There are stories equivalent to treasures that require special moments to be shared; and I feel that this is the time to share why I'm passionate about Ultimate Frisbee.

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📷 Photography by: Andrea Ruiz.

"Small things made with love produce great results", is a reflection that I encourage, because everything that can motivate us to work with vehemence to inspire the rest of the world to improve its evolutionary process deserves attention.

In this case, my way of bringing love to the world is through Ultimate Frisbee; I know it sounds crazy, but it has more coherence than it seems, because something is known as "the sport of superpowers", because it not only makes you a "super sportsman", but also a "superperson".

I mean that the physical skills you develop through your practice make you a complete athlete, while their principle of promoting the "Spirit of the game" cultivates many values in us.

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⚪ The concept of the flying disc

📷 Photography by: Nelson Pérez.

The Ultimate Frisbee is basically about scoring points by catching a 175 gram frisbee in a goal zone. It is a sport without physical contact, involving two teams on the court, each with seven players, on defense and attack paper.

The complexity of this is that you can not walk or run while you have possession of the disc, at which time you have only 10 seconds to launch it, as long as there is a mark covering you.

You must run, jump and even "fly" (jump to rescue the disc); It is a demanding discipline, but at the same time very inclusive, because it can be practiced by anyone, regardless of their physical condition or if they have sports knowledge or not.

Its main characteristic is that there are no referees, the same players are the ones who make the decisions of the game based on their values and respecting the established rules.

The Spirit of the game is precisely that moral criterion that governs each athlete of this discipline and that encourages respectful communication, impartiality, knowledge of rules, fun and avoiding contact.

Now you will wonder what it is that makes it so "special", but I prefer to explain it with the following story.

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💪🏽 The overcoming of the ice bag

📷 Photography by: Augusto García.

Two years later, I was diagnosed with respiratory problems, specifically asthma, and maybe that's why my parents never exposed me to any physical work that agitated me.

I was 17 years old and I had never dedicated myself to any discipline, I only remember that in physical education classes in high school I always passed the endurance tests, but apart from that, I was not attracted to any sports activity.

In mid 2010 a friend invited me to train with the only team that existed at the time in the Northern Zone of Anzoategui. I ignored that and many more invitations, there was no way I liked the sport.

After a couple of months I was reunited with other friends, and one of them had a professional Frisbee. I agreed to throw; I was surprised by the size of the disc, it was not like any I had seen before, but even more surprised I was asked "How do you do to throw like that?", they referred to a Forehand, a type of pitch that usually you have to practice a lot to master it, and I, who did not even know it existed, was doing it.

Discovering that I had that ability motivated me to finally attend a training. They practiced in a sand field, and I went with the sole intention of "seeing". That day I wore a gray blouse, with a blue jeans, and some black Vans with white, but when I left there they looked brown of how much I messed up throwing.

I continued attending, the fact of discovering skills that I did not know I had got me. But the first year was not easy, I had kilos of more, I was not agile, I did not know how to run, and it was hard for me to understand the tactical terms.

There was a moment in which I felt that my companions ignored me; I spent a lot of time on the bench, because I was traveling with the team, but it was always the last option to enter the court... It seemed that I was not born to play Ultimate.

It was in a League of the Eastern Region in 2012 where for the first time I experienced an attack of frustration. It was another tournament in which I looked forward to being called to play, but I was still watching almost all of them from the outside.

It was the first time that something hurt so much, and I did not understand why. When I returned home I became depressed, but I was aware that I only had two options: to continue training to improve or to leave the sport and to live with that failure.

But I made the best decision of my life: to continue. I prepared for two months without rest for the next date of the regional championship, I trained twice a day, I only thought about the record, I was obsessed with the idea of ​​winning a place in the team, and the formula gave positive results.

Also for the first time I felt like a winner, and my prize was to listen to my colleagues congratulate me for the great change I had achieved. In that league I did observe almost all the matches from inside.

And at that stage of my life I learned what is resilience.

📷 Photography by: Ed Kung.

That girl who seemed to have no future as an athlete, got a place in the Venezuelan Sub 23 Ultimate Frisbee team to attend the Under 23 World Championship, held in Canada, in July 2013. Truth be told, she did not think she had arrived there. , when three years ago I could not even catch a frisbee.

The process to attend the competition was not easy either: I had to travel to Maracay every month to train, since there were athletes from all over the country, and that was the most central point. As the travels was self-financing, and the money I earned in the newspaper where I worked was not enough, with the help of other partners I started to approach public transport to ask for collaboration.

Now the Ultimate Frisbee taught me what humility and sacrifice were.

Finally I gathered the necessary, but two weeks before the Championship, the organization of the National Team canceled our assistance because the Ministry of Sport had not yet approved our request for resources, and in addition, the Canadian Embassy had rejected more than half of the the visas; they only approved 19, and we were waiting to know who had run with luck.

It was the second most painful situation that I was going through in my 20 years of life, imagine fighting for a dream and that suddenly something collaps all your effort.

But four days before starting the World Cup, I received the best call of my life until then: it was one of my coaches telling me to pack, that the Government had approved the resources and my visa had also been issued.

We became the first team in the Venezuelan history of Ultimate Frisbee to achieve a fourth place in a World Cup, and also to beat Japan, one of the betters in the discipline. In addition, I received recognition from the United States and Canada teams, as an outstanding player.

When I returned home I received another award: to listen to people who did not believe in me, to tell me that they were proud of my achievements for knowing my whole process.

And my coach confessed to me that when I started practicing, he thought that I was never not going to learn to play; and that he was surprised at the physical change he had made, because before it looked like a "little bag of ice", my body didn't have form.

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🏆 My trophies

Sure they noticed that with this discipline I have had many "first times", and it is one of the reasons why I passionate; because the experiences he has given me are a thousand times more valuable than any medal or trophy.

The disc forged in me a being that now can not live without being in movement, without being discovering, without being smiling.

Because before I met him I had a philosophy of life very different from what I currently have; Now my hobbie is to pursue difficult situations, because I understood that the elixir of immortality consists of the sensation that produces you what you want after having tried so hard.

This sport makes the planet small for you because it offers you friends from all over the world; you become cultured, because it teaches you about different cultures and the need to reach better friends, you make yourself learn new languages. Without realizing it, you not only become an athlete but a hiker.

📌 In addition to playing in almost all of Venezuela, and Canada, the last months of last year I lived in Colombia, where I traveled to several cities chasing the frisbee, from there was born the series "To the Ultimate of the earth", which you can check in the following links:

• To the Ultimate of the Earth: Colombia # 1 | When something goes wrong, it can go much better
• To the Ultimate of the Earth: Colombia # 2 | Hiking among the clouds of Norte de Santander
• To the Ultimate of the Earth: Colombia # 3 | Pacifying with a frisbee in a war zone

My next objectives are two: first, to play professionally with my favorite team of the entire galaxy, "Seattle Riot" of the United States, and secondly, to finally get a photo taken "flying" without anyone going through

Anyway, I love the Utimate Frisbee because it has not only made me a better athlete, but a better person. Thanks to him I learned that the greatest opportunities of our lives are disguised as failures, and that only those who accept to see through the eyes of love are able to recognize them.

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Now I would love to know what you are passionate about? ❤️

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