V.O.U.S: A Day with Rascals!
As part of the V.O.U.S initiative, I have yet another opportunity to interview one of the up and coming clubs that took the ultimate scene in Singapore by storm a few years back! – Rascals! I was honoured to be able to speak to the two individuals out of the original team of five who pioneered the club to what it is today! – Almeric “Almo” Yeo and Zhang Zhefei! They usually train at West Coast Park on Saturday mornings! So if you see any cheeky players up to no good on the field, it’s definitely the Rascals members!
Credits: Eric Lim S C
How was Rascals formed?
Clockwise from left: Zhefei, Tian Loon, Ziwei, Almo and Titi!
After graduating from their clubs, the original five, Ziwei, Zhefei, Titi, Almo and Tian Loon, still wanted to play competitively and wanted to play with like-minded friends. Hence they decided to form Rascals in 2013. Being able to rival top teams like Shiok when Rascals entered the ultimate foray, they decided to capitalize on the immense potential that each team member had, and together as a team, they have achieved many noteworthy results, consistently maintaining top positions in recent Singapore Ultimate Opens and Mixed nationals.
Why the word Rascals you say? Truth be told, they actually had a hard time finding the word. The team consisted of youthful players around the age of 21 to 22, who had just started ultimate in universities, and they wanted the word to also describe the happy-go-lucky mentalities that the club embodies while playing ultimate.
After much luck, they finally found the word that aptly describe it all – Rascals. Who would take Rascals seriously? And true enough, it was this name that took the clubs by surprise, with their mischievous and cheeky plays, on and off the field.
What are your team's goals?
Credits: WFDF
One of Rascals’ definite goals would be to play ultimate competitively and achieve top honours in local and regional tournaments. This time round, they have their eyes on the ultimate prize – to get a slot for the mixed category for the upcoming World Ultimate & Guts Championships, that would be held in London in 2016. With the Singapore’s first foray into the mixed category last year, it would be a great opportunity to represent Singapore to play against opponents around the world, and to bring the team’s ultimate game, being exposed to tactics and tenacities around the world.
Another goal for Rascals would be to offer an ultimate platform for young players to be exposed to even higher standards of competitive ultimate. This is because professional clubs tend to have slightly exclusive programmes that take in players from specific schools. Hence it makes things a little harder for young external players to enter such clubs. As a result, players might be confined to school trainings only.
One initiative that Rascals came up with was the Developmental tournaments. Rascals shouldered the financial costs and offered opportunities for young teams to experience competitive levels of ultimate at affordable fees. ($2 per player in their first tournament!) Moreover, there were strict criteria in place to ensure an equal level playing field for teams entering the tournament.
Credits: Rascals
What is your general playing style? (ie fluid gameplay, focused on formations etc)
Credits: Eric Lim S C
Rascals, as the name implies, tends to be more mischievous. That is also how Rascals plays, with more dynamic and free-fire game plays, rather than having a structured game play. This kind of dynamic game play was based on previous experiences of club members playing together as a team previously, boasting a good 4 to 5 years of game time among team members before the formation of Rascals.
Besides that, there is always a need for adaptability as every playing style has its own pros and cons. By making use of what is learned during tournaments, Rascal adapt their dynamic game plays accordingly, while maintaining the essence of Rascal’s playing style.
In addition, what is important for Rascals is for the players to enjoy themselves while playing ultimate. This is one of the ways to excel in a sport. One should not be bogged down by pressure and constant criticism as subconsciously, your muscles would overcompensate the instructions, resulting in tensing of the muscles and poor game play. That’s why you always see the Rascals smiling and laughing on the field, because to them, everything is a game and as they say about games..
Who runs the show in Rascals? (ie captain, operations etc)
Rascals is run by a good mixture of the incumbents and new players!
Clockwise from left: Titi (President), Tian Loon, Almo and Fiona (Gameplay and Tactics), Zhefei and Ziwei (Training Admin matters)
Rascals also provide many opportunities for all players to step up into major roles. One example would be Matthew Kwan, who has participated in the Worlds Beach Championships Ultimate 2014 and Louis Tng, who is now helping out with the ‘B’ team of Rascals!
What do you look for in players joining Rascals?
Rascals are always looking for players to enter the team. Players who are young, open to feedback, and have an undying thirst to learn everything they can about ultimate are welcome to join! On a side note, it also includes enduring tough physical Rascals trainings on Saturdays!
What is your recruitment policy? (ie how often you hold tryouts etc)
Credits: Rascals
Rascals would hold open trials once a year whenever they can as eventually growth has to be controlled to ensure that every player in Rascals is able to learn and excel in the game of ultimate. In addition, players already in the team have to go for the trials again, so as to ensure fair opportunities if any other player were to have the necessary skills to surpass any of them in a game of ultimate. Then again, players come and go all the time, ensuring a healthy mix of players most of the time.
Being a youth team in essence, What are views on the future of Ultimate in Singapore?
The world has been moving towards recognition of Ultimate, having spawned two professional leagues and coverage on recent tournaments around the world. Singapore is also on the bandwagon of change as well. There is more coverage on ultimate in Singapore and ultimate was played in showcase games during major Singapore sporting events and was even chosen as the sport to be played by Army officers 4 years ago!
In addition, the standard of ultimate is increasing as well. More people are exposed to ultimate at a younger age recently, with Frisbee teams even in primary schools and secondary schools. In addition, more people are willing to invest more time coaching young players, with initiatives such as the National Youth Training Programme and more player-coaches around in Singapore devoting their time fully to ultimate Frisbee.
However, more could still be done for the ultimate community in Singapore. In other countries such as the US and EU, there are a lot more support, both financial and administrative, for all the teams from respective ultimate organizations over there. In addition, clubs from all over these countries are able to set aside their club differences and play as a united team, and this is something that Singapore clubs should emulate when the time comes to represent Singapore as one ultimate team.
There should also be more open and women categories in tournaments to allow female players to move away from the mixed culture usually practiced in Singapore. In mixed teams, female players would have diminished responsibilities and might not be able to step up to key positions should they compete in a women's category overseas. There are indeed more single-gender tournaments now and this could very well pave the way to more female teams in Singapore.
What do you think is the difference between local and foreign ultimate teams?
Credits: Skyd Magazine
Foreign ultimate teams usually spend many years as one team (10-15 years), hence the chemistry and team dynamics may greatly surpass local teams. In addition, foreign team players are able to commit more time and effort solely towards ultimate. That poses as a serious disadvantage as in Singapore, where there is more emphasis towards factors other than ultimate, such as financial stability and career progression. Hence players in Singapore often have to juggle training for ultimate and stuff such as career, education etc.
On the other hand, they might have physiological advantages in terms of height and speed, and local teams would have to take note of that while playing with them.
Which team do you consider to be your closest rival?
Any team could be a challenge as there are always situations where tactics, luck and grit would prevail when facing any ultimate team. That is what makes ultimate exciting!
What are your views on a ranking system for Singapore's Ultimate?
(A little bit background about this: In many countries such as US, there are many tournaments in the ultimate calendar. Points would be tallied and standings of each team would be released at the end of the season)
There are many tournaments out that people from professional clubs are participating in, such as tertiary and developmental tournaments. In essence, there are only two tournaments in Singapore that caters to professional clubs – Mixed Nationals and Singapore Ultimate Opens. It would be hard to tabulate points and standing based on these two tournaments alone.
There is so much going on for Rascals, and one will not believe that they were formed just 3 years ago in 2013! It was a really enriching experience speaking to both of them from Rascals as I can see the big dreams and ambition they have for the team. With WUGC 2016 as their goal, I am sure that I would be able to see high level plays from them as they compete in the local tournaments! I also look forward to seeing them on the video highlights for WUGC 2016!
Find out more about them here
