00:00It's just a very fast pace.
00:11It requires so many different elements.
00:20I want to be a better player.
00:21I want to be a better teammate.
00:25I think many people play team sports
00:26because they want to be part of something
00:28to get to them themselves.
00:37Freak Show has been a club that has been established
00:39long before I started playing frisbee.
00:45We were one of the first clubs founded in Singapore
00:47for flying disc.
00:50And over time, we've been able to build ourselves
00:52into a club that consistently competes
00:54at the very highest levels in Singapore.
00:56This year, we are aiming to repeat our championships
00:59and push ourselves to a higher level.
01:01Freak Show, over the last two to three years,
01:03we've been able to consistently achieve results,
01:06champions, first runners-up at the national championships.
01:09And then, of course, given the honour of being called up
01:12to represent Singapore at the national team level,
01:14the relationship can be symbiotic.
01:16The national team allows freak show players to go out into the world,
01:21being able to play against players of a higher calibre
01:24that we cannot find in Singapore.
01:25It's just a very fast-paced sport that requires so many different elements
01:33that are underappreciated until you really play at the highest levels.
01:37You need to be able to run fast.
01:39You need to be able to accelerate quickly, decelerate quickly.
01:42You need to be able to jump.
01:44You need to be able to last a 100-minute game.
01:46And if you go overseas for World's Tournament,
01:48you need to play seven to ten hundred-minute games over five to six days.
01:51That takes a toll on your body.
01:52Anyone who's thrown a disc would understand at some level that
01:56people take to the backhand very naturally.
01:58But if you look at anyone who throws a forehand,
02:00and if you ever try to throw a forehand yourself,
02:02you realise that it's one of the most unnatural motions
02:05in any sport that I've played.
02:07So it really opens your eyes to what competitive frisbee can look like
02:10at the highest level.
02:12Sacrificing your Saturday mornings, waking up early,
02:15coming down, running suicides after training
02:18when it's 12 noon and it's so hot outside.
02:20All these are sacrifices that I think anyone who has played
02:23or aspires to play at the highest level can tell you
02:26that they have gone through.
02:28I want to be a better player.
02:29I want to be a better teammate.
02:30I want to enjoy this sport more.
02:33And the only way I can enjoy this sport more is by being better
02:36so that I can do more things on the field.
02:38I'm trusted.
02:39I've given more game time.
02:40I build better relationships with my friends, with my teammates.
02:44And all these things come together in any team sport,
02:47I would say, not just frisbee.
02:49The external part of achieving results,
02:51the internal part of building a relationship with your team.
02:54I think many people play team sports because they want to be part
02:58of something greater than themselves, right?
03:00There's a special feeling when you become so close to a team
03:03and you push through all the sacrifices that people make.
03:07All this culminates in you being able to bring back an accomplishment
03:12as a team and being able to form those relationships,
03:15achieving something that you know that you could never do by yourself.
03:19Appendix is Singapore's first beach ultimate club.
03:25We have been around since 2012.
03:27We pride ourselves of being an open club,
03:29a club where everyone can join.
03:31Culturally, I think also, I mean, this kind of setting obviously
03:35invites a slightly different, I'd say, frame of mind.
03:38It is competition, but at the same time, it's competition in a nice setting.
03:42And it gets people into a, I think, into a good mood and a good mindset.
03:48This overall thriving beach, a beach ultimate scene.
03:51So we're part of that.
03:53We're training one to two times a week in comparison to others
04:16that might train four or five times a week.
04:18We focus to have a training for players that wanna compete,
04:21but at the same time can't necessarily commit the same amount of effort
04:26as more competitive clubs do.
04:29Some of our players definitely train more.
04:31They also train with other clubs.
04:33We are, in that sense, not exclusive.
04:35We allow people to train as much as they can.
04:37I channel my competitive energy through the Singapore Beach National Training Program.
04:44We do train about three times a week right now and it's gonna ramp up to four times,
04:49but in the off season, I train with Appendix.
04:52I think Appendix provides a very unique space.
04:55It's very warm, welcoming and open, which may not be common elsewhere.
05:01Beach ultimate requires a lot more stamina.
05:07At the same time, beach is also kinder on my joints.
05:09The longer you play in the sport, the more you appreciate how less taxing is on your body.
05:14Playstyle-wise, the slower surface changes tactics.
05:18There is fewer players.
05:19There is more surface to cover.
05:21I think it's more exciting on one hand.
05:24On the other hand, Sand is a great equaliser,
05:27so it makes it possible for older players like me to still compete.
05:33Appendix is a diverse community of local and expats coming together with varied perspectives
05:41and different playing styles and learning from one another.
05:46We're a club with players from very varying backgrounds, right?
05:50Locals, foreigners, young, old-ish, you know, professional students.
05:57That means we need to focus on playing to each other's strengths,
06:01and that strength is the diversity.
06:04That means that we gotta focus on players that can think for themselves
06:10and they can, you know, problem-solve on the fly
06:13rather than using just a roster of a lot of players that, you know, act very similarly
06:18and work like a well-built machine.
06:25Beginners' night started with another Ultimate Frisbee player that I know,
06:28and he noticed that when people play pick-ups, they tend to throw only to their friends
06:33and only people who could play well.
06:36Friends or players that they'll invite along would kind of be left out after a while
06:40and no one would throw to them so he would kind of put them aside and teach them
06:44and over time there was more demand for that sort of thing.
06:48Here we really focus on giving the fundamentals and teaching people the foundational stuff
06:53they need to know in order to enjoy the sport at a very, very basic level.
06:58Yeah, I think the culture here is really very welcoming so we try to embrace that
07:03and so when people make mistakes, you know, we don't want to be annoyed at them
07:07or like decide not to throw to them in the future.
07:09We want to maintain that level of encouragement so when people do scats for their first assist
07:15or their first goal, you can hear people clapping and cheering for them on the side
07:19and I think that's really great and important.
07:23Everyone comes here with the understanding that if we could be good at anything,
07:26you have to suck at it first, right?
07:28Like so nobody's ever good at catching or throwing a Frisbee well the first time.
07:33So because we came from that, you should expect the same from others.
07:37So when they do make a mistake, it's like it's okay but what can we do differently
07:41so that the outcome is different every simple time.
07:44They are not intending to go pro or be really super serious.
07:49They just want a chance to learn the sport or get to meet new people and just to stay active and fit.
07:56Our dream is really to see them advance in any sort of way to play the sport.
08:01The more people play the sport then the more exposure we will have as entire communities.
08:10We believe that having that community engagement and getting more people involved would be the most important thing in terms of long-term sustainability.
08:23Spirit of the game is very unique to Ultimate because we don't have any referees.
08:26So we expect everyone to know the rules.
08:29There is five aspects that we generally measure in Spirit of the Game.
08:34These five aspects are essentially the knowledge of rules.
08:36So how well do we know the rules that we have agreed on?
08:40How safe do we keep each other?
08:42Fair-mindedness, like how fair are we about things?
08:45Especially if there is tension to be resolved.
08:47What kind of attitude do we have?
08:49Are we respectful?
08:50Do we bring a fundamentally positive attitude?
08:53And lastly, how well do we communicate?
08:55The integrity that we demand of players to make their own calls to accept when they themselves have inadvertently broken the rules.
09:04You're able to practice explaining your point of view and then hearing the other person's point of view as well.
09:10And then you both come into a consensus of what to do in a conflict.
09:15If we take this as a core idea, again, it expands into your wider life as well, right?
09:21Like how do I relate to people at work in my friendships, in my partnerships, right?
09:25Like we will always be in places where things are at odds.
09:29How can we overcome that and figure out a fair resolution?
09:32I think many people see sports and life as separate.
09:37But I think SOTG or the lessons that anyone might learn playing competitive sports growing up.
09:44Kind of bring those two together.
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