Monthly Archives: April 2020

WUD 4.0 Recap

We are so grateful to all the coaches and athletes who came out to our 4th Womxn’s Ultimate Day. Coaches from Brute Squad, Slow White, Wild Card, and our local grand masters’ team spent the day running skills, mental-resilience, and body mechanics workshops for athletes whose experienced ranged from brand new to ultimate to having veteran club experience.

Athletes split into groups by skill level and rotated through clinic stations on throwing and breaking the mark, cutting, marking, and defensive positioning. Advanced groups learned about throwing windows and footwork for defensive dictating, and beginner groups learned the rules, set their first marks, and threw their first forehands (!!).

After applying new skills in a scrimmage, athletes split into two groups and rotated between mental-resilience and body mechanics workshops. The mental resilience workshop was led by Leila Tunnell and covered goal-setting and tools for refocusing that are key to reaching your potential as an athlete. In the body mechanics workshop, player learned techniques for improving straight-line acceleration and changing directions quickly and safely.

We are already looking forward to Womxn’s Ultimate Day 2021! Although it didn’t work out this year, we’re hoping that in the future, we can add another event with a longer series of workshops on equity in ultimate, leadership, and planning seasons and practices.

The clinic was led and organized by Hannah Baranes and Leila Tunnel. We had a stellar support team of all-star coaches and administrators who helped bring this day to fruition, including Valley Ultimate board members Josh Seamon and Joe Costello. And as always, thanks to Indoor Action Sports in Greenfield for hosting our event!

Our coaches included:

  • Hannah Baranes (Slow White)
  • Leila Tunnell (Brute Squad, Happy Valley)
  • Alex Ode (Brute Squad)
  • Olivia Hampton (Slow White)
  • Laura “Buzz” Davis (Valley Grandmasters)
  • Erin Rea (Brute Squad)
  • Sarah Judd (Wild Card)
  • Caroline Pellegrini (Happy Valley)
  • Tess Johnson (Slow White)
  • Caitlin Fitzgerald (Slow White)

Thanks again to all who participated, and we’re looking forward to seeing you on the field again soon!

-Leila Tunnell + Hannah Baranes

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Spirited

As of March 27, USA Ultimate extended the timeline for postponements and cancellations of all USAU sanctioned events to May 10. No sanctioned USAU programs will operate through at least May 10th. To keep up to date with these decisions follow their website or their Facebook.

WFDF has already cancelled events through the summer. Follow their decisions via their website or Facebook as well.

As the weather gets warmer, it becomes even harder to face the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought us all. Social Distancing, self-quarantine and economic uncertainty have us all under a lot of strain. For many of us, this kind of anxiety and stress is precisely the reason we exercise in general, and play ultimate specifically. We love ultimate as much as you do, but we must strongly suggest that all pickup games, formal or informal, be suspended until state and federal public health orders come to an end. We also suggest you avoid playing catch with anyone outside your household, especially in public spaces, as no disc can remain disinfected between tosses. Following social distancing guidelines is good spirit!

Even without ultimate frisbee, we encourage you to keep in touch with each other, share home workouts, take solo runs in quiet places, and enjoy the library of great ultimate videos out there. If you find something you would like Valley Ultimate to share via our Facebook or Newsletter, just send a message to our page or an email to atanudja@gmail.com

For now, enjoy this post from WFDF, Greatest Ultimate Bag, and Spirit of the Game (SOTG) about the spirited way to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stay Safe, Stay Healthy, Stay Spirited!