In the last few weeks WFDF and EUF have made a number of announcements about plans for international events in 2021:

• WFDF announcement re WUGC, WU24 and WBUC
• EUF announcements U20 and U17

We welcome announcements about potential international ultimate in 2021, but the view of the UK Ultimate board is that we should prioritise planning for the significant possibility that at least some of those events may not go ahead.  

This announcement outlines our plans for U24, U20 and U17 squads: building a regional talent pathway structure for competitive ultimate training for these age-groups on the assumption that their events are quite likely to be cancelled, whilst leaving us in the best position to compete if they go ahead.   

Whilst we understand that WFDF and EUF are just announcing plans to go ahead with the events if possible, we have seen that many players tend to interpret such announcements as meaning that the events will definitely go ahead.  One reason for making this announcement now is to try to set realistic expectations about what might be possible in 2021.

As BUCS works to finalise details for the TERM TWO competition, we just wanted to reach out to all Universities to highlight an upcoming deadline this Friday, as well as some details that have been published so far. 

This announcement includes details on:

• Provisional leagues
• League dates
• BUCS points
• Return-to-play information
  
  

We published a Return-to-Play FAQs document for University clubs earlier this week.  The document includes questions about training, competitions, communications and other places to get more information.

Looking for ideas about what to do about training?

• Flik have compiled a helpful page with links to lots of covid compliant drills. 
• Felix has also created this page with some other ideas.
• This UKU site was set up to help organise training sessions for younger children, but actually quite a few of the ideas could be adapted for covid-friendly training sessions.
  

To help us monitor the ongoing Return-to-Play, we have created a Covid-19 Incident report online form.   Our aim is to:

1. Gather data on how often clubs are affected by a positive test result.
2. Improve our understanding of how Contact Tracing authorities approach the situation if the person testing positive had been at training.
3. Provide a mechanism for individuals to report concerns.

We hope in general that people completing the form will feel able to include their contact information, but it has been set up to allow anonymous submissions.

We are delighted to confirm the appointment of Dr Kenny Duffy as UK Ultimate medical adviser.  This is a voluntary role.  Kenny has been working with UKU, and especially the GB squads for several years.  He is actively supporting our response to Covid-19, and in the last year delivered a coach forum on FIFA 11+, and helped us to complete and publish UKU Pregnancy Guidance and Concussion Information.

Dr Kenneth Duffy MBCHB BSc Hons MCSP MRCGP

Kenny qualified as a physiotherapist in 2006 from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, went on to study medicine at University of Dundee, and completed his GP training in 2020. He initially worked within the NHS and private sectors as well as sports settings. He gained experience working with Scottish and British gymnastics and the Scottish football association working with junior national teams. 

Black Lives Matter.  Do not accept racism.

UK Ultimate recognises as an organisation, and on behalf of the ultimate community in this country, that 

• People have experienced, and do experience racism and discrimination in our sport;
• We fall short of providing a universally welcoming and diverse home for anyone that wants to join in;
• We can do better.