Following the World Ultimate Championships in Vancouver, Matt and I decided to get some bang for our buck and hang around a little while rather than heading back to Australia with the teams. After a week or so of catching buses here, there and everywhere in Canada, we crossed the border and landed in Seattle USA, a world-renowned hotbed of Ultimate. Seattle teams are known for their offensive flair with the Frisbee as well as innovation in training methods. In Seattle, we were to be coaching at the Annual Seattle Youth Ultimate Camp run by DiscNW. This camp is much larger than any youth Ultimate camp held in Australia with approximately 200 participants across two different venues for the weeklong camp.

On the first day, we met coaches from the Seattle area including some members of the USA national team that were along to assist with coaching. Unfortunately, the first couple of days featured some persistent rain so there was a lot of time spent to-ing and fro-ing in and out of doors in between lots of throwing and games.

Throughout the week, we experienced many different teaching methods as we worked with different coaches. We were impressed by the relative skill level of the young players. For the most part, they generated tremendous amounts of spin on the disc and good decision making when making passes downfield. I guess that is a product of picking up the sport at a young age and having access to fantastic coaching!

Many of the young players who attended the camp play for a High School team in Seattle and some even play on various club teams. Two weeks after the camp, we ran into a bunch of the campers in Burlington, Washington as they played a tournament with their team Small Fries (pictured).

The future of Ultimate Frisbee is secured in Seattle with a strong Association in DiscNW, great coaching in schools and many competitive touring teams. Seattle really is at the forefront of developing the sport and we met many interesting and helpful people that took an interest in our plans to grow the sport in Australia. Hopefully many of them make it over to Australia in the coming years to check on our progress!

Thanks for having us Seattle! Good on ya!