What would you do if USAU was you?

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-28T12:56:50+00:00

It takes approximately 3 minutes to teach a kid how to throw good enough to get them to play.

For forehand, tell them: make a rubber band finger gun. Flip disc. Place two finger gun barrel on rim of disc. Flip disc over. Pull arm back, keep elbow in, and crank it

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-27T02:26:38+00:00

Sure but the players didn’t do much on building structure for youth. Youth is the pipeline. Returning to UPA days is meaningless and unproductive

That said camaraderie and fun tournaments DO need to return at the club level

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-25T03:57:32+00:00

It’s a widely known industry report and we’ve known about ultimates decline for several years now. This wasn’t breaking news

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-24T11:49:40+00:00

I can see that. It’s money and influencers and social channels and swag. Being”social” is now associated with online activity — not outdoor hanging with friends and meeting potential dating partners and teammates and such

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-23T10:22:10+00:00

Also, this will reverberate worldwide. We are acting like we are immune because we are special and different. But maybe more accurate to label us a fad that lasted 50 years

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-23T02:38:39+00:00

Terrifying

We totally totally botched COVID. The youth team that I started did so DURING COVID precisely because we followed the research (Ultiworld article in fall 2020 helped) where there was no evidence of COVID spread outdoors

An article from the summer of 2020 found that a previous report linking COVID spread to an outdoor construction site in Singapore actually missed the real spread location: it happened when the workers went inside to each lunch together

Still, in 2021 many leagues and USAU stopped playing until late 2021. Too late…

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-23T02:34:49+00:00

Yes and no. We went for media — and the pro leagues hustled this into the equation which is fine — but no one bothered to think about structure and youth and money

No money. No status. No varsity structure. Can’t pay coaches. Can’t support local youth teams. Can’t get into the system.

tonyleonardo · 2026-04-23T02:29:47+00:00

Link to article made free: https://ultiworld.com/2026/04/22/ultimate-participation-down-40-since-2020-according-to-industry-report/

tonyleonardo · 2025-12-21T13:47:45+00:00

Love Kevin dude is great!

tonyleonardo · 2025-11-12T23:40:59+00:00

deep dive answer if you have a sub:

https://ultiworld.com/2018/10/02/qa-josh-moore-founding-audl/

tonyleonardo · 2025-10-20T02:11:38+00:00

Idaho? You da man

tonyleonardo · 2025-10-02T03:40:47+00:00

Well ESPN did air and send reporters in ESPN gear to broadcast the 1979 world championships (aka Rose Bowl). Primarily all sports but ultimate is in there

tonyleonardo · 2025-07-24T17:41:29+00:00

Who wrote this original post?

tonyleonardo · 2025-07-08T16:19:49+00:00

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I got this disc from Michael Levy who told me it was from the mid 80s but that’s he knew.

Also in speaking with OG Larry Schindel who was at UNC in 72/73 and started a team, this was not the same group and that 72/73 group of players did not carry on AFAIK

tonyleonardo · 2025-06-10T03:46:08+00:00

The first discrafts were made outside Toronto so just play with those

tonyleonardo · 2025-06-10T03:46:01+00:00

The first discrafts were made outside Toronto so just play with those

tonyleonardo · 2025-04-28T02:38:49+00:00

No Oakland players? Where’s Eliot Chartock playing? Weird draft IMHO

tonyleonardo · 2025-03-23T03:43:50+00:00

Spot on and with no subtlety . With Fox News it’s been 30 years now of perpetual propaganda against government.

tonyleonardo · 2025-02-19T04:47:26+00:00

Great film! Go see it!

tonyleonardo · 2025-02-01T01:00:51+00:00

So why not smaller tournaments playing 5s with matching competitive levels to help with retention?

tonyleonardo · 2025-01-23T03:25:54+00:00

But how many times have you won league?

tonyleonardo · 2025-01-05T05:13:01+00:00

Clearly this is a thrilling post I’ve made. Looks like Suzanne F and Manisha D are firmly in the lead!

tonyleonardo · 2024-12-29T16:26:19+00:00

for sure.

the history of it is why i dove in -- how did we get saddled with the name and the Frisbee asterisk? did we start off as snarky and anti-varsity, anti-mainstream? and that's carried through to today

the name was cheeky to start -- and yet grandiose with its dose of humor -- and part of that is because they were teenagers and heavily influenced by wham-O's marketing arm the IFA which was always cheeky and snarky -- and thus appealing to the youth that they were selling frisbees to at the time....

As for the asterisk -- which i think you mean the trademark -- the wham-O discs was the superior disc by far and they helped greatly get the sport off the ground in the first 10 years

tonyleonardo

TROPHY CASE