In this article, Emily (she/her) shares her thoughts and experiences on captaining Bristol Women, highlighting the team's rich history, shared culture of pride and fearlessness, and commitment to player development and consistency at Nationals following significant post-Covid turnover.
Highfive at london invite - UltimatePaparazzo
Bio: playing history and leadership history
Hi, I’m Emily and this is my second season with Bristol Women. I have the privilege of captaining the team this year. My ultimate journey started during a year abroad in China and continued through University at Nottingham, two seasons with Spice, two U24 GB cycles and GB Beach. Although I’ve only been part of Bristol for a short time, I’ve loved becoming part of a programme and community shaped by players, coaches and captains from seasons before us.
Ancient (Emily's words...) old photo with Nice Bristols kit
Bristol women over the years
Bristol Women, originally formed as Nice Bristols in 2004, has a long and proud history. The team culture of developing local talent and competing at the highest level has long been at the heart of the team. After significant squad turnover following COVID, our coaches Alice and Kinga, along with captains at the time recognised the need to further invest in recruitment and player development.
The team continued to run local skills clinics and supported university programmes, encouraging young athletes across the South West to get involved in Ultimate. Now, in their third season of coaching, they continue to lead the team with a thoughtful and analytical approach, using training footage and player statistics to shape our tactics and structures.
£1000 prize money spent on a Ceilidh
Nationals 2024 - Ultimouat
Culture and Pride
Bristol women’s culture is built around playing for each other and loving the team. We’ve built an environment where success is shared instead of being centred around individual stars. There is a strong sense of friendship and collective pride within the team that makes it a safe space for our players to train, compete, laugh and cry.
In a sports psychology session we did at the start of the season, we decided our team values would be pride and fearlessness. These values were on full display at London Invite last season, where we backed each other, played fearlessly and won the tournament’s £1000 prize. The fact that we chose to spend a portion of the winnings on a three hour ceilidh says everything about who we are as a team!
An achievement that might go unnoticed is our consistency at Nationals. Bristol Women is the only women’s team to have finished in the top three every year since 2021, with results of first, third, second, first and second. While success is usually judged on a yearly basis, for a club with a relatively small local player base, maintaining that level of performance season after season is something we take pride in.
London Invite 2025 win celebration - Ultimouat
Nationals 2025 - Ultimouat
Looking forward
The vision for Bristol Women has always been to build a programme that consistently performs at Nationals and competes on the European stage. Alongside changes to the roster this season, our coaches have also shifted their approach even further toward developing “smarter” players. Rather than giving us all the answers, they’ve encouraged us to workshop and take ownership of our line structures, helping us become more adaptable players who can solve problems on pitch.
Bristol has always balanced the ambition of wanting to win with the importance of performing in a way we’re proud of. Success this season will be about playing our best, supporting each other and continuing to grow both as players and as a team. With WUCC around the corner and Nationals shortly after, we’re excited to showcase what we’ve built together over the past few months.
What to read next...
In this article, Ali Smith (She / her) shares her professional tips and personal playing experiences on preparing for week-long tournaments with your team. Brew and Nads have shared some tips on how they approached some of these topics during their ‘23 and ‘24 EUC and WUC campaigns. These tips are intended as sharing experiences and not specific guidance (unlike Ali, they are not professionals!), you can find some links to resources they used, throughout the article.
