In my last piece, I discussed what other sports can be analogous to ultimate. (there are a few comments on it; if you didn't read them, it might be worth another look). I really hope people find some use in analogies with non-North American sports; purely because the rest of the world needs all the advantages it can get if we're ever to challenge North American dominance.
I found this article interesting too; based on some studies of the birthplace of professional athletes in the states, the author speculates that it's better to partake in a wide variety of sports when you're young. As opposed to the Tiger Woods approach of early specialisation.
Perhaps this is something we can consider an advantage to us? (Alas, probably not over the Americans).
I think (without much supporting evidence) that playing a wide variety of different sports is more common for kids in Ireland, than in most countries. I still remember the out-half of our under 16 Rugby team leaving at half time to go and play a Hurling match and such occurrences weren't considered unusual of a Saturday morning.
Of course, there aren't many ultimate players that have never played anything else, so the base number when comparing how many other sports people have played is probably at least 1.
PDF; The Flowers From My Mother's Garden
4 years ago
I know that the FAI encourages players to play 3 sports up to 12, 2 up to 15 and then thats when kids should specialise.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly Damien Duff got his jinky runs from playing Rugby.
Also its funny you should mention that you played rugby because I always find it is very hard to teach beginners coming from Rugby how to cut because they only ever knew how to run in one direction.
I wonder if the FAI lose many 12 or 15 year olds?
ReplyDeleteThe answer is definitely yes, but that has more to do with kids changing school and finding things like drink and women rather then a recommendation from the FAI that 99% of kids never hear about
ReplyDeleteTo answer your original question though in my opinion the sports which most benefit people coming to frisbee are:
1. Hurling/Football
2. Rugby
3. Soccer
This might have something to do with the fact that this is also the most popular sports of UL students in order. So maybe GAA players seem better at ultimate then soccer players simply because there are more of them here.