Morning all

I'm with J here on a couple of things, 1st we need to sort out the tour
so that it becomes a competitive weekend of ultimate for all teams.
Having an upper and lower tier may be the best way of doing this, this
could fix both the number of games we play and turn almost ever game we
play a full on game of ultimate (which can only be win win)
J if you need a hand putting something together I'm more than happy to
help

We do need to sort this out sooner rather than later so the clubs in NZ
know what the summer holds and they can start planning now

later

pegs


Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting the dialog started - hope you are still
keen
to contribute to the UPC tournaments planning. I am new to this role
of
coordinating the UPC tournaments portfolio and I haven't previously had
any
part in the overseeing of tournaments but I do have some new ideas
about the
way tournaments could be organised and structured that I hope will be
of
interest to others.

So, in the interests of kicking things off quickly here are the 3
targets
(taken straight out of the UPC guidelines) that are supposed to be
met:

The National Tournament Coordinator is responsible for
1) Ensuring that all events are distributed evenly and with minimal
clashes
throughout the season
2) Maintaining the National competitive tournament system and
reviewing and
adjusting anything as necessary.
3) Liaison with Tournament Directors at all level of tournaments


Here is how I plan to address these targets (please add your
suggestions to
this forum):

1) Is it better to set tournament dates ourselves and then ask for
bids to
host them or is it better to see who is interested first and then fit
the
schedules around them? Or should I first ask the NZFDA list for what
and
when tournaments are being planned?
Whatever the decision, I would like to start the process of
scheduling/asking for bids at the end of next week (17th May) so the
calendar is set well in advance. If there seems to be no consensus
either
way then I will set a tournament calendar myself and ask for bids/wait
for
complaints =>.
At least to start with, are there any other tournaments known of
besides the
following;
Brass Monkey
Indoor Nationals
Star Wars
Taupo Hat
Tour 1
Tour 2
Tour 3
NZ Open
Nelson Beach
And who is the best person to contact from Disc Golf to check their
calendar?

2) My thoughts on the Tour/NZ Open:
The tour is great - provides a set of goals to work towards through
the
summer, gives teams something to play for that extends beyond just one
weekend and makes sure major tournaments are held over different
geographical areas. I have two concerns -
a) Compared to a few years ago, the amount of game time in a weekend
is
considerably less. What used to be a guaranteed 3 or 4 games x 1 1/2
to 2
hours is now 3 (or occasionally just 2) games x 1 1/4 hours. With the
high
cost of travelling to and relative infrequency (compared to Europe,
North
America) of tournaments in NZ, I think we should be aiming to provide
a
couple of full days of games at each tour event. Certainly we could
be
starting earlier (like game on at 9am - Aussie Nats) than we do and we
(the
UPC) could be taking a more active interest in the draw to ensure a
decent
number of games for all teams on both days. It may make the draw more
difficult but I think it would make tournament weekends more rewarding
for
all the travel and training that is put in. Your thoughts?
b) There seem to be a higher proportion of one-sided games at tour
event and
the NZ open than there have been in previous years. In addition, tour
results from last season seem to place most teams quite easily in
either an
'upper' tier or a 'lower' tier. Though I have not have any time to
work
further on this, I would like to pursue the possibility of a two-tier
draw
for each tour event and a single tier draw for the NZ Open. This would
mean
that for example, in a 8 team tour event weekend you could have 4 teams
in
each tier who would play each of the other teams in their tier twice
over
two days. Or in a 10 team tour event you could have a round robin
within
your tier and then two playoff games. Points would be accumulated over
the
tour as a whole and the winner would have the highest aggregate at the
end
(just like the English Premier League). The NZ Open would then be
exactly
that - open to everyone to have a go (just like the FA Cup). There are
many
issues to sort through first but I think the idea has merit enough to
discuss further. More thoughts to come....

3) I guess this relates to having more input into tournament draws
and
timetables to ensure lots of game time for all. Any more to it than
this?


Enough from me - what are your thoughts?

Thanks

Justin