I love to write and I’m so excited to be in Queretaro, Mexico coaching + playing with Malaki UFC (Ultimate Frisbee Club) so I will be blogging about my trip. There will be lots of randomness – I’m very aware and pay attention to a lot so you might think some of it is weird but if it’s in there, I thought it was neat enough to mention.

Neat thing I saw on the ground: Baggage truck pulling a chuckwagon with wooden barrels on the runway at the Calgary airport.

Neat thing I saw in the air: The captain made an announcement when we were flying over the Grand Canyon so I got to see that from the plane.

Annoying thing: The flight attendant on US Airways giving a long speech about an air rewards credit card.

Nice little thing: Having an empty seat next to me on both flights.

Random thing: Watching other people try to sleep is entertaining – there really isn’t a comfortable position and you see people try everything.

Something I enjoyed: Reading “The Art of Learning” on the plane. The book arrived last week, generously sent to me by Michael Lawler, a former coach o Boston’s Brute Squad, a women’s ultimate frisbee team, as his way of thanking me for posting his videos on the Ultimate Rob website.

The first part of the book describes chess in such a brilliant manner that I immediately appreciate the complexity and skill involved. The second part, which I have just started, discusses Tai Chai and the practice of Push Hands, a competitive sport which incorporates a lot of the Tai Chai movements.

So far I’ve learned the difference between entity theorists and learning theorists which leads to understanding how we best learn and how that core approach to learning will determine how we perform under pressure of when faced with a new, difficult problem.

Something pretty cool: I was the only Canadian on the flight to Mexico from Phoenix.

Something gross: Airport fast food restaurants and the smell that lingers in the plane from everyone having just eaten it or eating it on the plane

Temperature thing: It is so hot in Phoenix and not a good hot either. It was around 115 degrees F when we landed. Makes me enjoy Calgary’s summer much more.

Something this trip has fueled so far: The desire to travel more! I’ve been all over Canada and the USA but this is my first trip outside of those 2 countries. It’s more than I could have ever imagined and I want to do more.

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Today I leave for Mexico. Specifically, Queretaro. But I’ll be flying into Mexico City. I’ve known for a while that Mexico City was huge population wise and it has always impressed me how big it is.

I’ve always been fascinated by numbers – I still remember how amazed I was in grade 6 when I found out the population of California. For Social Studies, we were each given a state and we had to research and prepare a report on the state. I got California and I was blown away when I learned that they had more people in the whole state than we did in our whole country. That opened a whole new world for me and really put a lot into perspective – about how many people there really was in the world. Up to that point, I hadn’t really traveled much other than crossing the border with my family once in a while, so I felt like California was some foreign land. When I was in grade 6, we definitely didn’t have the internet – and we actually used floppy disks that were floppy.

Anyway, fast forward to 2011 and 17 years later and today I will be flying into Mexico City, with a population of almost 9 million. Now, I grew up in a town of 6,000 and although I’ve lived Halifax and Calgary and spent time in big cities, this is a whole new experience for me.

I notice the little things and I can only imagine what it will be like flying into such a massive city. I’m excited, nervous, scared but mostly just incredibly grateful for this opportunity. That opportunity will be to coach + play with the Malaki Ultimate Frisbee Club (UFC). It’s because of Ultimate Rob that I was able to get to know their captain, Victor and it’s because of him that I have this amazing opportunity.

Have you experienced something similar? When you had a change in perspective? I’d love to hear your stories!

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For 2 years I’ve run a website called Ultimate Rob (www.ultimaterob.com). In that time, I’ve published roughly 50 articles and posted more than 60 videos. My goal when I started the website was for it to be the go to website for ultimate frisbee but very quickly I realized that it wasn’t feasible – both from a time perspective on my side and from a searching perspective from a user side. I decided to instead focus on writing articles and filming videos that would help people very simply “Play Ultimate Better”.

So far, I’ve seen my fan base grow consistently and that’s been done mostly through word of mouth. I haven’t spent money on advertising, although I know that would have helped me grow more quickly. I also haven’t spammed people like a lot of people do when they don’t understand marketing and so the fans who do follow me appreciate what I do and I can honestly say that I haven’t had 1 negative comment in 2 years on any of my videos or articles. I have had some great discussions with players from all over the world – Ireland, Australia, Mexico, Poland, China, Philippines to name a few – and have been lucky enough to meet some of those players in person. When I started, I had some general ideas about how to monetize Ultimate Rob because I have spent a few thousand dollars to get everything going. However, the more time I’ve spent on the website and the more I’ve connected with people, I’ve decided that I had more value to offer than charging for content. The approach I chose to take was to offer to run clinics for teams and have them pay for my expenses. This would allow me to travel, share my knowledge and meet some awesome people. Although I wasn’t charging for the clinic per se, I was hoping to sell some of my dvd’s (I created a dvd 2 summers ago and have sold roughly 50 copies). With that in mind, I have spoken to some ultimate players in different countries about running a clinic for them – and so far none have happened.

Until now.

On Monday, the captain of the Malaki UFC (Ultimate Frisbee Club) contacted me and asked if I would consider going to Mexico from June 24 – July 4 to coach them and play a tournament with them. It’s still hard to believe it’s happening because, although I knew I could do it, I didn’t think it would happen. Well now, it is.

Monday was a flurry of activity as I was sending messages back and forth with Victor trying to figure out all the logistics and when we both realized that it was going to work, I spoke with my boss, who gave me the thumbs up to book the time off. Victor promptly booked my flight and next Friday, June 24, I will be boarding a plane bound for Mexico City. I will be staying in Querétaro, which from all the research I’ve done so far looks like an amazing city. According to Victor, they have the world’s 3rd largest boulder, a pyramid built by the Chichimecas, it’s a colonial city established by the Otomis indians, then colonized by the Spaniards, they have a huge aquaduct with 72 arches, and the wine there is supposed to be amazing. I’m not sure if I’ll be close to any beaches but I’m pretty excited to see a part of Mexico that most people going to Mexico don’t (as many people visit the resorts on all inclusive deals). It will for sure be the experience of a lifetime and it opens the door for more opportunities like this.

I will be taking pictures and videos and will be blogging while I’m there. This is the first time I will be traveling outside of Canada + the USA so I’m beyond myself with excitement!

I wanted to thank everyone who has believed in me and supported me while I’ve built Ultimate Rob to where it is today. I have many more things planned and I am so excited to share the sport of ultimate (and disc sports) with more people!

Best,
Rob McLeod
aka Ultimate Rob

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One of my favourite quotes.

What it means to me:

There are things that you can do really well.

There are things that you cannot do very well.

Focus on those things that you can do really well and make it your goal to get ever better at those things.

The things that you can’t do very well – work to get better at them but your life will be much more rewarding if you are amazing at a few things instead of mediocre at many things.

Case in point – I would rather be amazing at 3 sports than pretty good at 6 sports. It lets my passion shine through more completely and I will achieve much more.

Think about those things you’re really good at – how much are you making them your focus?

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