From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Thu Apr 30 17:08:50 1998 Received: (from daemon@localhost) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.8.7/8.8.8) id RAA13598 for britdisc-outgoing; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 17:03:09 +0100 (BST) Received: from gatekeeper.benfield.co.uk (gatekeeper.benfield.co.uk [193.129.127.221]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id RAA13581 for <Britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 17:03:03 +0100 (BST) Received: by gatekeeper.benfield.co.uk; id RAA04446; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 17:01:04 +0100 (BST) Received: from unknown(194.10.14.28) by gatekeeper.benfield.co.uk via smap (3.2) id xma004428; Thu, 30 Apr 98 17:00:40 +0100 Received: by BENEXCHANGE with Internet Mail Service (5.0.1458.49) id <JJSFMDC4>; Thu, 30 Apr 1998 17:02:07 +0100 Message-ID: <2C03D53C1CB6D111AC1C00805FEA5AC548AED0@BENEXCHANGE> From: Colin Wagstaff <Colin.Wagstaff@benfieldgreig.com> To: "'Britdisc'" <Britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk> Cc: "'FEE'" <feemacrae@hotmail.com> Subject: Women's Ulimate Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 17:02:05 +0100 X-Priority: 3 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.0.1458.49) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk All, Within the Ultimate community there are those who wish to play at the highest level they can and there are those who just want to play and have fun. I'm not saying you can't do both, but it seems the general feeling is that you prioritise one or the other in the way (spirit) that you play. This is true for open, women's and co-ed. With the limited numbers of women players in the country especially those who wish to take their and the women's game generally to a higher level many women turn to develop their skills and playing ability in the open arena. I'm not going to get into talking about the differences in the way women/men play as these have been discussed elsewhere, we just need to all apprecite that there differences. The top level open teams in this country and most others in the world contain male and only male players, that are of a good enough standard to play at that level. If there are women who are good enough to play on open teams around then undoubtedly they will eventually make there way on to the open teams, beacause that is what they are, open!!! Open to all Men, Women and Juniors a like. Only recently have we seen Juniors able to play on top open teams, roll on the day when there are women good enough to play open. Women at the top of the game want to improve but without other (better) women to learn from they are unable unless they travel. i.e. foreign tournaments or actually living in the USA or Sweden, for example. Many however can't or won't do the above and are trapped trying to play open or co-ed ultimate where there true skill in the womens game is not fully exploited. Some women wonder why they cannot play on the best open teams now!, in order to push themselves harder, even when they are not good enough to compete at that level. It's simple women want to play to the highest level possible, men want to play at the highest level possible, this cannot be done on the same pitch so it's got to be separate! If you put sustandard players on a top team that team is not the best it can be, so they don't get in. Harsh but incredibly fair! Ultimately we need more top standard women players, that means more women players generally, but that is going to take time. In the meantime Quality rather than quantity is what we require, either we import women from other sports or from abroad. Just a thought, or two, Colin. UTI.