2023 season & News

A huge shout out to our GB Masters superstars Eyan Sham (GB Masters Mixed), Kirsten Wells (GB Masters Mixed) and Sam Fisk (GB Masters Womens) who are competing at the European Masters Ultimate Championships taking place in Bologna, Italy from October 12th to 15th. The whole is SYC is supporting you all the way!

At the end of September we kicked off our off season by teaming up with BBB_Training at CrossFit Watford. We focused on plyometrics, hip extension, and power cleans, to help us learn some lifts and exercises that will help us.bud explosivity over the off season into next year! We also ended on a fun AMRAP that pushed our partner work to the limit. Thank you so much for having us and we can't wait to implement what we learnt over the next few months! You can find out when down over on Instagram.

This was the big one - everything we had been working towards. We started Saturday with pool games against Horizon, SCRAM, Gravity and Spice, coming out with 3 win and 1 loss against Spice. This set us up for a crossover classic against LMU first game on Sunday. A game of ebbs and flows with LMU taking the first half convincingly, but it wasnt too late for the SYC special - a comeback. The second half had the sidelines crowded and loud, with our D line going on a huge run we brought the game back to within one, but unfortunately time ran out and LMU put the final point in for the win. Finishing out of the top 4 was heatbreaking but we fought for the rest of the weekend with two games against SCRAM and Flame, finishing the weekend 6th. Maybe not the weekend we wanted, but the start of something special.

Finishing position - 6th

A huge shout out to our GB U24 superstars Phoebe Teo (GB U24 Womens), Connie Lynch (GB U24 Womens) , Katie Melville (GB U24 Womens) and Miyen Ho (GB U24 Womens) who competed at the World U24 Ultimate Championships which took place in Nottingham, UK from  July 2nd to 8th. The GB U24 Womens team finished 6th - this is the highest finish for the GB U24 Womens team to date and we couldnt be more proud of our SYC representatives and the team as a whole! Congratulations!

Windmill Windup 2023 was our first appearance in Amsterdam since 2017 and we were THRILLED to be back! Despite EasyJet doing their best to ensure our players didn't make it to and from Windmill, we took a large squad and took flight with some incredible games.  Finishing the weekend with 4 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw, a huge shout out to all of our opponents - including La Septima from Colombia with whom we had an amazing game against AND we found had a players who was part of the first couple of SYC squads! Frisbee aside, we had the best time embracing everything Windmill offers, including the silent disco and karaokee - a great way to spen the weekend with sun, fun, friends and frisbee. Did we also mention we finished 3rd in spirit! We cant wait o hopefully be back again next year.

Finishing position = 11th (3rd in spirit)

Back to Nottingham for UKU Windfarm and a weekend that did not disappoint! We began out weekend with some GREAT pool games against GB, Bristol and Lemmings coming out with two losses and one win respectively. This set us up for a cracking powerpool against GB U24s and Ireland U24s. Two firey games featuring some of our own SYC players on the GB U24s, and showcasing everything the next generation of Ultimate has to offer! Coming out of the powerpool in 2nd place leaving us with one final game vs Bristol ... a rematch from the pool .... which gave us our final win of the weekend! A great way to end and thank you as always to Bristol for another great game! Building brick by brick.

Finishing position - 7th

Mid May saw SYC off on their first international tournament attending Vienna Spring Break hosted by Vienna Box. While the weather may have been drizzley, there was nothing grey about the performance SYC put on! Comig out 2nd in our pool with a win against Austria U24s and a loss vs Switzerland, we were set up for a quarterfinal against Vienna Box. Based out our 2022 history (multiple universe point games) we knew this was going to be another scorcher. With the game running over and us being the only game left at the pitches, and some highlight plays from both sides, Box took the game 15-13 - thank you for ANOTHER fantastic game! We cant wait for more! Sunday was rained out and we finished in joint 5th place after a 'semi' win over Catchup but unable to play out final game of the weekend. A great first international tournament for the 2023 squad!

Finishing position - 5th

The first tournament of the season in the books and Spring Invite saw SYC enter 2 teams! SY-See and SY-Sea (clever eh!) took the fields in West London to dust off some early season cobwebs and build connections through lots of reps and lots of pitch time. Taking two teams to a tournament is a lot of work for leadership so we'd like to give a huge shout out to James Burbidge and Caitlin Wilson our coach and captain for running clipboards and working tirelessly to keep both teams running smoothly! Step 1 of 2023 done .... we cant wait to see how our huge squad shapes up for the rest of the year!

Finishing positions - 8th & 11th

2023 saw SYC swapping grass for turf by competing at our first ever indoor nationals! From qualifying at Regionals to competing at Nationals, we had a blast playing against some fantastic opposition, hanging out with our teammates, and getting some reps in before trials! Shout out to Flux Ultimate with whom we had a cracking game to end the weekend - the future of Ultimate is bright! Indoors may not be our thing but we sure had fun doing it, and we cant wait to give it another go next year!

So far we've held 2 SYC Saturday sessions. These sessions are open to all female matching players who want to experience a SYC session! On January 14th our session was accompanied by some tough windy and wet conditions but with an amazing turn out and positive attitude, everyone did a great job playing lots of games, working on lead passes, and hustling on defence in small spaces. Our second session on January 21st saw opposite conditions with beautiful sun and still skies - leading us to work on give and go movement and deep shots with momentum. Thank you to everyone who came over the two weekends! It's so great to see so many female matching athletes play at such a high standard before the season has even begun! We have one more SYC Saturday session on February 11th which you can sign up for using the link at the top of this page. 

"I didn't mean to retire from playing, but once I started coaching I couldn't stop. I've been doing it about 8 years, pretty much all with SYC, plus a U24 cycle and some COVID ended half-seasons with UCL and Thundering Herd. The team is changing, nearly at a complete turnover from when I started, but the culture continues, and I think that's a lot of why I do too. We strive for high results, of course, but we try not to lose track of what makes it worthwhile - the joy of play, the process, and each other.

Recently I've re-evaluated how I coach, moving away from doing it based on the coaching I got and what it looks like in popular culture, and towards something based on research, principles and theory. There's a lot of resources out there and it's pretty overwhelming - a whole new world of jargon and competing incompatible theories to get my head around. I was very lucky that the team came with me last season as I threw a lot of what we were used to out the window without really understanding what we were going to do next. I'm hoping to pay back some of that trust this year with a bit more structure and forethought, but I know myself well enough by now to expect some messy learning along the way.

So this season I'm looking forward to getting better as a coach, to trying to make the players I work with more effective, and the team we form a more cohesive organism. I'm looking forward to getting to know new players, and deepening relationships with those I've known for years. I'm looking forward to feeling stumped at a drill that's not going how I wanted it to, and to feeling butterflies as the first pull goes up in an important game. I'm looking forward to another year of frisbee."

This year will again be led by captains Rupal Ghelani and Caitlin Wilson with coaching by James Burbidge. We are looking for dedicated athletes who are willing to put the time and effort in to improve both on and off the pitch. In return we are committed to working with all SYC players to help them be the best they can be and together improve development of women's Ultimate within the UK. 

Our aim this season is for us to have a larger than normal squad which will allow us to have more intense trainings; we will enter multiple teams to domestic tournaments and every player will attend at least 1 international tournament (if they want to!). Our teams at tournaments will be either results focussed or development focussed which will allow players to have more responsibility in different situations on pitch and hopefully allow for greater pitch time and disc time. We will be taking a squad of c.a. 20 players to Regionals and Nationals and will hopefully be entering 2 teams into Regionals if roster rules allow. (We are awaiting UKU 2023 Guidance on this). 

We are looking to train twice a month as a team with an optional extra skills session in geographical pods every week. Our calendar will be sent out to all trial applicants so they can pre-assess whether it is something they want to commit to.

We cant wait to try something new and see what the 2023 season holds!