The recent post regarding new membership structure, routines length for WOC 2017 and other topics received some feedback, pretty much all of it excellent points. The Board hears you and are going to make the following changes/modifications.
By now, all the FPA members should find the survey for the WFDF routines in their inboxes, basically asking the question, do you want 3 or 4 minute routines. Also, there is still the ongoing vote for the new FPA board members. Make sure you participate in both of these surveys before December 14th.
We will change the way we assign FPA Membership numbers. We have not finalized exactly what we will do but it is likely to take the form of some kind of raffle, so everyone has a shot at a low number.
There has been a fair amount of misunderstanding among our community, and even among the board members regarding the definitions of the different types of tournaments. To address this, we are working on a matrix that will show the characteristics of the different levels of tournaments – how many people are competing, which tournaments get FPA sponsorship funds, which ones must use the FPA Competition Manual including the FPA Judging System and the timing of the routines, which ones get higher ranking points, and which ones are obliged to offer certain (or all) divisions.
Thank you for all your feedback!
One thought on “FPA News – Short follow-up”
4 minutes is the current standard for FPA Worlds, US Open and EFC and EFO’s – if we want WFDF to be considered in the same class it should be 4 minutes.
I don’t like the idea of raffling off the numbers – the pdga gave the numbers to the first registered members – with the inventor of the sport Steady Ed being number one…. Victor Malafronte 2, the Stork 3 and Jo Cahow 4….. all hall of famers – a historic representation of the sport and part of the sports history…. I’d hate to see our history show that we were so desperate for money we had to auction off our ‘history’….why not have a pole from the players and hof members on who they think should get the top numbers…. I’d say Ken Westerfield and Jim Kenner the first champions would be nice as 1 and 2.
Point 3 – stop calling non-majors majors. High ranking non-majors can be called premier or pro events. thanks for listening 🙂
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) invites the global flying disc community to take part in the International Spirit of the Game Day (#ISotGDay), taking place on May 10–16, 2026.
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This year’s theme is:
“Spirit Beyond Sports (#SpiritBeyondSports): How has SotG made you a better person?”
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Players, organizers, and communities around the world are encouraged to celebrate Spirit of the Game in their own way and share their experiences. Whether big or small, every contribution helps highlight the core values of our sport.
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Ideas for how to get involved:
– Present a Spirit of the Game award to a player, team, or organization
– Share your #SpiritBeyondSports story on social media
– Organize games, events, or try different disc disciplines
– Decorate your discs with Spirit-themed designs and share them
– Experiment with rules in casual play and reflect on Spirit challenges
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Whatever you do, make sure to share it using
#ISotGDay #SpiritBeyondSports and tag @wfdf_sotg_comm
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WFDF’s Spirit of the Game Commission is also planning a livestreamed webinar on the topic. More information will be announced soon. If you have an inspiring story or perspective to share, you are encouraged to get involved.
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For more details, visit the official WFDF website or follow their channels.
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Let’s celebrate Spirit – on and beyond the field.
The New Year New Champion (NYNC) initiative supports emerging players attending the World Championships.
For this edition, a storytelling component is added alongside the existing grant.
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The initiative is open both to:
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players who wish to apply for the grant
community members who want to support the initiative through donations
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What’s offered
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“The contribution will include, at a minimum, on-site housing for the 5 nights of the event and payment of your registration fee (= 445 EUR). If more funding comes in from the fundraiser, that will be given to the awardee for other expenses.”
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What’s new this year
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In addition to receiving the grant, the selected player will be asked to share parts of their Worlds experience through:
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1 social post
5–10 stories
1 short diary-style video
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All content should reflect the player’s personal experience at the event and tag FPA.
No professional media skills are required.
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Who can apply
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Emerging or developing players
Participation in the World Championships confirmed
Willingness to communicate and share the experience
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How to support NYNC
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Supporters can contribute via the FPA PayPal donation button.
Please add the note “NYNC donation” so contributions can be tracked correctly.
LeiOut! A small but mighty freestyle team brought freestyle to the LeiOut Beach Ultimate tournament in Huntington Beach, January 16-19. Demos, jams, new connections — and big interest from players who had never seen freestyle before. Read the full story…
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Friday, the group met near the Pier in Huntington Beach. The team connected on structure for the demo and had a lovely jam. While jamming, we met several college students from Sacramento and spent an hour with them learning to tip and do trick catches and nail delay. Another group of about seven middle school boys from Seattle also joined and we spent some time teaching them to tip and delay as well. The team filmed parts of the jam as well as the teaching session and posted a promotional video using the footage.
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Saturday was opening day of the Ultimate tournament — we set up at LeiOut Tournament Central and enjoyed several soft sand quick catch jams between ultimate games during the course of the afternoon. Daniel hooked up with the Guts players and Amy, Will and Lisa talked to the Ultimate players and had small jams on the sidelines. Will and Daniel used the asphalt section of the beach right next to center court to hold periodic mini-jams to create some interest. At the end of the day we had a shredding jam on the hard pack with local jammers Jim Dodelson and world champion Dave Lewis. As the sun went down and ultimate players happened by, we also were able to connect with them and show some trick catches — there was a lot of enthusiasm and interest. Most had never seen freestyle before and some didn’t know it was even a sport.
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On Sunday, we set up on the main field and we were able to get in some long throws with trick catches and a short jam with lots of good co-ops. This pretty shreddy warm-up demo was filmed by the LeiOut videographer on the soft sand. During the halftime of the highest seed ultimate bracket game, our team performed a 3 minute routine with several long throws and shorter co-op sequences in front of a crowd of about 300 to 400 ultimate players, many of whom had never seen freestyle before. Amy had an amazing body roll sequence, Will hit several spinning catches, Lisa got a nice combo ending in a crow, and Daniel was able to pull off a huge layout catch in front of the crowd. The spectators were very fired up!
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After that game ended, the Guts finals were played on the main field (Daniel’s team also made — and won — the finals, which made him highly visible at the event!). After the demo we talked to players from Boston, Memphis, and Kansas City. During the Guts finals after the Ultimate finals, Amy and Lisa jammed on the sidelines which gave us the opportunity to teach several women how to perform body rolls and trick catches. It was a great opportunity to share and talk about our sport. Tournament Director Grant Boyd came by immediately after the finals to congratulate us and enthusiastically stated that he would like us to have a freestyle tournament as part of LeiOut next year.
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Local shredders Danny Cameranesi and Jim Dodelson joined us on Sunday and, after all the events were over, we made our way out to the hard pack for another beautiful sunset jam, again taking opportunities here and there to teach ultimate players and connect with folks walking by. A promising young jammer named Rob joined the last jam of the day. He came in knowing how to delay, brush, and kick — and he shredded! We had a small audience (10–20 people) of remaining Ultimate players who were getting fired up by both our big moves as well as Rob’s impressive repertoire.
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The FPA will be working with organizers to possibly host a beach freestyle tournament at LeiOut next year. Events may include freestyle competition, an airbrush race, and more freestyle demos featured during the finals of the ultimate tournament. Thanks to Amy Shiller, Lisa Hunrichs, Daniel O’Neill, and William Ho for spreading the love of our sport!
4 minutes is the current standard for FPA Worlds, US Open and EFC and EFO’s – if we want WFDF to be considered in the same class it should be 4 minutes.
I don’t like the idea of raffling off the numbers – the pdga gave the numbers to the first registered members – with the inventor of the sport Steady Ed being number one…. Victor Malafronte 2, the Stork 3 and Jo Cahow 4….. all hall of famers – a historic representation of the sport and part of the sports history…. I’d hate to see our history show that we were so desperate for money we had to auction off our ‘history’….why not have a pole from the players and hof members on who they think should get the top numbers…. I’d say Ken Westerfield and Jim Kenner the first champions would be nice as 1 and 2.
Point 3 – stop calling non-majors majors. High ranking non-majors can be called premier or pro events. thanks for listening 🙂