In Ultimate Frisbee, there are many iconic actions. Apparently, they aren’t iconic enough, seeing as most people still don’t know this sport exists, but to those of us who care about it they are iconic. Football has touchdowns, basketball has 3 pointers, baseball has home runs, soccer has the bicycle kick, and Ultimate has…
The layout.
Also known as a bid or a dive, the layout fills almost every highlight video in this sport. I would suggest that the layout is one of the main unique characteristics of frisbee which separate it from every other sport. Nothing gets people more excited than a successful layout – either to knock a disc down on defense or catch it for a point on offense. It can serve as a shift of momentum in a game.
Laying out requires extending yourself – stretching not only your physical body but also your natural mental tendency to not dive on the ground and potentially hurt yourself. This extension is what leads to a seemingly miraculous play and a source of energy to your team which cannot come in any other way. I hope I am not facetious in saying this principle applies to life as well.
Extending yourself has been, is, and always will be a principle of growth and development in your life. I had a companion on my mission who read and loved a book by psychiatrist M. Scott Peck known as “The Road Less Traveled”. He used the principles in the book to become a better missionary, and in turn taught them to me and others so they too could become better. One principle he shared often was the definition of love that Peck uses in this book. To paraphrase, it’s something like this:
“Love is extending oneself for the spiritual growth of another”
There it is! Extension! How true that is. Love, then, is more than just a feeling - it’s an action. Until realizing this, I did not understand why people said you had to work for a happy and successful marriage. If you love someone, why would it require work to keep up that relationship? I realize now how naïve I was. “They do not love who do not show their love” I believe is a quote attributed to Shakespeare but quoted often by President Monson. Showing that love, then, requires extension and sacrifice. It’s something that takes effort and drains your strength, but in the end gives you something well worth the reward. Just like extending for the disc in a layout, extending yourself in service and love towards another is difficult but richly rewarding.
Extension not only helps others to grow but helps yourself to grow as well. I found on my mission that anytime I extended myself, no matter how poor the result, I felt content inside. It was only when I didn’t try that I felt like a failure; only when I didn’t invite did I feel like I hadn’t succeeded. I have layed out for the frisbee many times, and often have missed the block or the catch. But when I get up from that, rubbing the dirt off my shirt or nursing a bruised arm, I never feel disheartened. I know I extended, and that made me feel good. The sacrifice is greater than the increase.
Now, upon coming home, I have learned this principle again and again. For some reason I feel a great desire to curl up in a ball and not talk to people – not even friends at times. For example, my work recently set up a kiosk in the central walkway of the Layton Hills Mall selling calendars and board games, and I’ve started working there a bit. Walking down the hallway one day were a group of Polynesian girls. I absolutely love Polynesians – wherever I was in Sydney, I would stop and talk to anyone I saw that fit their look, no matter who it was or where we were. But as soon as I saw them, I was absolutely terrified to approach them and talk about my mission and their culture. What would they think about a total stranger talking to them? What if they thought I was crazy? Why would they even want to talk to me? I panicked and didn’t say a word to them as they walked by.
What happened to me?!? On my mission I approached at least 20 people every day I had never met before and asked them if they wanted to learn about God. How could I not do it at home? I scolded myself for quite a while after that experience, doubting I had changed at all from my 2 years in Sydney.
Then, as if in a tender mercy, they walked by again a couple of hours later. I immediately wanted to talk to them, but in that same moment I was assaulted by those same doubtful thoughts. I let them walk by yet again. Sorrow weighed down on me as shame and regret filled my mind. But then, as if those feelings acted as some sort of motivation, I raced to catch up to them and shouted, “hey, where are you guys from?” They turned around and looked awkwardly back at me, and I felt completely chagrined. Luckily they smiled and came back, told me they were from Tonga (I saw one had a gold tooth, thus assuring me they were from Tonga), and we talked about the islands and Australia and all the connections we had. The conversation ended with them inviting me to play volleyball with them and some other Tongans at their church! Ah, and they also pointed out that their sister, who was about 18, was still single. Not that that matters, but I thought it was nice of them to mention.
I left that encounter feeling happy! Yeah it was a bit awkward and I wasn’t as cool as I thought I would be, but I did it. I layed out, I extended, and it felt good. I learned once again how to be happy. It seems I had been blinded to that principle for the last few weeks, but now had discovered it again.
Let me add another quick facet to this analogy: laying out hurts at times. It can really suck. It leaves you dirty and often bruised. If done wrong, it can lead to sprains and concussions. I’ve even seen a rib broken from the endeavor. These thoughts used to flood my mind and cause me to not dive when the opportunity was there. Mental hesitation led to forfeited rewards. Is that not true in life? Too often we hold ourselves back, doubting our own ability and missing out on greater growth.
The thing is, when done correctly, a layout need not hurt – indeed, when successful, any pain that exists is quickly overshadowed by the reward, be it the catch or the block. Adrenaline sweeps your system. Rather than thinking “this is gonna hurt”, instead you think “I need to get to that disc”. That mentality is what creates the successful extension.
Why do we limit ourselves? Why do we doubt our ability – or, for that matter, God’s ability to help us when we act in faith? Why do we, in the words of Evan Hansen, “slam on the brakes before we even turn the key”?
Be like Chase Smith, who in this slideshow on the right lays out to catch a disc I threw to him in a heated game at Regionals a few years ago.
Sister Runia, my Mission President’s wife, often told us:
“There is no comfort in the growth zone, but there is no growth in the comfort zone”
Let us extend ourselves just a bit more, and find the rich rewards waiting on the other side. I can testify that the reward of catching a disc on a layout – hearing the crowd cheer, your teammates shouting your name, then looking at the epic pictures of your dive – is incredible. Yeah it hurts a bit, but that pain soon goes away, leaving only the glory of what just happened. And if that is incredible, then how good will be the rewards in life when we only extend towards them.
Love you all heaps!
Adam Simpson
(Watch this video if you really wanna see what layouts are all about)
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