Women’s Ultimate in Scotland – An Interview with Rhona Gordon

Rhona speaks to us about Scottish women’s team Swift, her push for the  development of the division in Scotland, and some issues we see in women’s ultimate.

 

Tell us a bit about Swift – who you are, what your goals have been in the past, and what they are this year.

Swift is a Women’s team, based all over Scotland and is the main option for Scottish women to play competitively. In the past few years, we’ve been somewhere between building an elite first team and trying to develop womens ultimate in Scotland, causing us to end up pushing for both. Not that this approach hasn’t worked (last year Swift 1 got their highest placement in years while we simultaneously managed to send 2 teams to every tour for the first time), but with the frisbee gods determining that the 2018 season will be a mixed one in Scotland we decided to put all of our eggs in one basket and make development our main goal.

Although Swift’s goals have differed over the past few years, the amount of effort the captains and committee members have put into building womens ultimate has not dwindled and it shows. The majority of our first team from last year are not able to play Swift at all this year due to clashes with their mixed team trainings in preparation for WUCC. If this had happened one or two years ago it would have written us off completely, yet this year we are still comfortably sending two teams to tour 1, and I’m pretty proud of that.

There’s been disagreement about what is best for the development of womens in Scotland. There’s the belief that Swift’s approach is detrimental, particularly in Glasgow, and that if Glasgow based players moved away from Swift and focused on a Glasgow based women’s team that we’d see two strong womens teams in Scotland. Although on paper this may be effective, the reality of getting at least 14 female players on a regular basis (even monthly) to train takes more commitment than you would think and previously hasn’t been an option for any Scottish city. We are only just beginning to see this in Edinburgh with Edinburgh Ladies Frisbee (ELF) who have the numbers to start looking at local trainings, but in Glasgow we still don’t have the numbers or the commitment for this type of team to be sustainable. This is why there is such a draw for players to Swift, if you want to improve and are willing to commit to do so, Swift will facilitate that. I wouldn’t be half the player I am today if I wasn’t able to train and play with Swift.

 

Tell us about what you are doing this year to try and develop women’s ultimate in Scotland, and how you think this might help achieve Swift’s goals.

As you would expect in a development year our trials were very open – we just wanted to know that players were committed to coming along to train. Edinburgh is our biggest player base followed by Glasgow and so we finish every training with an East vs West game and ask people to pick who they are most affiliated with. We’re also playing some warm up games against SMOG as Swift East and Swift West in May and will likely do the same at Tour 1. I like this because it encourages healthy competition and enhances connections within regions, which is important in Scottish ultimate moving forward. I think when the time comes to have two Scottish womens club teams the natural split will be between Glasgow and Edinburgh, so it makes sense to build what we can in these areas.

 

Why do you think it is so important to focus specifically on developing women’s ultimate in Scotland? And do you think it is important to have a focus like this across the division as a whole as the sport grows and develops?

How long have you got? In the women’s division it increases the participation which leads to better attended more regular local women’s trainings, allowing us to play at a higher standard, helping Scotland to become more dominant. For anyone who plays mixed, equal male and female participation means that teams wouldn’t have to miss out on tournaments because they don’t have enough ladies. I suppose if you’re a man that’s only interested in playing open then you might not be that bothered about women’s development, but you should be, at the very least so that you can stop receiving all the notifications from UK ultimate pick up from teams who “could do with a few more ladies for MT1”. But in all seriousness, something like equal male and female participation would be amazing for the sport and I do think it’s something we should all be working towards in Scotland.

 

How do you think women in ultimate fare compared to women who play other sports?

I’d say compared to other sports the community in ultimate does well to actively address women’s issues in the sport. For example, I play rugby and occasionally the club I play for would hold mixed touch rugby games, at one of these games last year I scored a try but the guy I got past to score was then heckled by his friends for being “scored on by a girl”. No-one would say this out loud on the pitch in ultimate (at least not within my earshot). It’s very easy for ultimate players to be up on our high horse about gender issues in sport, but I think we should take a step down for now – there’s still a lot more to do to help women feel accepted. Whilst no-one would heckle a man for being scored on by a woman for fear of offending the woman, I am well aware that comments are made quietly on side-lines regarding this sort of thing.

 

The fact that ultimate has a mixed division is a unique and for many people attractive aspect of the sport, but it is being recognised at all levels that some people might feel uncomfortable or restricted at mixed trainings or on the field as part of a mixed team. What do you think the problems are, and where do you think they arise from? What advice would you give to girls who might feel intimidated or nervous playing beside men?

The fact that ultimate has a mixed division is great, it’s what sets us apart from most other sports and what will give us publicity to become more mainstream.

I think a lot of the issues in womens engagement with ultimate comes down to confidence. I think women may be less likely to engage in training where men make up the majority because they don’t feel that they are as good as men. If an average woman shows up to a training next to an average man, she already knows that man can already jump higher and run faster than her. Not that we require men and women to play against each other but still, knowing that someone already is going to be better at this sport than you can be a little disappointing. We need to remember that although it’s important to find the source of gender issues, in a game of competitive frisbee we never need to weigh up a male against a female, comparisons don’t need to be made. Also, the elephant in the room is that there are a very small proportion of male players (and probably female players) that do have a poor attitude towards playing a mixed gender sport, which can definitely have a negative impact on and off the pitch.

I feel like in general women as a result of this have a different attitude to the game, they are more worried about doing something wrong. Think about when you’ve played with people who have been playing for around 1/2 years, how keen are the men to “shotgun” throwing the pull, and how many girls have “apologised in advance for how bad the pull is going to be”. This happens all the time.

I think I would advise any women who feel intimidated to relax – you don’t have to prove anything to anyone, be there to improve your own game and don’t worry about anyone else’s. Also, for any males that may be concerned that the females they are playing with are feeling intimidated I’d advise you to back them. Cut properly on both under and deep cuts – just as you would as a male was throwing – don’t jog round them in circles to get the disc back. Throw them the disc – don’t look them off. Knowing the separation required between a player and their defender for a pass to go is an important skill – particularly in a mixed handler. Looking off a female cutter because you can’t tell if they are free reflects poorly on your skill level and is not a good enough excuse for an experienced handler.

 

Gender equality/equity is a hot topic in ultimate at the moment, evidenced by, for example, the current trend towards changing the common term ‘man defence’ to a gender neutral ‘match’ or ‘person defence’. How do you think movements like this might help girls become more confident playing? Do you think it will work to improve female participation and representation across the sport in general?

Using the term “match” defence is a movement which I think can only be beneficial in a step towards equality. We actually polled everyone’s preference in our mixed off-season facebook group, to which there was pretty much a 50/50 split between match and man. This group was made up of the most elite players in the region – so if any of the women did have an issue with the term “man defence” it clearly hadn’t prevented them from training and playing at a high level. Perhaps if we want to know the real impact of the term “man defence” we should look a little further, to players who haven’t become quite so involved in the sport. If there is a chance that the term “man” could have been any kind of barrier to inclusion or if using “match” could increase female participation even slightly, then it’s a no brainer for me!

 

Finally, tell us specifically about the sorts of things you are doing locally here in Glasgow to try to develop women’s ultimate. Do you have any ideas or events you plan to run in the future for women to get involved in?

We are trying to replicate the success that ELF has had in Edinburgh by starting a Glasgow Ladies Frisbee facebook group (name is up for discussion – GLF doesn’t quite have the same ring to it). This isn’t a womens team right now, more an opportunity for women in Glasgow to organise throwing/training together. I’d love to get more regular throwing or even training sessions to happen and will keep trying to promote this on the group.

We ran a full ELF vs GLF game at Ravenscraig before Christmas and I would love to do something like that again. Either way ensure you are on your respective Glasgow or Edinburgh ladies frisbee group to stay up to date with any upcoming events!