BD,
To add to what Berry said a couple of e-mails ago: I think it was Brummie (Sion Scone) who made the extraordinarily spirited call of 'uncontested' in the final point of the EUC final. Credit where credit's due. I was shouting 'Contest it!' in my Ale fueled stupidity. An excellent example for all players who had the privilege of watching that final. Such spirit has certainly rubbed off on me. Hope it has rubbed off on others too. In regards to this Voice/Alternative Voice stuff, I think calling yourself the 'Alternative Voice' in order to raise issues which may get you chastised by the community is an understandable safeguard. I have often wished I could raise issues in relative anonymity. What the Alternative Voice has done though is raised concerns in a measured and intelligent manner. Just look at the responses, all have been measured and intelligent. A stark change to how things are usually discussed on Britdisc. He/She wrote an in depth e-mail with lots of information about the finals and matches that lead up to them and also seemed to be very well placed when recounting stories of on-field antics. He may not have got everything right, but who has yet? I think it the fact that teams are more and more likely to have a 'manager' or 'coach' needs to be addressed. In the past I have heard a coach shouting things to his team seemingly forgetting that the other team can hear the derogatory remarks being made. At a more junior or beginner level even shouting "He's got nothing" or similar can have massive repercussions on a players self belief and opinion of the team/player/sport/coach involved. I certainly wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that before I had learnt how to channel it to my gain. (Can I use the word channel? Sounds a bit hippy...) after playing for only a short while. I am of course not suggesting the Juniors are necessarily inexperienced. I'm not suggesting that this happened in any of the matches last week, but it has happened before in my presence. I think referring to a coach/player as a legend and thinking that absolves him of blame is a wrong. People should be responsible, whether they give up lots of time to volunteer to coach teams or whether they're legends. If someone gives a lot to the sport or teaches a bunch of player's loads then the burden of responsibility is perhaps even greater. Rightly or wrongly his mistakes will be magnified and his glories will be diminished. Always happens in sport. In football if a team wins, the players get a raise and more sponsorship contracts. If the team loses, the manager gets fired. It's not fair. Unfortunately, as I glanced at my subject line at the word 'Alternative' I got angry as I feel the word suggests that someone else has a correct or more valid perspective/opinion/voice to which mine is the alternative. Maybe The 'Voices' in this saga may want to be a little more bashful or more aware that sarcasm does not translate very well by e-mail when thinking up names for themselves in future. Yes, spirit may be very easy to define but it is very difficult to uphold. If you land out, you're out. It's black and white. I do not think spirit is black and white at all. I don't think the opposition calling more often or sticking to their guns actually works as a counter measure in the face of bad spirit. If you're abusive towards a member of the opposite team why not have some means of something like a 'sin bin'. It has its problems but it would certainly reinforce that spirit is a rule. When rules are broken, there needs to be repercussions. At the moment, there aren't any other than someone might be a bit sh*ttier to me. Needless to say, it was an excellent tournament. Well done to all the staff. Great performances by ALL GB players and I only wish I was able to get more time off work to see more of it Thanks for getting this far down an email that was only supposed to say 'well done' to Brummie. pugh Obviously not views of my team as I haven't mentioned them... __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed
