For you disc golf enthusiest, I submitted an article entitled RUSSIAN ORPHANS LEARN DISC GOLF that got published in Disc Golf World News, Edition 6, Spring 2002. I trust you'll enjoy this story about our truly life changing experience and that it will encourage you to invest in the next generation of youngsters learning our great sport all around the world!

One of the greatest things about our sport is that it can be played just about anywhere and learned by anyone. When our youth group committed to run a relief-camp last summer for 90 orphans in Russia, we thought long and hard about what recreation we would use. I wanted to teach them disc golf but this was no little feat considering the fact that these children have never even seen or heard of a "disc" or "frisbee". While there still exist no Russian word for it, the kids and interpreters named it "letayushaya tarelka", literally 'flying plate'. Our challenge ahead of us, we took 110 discs, 8 interpreters, round-up broken-sticks on site and assembled tee-boxes, designated four trees and sha bang… introduced the game of disc golf to 11 orphan boys who became at least the attics we are!

"Who would like to learn one of the greatest sports in world?" we announced via the interpreter during our recreation time. Most of the boys responded. The excitement that followed was life changing. At first, we opened up all 100+ frisbees and just let them chuck 'em all over the place. They were screamin, running, and tossing them everywhere! The joy they'd found reminded me of that day in my life 30 years ago when I was first introduced to a 141g Wham-o at Seabright Beach just south of Santa Cruz, California. The way it sailed… the way it turned… the fascination of being able to throw it and catch it. Watching them totally unleash was like reliving the joy of the disc for the first time.

As I saw them with unrefined zeal toss plastic everywhere, I thought about how we were going to teach them disc golf. The large shady trees and grassy open space around the Sanitarium reminded me of the State Campgrounds in Oregon. We would kill an afternoon designing an impromptu course complete with nine Douglas Firs, six Spruce trees, two out-houses, and one abandoned Park Service fee booth as the 18^th hole. Scouting around and sensitive to the fact that we were teaching 7-10 year olds, Caleb (my very patient high-school aged assistant) and I started slowly with a 4-hole/par-12 course resembling the rough shape of a basic diamond. Complete with large yellow numbers posted beyond children's reach, each hole ranged from 30-40 meters (100-130 feet). A "course-rules" sign in Russian was scripted by one of our interpreters and posted at the first tee briefly describing tee boxes (four branches), 3 shots per tree, and an out-of-bounds area near the playground.

Orphaned Russian children grow up in a very structured and fairly militant institutional system. Most are well disciplined, respectful to authority, and quite eager to learn. Consequently we had no problem getting them to pay attention to learning the principles of the game. They were also surprisingly patient just observing us throw at our designated targets. Our biggest challenge as we soon discovered was 1) Teaching them to take turns waiting until all had thrown before taking shots two, and then three, for par. 2) Teaching them the concept of par and scoring! As for the first, Caleb and I were able to just demonstrate this concept on Hole #1 by taking turns and then making note, via the interpreter, the etiquette and rule of the furthest disc away taking first throw. Much of our teaching the basics was combined with impromptu sessions with the interpreter on what we were trying to communicate to kids. At times with any cross-lingual situation, we found ourselves chuckling at times at our total desperation to teach them some of the most basic ideas! Like "par"…"Hmmm… I thought. Par is difficult enough in America to teach kids…. How were we going to teach this concept to Russian orphans?!" By day three, our inability to adequately teach the scoring was having huge ramifications concerning the enthusiasm level of this new sport! Our group had dwindled to eleven boys and I knew we had to break through this obstacle. Whispering a prayer, we had yet another meeting with the interpreters to try to re-explain this concept. Finally a potential breakthrough! André, an interpreter who happened to join us that day drilled a question at me with his Russian accent: "Is not what u are saying like de internationÁL gowf?" (I had referred to 'golf' earlier but André was not present. And though the other interpreters had heard of golf, they didn't know exactly how it was scored. André did!). So what unfolded the next five minutes was a Russian summit complete with 11 boys watching André draw numeric figures in the ground of "-1, 0, +1" and throwing the discs with intermittent verbal descriptions. All 11 orphans nodded in unison, "dah" (yes). A 10 year old orphan also named André figured it out first. Anxious to demonstrate his ability to comprehend this breakthrough, he stepped into tee box #1 with a pink disc and fired at Tree #1 landing 12 feet away. Running to his lie, he birdied his 2^nd shot and then looked back at us and screamed in English while pointing at his chest, "minus-one!" I erupted with enthusiasm, "Ha-raw-shó!" (Great job!). It was then that the competition began! André the interpreter scored with us the first round while André the orphan insisted on verbally announcing everyone's score after each hole! I'll admit it. I was proud of our new little clan. Only the supper bell interrupted our play for the next week--- And even that was often challenged--- until the orphanage director gave us 'her look' that motivated us to drop our plastic and run for the cafeteria!

What will the next generation of disc golfers look like and where will they come from? I'm encouraged to report regarding our sport that 100+ 'flying plates' now grace the sparse toy boxes of eight remote orphanages with eleven new young attics like you and I!