Choosing to play Frisbee has been one of the best decisions I have made so far cause I have always loved playing Frisbee, and it is even more fun because it is a team game. I joined Sacred Discs back in 2021, and we have played so many tournaments together that it is hard even to count. But Malaysia will be the most memorable because it was our first international tournament. The JMUC 2023 tournament was an incredible experience for our team, Sacred Discs. Traveling to Malaysia was thrilling, and it was exciting to see how much the sport of Frisbee has grown there. The competition was intense, with teams from all over the world showcasing their skills and sportsmanship.

 LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth:

Frisbee is a sport that requires a lot of training and practice because it was our first international tournament as a school team. Everyone was very serious, even though we had very little time to refine our skills. My speed, catches, defense and backhand throws were my strengths that I just had to refine, while an area for much needed growth was maintaining my speed, cuts and forehand throw. I had to improve these three skills because it was very hard to throw a forehand for me and coming unprepared in a tournament is the biggest mistake a player can make. I religiously worked on improving my skills everyday so that I gave my best during the tournament in Malaysia.

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills in the process:

I had speed, but it didn’t last long because I didn’t have strong stamina and endurance. It caused a lot of backlash on my team because even though I was the fastest runner among the girls on our team, it was impossible to keep it up without proper training. Everyone on the team thought that we had to work very hard to improve our stamina and endurance, we took part in early-in camps that were held in school and attended practices every weekend. On Saturdays it was only our team while on Sundays there were other players from across the city as well. To make the best of our free time even at home we set up this competition for boys and girls separately, where the more set of throws and exercises we do, the more points we gain, in the end the person from both the genders with the most points would get a prize from the coaches of our team. This was our method to overcome the physical challenges but it doesn’t end here, a week before the tournament four of our players including me got injured and healing would take time, but time was what we didn’t have, so all of us who were injured had to take a two day break to heal as much as we could before resuming practice. One challenge was to balance school life and Frisbee. While I prioritized Frisbee a lot I also noticed that I didn’t pay much attention to my academics which was important being a junior in high school. So, I took out time by deducting the no.of hours spent on Frisbee to pay attention to my studies though it was a little hard to maintain both of it I realized that I am not the only one who is struggling to manage frisbee and academics and that I should try my best cause most of the players in our team were seniors in high school. This taught me to be more confident, communicating more with my teammates, improving, cutting, throwing and catching skills that would help me in offense as well as defense. While getting assistance from our coaches who taught us how to be strategic and calculative so we make the best use of our minds because mental health is as important as physical health.

LO4: Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience:

JMUC 2023 was held in Malaysia in December and we were told about this tournament in June the same year. We knew we didn’t have much time to prepare, but we were dedicated to being able to make the best players out of ourselves. We woke up early in the morning just for practice even though we had school after, I learned a lot from the all the players in our team and helped those who needed help in improving their throwing skills. Having an accurate throw and a perfect catch was very important so all of us showed perseverance and commitment in improving our offense and defense through hard-work, dedication, and practice. No matter how exhausting and difficult it was for me to balance my school life with sports, I didn’t give up and continued to improve my throwing. I have seen a huge improvement in all of the team members’ skills including myself that even a cutter can take a handler’s place and vica-versa. We were very confident with our throws and cuts even though we had a little over five months to practice.

LO5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively:

Sacred Discs is the first team that I joined when I first started playing Frisbee. It is a spirit game where the participation of every member is equally valued and important despite having female and male captains and spirit captains. I have encountered a lot of benefits from working collaboratively during our practices. We always cheer for each other from the side-lines even though we missed the score and celebrate twice as hard when one of the players scores a goal. We made a chant that we shout at the top of our lungs and whenever we score a goal we clap and shout ‘INDIA’. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses which we can use to motivate and guide other players. Without any strategy and plan an individual player cannot lead the game and score a point, it is important for each of the seven members on the field to be each other’s backbone whenever needed. The most unique part of Frisbee is that there are no referees in the tournament, because it was an international tournament where language was a barrier to communication. There were translators who also acted as supervisors of the game in case there is a call that ends up inconclusive. But before the supervisor is asked for perspective the two players that the call happened between talk it out and then come to a conclusion which requires each team member to pay attention even if they are not on the field. Even the players standing on the sides-lines could be asked for a perspective. Working collaboratively and demonstrating our skills in practice was also seen during the tournament.