Global Ultimate Growth - Ultimate in India and Beyond - Part II

Here's the rest of the interview from this last post with Jordan Bower.

4. What type of bigger initiatives should Ultimate play in the world?

First, we need to be conscious of how Ultimate subversively teaches leadership and life skills. That’s been my experience as I’ve moved up the ranks: as I get better, I feel more responsibility to be a good example (not that I always do it well!). In learning and applying the rules and spirit of the game to in-game situations, you are almost obligated to become a better person and a better leader. It’s a really special part of Ultimate that doesn’t exist in any other sport. And because it’s fun and fitness oriented, you can sell it in such a way that it doesn’t come off as dorky leadership training. We’re going around saying “hey, come play this great game” and in the course of doing it, we’re helping new players go farther and be better. There’s something really powerful about that.

I think it’s time that we became conscious of how that differentiates Ultimate. As I teach this game in dusty lots covered in cow paddies or try to sell it to government officials, I realize that there are no other sports where someone would dedicate his time to this type of grassroots growth effort with no expectation of compensation. Can you imagine a badminton player traveling the world trying to convince kids to play? Or even soccer, basketball, football? Our passion for Ultimate and the positive change that it can aspire should certainly be a major strategic focus. And there are lots of people out there with far more passion for Ultimate than me. Imagine if we could mobilize hundreds of fanatical Ultimate players to share their love with the rest of the world! That’s kind of what we’re trying to do. We’re also well-placed to do it: Ultimate players are disproportionately represented in the foreign service and in development work. We have an opportunity to take this game and use it to spread some really important, holistic ideas about life. If we all committed ourselves to this together, we could create something really special and unifying.

The truth is that it’s already begun: the Johannesburg (South Africa) league organizes regular coaching clinics for disadvantaged youth in Soweto; I read that the Soweto team recently won their national tournament and represented the country at Worlds in 2003. Also in South Africa, the national body (SAFDA) has teamed up with a major HIV/AIDS awareness NGO called Lovelife (www.lovelife.co.za) that was so taken by ultimate that it chose it as its flagship sport for a series of regional/national sports tournaments: through arts, dance, and sports, the NGO reaches 4000 schools and impacts 3,000,000 kids per year. I’ve also heard of programs in Thailand and Colombia that tie together Ultimate and Development. I’m sure there are more out there. Hopefully talking about this will bring them out of the woodwork.

5. Why would Ultimate be a better ambassador sport choice than other sports?

There are a handful of straightforward reasons. It’s cheap, it’s easy to learn and organize. It unconsciously promotes integration, leadership, maturity, and fitness, just through the design of the game. It already has a passionate advocacy group through a well-developed community. And there’s a sense of inevitability: ultimate players are traveling and working abroad and they all want to play a great game at the end of the day. In India, there are teams in a handful of major cities and growing. I’ve got no doubt that growth will continue over the next few years, especially with what’s happening here in terms of economic growth.

We need to overcome two challenges as we grow. The first will be getting access to quality field space. The second is producing high quality, inexpensive discs. Both will be gradually addressed as we grow, but they effect how we strategize. Recently, we’ve diverted our efforts to focus on the upper class and the university students, because those groups have easy access to fields and can afford to buy discs. We are still looking for other, creative ways to address these problems.

6. Do you have any thoughts on how the established Ultimate community might help?

We have learned that Ultimate needs to be taught by experienced coaches who love the game, because it loses itself in translation. As an example, my first day here coincided with the national Flying Disc of India tournament (sanctioned by WFDF and ostensibly a qualifier for Worlds). There were about 200-300 coaches, players, and officials, and no more than a handful had ever seen a knowledgably played game. The governing body had learned the game by reading rules on the UPA website and had instituted its own interpretation, with referees, traveling, odd defensive rules (like, for any attempted D where a defensive player contacted the disc but didn’t catch it, offense retained possession – yes, seriously), and lots and lots of contact. It turned one team picking up the disc and hucking it at their tallest player standing in the endzone, the disc inevitably being dropped, and then the other team picking up the disc and hucking it back. It sucked. One of the side effects was that our captain (who had a comparably better idea of what was going on) made a bid on a disc, was pushed, and tore his ACL. This was a great stage to promote some high ideals, but poor implementation compromised the effort.

The folks in South Africa have said the same thing: teaching the game requires that new players need to be quickly infused into an already established community in order to fully digest the spirit rules. Growth of the game will rely on the committed involvement of current players. If that part is missing, it just becomes another badminton.

Through Indicorps, we’re looking to create a global community of organizations using Ultimate to create change. The community should be a vessel for conversation about development, sourcing discs, trading teaching tools, drills, strategies, and for sharing opportunities: we’re all in this with the same goals, so we should find ways to work together. It’ll also be important for giving current players the opportunity to infuse themselves in international growth – either through short-term volunteer work or longer term organization and planning. We need all the help we can get and will welcome anyone who wants to share their love for the game. This idea is just starting to take form, but interested people should contact us and check out our websites: www.ultimatefrisbee.org.in

and ultimate.indicorps.org

7. Should North America be worried about another country becoming another competitor?

There are 10 year olds here with better forehands than guys I toured with. I’m talking 40 or 50 yard throws, minutes after learning. These are the kids who loved ultimate but didn’t know it.

PJ