The Grapevine - 06/12

The Grapevine - this week in ultimate news!

Benji brings us the second part of his detailed breakdown of the IO break throw

As well as featuring in a UTalkRaw podcast discussing his coaching methods

This week Nakul's piece on ultimate and Depression was joint published both here on The ShowGame and on Skyd Magazine - check out and share this great article!

The GB and World Games coach Sion 'Brummie' Scone has been making waves overseas with this article on how to improve your team's offense. The piece stirred up plenty of discussion, which can be found here...

Finally the yearly UK Ultimate magazine Ultimatum is soon heading to the printing press! Take this opportunity to ensure your membership (and address!) is up to date so you don't miss out on a copy...

As always like, comment and share! JCK @ tSG

The Grapevine - 30/11

The Grapevine - this week in UK Ultimate!

UTalkRaw returns from with a great interview of Brady Meisenhelder (from pulleddisc.com) about better coaching.

Understanding Ultimate begins looking at I/O turnovers with Part One.

UK Ultimate have almost got Ultimatum ready so remember to update your membership and address, you definitely want to read this edition. Plus give the Ultimatum quiz a go on FB to get the UKU page up to 1750 likes

UOIN was won by Cambridge last weekend, make sure to follow the Women at #UWIN this weekend!

Beau Kittredge responds in hilarious fashion to an internet commentator.  

Post by Beau Kittredge.

Happy St. Andrews Day and tomorrow is the first LWL of the season! Wrap up warm!

DP @ tSG

The Grapevine - 26/07

The Grapevine this week covers every age group Juniors, U23, World Games and Masters!

We have had ECBU and still have players out in Toronto and Cali for U23 and World Games (helpful page coming soon) the Juniors have the European Youth Ultimate Championships coming up, schedule and pools is out!

As mentioned U23's is ongoing and our page is being updated daily with scores and facts, Open are in the 1v8 quarter today so keep up the support as we enter the last few days of this tournament...

...and the first days of World Games in Cali. The Opening ceremony was last night and Ultimate games start on Sunday. The TD's have arranged this amazing score reporter called WING, which will show game time, time outs, goals, assists, Ds, drops, pulls and touches during the game or during the tournament; also a fresh new tool which draws the disc trajectory. For more details check out the Grapevine WG special tomorrow.

Our coverage of ECBU is now done and Chrissy Birtwistle from the Womens team has written another piece for Forbes on failure leading to success.

After a small hiatus Ultimate Interviews returns with a chat to the Ultimate field marker Martin Rasp.

UTalkRaw is on holiday for a bit so contact Barry if you have any ideas for new shows but Understanding Ultimate is not and discusses hard work, talent and Ben Wiggins. 

xEUCF is not that far away and all the regional allocations have been decided and two Masters teams have already been accepted! Who will go from Open, Women's and Mixed teams? Regionals next weekend then Nationals over Bank Holiday to decide!

Busy times! Keep supporting the U23's with #u23wfdf and following their twitter accounts.

The Grapevine - 19/07

This weeks the Grapevine covers World Games, U23 and Ultimate Frisbee wars!!

The power of the ultimate frisbee community was proven this week with the ulti.tv campaign to make sure the World Games will be broadcasted online, for FREE. We all succeeded and listen out to hear how we can watch those games soon.

With last weeks scorcher at T3 in Cardiff, the regular season is over and full rundown and results will be released soon enough. For now enjoy some footage of Fire 2 vs DED! 

Benji discusses the combination of Spirit and economics together in Understanding Ultimate.

This weekend sees the start of the WFDF World U23 Ultimate Championships in Toronto follow results here and on twitter you can also follow each squad: Open, Mixed and Women's. Open will be playing a warm up late tonight and the opening game on Sunday, get involved! Let's GO GB!!

UTalkRaw talk to Steve Gigure in episode 28 about Lookfly and BlockstackTV including an interesting discussion on the sustainability of ultimate media. Can we last? 

Finally two pieces from the US about the warring factions of pro leagues and the USAU, a great read and analysis from the recent WFDF census with fascinating results on SkyD magazine.

WFDF World u23 Ultimate Championships, Toronto 2013.

Got a cool idea? Want to tell your story? Contribute, email in, comment! DP @ tSG

The Grapevine - 12/07

This weeks super sized The Grapevine has everything from Juniors to U23 to xEUCF 2013.

Last weekend the UKU held the Junior Championships and an inaugural UKU Schools Championships in Birmingham. Airbadgers (Exeter) defended their junior title and Flux (Twycross House School, Leicester) took the schools number one spot, congratulations to them and keep up the great work! Full results here.

Benji gets a little riled (as do many others: see the comments section) discussing incidental contact on his blog Understanding Ultimate.

Tour 3 will be in Cardiff this weekend see how everyone fared in Nottingham with our coverage of Tour 2. All details for this final part of the regular season can be found here. Will anyone challenge Clapham or Iceni? Who will finish in that top 16 and in what order? Who is the fastest man in UK Ultimate? Keep your eyes on twitter with the hashtag #ukut3 for results and more!

Barry O'Kane talks to Tim Morrill on speed and agility training for ultimate, a must listen on UTalkRaw! 

The Australian Flying Disc Association have released the WFDF preliminary U23 World Championship seedings. A huge good luck to all our U23 athletes, let's go GB! 

The Secret Frizzer gives us more insight into the Tour 2 success of EMO through coach Joe Wynder and for Devon through their coach Sam Luxa. [UPDATED: interview with Alex Cragg by tSF here.]

The TD's of xEUCF need you! Volunteers make large tournaments run smoothly, think you got what it takes? Fancy visiting Bordeaux in September and getting the highest level ultimate in Europe too? Apply here.

Finally, the Australian U23 Mixed squad have some quirky little videos on their YouTube channel. Check them out, what do you think about them?

Logo courtesy of A.F.D.A.

Remember: like, share and contribute. JCK or I will tweet small tit bits from Cardiff with #ukut3. DP @ tSG.

The Grapevine - 05/07

This weeks The Grapevine covers blogs, results and #ukut3 squads...

Full ECBU 2013 results can be found here with a lot more on the live.ecbu2013.org website! Huge congratulations go out to all who represented Great Britain and thanks to every supporter out there or back in blighty! Watch out for our insiders review in next few weeks....

Ragnarok are representing Europe at the US Open in Raleigh, North Carolina. Started play yesterday but Get Horizontal have brought together all the info you need to follow them!

Love to jack it deep? See what Benji has to say about hucking on Understanding Ultimate.

UTalkRaw is really starting to bring in the ultimate celebrities, check out episode 26 where Dan Roddick tells us about the beginnings of Ultimate itself! 

A cool analysis blog, Ultimate Strategy and Coaching has recently started looking into NexGen games with the aide of the match footage. Find it here!

Last but not least, EMO have been doing a great job on pitch and with their social media. Like their FB page where you will find not only their team lists for the upcoming #ukut3 but read the piece from Ian 'Scot' Scotland - EMO's mentality change in 2013.

EMO having their best season so far in 2013.

Enjoy the sun and Wimbledon semis and finals! More to come soon! DP @ tSG.

The Grapevine - 28/06

Check out the latest Ultimate media from home and abroad on this week's The Grapevine...

A short, but thought-provoking post on Benji's excellent understanding ultimate talks about the importance of reacting after turnovers...


Whilst you're at it check out the full footage of Bad Skid (GER) vs. Chiniya Rada (USA) - a game that some people are calling the best open final ever seen at the Windmill Windup...


In this week's UtalkRaw Barry talks to Si Hill about the future directions of British ultimate...


Well loved ultimate writer Lou Burruss returns to contributing for SkyD to the joy of Frisbee nerds worldwide. Check his post out for various assessments of the US scene so far this year, as well as hints at future articles set to tackle the status of the various professional leagues, and the status of women's ultimate.


ECBU is well under way, with GB making a strong start in all divisions. Check out live.ecbu2013.com for streaming and results, as well as Skyd's Tournament Central for in-depth coverage.


Smatt's latest post shows the madness of Tour 2 from Kapow's perspective.

Got something we've missed? Let us know! Keep up the support for team GB in Spain, and look out for The ShowGame's write-ups of Tour 2 next week... JCK @tSG

The Grapevine - 21/06

This weeks The Grapevine has a bit of Tour 2 with a smattering of news from the continent and a big chunk of ECBU!

Barry O'Kane brings us a great episode of UTalkRaw chatting to Liam Kelly on the Matalan Sporting promise and community clubs.

Benji discusses the age-old one hand vs two hand catch debate on UnderstandingUltimate.

As you all know this weekend is Tour 2, all the information you could need is here. Read our preview or for a different perspective, along with our T1 reviews, and make sure to tweet with the hashtag #ukut2.

At Tour 2 the U23 Mixed team are loaning themselves out (not many left, so get on it) to give massages/get water/carry flags. They have also set up the amazing opportunity to pit yourself against their speed gun to see who is the fastest thrower on the tour! For more details check out their FB page or message them.

World Games is only a couple weeks away! Richard "Gash" Harris has made a small trick shot video, go check it out and follow the WG team on Twitter/FB where player profiles are also being released! Sneak a peak at some of the competition on Ultiworld.

Another big GB tournament begins next Thursday in Calafell, Spain. ECBU2013 will see the maximum 7 GB Beach squads pit themselves against Europe's finest, catch our exciting preview written for SkyD magazine and follow all the action at live.ecbu2013.org. 

In preparation for ECBU, four GB teams went to Sunburn last weekend. GB Mixed won the tournament and GB Mixed Masters won spirit! Watch out Europe!

Our partners Get Horizontal are celebrating 3000 likes on their FB by having a beach party at ECBU - if you are there join the fun! Also have a read of their Windmill Windup coverage for some great photos and write ups.

So much going on, and we will cover as much as we can! Still looking for a spectator at T2 for tweeting, apply within! Laters, DP @ tSG. 

The Grapevine - 14/06

The Grapevine this week covers ECBU, U23's and much more...

To start us off Benji asks Who Should You Listen To on Understanding Ultimate.

SkyD magazine announced their coverage of the upcoming European Championships for Beach Ultimate and the organisers have also created a live page ready for results, pics to follow from home.

Make sure to follow all the GB Beach squads going into ECBU on twitter, this helpful hashtag page will assist you. Also if you're going to Sunburn this weekend you get a chance of playing 4 of the squads (Mixed, Women's, Grand Masters and Mixed Masters) plus seeing a show game with the two mixed teams!

Now for some shameless plugging: we got a mention on SkyD magazine with the Irish piece from Mark and on ...

UTalkRaw who interviewed John Maddox and Hannah Brew from the GB U23 Mixed squad, keep updated on their FB page. Also listen to episode 23 here, particularly the last few seconds. 

Finally, with T2 coming up fast relive T1 through our Twitter and this week's review coverage.

GB Ultimate 2013.

Keep informed on fb, twitter and RSS feeds on the right! DP @ tSG. 

The Grapevine - 07/06

This weeks The Grapevine features a lot of home grown works along with some nice additions from the continent and further! 

Chrissy Birtwistle has written a piece for Forbes about "What defines you?", she talks about what normal people might perceive of Ultimate and it's players and how being different is a good thing. 

UTalkRaw talk to BULA president Patrick van der Valk in episode 22 

Matthew "Smatt" Hodgson, has written an opinion piece on Ultiworld giving us the key to Ultimate in the olympics.

Summer is here (finally) and what better place to go for you holidays than Croatia where an awesome looking tournament is being set up! See here for more details. 

ECBU has got it's spirit director in Belgian Fery Vluff.

Understanding Ultimate have had a busy week but Benji's last post was on how life just isn't fair? 

SkyD start their ECBU 2013 coverage with the hosts Spain. Read up here.

Ultimate Interview talk to Tim Morrill on his high performance workout for Ultimate for a second time.

Finally, you may have noticed we have not run T1 reviews yet. This is due to us wanting to do as much as possible. Hence next week we should be having a division per day! Exciting right? 

Ultiworld - the premier news media site dedicated to the sport of Ultimate

Share, like, tweet, <enter social media outlet>. DP @ tSG.

The Grapevine - 31/05

This weeks Grapevine mostly concentrates on the upcoming London's Calling with a bit of extra news thrown in for you!

Benji (Understanding Ultimate) tells us of a really cool (geeky too; but we love it) research project looking at how we throw. If you want to get involved read here.... 

Pittsburgh beat Central Florida to claim a back to back USA College Championship title, whilst Oregon take down Carleton for the Women's top spot. 

London's Calling is this weekend with teams from Europe mainland coming also, we are very excited here. We have our Open and Women's previews, whilst... 

The Secret Frizzer gives us their insights into the upcoming weekend, and...

PushPass also release some footage of last years Nationals along with opinions on games to watch at T1!

More exciting news: we at tSG have partnered up with Get Horizontal - Europe's premier Ultimate magazine - and have started this off with a post on how we do mixed!

As ever Barry O'Kanes podcast UTalkRaw has a great episode talking to the Australian Ultimate filming company ultiTV, go listen here.

The American media site Ultiworld tells us the top contender for U23 in the Open division, watch our guys this weekend in the U23 showgame vs Ireland. You might even see tSG at the show game. 

The TD's of xEUCF have just brought online the website, where they will score report, offer news and more!

Super exciting news: The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided on Friday the 31st of May 2013 to grant the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) provisional IOC recognition during their meeting in St Petersburg (Russia). From WFDF we got this and notably this. 

Love Get Horizontal? Love The Show Game? Well we have partnered up now, awesome right?!

Excited? We certainly are, the season is in full flow and we have so much coming up. Stay tuned on fb, twitter and more. Remember #ukut1 for this weekends action. tSG

The Grapevine - 24/05

This weeks The Grapevine covers A LOT! Get clicking!

Barry O'Kane interviews the one and only Melissa Witmer author of "The Ultimate Athlete Handbook", in Episode 20 of UTalkRaw.

Understanding Ultimate discuss the idea of the 'Magic Hour' of a training session.

Full team list for London's Calling next weekend released including CUSB (Italy), Cota Rica (Italy), Yaka (France) and Bad Skid (Germany)! 

Mark Earley writes for Get Horizontal on the recent Irish Mixed Beach team win at Calafell Arena

In the second Road to Worlds blog the Open squad give their views on the run up to Toronto.

With the return of the Secret Frizzer he (or she) published a gossip piece on player movement and what it might mean for the upcoming open tour. Upon reading this EMO Captain, Joe Wynder, wanted to set things straight from his perspective and promptly got an interview.  Interesting read and great banter, watch out for more from tSF here!

With USA College Nationals this weekend see what hosts Wisconsin have been up to in the work up to Madison.

PushPass have been working hard to get all of the University Nationals 2013 games online (in great multiple angle HD quality) buy the subscription here. Highlights can be found here along with 4 PP shorts: Who is fouling whom?, What's going on here?, When it goes a bit wrong and Worst Pull ever; highlighting the funnier side of Ultimate. 

Like, SHARE, tweet and contribute! What would you like to see next? Write on our fb page or tweet us.

The Grapevine - 17/05

GB Trick Shots, blog mash and Ben Wiggins working at Five: all in this weeks The Grapevine.

Dominic Clark and Justin Foord have some fun in the sun with Mazda, great work guys. No messing around with bins either!

Ultimate in Poland is exploding and Get Horizontal cover a recent tournament there plus check out all their Tom's Tourney coverage, including a great review, where Blue Arsed Flies won SPIRIT!! 

GB u23s have all been training hard hear about the Women's squad on the UKU website.

In a total mash up of UK/Irish blogs Mark Earley interviews UTalkRaw's Barry O'Kane; awesome!

Barry interviews the Ultimate physios who aid the GB squads at their tournaments, talking about surviving tournaments.

ECBU organisers are looking for a Director of Spirit read about and apply from here.

Benji Heywood writes more on cutting, juking in particular, on his blog.

Over in the US, Tim Morrill the undisputed king of strength and conditioning in Ultimate does an AMA on Reddit. Also see Ben "the Postman" Wiggins working at Five Ultimate.

ECBU in June where 7 GB squads will battle it out for beach glory!

Like, share, comment! tSG

The Grapevine - 10/05

The Grapevine covers almost every UK blog and a mention to our European partners Get Horizontal! 

Mark Earley interviews the Shiok Ultimate player Nick See on Ultimate Interviews.

Our European friends Get Horizontal review the Belgian mixed tournament G-SPOT, where Cambridge came out Spirit winners! Also go read a preview of Tom's Tourney where some UK teams will party and play over in Brugges as of yesterday.

Barry O'Kane talks to Lauren Bryant and David Pryce on his unedited UTalkRaw Episode 18 about GB Beach Mixed, part of the GB squad series.

An amazing slo mo video of a recent MLU game shows us how Ultimate should be filmed.

Glastonbury has opened its registration for the weekend of 7/8th September, go register here. 

A great piece on why children should be their own referees in sports and in particular play Ultimate.

Donate towards the GB World Games cause, it's not a cheap trip to Columbia!

Benji Heywood talks about cutting and in particularly getting separation on a new post in the Understanding Ultimate blog.

Finally, go see who we are and what we are all about!

The UKU works alongside Matalan and Steve Redgrave to get school children into Ultimate. Photo Courtesy of Carl Fox.

A quick request: anyone want to write more on the Women's division?! We are in need of such a writer, please contact us! Also remember to share, like and tweet :). 

The Grapevine - 03/05

This week's The Grapevine covers a lot,  from coaching blogs to ESPN's coverage of Ultimate in the US.

With true comic book style KaPoW are releasing player profiles on their Facebook, Twitter and website. Look out for more as they are released!

The GB Mixed Beach team are also giving us an insight into their players, go like and see! 

News of ESPN3's coverage of the US College Tour and Triple Crown Tour has been released for some time now but an introduction video can be found here!

GB World Games win another Mixed Tour, read a piece from a Herd players perspective.

Read part 1 of Benji Heywood's blog post on Practice to Rehearsal and don't fear find part 2 here.

PushPass step up a gear with replays and multiple angles, check out a highlight from the Uni Nationals Open Final. For full footage go to the Pushpass website and buy full games or tournament subscriptions in HD! Also go read and comment on their 'Drama' section where a new post on UKU Spirit Sanctions went up this week. 

US College Nationals is looming and so their yearly Callahan Award is being decided, check out Dylan Freechild's (Oregon, Rhino and Nexgen) bid video plus the other awesome nominees in both Open and Women divisions here.

The UKU opens up entry for the premier Open event of 2013: Open Tour 1 - London's Calling!

UTalkRaw Episode 17 where Barry O'Kane talks to the GB u23 Women, listen here.

Remember to comment, share, like, tweet and contribute! 

The Grapevine - 26/04

Every Friday - A summary of some of the latest Ultimate based posts from UK, Europe and beyond...

Ka-Pow! repeat last year's win at the DED warm-up, write up by Eddy Van Der Kloot.

Our friend and contributor Mark Earley gives us another great interview with the Ireland u23 Open coach Leo Yoshida.

Barry O'Kane talks to the one and only Ultimate Rob in Episode 15 and aforementioned Mark Earley in Episode 16 (with a great shout-out cheers Mark!) on UTalkRaw.

UKU AGM takes place at MT2 in Manchester, agenda here.

PushPass have filmed 20 games at Uni Nationals, buy and watch for only £8.99.
Also check out the latest post in 'Drama' discussing the recent ESPN/USA Ultimate deal.

Cardiff beat Swansea in their University varsity, watch some footage here.

WFDF announces the number of preliminary slots countries are allocated for their club teams at WUCC 2014 in Italy.

The GB World Games team was announced a fortnight ago for Cali 2013 

Do you own or know of a blog or website that should be here? Let us know!