Dogma and Diversity - an Australian Aside

I am currently in Australia for a couple months, and I went to my first pickup game the other night.  In one night of playing 6v6, defensively we ran man with various marks, 3-2-1 zone, and 1-3-2 zone; offensively, we ran vert, ho, and German.  We were just goofing off, but it was nonetheless impressive that we tried so many things and with a decent level of competency.  And my teammates were not all veteran players by any means.

By contrast, the last team in Philly to my knowledge to have a German style offense in their bag of tricks was the Philly Peppers back in the late 90s.

Why is that?  Well, in Sydney, they have to travel more to find decent ultimate.  It doesn’t seem uncommon to find someone who’s only been playing a few years who has been to Worlds, so the average player here has been exposed to a broader range of teams.  Just as I believe traveling is important to having a balanced view of the world, gaining exposure to a diversity of ultimate strategies is important to having a balanced view of our sport.