Colorado Springs, Colo. (July 2, 2020) – USA Ultimate is excited to announce its newest program, the USA Ultimate Skills Challenge. The program provides an opportunity for kids and adults to have some fun while developing their ultimate skills through 12 challenges focused on running, throwing and catching.
The program is designed to be accessible to both new and experienced players, regardless of where they live or their access to resources. All that is needed for most challenges is a disc, and many challenges can be done in or around the home. Anyone can sign up by downloading the USA Ultimate app for free on iOS or Android and creating an account. From there, individuals can review the various challenges, watch instructional videos and decide what they want to try.
Participants will be able to log their results for each challenge and track their progress over time. They also have the option to join a worldwide community leaderboard for each skill, creating an interactive experience to help set new goals and inspire improvement.
Teams may use this as a new way to cross-train and add another fun activity for their players. Local organizers will also be able to use the Skills Challenge program to run sanctioned events to bring their communities together with a new set of disc activities and verify official results.
Skills Challenge activities, whether done alone or as part of an organized event, offer a way for individuals and organizers to participate in activities that can comply with more restrictive local health and safety regulations and early stages of USA Ultimate’s Return to Play Guidelines.
“The Skills Challenge was inspired by similar programs from other sports, as well as Overall Disc Sports disciplines, and it’s been a lot of fun adapting some of those activities to create and offer this program for our community,” commented Managing Director of Competition and National Team Programs Will Deaver. “This is especially true at a time when restrictions on play and concerns about accessibility to activities for many communities are creating challenges across the country.”
“We see a lot of potential for this to grow and evolve into a great way to introduce disc sports and games to kids everywhere, as well as a fun new competition opportunity for players of all ages,” added Director of Member Services and Community Development Stacey Waldrup. “We hope players will be able to take part wherever they are and that local organizers will find ways to use this program to serve their communities during these challenging times, and into the future.”
Grant Boyd, executive director state-based organization (SBO) California Ultimate, is challenging all local organizations to share the Skills Challenge with their communities, and he can’t wait for everyone to give it a spin.
“I firmly believe the USA Ultimate Skills Challenge will deliver some much needed joy to ultimate players everywhere during these trying times,” stated Boyd. “It‘s a great reason to get up off of the couch and get in some exercise, work on skills or simply have fun. For local organizers, this program introduces a creative and innovative way to bring their communities together in a controlled manner that can correlate with local pandemic-related restrictions (and potentially a revenue stream). Finally, this free program could easily be used by local and state disc organizations to boost their equity work. Without needing a coach on site, kids now have an interactive guide to having fun with an ultimate disc in their hands!”
Check out the USA Ultimate Skills Challenge Guidelines for more information, or download the app and get started right away!
