Photo Andrea Kessler By Josh Woods ~ Most newer sports are hybrids of older ones, and pickleball is no exception. The progeny of tennis, badminton and pingpong, pickleball is played by singles or doubles teams who hit a ball back and forth over a 3-foot-high net until one opponent commits a fault. In 1965, the inventors of pickleball played with what they had – a repurposed badminton setup, pingpong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. Today’s 4.8 million American pickleballers have much more to play with: In the U.S. there are 38,140 courts, 300 manuf ..read more

By Joshua Woods ~ Emerging Sports as Social Movements is available on Amazon here. Photo Jesse Wright. One of the most common hashtags used in disc golf social media is #GrowtheSport. It pops up on Twitter more often than hot takes from Brodie Smith. To many disc golfers, “grow the sport” is an aspirational catchphrase that celebrates the grassroots of the sport and unites the volunteers who made it great. You can find it in social media posts about fundraiser tournaments, new course developments and any number of club activities and volunteer efforts. But the hashtag can also be found in the ..read more

Finland goes bonkers for disc golf By Kari Toivonen ~ One of the 16 courses in the Åland Islands, an autonomous, demilitarized region of Finland. The simultaneous construction of 16 courses made this the most ambitious disc golf project in history. Photo Kari Toivonen. I feel like the boy in the fable who cried wolf so many times that when the wolf actually came, no one listened to him. There have been so many articles about the disc golf boom in Finland, a small country with a mere 5.5 million inhabitants, that you Americans are probably thinking, enough already! Well, all those previous stor ..read more

By Cory Wiebusch ~ Eight-year-old Hayden Wiebusch showed up to play at the 2021 PDGA Junior Disc Golf World Championships, but she would not be allowed to take home the trophy for the ≤8 division. The 2021 PDGA Junior Worlds wrapped up in Emporia, Kansas earlier this month, and nine juniors were crowned World Champions. However, there could have been a tenth, my daughter Hayden who represented Team Throw Pink in the junior girls ≤8 division (FJ08). She was one of two girls invited to compete in this division and the sole entrant in the field when registration closed on July 2. Since Hayden was ..read more

Permanent human-made infrastructures are the key to growth By Josh Woods ~ WATCH THE video ESSAY HERE: Chapter 5 Video Essay Ed Headrick’s importance to disc golf is not a subject of debate. I mean, the guy perfected the flying disc, invented the pole hole, installed the first formal disc golf course and founded the Professional Disc Golf Association. And that’s only the first page of his resume. But which of these deeds most influenced the rise of competitive disc golf? Now this is a question worth debating. As I often do when I wonder something, I recently took to the internet and posted a ..read more

Today’s culture clash began in the 1960s By Josh Woods ~ In the flying disc tournaments of the 1960s and 1970s, players often competed in multiple Frisbee disciplines, such as freestyle, guts, ultimate and disc golf. Photos from Inquiry History, Flying Disc Museum, Susan Brown. A while back I was working on a Where’s Waldo puzzle with my daughter when my mind began to drift to where it so often drifts. Gazing at the strange assortment of people in the puzzle made me think of disc golf. It’s amazing what you can find when walking through a crowded course on a Friday afternoon, or perusing ..read more

By Josh Woods ~ Innova’s Boss received approval from the PDGA’s Standards Committee in 2008, but Destiny/Dynamic’s Bullet was considered too dangerous and did not receive approval in the 1980s. Chapter 3 Video Essay I’d rather be hit by a Bullet than a Boss. I mean, I’d rather not get hit at all, but if I had to choose, I’d go with the Bullet. Of course, the odds of being struck by an original Bullet, made by Destiny/Dynamic in the 1980s, are close to zero, because you just won’t find them on a disc golf course. The Bullet was not approved by the PDGA’s Technical Standards Committee. Although ..read more

Professional disc golfer and social media influencer Brodie Smith, pictured above, suggests that disc golf should be organized more like traditional golf.Watch the Essay Here: Chapter 2 video essay Culture is a little like muscle memory. You can’t see it, but it does something really important. Culture is the grease in the wheels of sports. It coordinates all the meanings and actions on the field; organizes, motivates and engages all the players, coaches, fans, businesses and media. Without culture, there is no sport. We’re robots in soccer shorts. And, like muscle memory, it takes an enormou ..read more

By Josh Woods ~ Photo PDGAWatch the essay here: Chapter 1 Video Version Back in 2017, Paul McBeth dropped a sympathy bomb on social media. He was like, check me out. I’m only five and a half feet tall and I weigh less than a panda. I’ll never be the favorite in sports. I’m the OG underdog. Send me some love. Of course, he didn’t say it quite like that, and he had just dropped out of the Green Mountain Championship due to an injury that was only going sideways. And so, his fans did send love. “Heal up Champ!!!” someone wrote on Facebook. “Hope you feel 100% by USDGC.” “You’re always my favori ..read more

By Josh Woods, PhD ~ In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, several sports reached their fast-growth stages. Skateboarding was headed to the Olympics and regularly appeared on television and in fashion magazines. Energy-drink-powered teens were pulling down big paychecks from esports megaevents. The Ultimate Fighting Championship was filling large arenas with fans and pouring mass-mediated adrenaline into mixed martial arts. Even a few lesser-known sports were on the rise. Spikeball, the promoter of roundnet, landed deals with Shark Tank and ESPN. Cornhole was appearing on ESPN ..read more