Since last year BULA has been using the WFDF rules with a BULA appendix. This allows all players worldwide to have the same basis to play with (with the exception of the US that uses the UPA rules)
If you want to know how good your rules knowledge is, check out the Rules Quiz at: http://rjhberg.googlepages.com/WFDFQuiz2009.xls
This quiz is in Excel. I recommend you “Enable Macros” when opening. That way the answers can be revealed by clicking on the “Answers” button. If not, you can use the “unhide” function to reveal the answers.
Happy quizzing!
Author: patrick
A European Beach Ultimate League?
For years we have been thinking about creating a European Beach Ultimate League. However that is not as easy as it seems. There are lots of tournaments in Europe but that is one of the reasons it is hard to organize. Beach Ultimate is still relatively small and players usually only travel to places 1-2 times year. There is a core of players that go to many hat tournaments but ‘traveling teams’ are few and far between. In addition, adding a series of tournaments will take away from other tournaments as well as dig into the finances of the players.
One interesting thought it to create a ladder league like there is in the UK (www.regionalultimate.co.uk) with one final tournament.
How would that work? I’d love to hear from Beach Ultimate lovers what they think…
Are you ready for Paganello?
The Beach Ultimate community is getting ready for another edition of the largest international Beach Ultimate tournament in the world: Paganello! 120 teams, big parties, new contenders (will the Boracay Dragons make it to the finals?), and lots of other fun things to do. We all hope that the weather will be a bit better this year. Last year’s finals were cold and windy.
Here is one report on the tournament from the US:
Disk brings twist to Holy Week in Italy
When most people think of visiting Italy for Easter vacation, rarely do they stuff their suitcases with 40-ounce beer bottles, Spandex and oversized Uncle Sam top hats. But in the case of the American Gladiators, a Chicago co-ed Ultimate team, this is packing protocol. More…
Organize your team be a HappyTC
For years I have been organizing pick games, practices, league days, etc… It is always the same: I send an email to the appropriate mailing list asking who is going. Within minutes I get lots of emails back. People comment on everything and suddenly a simple question becomes an email monster. And I only wanted to know who was coming!
And then I found HappyTC….
Nice! Simple! Effective! Players receive an email (this process can be automated) and they just have to click on a link in their email to say yes, no, maybe.I now I know who is coming.
Happy TC can use some improvements (e.g. specifying the time of sending the automated emails) but I love it already. It even lists Ultimate as a sport and you can see how the turn out is going to be based on gender and/or position. Sweet!
BULA adopts the 2009 WFDF rules
As of 16 March 2009 BULA tournaments should be played using the 2009 WFDF rules with the BULA addendum
Players will need to learn some significant changes before playing under the new rules:
- Marking infractions don’t stop play. After a second infraction, the marker resets the count to 0 and continues
- Play doesn’t stop for a travel where the thrower hasn’t thrown the disc, the stall halts and the thrower goes back to the correct pivot point as indicated by the defence
- Calling a time-out when you don’t have any left is not a turnover. Add 2 to the stall count instead
- Players may ask non-players for their perspective on a call
- There is a new infraction called “Contact” for when the marker touches the thrower or the disc but not in the act of throwing – this should not be treated as a foul as it is not affecting possession, but treated as a marking violation.
- If a call during or after the throwing motion did not affect possession, then it should be ignored. For example, if a thrower is fouled in the act of throwing, but the disc flies perfectly to the receiver who then drops it on their chest, the turnover should stand.
- In order to throw after landing but before establishing a pivot, a thrower must maintain contact with the ground throughout the throwing motion.
Featured tournament: Boracay Open
Another good blog posting from Ffindr.com. This time they featured the Boracay Open Beach Ultimate tournament and the still undefeated (on home turf) Boracay Dragons. Read more…
Tournaments 101: Choosing a format
An integral part of any Frisbee tournament is its format and schedule. Teams are coming for the game (and maybe the party too), so you better give them what they want. This article is the first in a loose series on how to organise an Ultimate Frisbee tournament, trying to point out the most important aspects of a decent planning. There are quite some resources spread over the Web, most notably the UPA Manual of Championship Series Tournament Formats. More on Ffindr…
2009 Xefina HAT Tournament, Maputo, Mozambique
Dear Ultimate friends,
Yes at last!… after last year’s success we promised to organise the Xefina HAT tournament again in 2009! And here it is:
This year it will be on the holiday of Friday May 1st and Saturday May 2nd! The Sunday is open for some interesting and relaxing excursions in Mocambique… or just for some nice lullas/camarao and cerveja while looking at the ocean.
Due to the tide that weekend we will organise a 5 on 5 multi-surface tournament, Friday we’ll play on the beach of the island of Xefina (in the bay of Maputo) and on Saturday we’ll be playing at the fields of the American School (same teams and beach ultimate size fields).
The tourney is limited to 60 participants and we plan to have always 2 women/3 men in the field.
Parties… yes there will be plenty… that goes without saying in Mozambique! One party will be in the old train station of Maputo built in 1910 by Mr. Gustave Eiffel, a very inspiring venue.
If you want to be part of this year’s great tournament send us an e-mail: sjoerd@mozultimate.com.
First come first serve!
Happy hucking,
Stef Stevens
www.mozultimate.com
Observers….
It is interesting to see the differences in how people feel about using Observers. As far as I know no observers have ever been used in Beach Ultimate and, as a founding principle, BULA approved tournaments and Championships will never allow for observers.
Is this logical? Not always. There are definitely situations where an observer could have made the a better call than the players. In the situation below the defensive team (SeXXXpensive with whom I play) was sure the offensive player caught the disc out of bounds. However the player called himself in. Correct? Who knows? We contested, the player maintained the call and a point was awarded.
I believe the onus is on the player. It has to do with honesty and respect. If the catcher has doubts he should send the disc back to the thrower and play on. If he truly believed that his foot was in then so be it. He/she has to make the right call.
I am glad that the WFDF took the Observers out of the rules a number of years ago. Players should be capable of having a great game, that is fun to watch, hard to play, and make their own (and the right) calls. Observers might assist in a certain part of the game, but they also take away from something that is unique. Let’s be honest… in case of doubt, back to the thrower and play on! This is something unique we should work to maintain. I know it is not always easy in the heat of the game but it can be done, learned and taught!
Deals for tournament directors
We have good news for tournament directors: as we in previous years we got a good Discraft disc deal for all BULA approved tournaments. Tournaments can receive a 20% discount on regular price discs, plus 10 free game discs per every 100 discs ordered, and some more free gifts.
In addition, Lookfly is giving away 15 Spirit of the Game sweatbands per tournament. These sweatbands are for the team that wins the SOTG using the new SOTG scoring system that BULA and the WFDF launch last year. In return TD’s have to send feedback about the system to us.
To apply, simply send us an email