Montanita Spanish School: Ultimate Frisbee in Ecuador!

Frisbee around the world!

First things first, I love Ultimate Frisbee! In Germany, my home country, this magnificent sport enjoys nationwide popularity, kind of in the same way football does. Well, not quite, but any Ultimate player would confirm it immediately! Once I decided to spend some time in Ecuador I checked http://ffindr.com/, a page which shows frisbee action worldwide, to see what was going on in Ecuador. Sadly I saw that Ultimate Frisbee isn't the most common sport in Ecuador, surprise surprise. Giving up Frisbee for a couple of months was definitely not an option for me, unless say I got hit by a truck.

Hence, the next question was: how can I establish it as Ecuador´s national sport within a few short months?! Our open-minded students are always keen for sports and action, so one afternoon we kicked-off an excellent game of Ultimate with the students of the Spanish school. It was a great afternoon and many of them showed some astonishing Frisbee skills, though this wouldn´t satisfy my Frisbee hunger for long, as most students leave Ecuador after a few weeks. I needed a change of strategy! What do you do to establish Ultimate on a long-term basis? You get the youth involved! We would start at the bottom with the little kids in Montanita!

Montanita Spanish School offers some appealing volunteering options like working in a hospital or assisting in a kindergarden. To expand that offer, and for something a little easier, I organized a collaboration with the local primary school in Montanita to teach the kids, you guessed it, Ultimate Frisbee!

Primary school in Montanita

In the school here there are usually between 27 and 49 children in a class. Handling this alone seemed like a Herculean task, so I started my search for volunteers. The feedback was extraordinary! Within a few hours I had 10 students who wanted to join.

What a catchy board! - Pulled at least one or two extra volunteers!

Monday morning came faster than expected, but, nevertheless, we were well prepared!

Waiting for the lesson to begin...

We started with the 4th grade class of 47 (forty-seven!!!) children on Monday. As soon as we entered the schoolyard we were consumed by a bunch of yelling and screaming kids from all sides - it felt just like a Justin Bieber concert. Since we were 10 volunteers we formed groups of four to five, gathered ourselves together and explained the basics of Frisbee in Spanish! :)

Toni taking care of the photos!

Who wants to play Frisbee?!

Escuchen: This is a Frisbee!

The schoolyard looking a little emptier than usual.

Follow his lead!

Malin

Sepha

Magnificent teamwork by Dennis & Lina

We learned the theory, let's play!

sandwich catch #1

Ross is going for the long distance!

Tanja

Sarah making use of her teaching skills.

You won't get that disc!

6th grade - last Friday

6th grade from Wednesday in some years!

Toni!

sandwich catch #1

Lotte y las niñas!

one 'n one coaching.

Sashy, born to be a teacher.

Lots of love <3

True story.

Splendid teamwork by Dennis & Lina

How to catch properly!

sandwich catch #2

Sashy & the girl gang

We save the forehand throw for the next volunteer week!

What is my conclusion of the past week? I worked with little kids before, even as a coach for sport, but this week was tough! We were facing groups up to 47 children between eight and 12 years old and had to deal with the rather small schoolyard, which was packed during the lessons. It has proven itself to split up the class in little groups of four to five children and especially to separate boys and girls. Apparently they don't like to play together at that age. The effort of our students was outstanding! As far as I can tell, the little kids in the school loved to play frisbee with us and so did we. Students got really creative about inventing new games with the disc. At the end of the week Montanita Spanish School donated some Frisbees to the local school, so they can continue playing on their own. One thing is for sure: We will definitely do the volunteering week again. Maybe there is a chance to introduce the forehand throw! All in all I am one step closer to establish Ultimate Frisbee as national sport in Ecuador. Stay tuned!