During my first flyball tournament, I thought that that folks drank coffee all day long out of reusable coffee mugs – until I saw someone get into their cooler. After all, there’s nothing like a few beers during a long, hot day of racing.

U-FLI directly addresses drinking and other intoxicating substances in Section 3.1 of the rule book which states that if, in the opinion or the head judge or the U-FLI representative, a participant is under the influence of drugs or intoxicated, they will be excused from the event and may be subject to further disciplinary action.

While I can’t find a specific mention in the NAFA rule book, section 2(e) of the corporate policies and procedures may address it. The section, which addresses judges says that above all else, the safety and well being of the dogs and exhibitors shall be foremost. In my reading of the above, it looks like both flyball sanctioning bodies have provided a safety net to ensure that those who choose to imbibe do so in a manner that doesn’t put others in an unsafe situation.

A tournament is a bit like a football tailgating party. The temporary EZ-up city that goes up Friday evening, plenty of tasty food that isn’t necessarily good for you, hours of hanging out with teammates and friends; all of it tends to go hand-in-hand with a few beers or a pitcher of margaritas.

But when is it too much? I know that we aren’t racing cars out there but can drinking at tournaments get out of hand?

For me, it would be troublesome if a fellow handler was unsteady, slurring words or other signs of being drunk. If things go ok in a race, it may not matter but we’ve all been in the ring when something bad has happened. I sure hope that handlers in both lanes have reflexes available in case we need them for an interference or crossover. I’d also hate to see a fellow handler fall or cause a handler pile up because someone is drunk enough to be unsteady on their feet.

Has anyone ever experienced a fellow competitor that many have had a few too many?

Do you or your teammates drink during flyball? What’s your personal limit if you do?

Tracy

There’s been a lot of talk recently on the marketing of flyball.  Let’s put aside the U-FLI vs. NAFA for a moment and talk about (as Lisa at Prop-a-Ganda put it)” Big F” Flyball.

All of us have had that moment when someone asks us about flyball. Most people I’ve spoken with have seen agility, disc or dock diving, but flyball? not so much.

The general tone of the various blogs, logs, boards and lists is that we need to get flyball more in the public eye.  There are a couple of main ways to increase expose of flyball to the general public:  TV and other media appearances and event sponsorship.

Why aren’t we on TV?  After all, flyball is fun, fast paced and easy to watch. We regularly compete about 20 minutes from my hometown and my mom has, over the years, brought almost my entire extended family to watch flyball.  They always have a good time.

And what about sponsorships?  In California, there are a few kibble companies that regularly donate to raffles and provide samples.  Hyper Flight has many of its tournaments sponsored by Dinovite.  And after the success of the CanAm, NAFA management is actively courting corporate sponsors for next year’s event.  The sheer number of people and dogs who play flyball and the amount of stuff we all use could be a great sponsorship opportunity for any number of companies. Vet Wrap?  Tuff Spun?  Wilson or Penn tennis balls?

But there’s a downside to being in the public eye.  Increased publicity comes with costs and the flyball community may not be willing to let strangers into our “living room”.

Performance Mixes.  Someone on an online forum once called borderjacks “engineering the world’s worst housepet”.  People have said to me that all borderstaffies must be “high-energy nuts”.  Yet they are darn cute!  Will increased television coverage and print sponsorship lead to more John Q. Publics getting dogs they may not be able to handle?  Is that something that the flyball world needs or wants?

Flyball families tend to be large. Everyone has heard the response, “you have HOW many dogs?” Many folks may hide or forget to mention the number of dogs we own because of county rules, icky neighbors or just plain shame in a world where most people think three is a lot of dogs. Will increased public events also increase the scrutiny of flyball families?

Bad training methods and backyard flyball. Every year, flyball gets faster.  Touch N Go broke the 15-second barrier in 2009 and more and more teams are crowding into the sub-16 division.  When my Google alerts pulls up a bad training video or a forum post about learning flyball from someone who doesn’t play, I’ll admit it makes me nervous.  There’s so much that goes into a great race with a super fast team.  I hope that flyball on TV would increase the number of people contacting clubs for lessons and classes but how many people will be making a box or buying the ones available on the internet and teaching themselves flyball?  I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, it could go either way.

So should we push for more “Big F” flyball publicity?  Or should we leave individual teams or regions to decide whether they seek out sponsorships and public appearances?  Can we increase interest (and revenue) without opening the sport to public scrutiny?

Tracy

Lisa from the Flyball Prop-A-Ganda blog wrote an article that everyone should read titled, How NAFA Works.  I think everyone should read it because it’s very insightful.  Moreover, it brings to light something that I need to explain about the Flyball Blog.

My Job

I look at my job on the Flyball Blog as kind of like the news media.  If someone tells me something, I do my best to investigate, try to find other sources to verify, and then report it.  I have talked with board members privately about different issues and some have been very candid while others have not.  Other than this private contact to verify or get additional information, I rarely contact the board about anything.  However, I will and do contact them if it deals with my club or me personally but this contact is different from something that I’m dealing with on the blog.

Suggestions to the Board

I don’t submit rule changes or suggestions and pretty much stay out if it, but this doesn’t mean that I don’t feel strongly about some issues.  I look at this blog as a way to put forth ideas and spark debate on wide variety of issues and topics.  However, it is important for everyone to know that I don’t put forth suggestions to the board.  If you feel strongly on a topic or issue that you see here or on other blogs, I encourage you to take them to the board.

If you have a topic or issue that you are thinking of taking to the board, I would be happy to post them on this forum for discussion.  Like Lisa explained in her article about board members not posting comments to the Flyball blogs, it doesn’t mean that they don’t read them.  I know that board members do read articles on this blog and most likely others.

Conclusion

I have explained how I look at my job on this forum.  Just like the news media, they report the news but they try to not to be the news.  I look at this blog in that same way.  I look to you, the Flyball enthusiast, to put forth your ideas and suggestions to the NAFA Board or the owners of U-FLI.  Together we can make Flyball better for everyone.

Larry