Peng Manlapaz Speaks (AAU Guest writer of the Month)
Our AAU guest writer for the month of August is none other than, the former PFDA President, Peng Manlapaz. He has been an ambassador in developing Ultimate Frisbee, providing knowledge about the sport that we all love to our younger generations of athletes in High Schools, Colleges and Companies all around Manila. Now, that we are one step away to be in the Olympics, Peng encourages the whole Philippine Ultimate community to start them young. Creating Grassroots development programs all over the country. Giving them the Ultimate Knowledge. Mold them to become the future of Philippine Ultimate. And maybe one day, we will have a gold medal winning Philippine Team in our lifetime.
The Future is Golden for Philippine Ultimate
by: Peng Manlapaz
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| Ateneo Summer Enrichment. Photo by: Peng Manlapaz |
The Rio Olympics is upon us and I can't get help but imagine if Ultimate was part of the Rio Games, the Philippines would have been there competing by virtue of our medal haul at the 2015 World Flying Disc Association (WFDF) Asia-Oceanic Ultimate Championships (AOUC). The WFDF is the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized International Federation (IF) of our beloved sport. The Philippines won 2 bronze medals in the Men's and Women's Divisions and a gold medal in the Mixed Division!
If you consider the results of the recently concluded 2016 World Ultimate and Guts Championships (regarded as the “World Cup” of Ultimate) held in London last July, the entire country would have been overflowing with pride! The Philippines battled giants! A few more points scored in the elimination rounds and we would entered the medal rounds! We still ended up finishing 7th in the Mixed and Men's Masters Division! Ahead of countries like Germany, Singapore, India, Korea and China. This success was possible despite the relative youth of organized Ultimate in the Philippines. We can certainly do better!
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| Ateneo SEP 2015. Photo by Peng Manlapaz |
Japan, the Asian Ultimate Superpower, finished inside the top 6 in all the 5 divisions in the 2016 WUGC. This includes a silver medal in the Men's Division, the toughest division in the tournament! We had the privilege of seeing first hand how the Japanese play and conduct themselves with last year's Manila Spirits. Thanks to the sacrifices and support given by Boon Technical Clothing, E.R.I.C., the College of Saint Benilde, ClubJr and the Philippine Flying Disc Association (PFDA), more Filipinos now understand that the Japanese style of play should really be the model of how we play Ultimate, since we closely resemble the physical features of the Japanese. I can clearly see this now materializing with no dump vertical stacks being played and more daggers being thrown during recent leagues games. We can still do much more!
Ultimate was actually short listed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and came close to becoming one of the demo sports. If Los Angeles ends up winning the bid to host the 2024 Olympics, I'm sure the Americans will lobby hard to have Ultimate included as a demo sport. The USA swept all the gold medals in the 2016 WUGC, so this could definitely add to their Olympic dominance! This gives us more time to prepare the ground work to make our Ultimate even more competitive in the International Stage. If we want to burst in the top 5 and give ourselves a better shot of getting medals in the Olympics, we should start teaching Ultimate earlier. Most of the members of the current National Teams only started playing in College, some even later in their lives. So we should really pursue more grassroots development!
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| Benilde Ultimate 2016. Photo by Benilde Ultimate |
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| La Sallian Ultimate 2015. Photo by Martha Mina |
More and more schools are officially including Ultimate in their Sports and Academic Programs. Some notable programs are that of the University of the Philippines (Diliman), De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and the Far Eastern University (FEU). UP Diliman has had Ultimate in it's university level PE classes for more than 5 years. The College of Saint Benilde has the distinction of being the only Filipino College with an official varsity program for Ultimate. Thanks to the support and wisdom of CSB's Brother President, Bro. Dennis Magbanua and the Director of the Center for Sports Development, Taekwando Olympian, Coach Stephen Fernandez. ADMU on the other hand has club programs in Ultimate as early as Grade 4! Now, that's starting them young! The FEU recently started to include Ultimate in its club offerings at the grade school level and with such a rich sports tradition, FEU will surely take Ultimate to another level!
Another approach is to encourage your Companies to conduct clinics and outreach programs that teach Ultimate. Maynilad, the Metro Manila water service utility, has one of the longest and most sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs for Ultimate. Named the Maynilad Water Warriors, the program has conducted water conservation awareness and Ultimate Frisbee clinics to more than 30 public schools students and depressed communities with out of school youths. The program has reached more than 1,000 kids!
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| Ateneo Ultimate Club 2014. Photo by Peng Manlapaz |
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| Ateneo Ultimate 2016. Photo by Peng Manlapaz |
On its 4th year, the Water Warriors Program has produced some really talented players that compete regularly in local leagues and have even participated in Manila Spirits! These kids, some of them former trash collectors and drug dependents in the slums of Tondo, have been given a new chance in life through Ultimate. They have become inspired simply by watching the players they compete against and have seen hope, where hope did not exist before. I am extremely grateful to Maynilad for sprearheading this and even more proud with the fact that some of the Maynilad Ultimate players have even given their personal money to support these players in leagues and their schooling!
With this, I would like to make a call to all students to start Ultimate Frisbee Club Programs in your schools and for companies to start reaching out to your communities through Ultimate! This will Create more channels to make more people aware of Ultimate and discover the Spirit of our Game.
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| Ateneo Enrichment Program 2013. Photo by Peng Manlapaz |
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| One La Salle 2016. Photo by Martha Mina |
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| One La Salle 2016. Photo by Martha Mina |
The time is ripe for Ultimate to take a sustained path to more prestige for the Philippines in international play by building a wider base of talent across the country. I've seen Ultimate break down barriers of economic status, age, gender and religion. So far, we have seen our teams succeed despite overwhelming odds and great difficulty. Despite all the news we see each day with crime, corruption, killings and the threat of war, I still believe that Ultimate and the SPIRIT OF OUR GAME can shed a positive light for the Philippines. That the story of a group of Filipinos working together and overcoming tremendous odds could be our little contribution in helping build this nation and could even catalyze our nation into becoming a better, more peaceful and prosperous country! Maybe one day, within my liftetime, we can produce a gold medal winning Philippine Team in the Olympics!
Peace and continue spreading the LOVE. God bless us all!
- Peng (tataycoachpeng@gmail.com)
Thank you coach, Peng!
We would also like to encourage everyone who would like to share their Ultimate write ups and be an AAU guest writer. Please don't hesitate to hit us up! Let's all share the knowledge. Let's all share the love for Ultimate!
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