 & EUC 2007.

BLOG Name: Plastic Binge Address: http://plasticbinge.blogspot.com/ Details: This is a no frills blog run by an experienced Irish player who enjoys the analysis and tactics behind Ultimate. An interesting, thoughtprovoking read.

NEWSLETTER Name: Canadian Ultimate Newsletter Address: http://www.canadianultimate.com/newsletter.htm Details: A slick, well designed and pretty newsletter that this one can only aspire towards. Everything from articles to videos - brilliantly made.

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Irish Ultimate Players Abroad Ian Cuddihy U nlike m ost of the other folks w ho‟ve contributed to this colum n I‟ve n ever really played U ltim ate in Ireland. The reason is because there w asn‟t really m uch U ltim ate in Ireland back when I lived there.

I left Kilkenny for the bright lights of Manchester to go to University in the autumn of 1995. At the time my only exposure to Ultimate was the Channel 4 documentary on the 1994 Worlds that some of you may have seen on a grainy VHS tape. A flatm ate of m ine m en tioned that he‟d joined the Ultimate team, I went along and have been playing ever since.

During my first season I found out that there was to be the first of many great Dublin tournaments, and my team from Manchester, Fingers 6, were going. Talking to people at that tournament it was pretty clear that Ultimate was in a fairly embryonic stage in Ireland. A few dedicated people were working hard to get the sport established and without their hard work it might have faded away.

Back in the UK I was playing regularly in tournaments up and down the country. Around this time the British Ultimate Federation (precursor to the UKU) started the transition towards a more structured tournament format and the Tour as we know it began. After Fingers 6, I was playing for a team called Fever and it was here I started to encounter the first Irish teams that were coming over to the UK to play competitively. Paddy Murphy were already a big improvement on the teams from back in 96, with young college players coming through.

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In 2000 I went to Heilbronn to play for Ireland in the World Championships. To say we were a rag-tag, thrown together team in the open division was probably an understatement. I think you could play if your grandmother had once owned an Irish Wolfhound and you could buy a plane ticket to Germany. In our first game we were still learning each others names and having to explain the rules to some players. Nevertheless it was a huge amount of fun and a real privilege to play for Ireland.

In 2001 I organised a small tournament back in my home town of Kilkenny. We had 8 teams from the UK and Ireland as well as a few pick-ups from further afield. Loretto Navan got their biggest exposure to Ultimate to date and some of the girls who won spirit in Kilkenny went on to become great players. Organising the tournament remotely from London was quite problematic how ever and unfortun ately I w asnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t able to repeat the tourney.

The UK Tour was still where most of

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my playing energies were focused, however at this time I started playing a little more in continental Europe. Some London-based friends dragged me back to Germany to play in a tournament called Poolimate near Frankfurt. Open air swimming pools, great Ultimate and German beer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; needless to say I was hooked. Another factor in continental Europe is that many of the tournaments are run by clubs rather than individuals, unlike here in the UK. As a result I think you probably get better value and organisation in these tournaments.

Beach Ultimate started to become a bigger factor for me around here too. Luckily for me you can fly to pretty much anywhere with EasyJet or Ryanair from London! Most of you will have heard of Paganello and there seem to be more and more Irish players at Copa Pescadisco, Barcelona and Burla. For me as I rapidly advance towards the Masters division, I find that beach ultimate is definitely the way forward. For only a little more cash than a trip to a tournament in Mansfield, I can be playing in the sun in Spain or Portugal. Plus sand is easier on my geriatric knees! T o sum up, itâ&#x20AC;&#x;s been great to see the huge adv ances m ade in Irish U ltim ate over the past 15 years. The standard of playing and organisation has come on exponentially. A few people deserve a lot of credit so if you enjoy your Ultimate in Ireland make sure you say thanks to them. Without their efforts you may well have never even heard of your favourite sport.

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Charity in Ultimate Mark Earley O ver the past d ecad e of involvem ent in U ltim ate I‟ve been qu ite aw are of p eople‟s gen erosity – be it a floor to stay on, a lift to a train or a feed if yo u‟re passin g throu gh – but over the past three or four years I‟v e noticed it even m ore as players are reachin g out to those less fortunate than themselves and giving there time and effort to try and make a difference. Sure, that last sentence sounds like something from a mail order gift givin g catalogu e but there‟s truth in it. I‟v e contacted a few p eople in the k now and here are their th oughts. Discs for Africa, Discs for the World Rodrigue Dufaur Discs for Africa started as a self-initiated experience, but one trip can lead one farther than one imagines!

I spent a month in the Central African Republic in March 2008 and took 20 discs with me thinking I would quite like to play Ulti while I was there! Met a tennis coach in a wheelchair that managed a sort of sport centre for kids, with basically a concrete slab the size of a indoor pitch, but under the sun! I started teaching his kids Ultimate and ended up training 6 teams in 3 different neighbourhoods of the capital, Bangui. I did also some sessions with kid streets in an NGO. Everybody absolutely loved it and they were fast learners!

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The day I left we organised a tourney on proper grass pitches, 5 aside with 2 subs, 6 teams, we had some music on the pitches and some drinks, it was great. With a strong football influence and neighbourhood pride, respecting the rules and spirit was actually the hardest thing, but I left them with great enthusiasm and 20 discs between 4 captains, which already at the time wasn't much to run practices. From that amazing and very rewarding experience came the idea about Discs for Africa: Supporting the growth of Ultimate in Africa by sending discs to the players there. Playing conditions in Africa are usually really tough (playing on concrete or on a gravely pitch, grass is very rare and usually not free) and discs suffer a lot, they need replacement pretty quickly. No discs, no game!

To prevent the game from stoping due to lack of discs, only two steps are needed: A.

Collect discs:

We, here in Europe and other developed countries have often too many discs - used and new â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that eventually end up gathering dust in our rooms. I encouraged people to give them away for Africa. B.

Send the discs to Africa:

Shipping discs securely (DHL, UPS) to make sure they arrive, costs a fortune and you can â&#x20AC;&#x;t actu ally check w h at happens to th e discs on arrival. A m u ch cheaper and human way of getting discs to where they are needed is to give

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them to somebody who will actually take them with her/him there. I also wanted the human experience in the transaction – along w ith the disc‟s travel, people meet and exchange.

In all these countries there are people working for NGOs, the United Nations or the EU, who travel from Europe to Africa. We squeeze 10 or 20 discs in their suitcases (o r their parents, friends‟ su itcases) and that‟s it! A irline flyin g p ersonnel is also a good option, it‟s all about netw orkin g.

After two years of sending many emails and contacting people, I managed to gather many discs and get them to some countries like Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal, Mali. I had many more ideas but on my own, I had little time to do more.

In Mali I caught up with another French ultimate player (Vincent Simon) who had set off to do exactly the same as I did in Bangui, he had seen the Discs for Africa corner at Paganello, and got in touch. In four months he achieved a lot in Bamako with discs taken from Europe, working with NGOs as Right to Play or Caritas: a first Ultimate tournament was held in Keleya village! Vincent (and others – see the blogs‟ com m ents) is w illing to get involved in making more of Discs for Africa and turn into reality many ideas I have been thinking of. The plan is to create a proper project probably called Discs for the World, an NGO type association which would begin by being a platform to help out people who are doing or want to live similar experiences to ours. Provide tips, helpful information, on top of the simple fact of gathering and shipping discs to where Ultimate has started. We also want to develop guidelines to make this kind of project sustainable and make sure to

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get our partners right (the WFDF for ex am ple?) so that U ltim ate/D isc sports does grow and k eeps o n grow in g w h ere it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x;t strongly established yet.

We are at the moment writing things down and getting organised, open to welcome anyone with good will and good suggestions, time and enthusiasm!

Thanks, Rodrigue Dufaur Contact: rdufaur at gmail dot com

Links: http://discforafrica.free.fr/ http://ffindr.com/en/links/international/discs-for-africa http://ffindr.com/en/blog/2010/01/27/bringing-frisbee-to-africa

===

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Create Change Tadhg Healy

The principle of spirit of the game is one of the most unique things about the sport we play and the reason why so many players become hooked. Simply by virtue of the location where we were born we have been handed enormous advantage in this world and by realising that the concept of spirit doesn't have to remain confined to the field one of the ways in which ultimate players can give a little back is through charitable work.

I began working with the not-for-profit organization Create Change after WUGC, Vancouver, in September 2008. I spent 9 of the next 12 months working in Northern Ghana as operations manager. I was involved in every aspect of the day to day running of projects, from delivering school supplies to secondary school girls in our sponsorship program to filming interviews with village women relating to the water issues they were facing. Create Change's primary mission is to provide water and education to people who are living without. By creating a real and lasting connection between donor and recipient through the medium of film you get to hear directly from people living in poverty....something which very few other charity organisations do. Our website showcases almost

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40 documentary style films which reflect the development projects we are running and give a real insight into life in Northern Ghana.

From my experience over the last 12 months it's clear that ultimate players of Ireland are an extremely generous bunch and when called upon to contribute to a cause they are rarely found to be hiding in the shadows. Dominick (Chimpo) was a hero for us during the design of the website staying up 'til all hours to get the formatting of the pages right for us. Once we were up and running Deirdre O'Breasil (UCC) was one of our first monthly sponsors and so far has contributed to 4 separate projects. JD Coakley (Broc) used his prodigious upper-lip hair growth during the month of Movember to raise almost €350 towards building a rain water harvesting tank in the community of Kulla in Northern Ghana. In addition both Rob Kane (Chimpo) and Katie Twidwell (Mixed Veg/Broc) went the non-commercial route this Christmas and gave their friends and families Create Change gift certificates.

It actually doesn't cost that much to create a real and lasting change in the lives of so many. Fifteen of my college mates got together and decided to set up a project where they would donate €20 per month over a period of 6 months. We selected a primary school in Northern Ghana which currently has no access to clean drinking water for its 160 students. By May we'll have raised enough money to build a 30'000 litre water tank at the school which will provide the students with access to clean drinking water year round. Clean water for a school forever or your gym membership for 2 months? All you have to do is decide that you want to create change.

www.createchangenow.ca === (Note – there was so much interest in this topic that I’ll be revisiting it in the next issue!)

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From Munich to Prague – the road to WUCC 2010 Interview with Jens Achenbach, WUCC veteran! Mark Earley So Jens, who are you playing for? I am playing for M.U.C. (Munich Ultimate Club). MUC is a newly formed team of younger players from the well known Munich area teams - Searching Woodpeckers, Mirsanmir and Zamperl. How have you qualified? Zamperl finished second at German Nationals last year and thus claimed the Open spot for the Munich area. Most players on the "new" squad have already been members of the Zamperl club. H ow ’s train in g goin g? Well winter's got us in its cold grip. We practice Thursdays on an astroturf field with a nice 10cm snow/ice-topping. On Tuesdays we hit the weight-room. Some guys do extra running sessions. All in all we are slowly building towards April. From 1st April on we'll start our full workouts. W h at’s th e su m m er got in store? Heck, I hope summer has some fine sunny evenings to linger in the beer gardens ;-) Seriously...we hope to play the first event of the UK-Tour and then Windmill Windup, Amsterdam. There is also

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010

talk of a common practice weekend with Freespeed from Basel and some other teams. Hopefully we'll be able to host some Aussie/US teams prior to the tourney and do some scrimmaging with them. How many WUCC have you played? My first WUCC was 1995 in Street, UK. I have played all WUCC ever since... 1997 in Vancouver, 1999 in St. Andrews, 2002 in Hawaii and 2006 in Perth. In 1995 and 1997 we didn't really know how to play. We were just so happy and excited to be there and play some top teams. For example, we were 2-1 up against Double Happiness only to lose 21-3! There was some great, great partying back then! We only started working out hard and getting the throwing etc down for St. Andrews where we had a great run and made the Top 10. 2002/2006 weren't as good from the playing perspective...but dude, the viewâ&#x20AC;Ś :-) What are you looking forward to most in Prague? I alw ays really enjo y the atm osphere at W U C C â&#x20AC;Ś so m an y old and n ew faces, great Ultimate, loads and just loads of good times. I am really excited about the level of play and to see new nations and new players bring their game. And naturally, I'll be looking forward to the fantastic Czech brew at the end of the tournament :-) Best of luck Jens (and indeed MUC) and see you in Prague!

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010

Tournament Watch: W e‟ve seen P aganello an d P otlatch so far in this sections and this time I was hoping for another new reporter but unfortunately they fell through. Two tournaments stood out to me – both in continental Europe and both I‟v e been to m an y tim es. O ne w as T om s T ourney (repo rt com ing soon!) the other? W ell, read on… Windmill Windup (Amsterdam) http://www.windmillwindup.com Mark Earley

Few tournaments can promise quality late night parties, a very high standard in competition, pristine fields, and everything from communal wigwams full of couches to dunk tanks. Windmill Windup can and it can promise more: blow up elephants, table quizzes, endurance test games and Dutch style player gifts. Each year it grows and each year it surprises.

For the infamous NUTS and CRUNCH crews, hosts of the 3 day Windmill Windup tournament, the focus each year is on the players and how m uch fun they hav e. T here‟s th e parties – dancing and singing all-nighters in marquees or bars; then the player gifts – a disc per player, a bag of goodies; then the annual Mix n Mingle, the „you n eed to b e insan e to enter‟ B eer R ace, the m assage tents and the friend ly sm iles all day ev ery day as they

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prepare your food, bring you water or film you saying something stupid. These guys define the adjective welcoming.

To match the standard of hospitality, the standard of play caters for both E urope‟s finest and the team s looking for a 3 day party, and it does it using a sim ple, gru elling m etho d know n as the S w iss D raw . In short, there‟s no time cap, just a hard point cap of 17. The more you win by, the better. In the tight games you lose, the less you lose by the better. What this allows for is for teams of an equal standard to come together quickly. The strong end up battling with strong, the merrymakers end up playing the m errym akers, and ev eryo ne‟s happ y! Y ou might have one landslide victory but you can be guaranteed that you‟re nex t gam e w ill be tough as a result. It makes for tight games and, given the tournaments 3 days long, you get m ore than enou gh of th em . A lot of E urope‟s best clubs com e to W W to hone their game before major competitions - this year especially is likely to see many teams to use it as a stepping board for WUCC in early July. O n top of m em orable hospitality, great fields and com petition to suit all com ers, W indm ill has a soul. I‟m not going to lecture about hippydriven ideals, but these gu ys really care. E v ery year they m ake large don ations to children‟s charities– Open Arms Malawi and Road to 40 (more details on the website). Every year, they clean the venue from top to bottom and try to recycle what they can. Their main sponsors are Lookfly -

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a com pan y w ho are carb on friendly, w ork h ard to use local produce & em plo yees and are very ethics conscious. It‟s nice to see such an attitude in our community. P ersonally sp eakin g I‟v e had so me great times in Amsterdam at this tournament – thunder and lightning when were we 1 up with 2 to go vs. C ota R ica, w inning last year‟s table quiz, booking m y flig ht for the w ron g d ay and shelling out €300 on a last m inute „deal‟, w atching th e Irish w om en‟s team reach th e final, afternoons on bik es (ding, din g) o r playin g D D C in V ondelpark – and I reckon it provides for everyone. Go on to their excellent website and be tempted, better still go there, and see for yourself firsthand!

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Wrap Up Mark Earley As always, a big thank you to the contributors – I think the standard of writing, both in the interviews and the pieces submitted from various players, is the best w e‟ve seen yet. E very article cam e back really quickly and there w as a h elpful enthusiasm from every person – makes my job a lot easier, so thanks! Also, thanks to Dominick for his usual generosity – he proofreads, re-formats, magics my Word doc behemoth into a pretty pdf. file and so on. Without his help this Newsletter would be a shambles. Finally, any ideas for articles and indeed for the redesign (which might actually happen this time!) are very welcome. Get in touch at this address: ifdanewsletter@irishultimate.com

Thanks for reading, Mark Earley Editor, IFDA Newsletter Special thanks to all the contributors: Jens Achenbach, Richard Buggy, Ian Cuddihy, Rodrigue Dufaur, Brian Henderson, Dominick, Fred Spanjaard and the IFDA Committee. And to the photographers: Alan Breathnach, Paul Cronin and Mark Earley.

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Issue 1, Volume 3 February 2010