BU Winter Training - Starting 15 January.

[Keith Maxwell]

In Brief:

Do you want to improve your ultimate this winter? This could be the
only way to do it in Belfast.

Training is planned for 10 Fridays from 8-10PM at Ballysillan Leisure
Centre on a third generation floodlit pitch. The training is
supported by a grant from Belfast City Council; the cost will be £20
for the 20 hours of training. It starts Friday 15 January 2010.

If you want to sign up, and agree to paying the fee, join the facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=268589966202

In Full:

Behind the scenes, Pete, Dave and I have been working to facilitate
more and better Ultimate in Belfast this winter. You may have heard
that BU was successful in its application to Belfast City Council for
some financial support. The next step is to get a regular weeknight
outdoor training session set up.

Indoors appears to be over and BU/BUG has no further hall time booked;
it looks to be time to move outside.

What we are proposing is a little different to the training that ran
in the Autumn and in previous years. Just as an example I intend to
circulate a coaching plan detailing the format for the Friday session
on the Wednesday beforehand.

We're asking people to show a commitment and sign up to a training
"course" running over ten consecutive weeks. With the same people
each week we can build on the previous weeks drills / tactics and
develop as a team. 2 hours is long enough for a proper training
session: we have time to include throwing, drills, games and more.

Although I am taking the lead in co-ordinating this I will be looking
for other people to assist with the coaching; especially those people
interested in becoming qualified coaches. Full details of what the
coaching will cover and how it will be organised will be covered once
we have enough people signed up.

Right now we need to discover are enough people not just interested in
but committed to making winter Ultimate training in Belfast a success.
Realistically we need ten people for this to work; if enough people
agree over the next week we'll go ahead with the full ten weeks. If
we don't see a sufficient level of interest over the next week we
won't.

I intend to coordinate the training, attendance, and planning through
facebook; I've set up a group called BU Winter Training and a link is
below. If you do sign up, I assume that is you agreeing to the fee
and hopefully attending most of the sessions.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=268589966202

Details of who can make the first session and what we will cover will
be circulated next week ahead of the first session on 15 January.

If you're not on Facebook, or have trouble signing up please email me
individually. Please do not just reply to the group.

Full details of the venue are:

Ballysillan Leisure Centre
Ballysillan Road
Belfast
BT14 7QP
Web: http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/leisurecentres/ballysillan/index.asp
Map: <http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=ballysillan+leisure+centre&sll=54.623838,-5.853087&sspn=0.000686,0.001709&ie=UTF8&hq=ballysillan+leisure+centre&hnear=&ll=54.638876,-5.917511&spn=0.082854,0.218697&z=12&iwloc=A&cid=11889821440561922831>

Questions:

Talking to Dave and Pete we anticipate a few questions which I try and
answer below:

Could it not be on another night?
In short no. BU struggle with venues. All sorts of teams, many more
established than us, look to use the same venues on a weeknight
during the winter. We are still relatively new with quite small
numbers. This is a first step and its certainly a step up from the
Grove. We could not find anywhere suitable on another night of the
week. I know from experience Friday night training can be a success
and even has advantages; people will be happier to socialise after
training if they don't have work the next day.

I can't make half of the sessions. Can I pay half?
In short no. This training represents great value for money. If you
can make all of the sessions you are paying £1 for each hour or £2 a
night. If you can only make half of the sessions it will cost £4 a
night. The way the grant works we have to pay up front and claim the
money back. Although the cost is reduced because of the grant, we
need to cover the full amount from our own funds first: that's one
reason to ask people to pay in a block. Another is it shows
commitment; we will not cancel this series half way through, and if
people pay at the start we won't have to. Even if you can't make all
the sessions, it is still good value, remember 1 hour at the Grove was
£3 or £4. If you really have problems, such as you know you are
working 7 of these Friday nights, please contact me individually. We'd
like people to first think, can I commit to making most of these
sessions? Are the sessions I can make worth £20?

Why are you in charge? Should we not be voting on it? Why wasn't it
done differently?
I became involved when I offered to help Dave with the grant
application. To meet the council's criteria we had to be very specific
about how we would use the grant. Some of the details of this
training had to be written onto our form in the Autumn. In effect
this is what the council agreed to support. I also think I am the only
person living in Belfast with an ultimate coaching qualification, so I
should be doing more of this.

There is a gap with no other weeknight training advertised or planned,
which this should fill.

Dave tells me numbers at training for January to March last year were
good, so lets hope enough people sign up!

[Nuncle]

How do people feel about having training on Friday nights? Is it
inconvenient enough to put you off completely?

[Chris Linter]

In Brief:

Yes

In Full:

If it were on a Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs I would be signing up. The day has put me off completely.

[Nuncle]

I would agree with Linter here Keith. It being on Friday night is
probably enough to make this not work.

Anybody else feel the same?

[Nuncle]

Plus, with the Hawaii boyos away, that will severely affect attendance
for at least 3 of the 10 weeks.

Week 1 - 15th January

Week 2 - 22nd January

Week 3 - 29th January

Week 4 - 5th February
-Windy

Week 5 - 12th February
-Windy
-Rob
-Garry
-Pete
-Greamer
-Marco

Week 6 - 19th February
-Windy
-Rob
-Garry
-Pete
-Greamer
-Marco

Week 7 - 26th February
-Windy
-Rob
-Garry
-Greamer
-Marco

Week 8 - 5th February

Week 9 - 12th February

Week 10 - 19th February

NB: -Adam Glover throughout.

[Garry Hughes]

what's the pitch look like? just size etc. 

here might be a question on some people's minds: will i need new fancy shoes to play on the 3G pitch?    Answer?

[Stephen Graham]

I would be in the same boat tbh, friday night is a bit of awkward night to have training, although I understand how hard it prob was to get this booked in the first place
 
> Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 04:26:59 -0800
> Subject: [BUGroup:5286] Re: BU Winter Training - Starting 15 January.
> From: davidham...@googlemail.com
> To: belfast...@googlegroups.com

>
> I would agree with Linter here Keith. It being on Friday night is
> probably enough to make this not work.
>
> Anybody else feel the same?

---

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[chris millar]

tbh i think i will try and attend this........i got very pissed off with the grove recently and stopped coming to indoors.....

i am in the hawaii group but im gonna try and make the effort to attend before and after

2010/1/6 Stephen Graham <stephen...@hotmail.com>

[Garry Hughes]

is this gonna be our only session? so like, if you dont attend this, its goodbye to ultimate for 3 months?

[Pete Gaston]

friday nights do not suit me either (i help at my church youth club -
have done for years).... but i will definitely attend.

for a few reasons:

1. i'm going to Hawaii. I don't want to get completely schooled and
this training will be the best we will have. i want to be training
before hawaii.
2. there wasn't a lot of options when it came to allernatives. sadly
every other sport team prefers having training on Mon-Thurs and we're
the new boys on the block.
3. it offers possibly the best opportunity for socials that we've
had. friday nights mean no work tomorrow for most of us.
4. it's cheap.... and the funding from Belfast City Council needs to
be utilised.
5. it's going to be great!!

This training isn't about convenience and compromise.... it's about
commitment to playing ultimate, to the ultimate community.

i think it can work... and sacrifice is probably required. it's not
forever. it's just until daylight returns and hopefully next year we
can get a better slot.

The pitch has FIFA accreditation and yes has rules:
1. trainers and moulded studs only (ie no metal studs or blades)
2. no food or drink
3. no plastic / glass bottles
4. no chewing gum, animals, smoking or bicycles
those restictions are for the surface itself and you can obviously
have drinks in bottles in the area around the pitch.

On 6 Jan, 16:03, Garry Hughes <garrylhug...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> is this gonna be our only session? so like, if you dont attend this, its
> goodbye to ultimate for 3 months?
>
> On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 3:10 PM, chris millar

> <chrismilla...@googlemail.com>wrote:

>
>
>
> > tbh i think i will try and attend this........i got very pissed off with
> > the grove recently and stopped coming to indoors.....
> > i am in the hawaii group but im gonna try and make the effort to attend
> > before and after
>

> > 2010/1/6 Stephen Graham <stephengraha...@hotmail.com>

>
> >  I would be in the same boat tbh, friday night is a bit of awkward night
> >> to have training, although I understand how hard it prob was to get
> >> this booked in the first place
>
> >> > Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 04:26:59 -0800
> >> > Subject: [BUGroup:5286] Re: BU Winter Training - Starting 15 January.

> >> > From: davidhammond1...@googlemail.com

> >> > To: belfast...@googlegroups.com
>
> >> > I would agree with Linter here Keith. It being on Friday night is
> >> > probably enough to make this not work.
>
> >> > Anybody else feel the same?
>

> >>  ------------------------------

> >> Use Hotmail to send and receive mail from your different email accounts. Find

> >> out how. <http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/186394592/direct/01/>

[marco]

They are excellent reasons to go.

My question would be do u have to commit to the full programme or can
u attend on a pay on the night basis?

[Garry Hughes]

excerpt from first email in the thread.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't make half of the sessions. Can I pay half?
In short no.  This training represents great value for money. If you
can make all of the sessions you are paying £1 for each hour or £2 a
night. If you can only make half of the sessions it will cost £4 a
night.  The way the grant works we have to pay up front and claim the
money back.  Although the cost is reduced because of the grant, we
need to cover the full amount from our own funds first: that's one
reason to ask people to pay in a block.  Another is it shows
commitment; we will not cancel this series half way through, and if
people pay at the start we won't have to.  Even if you can't make all
the sessions, it is still good value, remember 1 hour at the Grove was
£3 or £4.  If you really have problems, such as you know you are
working 7 of these Friday nights, please contact me individually. We'd
like people to first think, can I commit to making most of these

sessions? Are the sessions I can make worth £20? 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

although i'm kinda with marco. could we not still have a 'per-session' fee? what happens if we want to bring someone new to training? are they forbidden because they haven't paid £20 for all the sessions? 

[Nuncle]

Nice argument Pete. If the medical degree bottoms out, you'd do well
in sales. I'm a bit more resolved about attending this now.

[marco]

I like excerpts because they make me read things i don't bother to
read from lengthy prose.

I do believe i'm interested.

[Keith Maxwell]

In short:

5 people are in so far. Please ask your (summer league) teams. Sign up
deadline 12:00 Wednesday 13 January. Sign up, this is exciting!

Facebook: BU Winter Training
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=268589966202

In more detail:

5 People have signed up (Henry Hsieh, Chris Millar, David Hammond,
Peter Gaston, Keith Maxwell). Which is great because we are half way
to having enough to make this session work.

Marco and Garry are hovering as maybes and Adam and Linter are categorical nos.

Could I ask people who have seen this, to check their team mates from
summer league or the cracker have seen the announcement? I'd suggest:

Linter - Queens
Garry - Kebab Hammer
Windy - Chase
Pete - Deep Heat

Please let me know if you have spoken to your team, I appreciate the help.

To give everyone time to rearrange their Friday night if this is not
going to happen, I'm asking people to sign up by noon on Wednesday 13
January.

There are a lot of people who we haven't heard from. How about Rob,
Luke, Stu, Alan, Ben, Ob and everyone else have you seen these emails?

Garry asked about bringing along someone new. I hoped to cover this
as a "special case" like the hypothetical person who knows they are
working 7 of the nights. Unless we're overwhelmed, we will not turn
people away. Halfway through the ten weeks will not be the ideal time
to bring along a complete beginner as we'll be trying to build on
previous weeks. The great value £20 is for people signing up now,
later we could charge significantly more. I don't want to dwell on
this now, I'd like to find out do we have enough people committed to
ten weeks to run it at all. If five more people do not sign up,
there'll be no way to bring new people along, there'll be no training!

I missed a couple of things from my first long email.

Belfast City Council expressed a strong preference that we use the
grant at one of their venues. I think the discussion about venues
could be more constructive. If you know of somewhere we could train,
ask the venue for a price and times it is available. A few people
have done all of the enquiries so far, and we're working with the best
we've found.

The full list of dates is (thanks Dave):

Week 1 - 15th January
Week 2 - 22nd January
Week 3 - 29th January
Week 4 - 5th February

Week 5 - 12th February

Week 6 - 19th February

Week 7 - 26th February

Week 8 - 5th February
Week 9 - 12th February
Week 10 - 19th February

The most important point I missed from the first email was well made
by Pete: This is going to be great! Two hours of quality ultimate,
every week, a few miles from the city centre. Bargain price, proper
coaching, and something social afterwards, fantastic!

[jay cordner]

Have emailed all swerve members, i can see how this kind of training
would be very beneficial both for Belfast Ultimate and individual
players. Hope this works well

[imcalledstu]

I do shift work in the odeon over the weekends, and on a week by week
basis i will not know if i am working a friday or a saturday until the
wednesday before. I have no way of knowing if i can make any of the
weeks. sorry.

[Alan Cooper]

First of all, I’m in.

Secondly, and most importantly, good work Keith. I know you have put
in a lot of effort to apply for the grant, to organise the pitch and
will continue to do so for the sessions.

Some thoughts: The grant is an excellent opportunity for BU to
develop. We’re getting more recognition as a sport/organisation in NI
which can only be a good thing. Also the extra cash is allowing us to
use a venue at a discounted rate.

Friday nights are good for training. How better to relax after a hard
week at work than a couple of hours of exercise. I appreciate the
difficulty of getting venues and I don’t think Ballysillan is much
more difficult to get to than the Grove. I’m actually looking forward
to playing on a 3G pitch instead of the Grove’s small hall or the
muddy windy Embankment.

Skills training is one of the important parts of improving the level
of ultimate that we play. Speaking for myself, having weekly sessions
dedicated to skills will significantly improve my game. I’m pretty
confident it will improve all our games.

Other points: As for “Why are you in charge?” I really hope that
people aren’t thinking this. Anyone who has the initiative to
organise and the ability to run ultimate training, pickup, matches or
anything else should be encouraged, not hindered.

I’ll let the Queen’s team know about the sessions over the weekend.

[John Houston]

Im in ill try join group now,

Will be good to go to some training again

[Pete Gaston]

Colm + Garry are on board.

do they need to sign up to the group or is that enough?

[Stephen Graham]

Ill put my name in also, and while i wont be able to make all the sessions, ill make as many as possible
 
> Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:18:46 -0800
> Subject: [BUGroup:5330] Re: BU Winter Training - Starting 15 January.
> From: peter...@hotmail.com
> To: belfast...@googlegroups.com

---

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[Ben McF]

I haven't put my name up for this yet as Friday isn't great for me.

Looking at my diary, I can make a maximum of 4 sessions. Will def try
and make these nights and have no problem throwing in some cash if I
do make it. Sorry to be such a flaker.

[marco]

I don't think i'm on the group, but i'm also in.

[Garry Hughes]

dont think i can afford it now so dont think i'll be able to attend.

[Chris Linter]

You're the Captain :O

OVERRULED!

ABSTAINED!

RATIFIED!

[Nuncle]

Can't afford it? Why don't you pull some of that magic money you've
been printing for Hawaii and get down there. I don't want this to fall
on it's ass Garry, and you're not helping the easily scared off
Ultimate players of BU.

[Garry Hughes]

when is the last day to sign up for this? is there a last day? what are the numbers so far?

[chris millar]

i think keith was after definites by tomorrow.

Keith if you are listenning.

the dates were people are in hawaii and @siege what about having this a soley beginner week/ fortnight.
spoke to linter about it last night and will speak to ben at the weekend about getting there beginners along f they want.
just an idea so the slot isnt wasted with people not being there.

windy

2010/1/12 Garry Hughes <garryl...@googlemail.com>

[Teddy Graham]

That might not be a bad idea, I bet there are beginners who would be
intimidated with all of BUG and company showing up.

I am currently "awaiting request confirmation" or something for the fb
group, but I would like to participate in the training. LET ME IN THE
GROUP!! NOW! that is all.

Teddy

On Jan 12, 7:16 pm, chris millar <chrismilla...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> i think keith was after definites by tomorrow.
>
> Keith if you are listenning.
>
> the dates were people are in hawaii and @siege what about having this a
> soley beginner week/ fortnight.
> spoke to linter about it last night and will speak to ben at the weekend
> about getting there beginners along f they want.
> just an idea so the slot isnt wasted with people not being there.
>
> windy
>

> 2010/1/12 Garry Hughes <garrylhug...@googlemail.com>

>
> > when is the last day to sign up for this? is there a last day? what are the
> > numbers so far?
>

[Garry Hughes]

who am i kidding. count me in.  

[Chris Linter]

If other people aren't going to them all I'll sign up too 

[Garry Hughes]

can we maybe get a wee insight in to what is happening this friday. just curious. then everyone can get themselves in the mind set for the session. and will hopefully speed up the session if everyone knows what the craic is. 

just a suggestion. 

G

2010/1/14 Chris Linter <linter...@googlemail.com>

[ob]

I think Ben and Steph are looking for a lift to training on Friday,
judging by the message on the BU FB page -
http://www.facebook.com/notes/belfast-ultimate/bu-winter-training-starting-15-january/254041980208

Anyone able to help them out?

ob

[Nuncle]

I'll get them. Know where they live, and it's basically on the way.

[Nuncle]

Meant to ask, is it astros for this?

[Stephen Graham]

yes
 
> Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:55:08 -0800

> Subject: [BUGroup:5411] Re: BU Winter Training - Starting 15 January.

> From: davidham...@googlemail.com
> To: belfast...@googlegroups.com

>
> Meant to ask, is it astros for this?

---

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[Keith Maxwell]

Plan for the session is just up on the group. I'll post more this
evening when I get a decent internet connection.

Keith

[Nuncle]

Can someone pick up the Bertets (the French couple) tonight? They live
on the Ormeau Road, and could walk to QUB or similar meeting place if
you'd like.

Neither me or Al can pick them up tonight unfortunately.

Ben's mobile number is 07521358092.
Please someone help them out!

[Chris Linter]

I'll do it! Send me address Dave

[Stephen Graham]

Lintor....who all you taking up 2nite?
 
> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:12:57 +0000
> Subject: Re: [BUGroup:5462] Re: BU Winter Training - Starting 15 January.
> From: linter...@googlemail.com
> To: belfast...@googlegroups.com

>
> I'll do it! Send me address Dave

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[Chris Linter]

Me + possibly Bertets. I could take you but I'm not heading back to
Comber afterwards?

[Nuncle]

Good man Linter. Don't remember off hand. Have passed your number on,
and asked him to give his address. Just looking on Google maps, I
think it's Rossmore Avenue they're on. Green door.

Cheers! That's sorted.

[Nuncle]

Wow! Didn't know Ben lived so far out of Comber!

[Henry Hsieh]

hey linter, any chance i could get a ride too? i usually come with alan
too. i can meet you anywhere between QUB or my place (corner of Lisburn
Rd. & Sandy Row)... my mobile's 079-8212-5167. thanks! - henry