From playing with balls to throwing a disc - Frisbee is a spin on life

Writer Dr. Chris Wirszyla is guiding Sports News Blitz into the world of Ultimate Frisbee as we follow his daughter Bella’s aspiring career as a frisbee superstar.

Here he explains how his love for a flying disc grabbed him in his teenage years.

Playing with balls

Growing up, I always played sports with balls…baseball, basketball, football, soccer, volleyball, tennis, ping pong…and then, when I was about 16, the frisbee disc came in and put a spin on my life.

I can remember feeling a bit counterculture playing with a disc. My brother Steve and I started throwing in front of the house, or down at the field, or over my Grandmother’s house.

My father would yell at us, tell us we were being a nuisance to our neighbors.

The thing is, both of us soon mastered the flight patterns of the frisbee, so that we had control over the throws.

Different angle of releases and speed, depending on the wind or type of throw we were using, gave us great accuracy, and we were soon experimenting with other than the traditional backhand throws.

Suddenly we were proficient in the backhand, the forehand, the overhead, the overhand wrist fling, the thumper, the reverse thumper, the push pass, the scoober, skips on the pavement, multiple skips, etc.

Freestyle frisbee

We then discovered freestyle frisbee, which involves spinning a disc on the fingernail or nails, while doing tricks, like going under our legs or behind our backs, or even using the wind to create opportunities to amaze our onlookers.

The beach was perfect for this. We learned to catch throws, also, behind our back, between the legs, under the legs, behind the head, etc.

We soon discovered a great company (Discovering the World) that sold all kinds of cool frisbees and gear.

This boom of the disc (and hacky sack) in the late 70s and early 80s was just a great era for us, as we transitioned from a ball to a flying disc. (We both still loved basketball, though!).

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Bored at the barracks

After flunking out of college, I joined the army, and brought my two discs to Germany, where I taught my buddies my throws and tricks, to get us through some tedious and boring days stuck at the barracks.

I think this is where I discovered my love of teaching other people how to play.

When I got out of the service and went back to school, I found more and more people were playing. I remember throwing with my room-mate in the university gym.

I threw one high up on the bleachers where Joe climbed up, and upon jumping down, broke his ankle. Ouch.

While visiting my sister at a nearby college, I saw a bunch of students throwing disc. I went over and asked if I could join them, and they were soon impressed with my command of the throws.

They asked me to join their ultimate frisbee club. I had never even heard of ultimate!

Needless to say, as soon as I started playing, I was hooked.

My experience playing team invasion games like soccer and basketball gave me ready-made fundamentals on both offense and defense.

At the university, I decided to do an exchange program in Eastbourne, England. I started an ultimate club at the Chelsea School of Human Movement that, 40 years later, people are still talking about, and it was what I was known for.

A star is born

Well, from there, like they say, a star was born. I played ultimate for three years before moving to Barcelona.

I taught at the Benjamin Franklin International School for seven years, and we had an Ultimate Frisbee club that again, people are still talking about.

I continue to get Facebook messages from former students who tell me they still have the frisbee I gave them, or that playing ultimate was the best thing they ever did sports and fitness wise.

It really makes me feel good when I hear those things.

My one former student was so influenced by the frisbee I gave her the first day she was in Barcelona (and who came to play ultimate with us that day), that she said it put a spin on her life that continues today.

After leaving Barcelona, I pursued my PhD at the University of South Carolina.

I met a great, lifelong friend there. Terry and I started playing Friday ultimate after school, and played freestyle whenever we could.

One time at the beach, we were “showing off” our moves with people watching, when one man said, “wow, that is really something”, and then started walking away. “Wait, wait, I got more!” I said, and this is an inside joke between Terry and I, years later.

When I accepted my first university job, I introduced ultimate as a college course, and also started a club there.

We played indoors and outdoors at least twice a week for several hours.

Students who had never been successful at sports started playing, as one thing we stressed was that frisbee was a game for all. Many, many students came to enjoy the game.

It was also at this time I started presenting frisbee skills and ultimate frisbee at several different local and state level conferences.

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Cell phone affect

Unfortunately, the advent of the cell phone has affected the time kids put into playing not only frisbee, but all sports and fitness activities.

When I left teaching at the university, I went back to primary school.

While I taught frisbee skills every year, and kids enjoyed it, I was not able to get students up to even modified game level, like I had been able to do with the primary school students that I had in Barcelona.

The biggest difference I noticed, teaching at the primary level after 10 years, was that sport skills and fitness had decreased.

After a family move to the ocean, in Wilmington, NC, my Ultimate Frisbee days came to an end. I was now a family man and getting older.

I still loved to throw a disc, and always said the thing I loved to do most was throw on the beach with my brother Steve.

So no more ultimate…but, lo and behold, a new era was born as Wilmington boasted several disc golf courses. Once again, I was hooked with a frisbee sport.

Years before, while on spring break staying with a family in Rome, a former student and I played a modified game of disc golf, in and around the Roman ruins.

We would pick out a tree, or a monument, or a fence, and see how many throws it would take us to hit it. Years later, I was introduced to the actual game of formal disc golf.

I was so hooked, I applied for and secured a grant for a nine hole course at the primary school I taught at.

Now I could play every day during my break time and lunch.

At this time, I also latched on to the local university and started teaching PE methods courses and hosting student interns and field experience students.

Of course, one of our field trips was to the local disc golf course, and several of the interns would play with me every day.

I’m proud to say, through my teaching and conference presentations, I have taught hundreds of teachers, and thousands of students, the joys of throwing a disc, whether it be for backyard fun, or competitive ultimate, or getting out on the disc golf course.

It’s one of the things I am known for, and I am so happy my daughter has followed in my footsteps, as a member of the Great Britain U20 Ultimate Frisbee team.

“When a ball dreams, it dreams it's a frisbee”...

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