The Ultimate yes man

As I prepared to move from Ontario to the east coast, an ultimate Frisbee friend gave me his parting advice: try to say yes. By saying yes whenever possible, his idea was that you open yourself up to new and fantastic experiences. We don’t always have to create our own opportunities, we often only need to recognize them when they are offered, and say yes. This kind of advice is why I love ultimate Frisbee players.

All sports have stereo-types associated with their players, and for ultimate, it’s got to be that they are willing to say yes.

Last summer someone said ‘Hey, I heard there’s this great beach tournament on the tip of the

Gaspé Peninsula. We’ll drive 12 hours through the night after work on Friday, play ultimate and swim Saturday, party most of the night outdoors at the community centre where we’ll be camping and eating locally-made food, play ultimate all day Sunday, then drive all night again, and finally, we’ll all wake up on Monday morning and go to work. Are you in?’ Yes. Of course. Why not?

Last weekend about 180 people gathered at Sunnybrook Park in Toronto for the annual Zodiac ultimate tournament. At Zodiac, teams are chosen based on players’ astrological signs, and this year it was Chinese signs. At the end of the first day the pigs and rabbits were tied for eight. The two teams had a boat race drinking competition at the tournament party on Saturday night to settle the tie. (My team lost to Tim’s.)

My latest example of yes-frisbee-ers happened on Tuesday night after our league game. I wanted to go for ice cream after wings, so six of us headed to a local shop. I wanted to order a giant ice cream cake made for 12 to 16 people, put it in the middle of the table and ask for 6 spoons. Does that make sense? Is everyone else on board? Yes! We were a little delirious by the end, and some of us were sick, but as the cake dwindled, we only accelerated our ice cream-eating pace and our laughter.

Saying yes is about the best piece of advice to give and to get. You don’t have to be an ultimate player to be a ‘yes person’, but if you want to open your life up to new possibilities and amazing fun, the sure-fire route is to become an Ultimate yes man.