BananaCut

The three-day tournament in the midst of the World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan wrapped up with the United States victorious over Japan, who they lost to earlier in the day in pool play, in the Gold Medal Game 13-6. Australia defeated Canada 13-8 for the Bronze Medal, and Great Britain beat out Chinese Tapei for fifth place.

With the '09 games just around the corner, we bring a couple of perspectives from the '05 team that was victorious in Germany, and take a brief look ahead at what the winter might bring, pending more information from the UPA. Enjoy.

The site is a Google Map mashup for Ultimate pickup games. It's basically a big map with markers that represent pickup games. Game coordinators can add their game to the map and keep it updated with accurate information. Each game has comments and an RSS feed so people can keep a running commentary about their game and track updates without having to visit the site.

(2)If Dylan Tunnell isn't on the world games team it's pretty much a huge joke. Chain was 5-0 with Dylan and 0-2 without him this weekend....not an accident...completely changes the game when he's on the field.

On Monday the UPA, along with head coach Greg Connelly, announced the 20 person roster for the 2009 IWGA World Games in Tapei this summer. Of the 20, thirteen will be named to the full squad and seven will remain as alternates. The squad is as follows:

Yes, lots on our plate these days. Club Nationals, a looming college season, but I want to talk about something else. The 2009 World Games are just around the corner and if the U.S. national team wants to improve the selection process from 2005 the time to start thinking about that is now (or, weeks & months ago really, but now will suffice).

Aside from all the College Ultimate going on, there is this little tournament in Vancouver happening this August 2nd-9th, the WFDF (World Flying Disc Federation) World Ultimate and Guts Championships. In accordance with the WFDF rules, a team is invited to represent their country if they win their country’s National Championship the previous year.

Team USA leaves today for the other side of the Pacific, where they will defend the World Games Ultimate title that the USA won in Germany in 2005. We were lucky enough to find ten members of Team USA who could answer questions about their specialties.

Here's a great quote: "what a coach knows but his players don't is irrelevant when it comes to winning games". This I interpret, as a coach, is your goal is to convey information about the game, the situation, and the skill to your players. This passing of information is done at practice and in games.