On Friday, October 16, Kyla and Payten, two grade 4 girls, attempted to break 3 World Records for Self Caught Flight with a frisbee. I was the official judge and helped the girls train for the event, teaching them the rules and how to throw into the wind to have the frisbee come back to them. A special thanks to Tracy for encouraging the girls and connecting me and to the mothers of both girls who came out to support them the day of the records. Also to the girls’ classmates who cheered them on the whole time!
Anything is possible with a dream. Don’t be afraid to dream the impossible.
The 3 world records they were attempting to break were MTA, TRC and SCF. See below for what each record means.
Kyla was going after the U9 world records and Payten was going after the U10 world record. Although Kyla didn’t have a catch, Payten did set the U10 Canadian records for MTA, TRC and SCF. She had an MTA of 2.5m, a TRC of 11.9m and a SCF score of 22.35. Her TRC of 11.9 metres was less than 2 metres off the world record for her age group!
Maximum Time Aloft (MTA)
The intention is to have your disc stay in the air (aloft!) as long as possible and then catch it with one hand before it reaches the ground. The time that the disc remains in the air is measured with a stopwatch. Players get five attempts and the best time counts. For an accurate timing, three stopwatches are used. The median or middle time of the three times is used. At the moment the world record is 16.72 seconds.
Throw, run and catch (TRC)
The player throws, and then runs to catch the disc with one hand. The distance between the circle where the disc was thrown and where it was caught, is measured. Players get five attempts and the best one counts. At the moment the world record is 92.64 meter.
Self Caught Flight (SCF)
MTA and TRC are often combined into one event by having players throw five attempts of each discipline. The SCF score is derived by taking the TRC result in meters and adding it to the MTA time in seconds which is multiplied by a factor 5.5. Therefore, a 40 m TRC and 7.3 second MTA would result in an SCF score of 40 + 7.3 × 5.5 = 80.15.