Sponsorship news: European U20 Ultimate Frisbee Championships – The Final Flight

The European Under-20 Ultimate Frisbee Championships were held August 3-9 in Trnava, Slovakia, writes Sports News Blitz’s Ultimate expert Chris Wirszyla.

The tournament featured 31 teams in three divisions: mixed, open, and women, with the Hungarian team taking the mixed division and the Italians proving too much to handle in the open and women’s divisions.

In previous columns, we have followed Bella Wirszyla as she trained with the U20 Great Britain Women’s team.

For the better part of eight months, the team met in various locations around England to train, usually over a weekend, to improve their Ultimate skills and work together as a group.

In addition, Bella was sponsored by Sports News Blitz and worked hard in the gym, while also training with the Leeds Leeds Leeds club and the all-female Horizon team out of Leeds.

Beautiful Slovakia

Trnava, Slovakia, is a wonderful, small, historical European city, with a beautiful city square full of cafes, shops, churches, and incredible bakeries!

The food was delicious and my wife and I dined at fantastic restaurants and sampled the local fare. Prices were incredibly cheap and we left each dining establishment fully satiated.

The venue for the event was clean, well-organised, and within 15 minutes walking distance from our hotel. This was so much better than the hour-plus it took last year to get to the tournament site in Ghent, Belgium.

In between the hotel and the venue was a delightful aquapark, which we enjoyed every day, with slides, warm massage pools, and plenty of space to lay out and catch some rays.

READ MORE: Ultimate Frisbee news: A look at Bella Wirszyla’s flight path in the sport

Tough tournament

The girls were a bit overmatched in their first two games against Italy and Belgium, losing both by identical 15-2 scores. Those games were learning experiences which the team brought to the next several games.

They did better against Czechia and Italy but once again came up on the wrong end of the score, although you have to give the girls credit as they were playing their hearts out.

The final two games of the initial round were against Germany and Austria and were very competitive, with GB again losing 14-11 and 13-11. Again, the girls played their hearts out, leaving it all on the field, only to come up short. They finished pool play 0-6.

The tournament continued with two pools, and GB, Austria, and Germany were in the second pool, where the girls were again beaten by Germany, 15-8, and lost a heartbreaker to Austria, 14-13.

In the end, they finished the tournament with an 0-8 record but were competitive in many of the games.

Coaching decisions

I hesitate to include this, but feel I must, as someone who started playing in 1984, has established clubs, and taught Ultimate as a university course.

The girls were 0-8, yes, but could and should have won several games. I understand I was not the coach. I understand the coaches gave their time.

But when you are faced with situations that you do not adjust to, what should be common sense when playing invasion-type games, then are you really coaching?

Simply put, other teams adjusted to the conditions and our team didn’t.

Three things specifically had many of the parents upset that the coaches did not adjust to.

First, the wind was definitely a factor in most of the games. When you have the wind, it is an opportunity to get better field position for your team and put the other team in a difficult field position.

We had so many opportunities to ‘go long’ in a one-on-one situation. At best, this results in a touchdown and failing a catch, it puts the other team deep in their end, having to go against the wind.

The other teams did this with success. Our team failed to take advantage of the wind. Many times, this resulted in a turnover with the other team in an excellent field position.

Second, and I will never understand this, if we force a turnover, especially close to their goal line, the nearest person should pick the frisbee up and start the offence before the defence has time to get set.

I was incredulous that every time we forced a turnover, our players were instructed to let the handler walk up to the disc and wait for the offence to get into their stack position.

This means the defence has time to get set up. There was a situation where we forced a turnover a metre from their goal line. We had a three-on-one advantage where all we had to do was pick the disc up, split the defence, and make an easy throw to the open person.

But our girl walked up to the disc and waited until the whole offence was set, which means the defence was also set. And we then turned it over. I was so frustrated.

Third, the girls were told not to throw the overhand throw, one of the three main throws in Ultimate.

Plenty of times we were faced with a zone defence and all we had to do was throw it over the top of the zone. The other teams were doing it, why weren’t we?

Many of the parents were also frustrated (mad?) the way the coaches, in the final several games, were not playing all the players, but instead playing the ones they knew best.

I was glad they recognised that Bella, despite being one of the youngest on the team, was also one of the most skilled defensively, as well as certainly being one of the most fit.

She was the designated ‘puller’ and gave it all defensively.

In every game, the opposing team gives a player on the other team their MVP award.

In the Czechia game, Bella was awarded the MVP, for her hustle, great ‘pulls’, which is the throw-off after a point is scored, and for her tremendous defence. 

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Ultimate Frisbee news: Bella Wirszyla driven by ambition to be the best

Learning experience

All in all, it was a great tournament and a great learning experience that showed the girls what they need to work on to compete with the best.

Bella was super excited to do just that, working on those things in order to excel at the next level.

She was also thrilled to learn that next year, the World Championships for the U20 team is in Logrono, Spain.

She has already doubled down on Duolingo in anticipation!

READ NEXT: Explainer guide to Ultimate Frisbee - you play on the beach, right?