Let the games begin!

Twice in January we had to postpone the beginning of league play because of stormy weather, so you can imagine our surprise when we arrived at the field in the Village of Daburia on a Friday morning in early February to find the sun shining down on us.  David and Linda, our fearless leaders who work so very hard to raise the funds that we spend on these amazing young players, were in town too.  Almost as soon as we got there, David and Jez began marking out the fields.  Pacing off four equal sized fields on one soccer pitch.

Players started to trickle in.  Lots of hugging and high fives, and then discs in the air.  This was about the time that we got word that our Palestinian friends had passed all their checkpoints and were on their way; a few minutes late maybe, but that should be the worst of our problems.  With everyone else already at the field, we began splitting up the teams.  This being a HAT tournament we needed to create mixed teams, so each mentor coach took one of the communities they work with and split them up between four girls teams and six boys teams.

I got all the guys from Tuba together and started trying to split them up.  They kept moving around to make sure they would be on the same team with their best friends.   Teenagers!  What’ch ya gonna do?  

David and Linda gave a quick welcome speech, and then Jez explained the rules and format for the day.

From the moment I gathered the girls Gray Team together, I lost focus on most everything else that happened.  I think the boys played too, but my eyes were glued to my Gray Team.  Without the last bus of players we started the day with seven players.  With one saying she was ill and another limping on a sore ankle, we started the first game with 5’s.  We were playing a blue team.  Actually, the other three girls teams were all different shades of blue.  It wasn’t a problem on the field, but I can’t for the life of me remember which blue we played when.

The first thing that struck me as the games started was how far we had come in just a few months.  For a lot of these players, they have been to UP camp at least one, if not twice.  When we met a few months ago for a HAT tournament there was still a great deal of clumping and chaos on the field.  Now, we’ve been having regular weekly practices in all of the communities represented, and it showed.  We have stacks, cuts to space, dumps, and force on D.

Patiently waiting for the cuts to develop...

The CIT on my team was great, helping get the rest of the team into a vertical stack on the field and keeping them focused off the field.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, one of the smaller meeker girls that I coach on a weekly basis but who was playing on the other team threw herself at a disc.  Maybe it’s because we haven’t been having practices on grass, or maybe she stepped up for a competitive game.  Watching a thirteen year old girl laying-out was just the energy boost that I needed.  She didn’t catch the disc, but that didn’t matter.  The rest of the girls saw it, and saw how much respect us coaches were giving her for it.

In the middle of the game the rest of the players arrived, our sick players started feeling better and the one who was limping suddenly was having too much fun to stay out of the game.  We played the rest of the day with 7’s.

7 on the line.

We won our first game going away. (5-1 or something like that)  The Gray Team was playing together, working together, and scoring together.  That’s what I stressed, playing as a team.  I decided not to bother trying to get everyone on the same page with force or set plays.  They were working well together, so I just encouraged them to keep it up.

Goal. Again.

Game number two started much the same as the first.  We scored some points.  I started getting a little cocky as a coach and after one point didn’t really say anything useful on the line.  The girls read that and also started playing lazy and cocky, and we quickly dropped two points.  I was surprised at how much influence I had as a coach not just on how the team played over the course of the day, but by how much each point was dependent on just a few words of encouragement.  We took the second game without too much trouble in the end.

Game three we came out flat.  We were in a quick 0-2 hole, and I didn’t really see what we were doing differently.  I re-focused the girls on playing together, and playing tight defense.    We scored the next point.  The team gained confidence.  We scored another point to tie the game at 2, and they gained more confidence.

Refocusing.

I was so impressed by how they built of one another’s energy.  That confidence coupled with this renewed energy and a pinch of encouragement from the sideline led to some of the best second effort catches of the day.  With time running out and one last point to play, the Gray Team scored to put the score at 3-2.

We had finished pool play with a perfect 3-0 record and a spirit lifting come from behind win in the last game.

The final pitted us in a rematch against our opening game opponent.  Since then, they had won both of their games, so I didn’t think we would be able to breeze through the game like we had earlier in the day.  With a lunch break before our game started, I tried to get the girls into some sort of drill as a warm up.  They didn’t seem too into it.  One of the things that we don’t need to teach to any of these players is how to step it up when the competition rises.  In fact, the hardest thing that we need to teach them is how to keep that intensity under control.

Blue has refocused, too...

The final was a back and forth game.  Our opponents were playing a more structured game especially on defense, and I worried that the Gray Team would get flustered and struggle.  But they wouldn’t let it get to them, passing and dumping and swinging.  The other team was repeatedly knocking on the door to the end zone, but the Gray Team just wouldn’t let them in.  Time was running down and we had a slight 3-2 edge.  Things were getting chippy.  Girls were fouling, in-out calls were being argued.

In? Out? It's a close call.

As coaches we try to stay out of these conversations as much as possible while still not letting them boil over.  After a couple particularly long arguments, we coaches called a Spirit time out.  We gathered the two teams together in a circle and reminded them what Ultimate is all about.  We talked about how they were playing so well all day and that they should not let their being tired at the end of the Final make them forget Spirit.

That was the last foul of the day.  And a few minutes later, the Gray Team managed to push across the winning score.  4-2 in the final, 4-0 over all for the day.

The CITs picked one spirit winner and one MVP from our team.  In the closing ceremony all the spirit and MVP winners from each team got to pick a shirt from a pile of donated jerseys from all over the world.  They took a picture with the winning boys team and the UP HAT Tournament Trophy.

It’s hard to put into words just how proud I was (am) to have worked with these girls on that field.  My team showed me how hard they could work, and how well they could work together.  Even more than that, all the girls on all the teams showed us just how far they had come.

by Abe Chiswick, Year-Round Mentor Coach

There is quite a bit of excitement right now over the American Ultimate Disc League and the potential for professional ultimate in the United States. While discussion churns in other arenas about ticket sales, rule changes, and live streaming, I want to look at the AUDL and refereed ultimate from an Ultimate Peace perspective. Naturally, this post will only be able to bring up some core issues and ask more questions than it answers. Also, it is meant for a general ultimate conversation, not as a critique on what the AUDL is building.

“Ultimate is the ideal team sport for
uniting divided societies and cultures”

Daburriya and Kfar Tavor come together for ultimate.

UP believes that there is something about ultimate that makes it different from other sports. UP exists because our sport – and the reliance on “spirit of the game” – teaches tools of listening and resolving conflict that other sports delegate or de-emphasize.

With games scheduled to start this Spring, the AUDL’s stated goals are to entertain through ultimate and make a profit on each team and in the league overall. The league’s ownership structure, proposed style of play, and even the language it employs widely differ from USA Ultimate and smaller ultimate-affiliates. These typical ultimate organizations are mostly volunteer-driven, not for profit, and limited in scope to “promoting the sport in [fill in the state/city/metro area].” From my vantage point, the AUDL’s model, together with a system of third-party refereeing, appears to be steering ultimate at the highest level (or what could become the highest level) away from reliance on spirit of the game.

UP players discuss a call during practice

Refereeing threatens spirit in several ways. Regrettably, some of these threats to spirit already exist in high-level self-officiated ultimate — but I’m confident that these would likely worsen with refereeing. First, fouling grows as a strategic tool not just to stop play but to win the psychological battle. For example: fouling on the first point to deter a cutter from running their intended cut. Even if that has already started, is it consistent with Spirit of the Game? Can you see it growing in a system where players can’t make calls themselves? Second, a referee’s view is necessarily limited on the field of play. The current system of self-officiation allows all players to make calls; meaning that more perspectives are included in the game’s progress. Generally speaking, making some third-party responsible for seeing and calling those fouls very likely invites an increase in rule-breaking.

But just because of this prospect for a professional league, one that doesn’t uphold spirit as the indisputable law of the land, does that mean that spirit in the rest of ultimate on its death bed? Resoundingly, no. From experience in the sport over 10 years in multiple cities, states, and countries, I believe that ultimate and spirit are on the rise for the foreseeable future. In terms of talent, passion, and pure numbers – our sport, with spirit embedded in it – is growing, to the great credit of players, coaches, parents, and other supporters. So if we don’t have to ring the alarm that spirit is dying, what is really at stake?

What is actually at risk is a matter of great debate. Its unclear, first, whether professional ultimate is viable. We also don’t know for sure whether or not spirit will be part of professional ultimate as it sprouts from an idea to a reality. Further, it is yet to be seen whether the examples set by professional ultimate’s players, coaches, and supporters will trickle down to the rest of the ultimate community.

UP player in Ein Rafa: Does SotG only apply to amateurs?

It is becoming clear, through YouTube and Facebook, mainly, that the availability of ultimate videos online across the world can quickly disseminate what ultimate looks like from community to community. In the event a professional league does shed spirit from the core of the sport in that circle, the products and spinoffs may damage the reputation and alter how new players compete. As a professional league develops away from spirit and more towards a refereed product, does an emphasis on spirit start to ring a little hollow? Can you imagine a young ultimate player – in Memphis or Medellin – asking, “So spirit is good enough for the rec leagues, but too quaint for the real deal?”

My hunch is that, if and when professional ultimate relinquishes spirit from its core principles, ultimate communities and players will continue with spirit. Perhaps in spite – or perhaps because of – spirit’s demise in the professional sphere. And although part of my own description of ultimate has always been that spirit reigns supreme at all levels, not having that self-officiation stamp on a professional league won’t by any means spell the end of spirit.

“Ultimate in its current self-officiated form would represent the best on the professional stage (and maybe the Olympics) because it shows that self-officiation is possible at the highest level”

The above quote echoes the Ultimate Peace perspective: that self-officiation is the central reason why ultimate should flourish. Not only are kids (and adults) enjoying themselves, but they are finding common ground, building new friendships, and agreeing to disagree without being disagreeable. Play on, y’all!

By Benjamin Spears, Camp UP Coach and Chain Lightning player

Benjamin Spears at UP Camp 2011

14 teams at the Israeli Club tournament: Tamra Phoenix in red and orange on the left

Ultimate Peace players from Tamra, an Arab village in the north of Israel, organized and encouraged by their tireless Physical Education teacher, Achmed, showed up 18 strong at 7:45am on Saturday morning… to PLAY.

Athletic competition provides unique opportunities for discovery:  discovering yourself, discovering your teammates, discovering your opponent… but it’s also an opportunity to be discovered by others.  Getting to coach a youth team at their first tournament ever– where that process of discovery through sport is just beginning is one of the most special experiences I think there is.   Getting to coach THIS team at THIS tournament– where so much is riding on how they would be discovered to be by others was, well, extraordinary.

I have to admit, I was scared out of my mind. Not because I was worried about any racial tensions, but because this was their first real tournament and I knew they were going to get crushed. How would they handle it?

I tried to set them up: “We won’t win a single game today. But we’ll learn a lot. If we can score a point in every game, I’ll consider this day a success.” “A little support here,” they cried. I smiled weakly. They had no idea what was coming.

Game 1: Working Up the Field

Game 1 started beautifully: the kids ran their vertical stack, not picking up the disc until it was set, even showing some occasional patience and dumping when there was no viable upfield cut. They elegantly worked the disc up about half the field and then.. the inevitable drop. Turnover. Then the pickup team from Givat Ada went for the jugular, picking up the disc and hucking to a lightning deep receiver before any of the Phoenix kids even realized they were supposed to switch to defense. Games were to 11, but nobody was keeping very close track of the score as every point looked the same. Final: Tamra Phoenix 0, Givat Ada 12.  But Phoenix gave their all on every point, even though a win was not on the table.

Even losing 12-0, Phoenix played with heart.

The opposition was very complimentary afterward, telling the kids how impressed they were with their structure and discipline, how pretty their play was, how they never played with a stack themselves. One of the co-captains on the Phoenix asked, “How did you score all the points when you don’t even play with a stack?” Their captain responded, “We have a theory: Stack, bad. Frisbee, good.” I cringed, but even more so as the kids started chanting it to me like a mantra as we sat down to debrief.

Game 1: Unintimidated by their first tournament.

Fortunately, game 2 was against the Sde Boker B team who actually practice and are themselves highly structured. And this turned out to be a battle.  Both teams use a vertical stack and have an emerging understanding of the space that that affords you. And both teams are young, so there are drops and less than ideal throwing decisions. Perfect.

Game 2: The Battle

Sde Boker started on D and capitalized on our first turnover, scoring the first point of the game. But, shockingly, we answered! The celebration after scoring our first point was like we’d just won the World Championship. Everyone rushed the field and hugs and high-fives went all around! I breathed a sigh of relief. Goal of the game accomlished.

Game 2: Goals are scored.

To my great surprise, though, points continued to be traded throughout the game. There were a lot of turnovers every point, but the offensive team continued to be able to put it in. As the hard cap went on, the game was tied 4-4. Universe point.

OK, so we DID throw a disc straight up into the air– and high too– when we scored the winning goal. But we recovered quickly and went straight to the spirit circle. Our co-captain spoke, saying what an extraordinary and fun game it was and praising our opponent for their fierce play. Sde Boker answered in kind, saying what a special match-up it had been. I got some complaints on the side about the physicality of the Phoenix play, but the Sde Boker kids were gracious enough to mention it to me in private and asked me to talk to the team about it after the game. They didn’t say a word about it in the spirit circle.

Game 2: Still working on the "no contact" part of ultimate.

I had nothing to say in our post-game debriefing (deciding to save the talk about basketball defense vs. ultimate defense for the next pre-game and let them bask in their win), except, “Well, I guess I was wrong!” The kids were quite pleased to have me acknowledge this and their “We showed you!” response was very welcome.

The best parts of the day, though, happened off the field in having time to actually have real conversations with the kids. We never talk about politics, and for all I knew, they were completely oblivious to the aims of Ultimate Peace and just liked playing a new sport with a bunch of American coaches. Yeah. No. Wrong again. They are highly aware of the cultural tensions and what we’re trying to do: They just have the good sense to focus their efforts on doing rather than talking. One young player told me that she gets comments in UP all the time about how she’s different from other Arabs and it makes her really sad… because she’s not! She’s realized that the best thing she can do at UP is be herself and help people to realize that she is just a regular person, Arab or not. This is her contribution to breaking down the cultural prejudices that exist here.

Another particularly inspiring conversation took place with one of the co-captains on the team. He said that he felt that he played well, but really had more in him to give and wondered aloud how he could go about tapping into that on the field. This led to a great conversation about motivation, desire, and commitment. While I had some suggestions, it was clear that he was working this out for himself and was just taking the first steps on a great life-long journey. Isn’t it amazing what power there is in athletic competition?

Our energy, though, going into Game 3 was low as the mental demands of a tournament started to take their toll. One of the most difficult aspects of the day was having 18 players for a 7 v 7 game.

Game 3: Regrouping

The captains of the team determined lines and really struggled to make sure people felt like they were getting playing time while simultaneously making sure we always had a strong line on the field. We hadn’t decided ahead of time as a team what our priority was: playing or winning… primarily because it hadn’t seemed that winning would be an option! When that became a real possibility, frustration over drops and bad decisions escalated, lines got tighter, and people got touchier about being called off to let someone else play. Down 4-0, we called a timeout to regroup.

After committing to doing what was best for the team and not worrying so much about ourselves as individuals, we took the field and pulled out an impressive 6 points against the Isotopes, a team of PhD students and professors from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. They complimented us on our style of play and our good spirit toward them, if not toward each other.

Game 3: Post re-grouping intensity

One Phoenix player commented that she was embarassed that they had been yelling at each other during the game, because she knew that they were representing the entire Arab culture at this tournament for many people who didn’t know any Arabs personally and for whom this was, if not a first, then at least a rare, personal interaction where Arabs and Jews were on equal footing. That’s a lot of pressure for a 15 year old girl to put on herself, but I couldn’t disagree. One day, that pressure will be non-existent. One day, it will be just ultimate players out there on the field. Not Arabs, not Jews. This was not quite that day, but watching the Phoenix girls joking and laughing with the older boys from Haifa’s Hucking Crazy team during a bye and having several players from other teams remark to me how happy they were to see ultimate in Israel becoming more inclusive (one team even invited us to come and scrimmage with them!) sure made it seem like that day is maybe not so far off.

Game 3: Post-regrouping goal!

Game 4 looked much like Game 2, as indeed it was a rematch against Sde Boker B. Except this time, there was no fouling, and this time Universe Point went in favor of Sde Boker. In our spirit circle, one of the Phoenix players couldn’t wait for the captains to take their turn. She piped up, “This game taught me a lot. We won the first game against you, but you came to this game ready to play hard and give everything you had again, even though you lost already. I learned from this to never give up. Even when you get beat. That you come back fighting to win even when you lose. This is a lesson for ultimate and for life.” Ummm. Yeah. It was a good day.

Tamra Phoenix!

by Sarah VanWagenen – UP Year-Round Coach

Areen from Tamra, Israeli National Team

So, what’s the turning point? We almost have enough critical mass to start… a league.

And this brings up all kinds of new important issues. Issues that are specific to fostering Spirit of the Game in a conflict-ridden region geographically divided along largely ethnic lines: Palestine, with the exception of Jewish settlements, is almost entirely Arab. Within Israel proper, Arabs live in Arab towns and villages and Jews lives in Jewish towns and villages. In Israel’s two largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Arabs live in Arab neighborhoods and Jews live in Jewish neighborhoods. Haifa, about an hour north of Tel Aviv on the coast of the Mediterranean, is the most integrated city, but is still highly segregated: Arab kids go to Arab schools and Jewish kids go to Jewish schools.

Adi from Kfar Tavor, Israeli National Team

UP was set up to allow kids from these sometimes hostile ethnic groups to PLAY together. A new sport. A level playing field. But more importantly, UP preaches Spirit of the Game. Though perhaps not unique to ultimate, SotG is uniquely articulated and acculturated in ultimate — and it provides an excellent tool for teaching integrity when the stakes are high, conflict resolution when emotions are high, basic joy of play (as opposed to winning), and respect for your opponent when deep down you just want to destroy him. In starting a league with community teams, Arabs and Jews will play against each other, which is fundamentally different from the previous Ultimate Peace camp experience and our sprinkling of HAT tournaments, where all the teams have been intermixed.

Jewish and Arab teammates at UP Hat tournament

Jewish and Arab opponents at UP Hat Tournament

The ethnic divide of these ultimate teams brings new importance to the issue of how we define and how we respect an OPPONENT. We can teach a certain kind of behavior: no spiking, no trash talking, help your opponent up when he’s lying on the ground. But when we look across the field before the pull, who do we see? My suspicion is many of us would say, “Someone we have to defeat.” Is that wrong? Is that disrespectful? What we’re facing here at the dawn of an Ultimate Peace in the Middle East Youth League is a real question about how to talk about and how to view the other. An other that you do, in fact, want to defeat… that you are actively working to defeat!

I’ve seen many players pump themselves before a game by belittling or dehumanizing the other team in subtle ways. I’m guilty of it, too! How many of us have stared down the person we’re guarding and thought, “You’re nothing. You won’t touch the disc while I’m on you. You can’t do anything I won’t let you do. I own you.” Is this disrespectful? I’m not doing anything. I’m not saying anything. I’m just thinking to myself… But what are the consequences of such thinking in a place where the other is already so villified and the prejudices already run so deep?

The goal of a league is, arguably (another topic for another post), to win it.

UP Hat Tournament Champions trophy

So, if athletics is a metaphor for life, as many claim it is, then what’s the life metaphor when Jews and Arabs in Israel/Palestine face off on the ultimate field? Does the context of Arabs and Jews in Israel-Palestine require us to change the way we think about opponents? Would such a change only be relevant for this place at this time? Or would it generalize to all people and all times? These are the questions we’re asking ourselves at UP these days. A turning point indeed.

by Sarah VanWagenen – UP Year Round Coach

At a painfully early 8am, coaches divided up into carloads and drove to the villages where our kids live. Some of us hopped over to nearby Tamra, others drove hours and passed through checkpoints to get to the West Bank. Everywhere we went, though, we found one thing to be universally true: we spent as much time eating as playing Ultimate. That’s Middle Eastern hospitality.

Here are some long overdue notes from the village visits.

Tuba Zangoria:

The kids from Tuba Zangaria met in Rosh Pina at a beautiful field. We all hugged, then Jeff threw some long hucks for the kids to run down. Then we played some ultimate with nine on each side. The coaches and kids all had a blast. Finally, we ate some great watermelon before saying goodbye and promising to meet again next year. Then it was off to…

Buene Nujidat:

A little ulty and a lot of eating.

At the gym Gassan (“Mr. Fantastic”) and the kids were waiting. They cheered wildly as we entered. We played a game of tag, and then some full court ultimate with the basketball keys as goals. It is amazing how much better these kids have gotten. After the game, some of the kids insisted we come to their house for lunch. The coaches split into four groups and were taken through the streets of the village. Daniel, Jesse, and I went to Laila’s house were we met what seemed like hundreds of family members. We ate an incredible meal high atop the village. When it was time to leave we met up at Maria’s family farm. We saw many goats and birds as well as an amazing collection of village artifacts. Of course we were given shots of incredibly strong Arabian coffee.                                                          Lunch in Buene Nujidat.

-          UP Coach Jeff Landesman

Ein Rafa:

The kids were psyched to see everyone and had some nice drills. In Ein Rafa, the kid who was sent home earlier in the camp, showed up as well and that was a great moment We had a blast at Karym’s.

-          UP Administrator Rona Yaniv

Tamra:

We showed up a few minutes late, but it didn’t matter, as the kids were ecstatic to see us. Smiles all around, and everyone started enjoying themselves as soon as we stepped on the field and discs began to fly. The high school field in Tamra rests up on the hill side, with a beautiful view on all sides overlooking the village. Most of the kids had been to camp, but there were also some newcomers who were eager to play and have fun. We first split into smaller groups and ran a few drills that the kids liked (the go to drill, and the dog drill). Then we brought everyone together and played a couple short scrimmages. Everyone was super excited to actually be playing Ultimate again! After a little over an hour, we brought everyone together to sit, talk, and relax amongst friends and coaches. Both kids and coaches shared their thoughts on camp, their post-camp experiences, spirit of the game, and hope for the future. It was a very positive and uplifting chat for all. Afterwards we were treated to some fantastic Arabic treats including delicious bakery pastries, boxes of amazing manaeesh (warm pita bread with zataar and olive oil), juice, and coffee. After about 15 minutes of stuffing our faces to the point of having to refuse more, we said our final goodbyes and were off to Arabe. A great morning trip to start the day.

-          UP Coach Jonathan Masler

Arabe:

We arrived in Sachnin, a neighboring town to Arabe where the best available practice field is located for the Arabe kids (note: the word is that Arabe should have their own fields next year. Booya!) The field in Sachnin is situated in the heart of the city, and next to the soccer stadium. Again, the kids’ faces lit up as we arrived and started throwing discs around. Everyone was thrilled to be together again, and Nadin, last year’s trilingual drumming goddess of a local coach, was also there to take part in the event! There was a decent size group of kids whom had never been to camp before, or played Ultimate, so we split up into separate groups from the kids who’d been to camp, in order to teach a few of the basics. Nadin was an amazing translator (as expected), and a few of the coaches taught the backhand and forehand to a group of young lady basketballers, who picked it up extremely quickly. After some popcorn throwing, they were ready to go.

Meanwhile, Ali was holding down the fort with the experienced kids, as they ran a couple drills and started scrimmaging. It was hot and windy, but everyone managed to have high spirits, and a ton of fun. Big highlight: by the end of our hour and a half session with the Arabe kids, the young girls who’d never thrown a disc prior to our visit, finished up the day by playing a 5 on 5 mini game all by themselves! Amazing to see kids pick it up so fast, and get in to the game with so much joy. After the games, it was time to go. We said our goodbyes to the kids, and made our way to Arabe for an outstanding Arabic lunch. We sat at a restaurant and feasted over the typical Arabic meal of salads, pita, hummus, fries, and meat. We were also hosted by the head of sport in Arabe, who talked to us about the importance of the work we were doing, and how much he loved Ultimate Peace. It was a satisfying and motivating lunch. Afterwards, we snapped a few photos, and made our way up to the hill top and Arabe rests on, where we got a great view of the neighboring villages, and surrounding land in the north of Israel.

-          UP Coach Jonathan Masler

Beit Sahour:

It was quite a trek to get there, but U.P. coaches Becca Polivy and Jez drove like the locals they are and got us there as fast as physics would allow. When we finally rolled into the school courtyard, we were greeted by an impatient Emil (the local coach) and a gaggle of kids who’d clearly been there awhile. We wasted no time in pairing off to throw.

We were playing in two paved courtyards, and as sometimes happens in semi-enclosed spaces like that, there was a strange updraft. Sometimes it wouldn’t affect your disc at all, sometimes the Frisbee would go flying, or hit the pavement and slide. But the kids had been tossing and without consciously thinking about it and they’d figured out how to adjust. This is, after all, their home turf.

Sibling rivalry

Our four-on-four scrimmage in the lower courtyard’s basketball court (no out-of-bounds, you can play it off the wall) featured some great plays, like Basil Abu-Aita catching a score an inch over his older sister Lora. All four Abu-Aitas were there, including a little sister we expect to see at camp in a couple years.  Local coach Hamouda managed to play and look studly in some very skinny jeans.

 Game on in Beetsahur

About eight minutes after we got there, Emil called a time out for some much needed Turkish coffee. Coach Rafi Wainhaus taught the kids how to play slackjaw, where you let your jaw go completely slack and lifeless and the first person to laugh loses. Jez blasted the Cupid Shuffle from his SUV, and the whole group, by way of farewell, did American’s national dance in the courtyard. Then it was off to a restaurant where Emil ordered dish after dish of the best pita, hummus, and falafel known to man, and then – culture bonus: A visit to the church where Jesus was born.

-          U.P. Coach Becca Tucker

See you at camp in 2013!

We had 45 minutes of team time this morning to circle up with our comrades and decompress. But first, we had to pack and clean our rooms.

Bribery is always helpful when it comes to these sorts of tasks, so at morning meeting, BarKAN told the kids that only when their rooms were clean would they receive their new discs. Half an hour before teams were scheduled to meet, the coaches of Kings of the Sky received a message. Moran, our camper from Kfar Tavor, was waiting for us at
the entrance to our dorm. He had finished cleaning his room and wanted his disc so he could throw. Moran had played Ultimate a grand total of twice before this week. A few days ago, Israeli youth team organizer and U.P. coach Dan Tapuach asked Moran to try out for next year’s Israeli Youth National Team.

When all rooms had been OK’d, teams circled up under the shade of the home tree. Some teams talked about their camp highlights, some talked about each kid’s strengths and areas where he could improve, some shared stories, all cheered. Mr. Fantastic was rendered speechless by silent tears.

On the Disc Devils, Haneen from Arabe and Zenat from Tamra told their team about how they’d reacted when they found out they were going to be on the same team at camp. They had asked their coaches to switch them, because they were mortal enemies on the basketball court. Now, they said, they’re best friends.

“You are late, you are late!” camp director Tomer yelled about ten times before the team pods finally broke up and hustled to the auditorium for the closing ceremony. We sang the Camp Song and saw a slideshow including time-lapse video of the fields that made players look like busy ants. BarKAN announced the names of seven special kids the coaches picked who exemplify Ultimate Peace values. With the honor comes a responsibility to spread the spirit of Ultimate Peace through their communities. Congratulations to Muhammad from Einrafa, Yasmeen from Tamra, Adi from Kfar Tavor, Yuval from Ranaana, Rotem from Ranaana, Lora from Beetsahur, and Kosai from Jericho!

After the ceremony came goodbyes. Mr. Fantastic could do nothing more than grab and squeeze people’s hands, look down and wiped his eyes.  Stoic coach Joe Gara wore his sunglasses indoors. Mr. All-American coach Ben Spears was red-eyed. Looks like big boys do cry.

Minutes after the kids dragged their suitcases onto buses back home, the coaches were already getting Facebook friend requests from them.  Areen Shihade of Tamra posted on Ultimate Peace’s wall: 365 days left… can’t wait!

Word of the day: Great. Achla (Arabic). Achla (Hebrew slang).

After lunch we broke for a different kind of pool play. We hopped onto buses and returned to our home away from home, the town pool, for a 40-minute dip. Mid-day swim time should also be a staple of Ultimate tournaments. Not only do you get to cool down and float your sore limbs, but you’re reminded that the people you’re playing against are friends, not mortal enemies.

There were reminders of that fact everywhere, even as teams started getting eliminated in the afternoon’s bracket play. We’ve been hammering home the importance of spirit, but the kids took it to the next level, high fiving their opponents as they were walking back to endzones between points, cheering for other teams as they passed by on warm-up jogs, saying “good luck” to the opposing team before games, cheering for the team that had just beaten them.  As David Barkan said at the assembly, losing in points is always hard, but if you lose in points and play with spirit, you win. It was the most spirited tournament I’ve ever attended, and I hope to bring some of that dignity back to adult club ultimate back home.

Congratulations to every player out there. The day’s points winners were… drumroll please…. Dream Team and Chocolate for Peace in the girls’ division, whose final ended in an unprecedented  4-4 tie. And Kings of the Sky, who pulled out a 5-4 win in a barnburner against Kryptonite (see video). Highlights: a hammer score to start the game, indentical twins Rasheed and Adam marking each other, and players facilitating their own discussion of a difficult in-or-out call in the endzone without any yelling.

Tomorrow, the kids will go home with Ultimate skills, new discs, an understanding of spirit, and, for those just learning English, a vocabulary that consists of counting from 1 to 10, “spirit,” “fun,” “travel,” “foul,” “mutual respect,” “integrity,” “nonviolence,” “good game,” and all the words to “snack-a-time-o,” which was stuck in everyone’s head all day.

Because a wedding is taking place this very moment at Manof, which they started setting up this morning, we were a little more squeezed than usual today. But we’ve got drills up our sleeve for every shape field, so the wedding wasn’t much of a problem until night fell and the colorful lights drew the kids like bugs to a lamp. Counselor-bouncers, lined up along strategic points, kept our kids on our side of campus.

Morning scrimmages looked more than ever like Ultimate, and in the relative sanity, the gaps in what we’ve taught our kids made themselves apparent. Yes, we showed them how to force one direction yesterday, but how to convey the downfield defender’s positioning in relation to the mark?  Yes, we explained a stack, but how to teach clearing when you don’t get the disc?

For every problem, there’s a drill. For Kings of the Sky, today’s drills went remarkably well because we had a breakthrough: our official translator is now a kid who spent three years living in New York. He conveys subtleties that our local coach didn’t seem to be.  In fact, I have a hunch that perhaps beloved Mr. Fantastic, who does great translating from Hebrew to Arabic, doesn’t really speak English (although his motivational schools put Vince Lombardi to shame).

Last night was the much anticipated talent show. We were serenaded by pianists, guitarists and poets; impressed by dancers and beatboxers; and entertained by the Zoolander underwear pull-off and the coaches in training rapping about one thing we all have in common here: snack time! A taste: “Apples too soft, peaches too hard. At least I have wafers, my back-up card.” …. “I like to steal them from the moadon. Singing hey-o. David don’t know.”

Whoa!  Good morning! Seb alcher! Bogra Tov!  I just woke up. I closed my eyes for a moment last night and now it’s 7:14 am on the Big Day. Breakfast is at 7:30, games start at 8:30.

“Are we taking speed  this morning?” Nancy Barkan asked at last night’s coaches’ meeting.

Said coach Matt Knolls, our tournament director: “Lots of Turkish coffee, maybe.”

Generally speaking, yelling “fire” in a crowded auditorium is a bad idea. And generally speaking, we play Ultimate at Ultimate Peace camp. But on All Sports Day, all bets are off. Today, we reshuffled our team units into four giant 45-person teams – Earth, Air, Fire & Water – and (mostly) played other games like volleyball, soccer (the level of talent was astounding), soccer-baseball (aka kickball, unheard of here), handball, basketball, Slip n Slide, toss the water balloon in a blanket, throw water balloons at unsuspecting victims, Discross, etc.

Nighttime brought a cheer competition – complete with a panel of judges, an MC, and a verdict handed up on a piece of paper. Team Air stole the show with a tripartite cheer that involved huffing, puffing and blowing houses down at various volumes and dropping beats by slapping hands on thighs. But all four teams put on a good show. Team Water made it rain; Team Earth practiced yogic positions in imitation of trees; and Fire exploded a small child out of the midst of their circle, who threw a red shirt into the air and shouted “fire!”

But we’re a bunch of plastic addicts. We couldn’t not play Ultimate at all. Mid-day, we took a break from taking a break from Ultimate. We had an all-camp boys and girls scrimmage in front of visitors Uri Shefer, Director of Israeli sport administration, and Nujudiat Ghazi, sport supervisor for northern Israel. Ghazi had stopped by before camp to share his wisdom with the coaches (see day two’s note). What they saw was without a doubt the highest level of disc that’s ever been played by Ultimate Peace campers.

Because we wanted to show our guests the sport at a high level (and because the coaches are plastic addicts, too), we had a coaches v. coaches-in-training exhibition game. The crowd was kept entertained by hucks and scoobers and a sick layout D by Jonathan Masler. Local coach Ali, a relative newcomer to the game, threw a score. It was, as they say here, “very very good,” although we all got more riled up than we intended, which is nothing new. The coaches pulled it out (sigh of relief).
The best part of the exhibition game was that the kids actually watched the entire thing, cheered, and had high fives for us afterwards. The demos we’ve done in past years, we lost the kids after four minutes. Part of the that difference may be that this time, they already knew the game and their mirror neurons were firing away; part of it may be that they knew us (last year, we demo’d on the first day, when we were all but strangers).
We blocked out a few hours of much-needed free time today. Some kids used it wisely to sleep, but most spent their afternoons scrimmaging against the coaches-in-training and throwing around. We were all supposed to watch a movie tonight, but Moran, a Kings of the Sky player from Kfar Tavor, said he didn’t want to watch a movie. He wanted to play Ultimate. “I am here to learn, not to play,” he said. Hard to argue with that. We gave the kids an option, and maybe half watched Wall-e in the auditorium while the other half took the party onto the field, beatboxing and rapping, dancing and playing basketball, and literally doing Ultimate drills and playing short-person-friendly 500.
Tomorrow, we’re back in our original teams for the last day of practice before the big dance.
Word of the day: Everyone. Kol Wahed (Arabic). Kol echad (Hebrew).

After breakfast, we had a long practice. Three hours to make headway on today’s missions: 1) teach the stack 2) teach the force (forehand, backhand) 3) survive the 90-plus degree heat.

There were hard moments: in a scrimmage on the basketball court, a PINK player caught a disc on the endzone line, got knocked down hard by her defender, and was doubly unhappy when the opposing team said it wasn’t a goal. After five minutes of heated discussion, Dream Team spirit winner Hanan Shihadeh, from Tamra, stepped in and called it a goal.
The kids are taking the lead now in the spirit realm. A group broke into an impromptu, non-sarcastic rendition of the Camp Song on the bus to the pool. Asaf Ashkenazi of Ranaana encouraged his team, Kings of the Sky, to sit together in the auditorium, something the coaches have been pleading and scolding about for three days, with medium success.

Some highlights from the day:
Frolf course pro Joe Gara regained his pride by shooting birdies on all five holes. Ten is going to be a tough score to beat.
A freestyle show by local coaches Ofek Agmon and Yarden Borkow in the auditorium. Their disc addiction has born fruits. They nailed ridiculous tricks with names like bad attitude delay and double spinning barrel. Freestyle preempted Thursday’s talent show because Ofek is leaving tonight to compete in a European freestyle tournament. He will be missed.
The nightly fiesta on the field included the usual debka and 500, and magic tricks by Ali, a coach from Tamra. Basketball with 6’5” Ali, who used to play semi-pro ball, was a pleasure – if you were on his team.
Zolo jumped over seven kids on the Slip n Slide. “I think we can do more,” said Zolo.