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Post by kentuckybrown on Apr 19, 2012 11:38:41 GMT -6
Sounds great! We would love to have more radar guns here for Nationals. I do believe Wes's throws have more power than last years so none of us were too amazed by the increase. (We thought he would hit ~80 and he hit 81. So we are happy with it.)
Let me know what kind of gun you all are going to get. We will probably order ours in the next few weeks.
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Post by hiller 87 on Apr 19, 2012 11:42:49 GMT -6
we're planning on getting this gun I believe (it's up to the president to decide but I think this is the one he wants at least) www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Velocity-Speed-Colors-vary/dp/B0002X7V1QSupposedly it's a pretty good gun according to the reviews. It's only like 84 dollars as well. We're getting it so we can clock our possible recruits at our club recruiting fair in August, plus it'll be a cool way to measure how much stronger players get at throwing over the course of a season/career.
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Post by ltmaynard on Apr 19, 2012 11:57:29 GMT -6
Sam, you can check with Fitz, but that looks just like the gun he brought this year. If you were worried about accuracy of it, you might want to look into another model.
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Post by vanerme3 on Apr 19, 2012 14:00:09 GMT -6
I just purchased the gun mentioned above. If anyone is interested, we can let you know how well it works reasonably soon. It should be at my apartment on saturday and we'll probably play around with it on tuesday.
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Post by ryanmenn on Apr 19, 2012 14:13:09 GMT -6
Lindsay you are correct! It is the same model as the one Kent has.
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Post by KFitz on Apr 19, 2012 16:00:39 GMT -6
Yeah thats the same radar gun we have. One thing I have noticed when using it is that the ball has to be pretty accurate to the radar gun. For example if a side arm thrower throw way wide of the radar gun then it will give a faster reading. But yeah I would take those speeds with a grain of salt.
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Post by WKU-Perrone-76 on Apr 19, 2012 18:26:49 GMT -6
Has anyone tried comparing the radar guns readings with how fast your car is going? Have a buddy clock you at going 40 and see how accurate it is?
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Post by kentuckybrown on Apr 30, 2012 12:20:11 GMT -6
UK is currently working on getting gyms for Nationals. One option that we can lock in for sure if teams want it (I am not sure if they do or not)
SATURDAY
We can get 8 courts (All within 2 minutes walking from one court to another) from 7 AM to 10 AM(maybe 12:00 but as of right now it's 10:00) and 4 courts the rest of the day.
Or we can get 4 courts all day in one building and I know I can swing 2 others all day on the other side of campus, which is a 15 minute walk) if we have overflow.
Under the first scenario if we have only 16 teams we could be through will all of the day's matches relatively early in the day (~3:00)
A third option that we could have is we could have some matches on Friday night in our small gym if any teams wanted to come in early and play less games on Saturday. (I personally think a midnight Dodgeball Match would be awesome.)
Does anyone like any combination of these for Saturday? (I am trying to give this option if teams want to be done for there day early it gives them a chance to either go to Keeneland, the movies, relax, visit the bars and etc.
SUNDAY
8 courts for 3-4 hours and taper down as we need less and less courts to a final 4 which would take place in our Women's Basketball gym (seats ~8,000) and have these games start around 12:00 to help teams with a long drive. (We would have to start the day ~7:30 with games at 8:00)
Another option is just to take 4 courts and start a little later and end around 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening.
Thoughts on Sunday?
Thanks for the feedback, I want to do something that all of the teams like.
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Post by kentuckybrown on May 3, 2012 8:43:57 GMT -6
Additional note on lunch for Saturday... I can order Large 1 topping Pizza's for $7 (I'll get ever player at least 2 bottles of water per pizza)
I can cater in a boxed lunch from Firehouse Subs $8-9 a person.
Or a Qdoba catered lunch $8-9 a person.
These are the tentative prices. (Except for the pizza, I am already getting a super good deal for that one.
Any feedback on this or what time your team will want to start on Saturday/Sunday? (Or Friday night midnight games?)
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Post by Spencer Jardine - SVSU on May 4, 2012 9:35:06 GMT -6
Sorry it took so long for me to get to this I'v been swamped with Finals and getting ready for Basic, but here's my rant after having ran the tournament with Lindsay this year.
1. A great idea, with out a doubt would save teams some money. My issue with it however is organizing teams to guarantee they will use that hotel next year. You're going to find that communication with the rest of the captains and teams will be very scarce and response times in people getting back to you will be very slow as you plan this tournament (Lindsay and I can attest to this) The less you have to rely on other teams in your planning the better. If this can happen it can be a very good thing how ever, networking with the other teams in the NCDA (Even over some cold ones) is something I think is very important to the NCDA, and it adds to the overall experience of the tournament.
2. Alumni refs appear to be right now the holy grail of reffing, for the simple fact that A. They know the rulebook and speed of the game, and B. They actually care about the sport. SVSU used them during every home regular season game (This includes intense games vs CMU, MSU, and GVSU) and I never heard a word from other teams about reffing quality. National tournament was the same, reffing feedback was the best I have heard in my 5 years of attending tournaments/National tournaments. That being said I admittedly had hiccups this year as its been pointed out. Not enough eyes to cover some of the games, and payment method of check was met with some resistance. Both were out of my control but I understood everyone's frustrations. If you are able to find more bodies for next year, better payment system, and maybe a volunteer to baby sit the refs for both days making sure they get breaks, water etc I have a feeling next year could be the best reffed tournament to date.
3. Like I said before, its a good idea in theory but our sport is one were our main equipment needs to be "broke" in unlike a baseball or hockey puck. Throwing 100 brand new dodgeballs onto a court is asking for guys to destroy their hands and fingers using all brand new balls. If you are able to break them in over the year it might work but I know dodgeballs deteriorate over time even if you're not using them. Having an extra 25 or so around for Day 2 would work wonders since that seems to be the time teams are in need of dodgeballs. Maybe have teams bring 15 balls like they did this year and have the 25 in reserve?
4. There is no such thing as a perfect system with the format our league is in right now with no set regular season, but I'm all for the regular season carrying more weight though. More regular season games = Better for the NCDA
5. After the pizza disaster of BGSU 3 years ago, and my teams mad scramble to get to WKU cafeteria before it closed on us last year I went with having teams fend for their own lunch this year. Worked out pretty well I think, plus its one less thing for you to worry about/plan for. I would ask the teams themselves in your first round of captains emails next year.
6. The more teams we can have there the better. Just don't break your neck trying to make it happen. Some teams might not even show up for the second day **Cough*Miami*Cough**
7. Shirts for either the All Star game or All tournament team would work, just as long as you are having a shirt to recognize the top players in the NCDA. I'v liked the fact players have been getting that extra recognition the past 2 years. I don't know how everyone else felt about the All Star game this year but I though it kinda sucked. (And I planned the thing) Don't get me wrong I think the way players were elected into the game was the right way to go, but I would like to see a return of some sort of competitive format to the game. Red vs Blue, East vs West, GV/SV vs the World, either one works. But no ones hearts seemed into this years games.
8. As long as it does't distract you from your usual planning it would be a nice gesture. But to be honest most teams just go back to their hotels and drink most of the time, at least thats what I'v seen a majority of teams do.
9. Sounds like a good place to me.
--- Closing thoughts after running this years tournament
Remember to keep in mind as you are planning this the response time from Captains this year was from 2 minutes to 2 weeks with some teams. Keep that in mind as you set dates, deadlines, and send stuff out. Some captains won't even respond via email, I had to go on Facebook and hunt some people down.
Captains are also procrastinators in the world, just because we are in charge of teams doesn't mean we have our nuts squared away. I got a lot of late checks this year because I'm sure guys waiting till the last minute to collect money/put in paper work. Another thing to keep in mind.
Use the Captains Club Facebook group, it seemed to be the best way to get a hold of everyone in an emergency/rush situation because of how often us college students check our Facebook.
HAVE A DESIGNATED ASSISTANT - Seriously words cannot describe how much of a potential heart attack planning these Nationals can be if you don't have someone helping you. If I didn't have Lindsay Maynard step up over the Winter Break and take over planning parts of the tournament I might of turned to hard drugs. You will find yourself worrying to much about the tournament itself and not getting your own team prepared for Nationals if you don't have someone helping you. Its a National Tournament show casing your school and team, if you don't have 3-4 people on your team willing to step up and pinch in even a LITTLE you are going to have some issues.
With all that being said, I have no doubt in my mind UK is going to host a top notch tournament. Good luck in planning fellas, remember. The end date will be here faster than you can say "DODGEBALL"
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Post by kentuckybrown on May 4, 2012 14:12:34 GMT -6
Thanks Spencer, I appreciate the feedback!
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Post by ktakeda on May 12, 2012 12:21:06 GMT -6
Last point for now...what is your opinion on the all girl game? I have to put that idea in your head, haha Shorter neutral zone line. 15 ft? I think UK should include a girls game, we were all extremely happy with that opportunity this year and the amount of girls in the league is continuously growing. Not to mention some teams do not play their girls at nationals so it gives them an opportunity to play. Personally I don't think a smaller neutral zone is necessary, we play with the same size zone during regular games and year long, no reason to make adjustments. In my opinion going back to the baseline and then countering really isn't DePaul's style as most people know, I feel like the game would have been more exciting if more girls had stepped up and stayed towards the middle (props to JMU and Kent on that one), also some girls do not have the strongest throwing arm. On a separate note, DePaul has a decent amount of people graduating and are in talks about getting an alumni group to come down for Nationals 2013 so we'd be down to ref.
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Post by kentuckybrown on Jun 19, 2012 18:42:48 GMT -6
Looks like right now I have 4 courts confirmed at the Seaton Center and 2 over at Alumni. I am working on 5 more, we might have to play an early set of games to get 4 of the extra for a few hours.
I'll also make sure a girls match happens then!
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Post by kentuckybrown on Aug 25, 2012 9:41:10 GMT -6
How many JV teams are interested in having a "JV Nationals Tournament"? There is a smaller 2 court gym that we could have all the JV Teams play...
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Post by heroofvcu on Aug 25, 2012 10:29:43 GMT -6
Zac, that a good idea. VCU would be interested in that.
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