World’s best disc golf community?
The conversation flows like the Mamba, teammates are encouraged and their successes are celebrated. There’s always someone to play with if you want, and after the round, you feel like staying to putt and meet like-minded people, both new and old.
Strangers greet each other. The courses are important to everyone, they are appreciated and taken care of. The threshold for competing, volunteering, and participating in club activities is low or even non-existent. Respect for both volunteers and other players is high. Members of the community are genuinely proud of it and are not afraid to show and tell others or to include newcomers. Does this sound like something you’d like to be a part of? Something you’d like to contribute to?
Working together, community, and belonging
According to a study (Kihu 2017), the important aspects of sports are the emotions it evokes and the sense of belonging, even more than the physical activity itself. I can fully agree with this based on my nearly 50 years of experience. Having spent my entire life in various sports clubs as an athlete, club member, and coach, I have seen and experienced a lot. Whether it’s an individual or team sport, working together and friends have been the most effective and left the most positive memories.
Community and belonging are best created among people who share the same interests and enjoy the same things. Whether it’s a sports club, a group of friends, or any other group sharing the same passion, it’s important to have enough common activities, shared values, and elements that enhance a sense of belonging to create a community. It’s also extremely important that different people feel welcome in the community.
How do we get everyone putting into the same basket?
As we all know, the popularity of disc golf has exploded in recent years. The sport has attracted children, young people, and even middle-aged guys like me. But where are the communities described at the beginning of the story? How and who can join them? Can we reach a situation where disc golfers around the world are metaphorically putting into the same basket and everyone finds their place? This is a challenge for the entire disc golf community, including clubs, event organizers, course maintainers, and each of us disc golf enthusiasts.
How is good community spirit achieved? Words or decisions alone are not enough; it requires genuine desire and actions from people. We need active and creative people who drive these initiatives forward. We need support from people who want to be involved. We need competitions, volunteer work, and other events that bring together people from the sport. All these should be easy to join with your own contribution, just as you are. What we definitely don’t need is opposition, suspicion, dismissing others’ ideas, or any other negativity that unfortunately occurs too often in our sport.
Let’s be proud of our communities and show it
I challenge every club, group of friends, or course maintainer to think about how to make my community even better and more attractive. Let’s create a healthy competitive environment where communities strive to improve their attractiveness by doing better, not by criticizing others. Let’s give credit to those who move things forward, not belittle ideas even if we think things could be done better. Let’s be proud of our communities and show it, for example, with unified outfits.
Remember, you don’t have to invent everything yourself; you can and should copy well-functioning ideas from elsewhere, add your own twist, or freely pick the best parts. If you’re wondering where to find good examples of creating a great community, I recommend heading to the Mijas course in Spain during the fall or winter. Talk to the people there, both the place manager Panu and other disc golfers. Participate in competitions, spend time at the clubhouse, and think about what you could bring back to your own community.
A place you want to return to again and again
Returning to the question in the title, is Mijas the best disc golf community in the world? I don’t really know, but at least it’s the best I’ve found. It’s a place I want to return to again and again. Unfortunately, work and everyday life in Finland limit this, so it would be great to find something similar closer to home.
Erno Puupponen
The author is a very enthusiastic, fifty-plus-year-old amateur disc golfer who also calls himself a disc golf fanatic. His playing buddies also agree with this. He is also one of the owners of Fuzzy Eagle.