Good luck cards!

We arrived in Toronto on Sunday for the tournament. Before we played I presented the cards you all made! The Stingrays loved them and put them on the walls in the rooms we are staying in :)

Stingrays in Seattle

Hello 3L! I am in Seattle with the Stingrays. Seattle is in the USA and is famous for it's friendly people and the tower called the Space Needle, which you can see in the background.

We have a practice game against a local team this afternoon before we go to Toronto tomorrow morning. Everyone is very excited!

On Sunday I will present your good luck cards to the team :)

The picture was taken at the end of a treasure hunt that had us exploring the city and taking pictures!

Ready to go!

Bags are packed, about to get on the plane :)

Stingrays eat healthy

As part of their training, the Stingrays need to stay fit and healthy so that their bodies can get through the tournament in Canada, which is 7 days long!

Crystal is the team's nutritionist. Her job is to make sure the team knows what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat.

Crystal eating healthy

To show their commitment, some of the girls have given up ALL junk food until the tournament is over. If you think you have what it takes to join the challenge (Mr L is doing it!) then leave a comment listing all the junk food you've chosen NOT to eat over the holidays!

Faces of the Stingrays

Click on this link to see a video of some of the funny faces from our training camps!

http://youtu.be/M1B1NSgKr4o <- click!

I know how much you all love One Direction...

Stingrays Visit

One Wednesday, Tamara and Kim from the Australian Stingrays came to visit our classroom. I've never seen 3L so excited! We asked them some questions about the tournament, their training, and how they were introduced to Ultimate Frisbee.

Some of the student read out their Stingrays poems (which I have since shown to the whole team!) much to the delight of Tamara and Kim.

They gave out Stingrays wristbands to the whole class and then came out and helped our throwing technique on the grass. Everyone's throwing was improving so much. Tamara was particularly impressed by Phoebe and Kim thought Daemon and Cormac are future frisbee superstars! We finished with a game of Dodge Frisbee (3L's favourite game) before the bell went.

The girls left the class with a signed disc, and gave everyone autographs with an inspirational message. It was such a fantastic afternoon that we will never forget!

How to leave a comment

A few of you were asking the best way to leave a comment (which I hope you all do! It lets me know you're seeing this and enjoying it!) Here's how to do it.

1. Click on a post you are interested in to see it full screen.
2. Scroll down to the bottom to where it says 'leave a comment'.
3. To leave a comment you will need a Google account or something similar. Parents, this is easy to sign up to and totally worth it if it means you can be a part of the blog!!!

Thanks everyone!

Ultimate Haiku

We have been learning about different types of poetry including Japanese Haiku and Irish Limericks. 3L did their best to compose some frisbee-themed poetry! We published them on coloured paper and shaped them to look like a disc.

A Haiku is made up of 3 lines. 

The first line has 5 syllables

The second line has 7 syllables

The last line has 5 syllables

An interview with Bones

3L wrote some questions for Clare 'Bones' Hollebone, one of the Australian Stingrays. She kindly replied and here is her response!

Dear 3L,

Clare Hollebone - Vice Captain

Mr Latham (aka. Mr Ray. Great work with the Finding Nemo pick up Lana. I think it’s a perfect ‘Ray’ name for Mr Latham.) has been telling us all about you. I love hearing about what you’ve been up to in the classroom, especially when it involves frisbee and the Stingrays. We were all very impressed when Mr Ray told us that some of you are able to do over 100 calf raises. That is incredible! You must all be very good at running and jumping.

Mr Ray has sent me some questions that you’d like to know the answers to so here we go….

1. WHEN DID YOU START PLAYING ULTIMATE FRISBEE?
I didn’t start playing Ultimate Frisbee till 3 years ago in my first year of university. Unfortunately when I was at school, Ultimate Frisbee was a very small and unknown sport so I never came across it until I’d finished. I now coach Ultimate Frisbee in schools in Melbourne with kids just like you and I love giving more and more kids the opportunity that I didn’t have to learn about the sport.

Although I didn’t get to play Ultimate Frisbee in school, I was lucky enough to play a whole lot of other sports which have helped me in learning to play Ultimate. I’ve done basketball, indoor and outdoor soccer both as goalkeeper, field hockey, a little bit of inline hockey (it’s like ice hockey on roller blades) water polo, athletics, rowing, skiing, snowboarding, surfing, swimming, AFL and touch rugby. I love sports and love to try new things. The first time I ever went to an Ultimate Frisbee training at University I had never played before and I didn’t know anyone, but because I love to try new things I went along anyway and gave it a go. This was the day I was recruited to play in the Junior Australian Women’s team who were going to Germany that year. If I hadn’t played in that team, I probably wouldn’t be as good at Ultimate as I am today and might not have made the U23 team this year with Mr Ray.

You are already so lucky to be learning about Ultimate Frisbee, but no matter what sport or activity you are given the chance to try - it could be anything! Maybe music or reading or maths - always give it a go!

2. WHAT POSITION DO YOU PLAY?
I have always been very fast and very good at jumping and catching so my main position is a receiver. This means I get to score a lot of points. I prefer to play on defense though and after listening to all Mr Ray’s coaching and working really hard in all my training the last few months, I have improved so much at stopping the other team getting the Frisbee and can’t wait to show everyone how much I’ve improved in Canada.

3. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO BESIDES PLAYING ULTIMATE FRISBEE?
My favourite thing to do besides playing Utlimate Frisbee is spending time in the snow. I mostly snowboard but I also love to ski. If any of you have ever been to the snow (maybe to Thredbo or Perisher) you would have seen the ‘liftys’ helping you on and off the chair lifts. That is my job during the winter season at Mt Buller in Victoria. When there isn't any snow though I enjoy spending time with friends and family, especially when we are doing something active together like surfing, playing team sports or just going for walks. I also LOVE to bake! My specialty is choc chip brownies.

4. IS IT HARD TO BE VICE CAPTAIN?
No. The Stingrays are a very supportive team and I also have a fantastic Captain (Sophie/Phi and Co-Vice Captain (Chloe) by my side. As a team we all help each other out so that it no one ever feels like they are alone.

5. WHY DO YOU LIKE ULTIMATE FRISBEE?
My favourite thing about Ultimate Frisbee is the ‘Spirit of the Game’. After being involved in so many sports with referees all my life, it is such a nice change to see the players taking responsibility for their own conduct on the field. I think all sports could do with a little more sportsmanship sometimes. I also love how much running and jumping is involved. It always feels so great when you jump up for a Frisbee that you think might be just out of reach and all of a sudden it’s in your hands. There is always room for improvement as well. I enjoy being able to always ask other players questions on how to do something and then practicing and training hard to keep getting better and better all the time.

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ANIMAL?
This is a hard question. I love all animals. My favourite would probably have to be dogs though. They are so loyal and caring. I have a pet dog called Phoebe. She is a Shitzu X Poodle and is nearly 15, so for a dog she is getting very old. She is now deaf and likes to sleep a lot during the day but when I get home after being out she is always so happy to see me and I love seeing her.

I hope this answers some of your questions. Maybe you could tell me some things about you. What things do you like to do? What are your favourite animals? What is something you've always wanted to try doing or getting involved with but haven’t yet?

Looking forward to hearing more stories from Class Ray,

Clare/Bones

Ps. I hear there is a Claire in your class. My name is spelt without an ‘i’ but people always think it’s spelt the same way as yours. Do people ever spell your name wrong?

Bones catching the frisbee on the beach

Fitness Test Results

3L completed their Stingrays fitness testing and graphed their group's vertical reach. We learned that there are two axes (pronounced "ax-ees") and Cormac pointed out that they are called the x-axis and the y-axis! Some of the columns are almost the same height because we jumped almost the same height.

Why does 3L think we need to use graphs?

 "To show data in a way that is easy to understand and compare."

After learning about different measurements, it is important to label the axes with the correct units so we know what the numbers mean (150 centimetres? 150 litres? 150 kilometres?150 apples?)

Mary's data and her column graph

A graph showing how fast different animal's hearts beat.
This graph was made on a computer. Notice the X-axis and the Y-axis?

BREAKING NEWS: Mr L is actually a stingray!

An observant Lana pointed out to me today that there is a character in Finding Nemo called Mr. Ray, who loves science, is a teacher AND he is a stingray! What a coincidence!

Mr. L teaching 3L. 

Stingray Challenge!

Who will be the first class member to comment with the answer to ONE the following questions??? If you find stingrays interesting, bring me a short information report (include a picture) for a big, fat challenge point!

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/fish/stingray/

1. What did the Ancient Greeks use stingray venom for?
2. Do stingrays have teeth?
3. How do stingrays swim?
4. What is camouflage?
5. What are the two uses of the stingray's tail?

Please just answer one of the questions in the comments (leave some for everyone else!) but tell me the rest of the answers in class! -Mr L

June Training Camp

Last weekend I was in Melbourne for our final training camp on Australian soil. Our next time together as a team will be in Seattle in about a month for our pre-tour. The Stingrays are looking good!

Here is a short video from the camp.

And a video of Junior intercepting the disc at Australian Nationals, stopping the other team from scoring!

Melbourne update

Happy long weekend 3L! I am in Melbourne with the Stingrays for our final training camp. Today was a great day with a lot of running.

As a reward for our hard work we finished it off with ice cream!

From the left: Hallie, Emilya, Bones, Cath, Ali and Jess

3L Fitness Testing

Today 3L completed some of the benchmark fitness tests that the Stingrays do. We put the data into a table and compared our results. We had practice using stopwatches, measuring tapes and learnt how to do calf raises. We also learned which units were best to measure our results with. Brayden was the highest jumper (except for Mr L!) and Aaron was the fastest in the shuttle runs. 

Next time we are going to do the agility test and turn our results into a graph!

May Training Camp

To get ready for the World Championships the Stingray need to practice playing together as much as they can. The girls live all around Australia, so every few weeks we all meet in Melbourne for a training camp. Imagine a weekend where ALL you do is play your favourite sport!

Two weeks ago we had a training camp. The Stingrays did some special tests to measure how much they'd improved since the last camp. Some of what we did included:

• Seeing how fast we can run (shuttle runs)
• Seeing how high we can jump
• Seeing how fast we can run around a set of cones - this is called agility. 

3L is just about ready to do the same tests! We are going to compare our times with the Stingrays!

Kim took some cool photos of what we did. She changed her camera so that the pictures are black and white except for the blue things! Click on them to see a bigger version:

We're about to do the sprints!

Phi can sprint really fast -
 she lifts her knees to get more power when she runs

Emilya is having a great time!

So, what is Ultimate Frisbee?

Ultimate Frisbee is a team sport played with two teams of seven players on a big field. Players are not allowed to run with the disc (frisbee) and pass to one another to try and score goals.

You score a goal by passing the disc to someone on your team standing in a rectangular area at the end of the field.
The Ultimate Frisbee field

There are no referees or umpires - the players make all the decisions themselves which means everyone needs to play fair and be very sportsmanlike. The Stingrays are great role models for 3L!

The U23 Australian Stingrays

Welcome to Mr Latham's Coaching Blog! 3L has been learning about Ultimate Frisbee and we love the Australian Stingrays! I am going to use this blog to post news, pictures, messages and other fun things about Ultimate Frisbee so that 3L can enjoy the journey with me :)

The Stingrays are the Australian Women Under 23 Ultimate Frisbee team going to Toronto, Canada to compete in the World Championships.

Mr Latham is one of the coaches in charge of helping turn these 22 girls into a strong team for when they play against the rest of the world in July. They are a fantastic group of people and they love to hear about 3L!

Here we are for our first team photo!