How Ella went from Ultimate to Pro Disc Golf | Catch

Brian Earhart hosts a new show where he interviews pro disc golfers on the practice field. Ella Hansen joins Brian in episode 3 of Catch!

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MH okay I think you’re going to be severely underwhelmed because the local bagel shop was not not open we get mainstream Bagels is there like a nostalgic memory that comes to mind that has made you so passionate about eating bagels or is it just a food that you genuinely have a

Raw affection for I mean I think like growing up Jewish definitely uh inspired the bagel love was that part of the family like uh nutrition really 100% yeah what is the the composition of a good bagel okay the composition of a good bagel these are like decent there’s

Like a little you know it’s it’s kind of shiny a little crunchy on the outside and then like soft but not like a bread on the enide you still want to be like chewy and a little doughy you know so like on a scale from like brick to

Croissant where does a good bagel fall in regards to the inside brick to Croissant regards to the inside completely solid dense to light fluffy Airy croissant I would say like a seven M okay on the brick side really seven t a brick like you want it to be dense but

Like it still has to be moist you know you want to be moist but dense but chewy but you know there’s a lot of lot of adjectives well would you okay with my non-refined palette I’d eat this every day yeah blueberry Bagel is that kind of a no no

It kind of depends like I I I’m not like a a sweet Bagel hater for everyone I just for my my personal palette you know I I’m mostly just a seated or plain kind of person I don’t go too crazy into those cheese bagels or anything like

That you know if someone’s number one Bagel was a cheese bagel what does that say about their personality like why would you want dried out cheese on your bagel that’s kind of what I feel I was teacher at preschool and I wanted to do something nice for my staff or not my

Staff but my co-workers I brought in bagels and I got a bunch of um honey walnut cream cheese I like it and I forgot that like people are allergic to nuts and it was just a complete backfire and the one time I tried to do something

Nice I completely fell on my face but you know what it’s okay you don’t have any nut allergies do you I don’t have any nut allergies I’m not I’m not an allergist or I’m not allergic to anything an allergist I’m also not an allergist what what does that mean

Somebody who like specializes in allergies like like specialized in having them or diagnosing okay why do they have holes why does a bagel have a hole why like why do donuts have to have holes I don’t get it I think so that it’s like evenly distributed like the

The it cooked enough you know cuz I think if you just made a big old pillow it wouldn’t cook all the way into the middle really yeah it’s a good speculation do you know that for a fact it makes sense to me it’s a speculation it’s a good speculation it is definitely

A speculation you got me thinking about holes in food did you know that White Castle pokes five holes in their burger patties so they don’t have to flip them they don’t have to flip they poke holes in their little burger patties for their sliders and apparently it helps

Them cook more evenly without flipping little gross they don’t flip them ever no that’s wrong it’s a perfect storm they’re thin enough that’s wrong what that’s the fast food way it’s between the two bread if you’re cooking meat you should cook it on both sides right like

Objectively you should cook it on both sides well well no that one they come out like that you traveled to all the cities in America what do you think the best food city is that you’ve experienced uh I really liked Austin because I love tacos and I HTE a lot of

Really good tacos in Austin I think Portland hits it for me as well Portland is also good yeah but I I I go there enough that it’s it wasn’t like a special place I know what you mean do you do you want to go play catch let’s go play catch

Okay what’s what’s the optimal way to put a clip mic on a T-shirt this is it uh I don’t think it’s it this is not it I have I have a surprise for you okay we are throwing a disc that I’ve never thrown before this was a gift to me and I picked this for you for multiple reasons because number

One first off this is a whmo 40 mold it’s 119 G and there’s a lot to unpack um from the packaging in general first off if you see here distance is checked as like this is the preferred disc to throw distance with this was 1976 and the other reason why this was

So cool it was a dual uh signature disc Monica louu and Peter Blom I believe his name was pronounced they both won the world frisbee championship in 1976 overall yeah okay and they got their name on the 40 mold which was like the the disc at the time I feel like you

Would shred distance if you played back then yeah because of your ultimate but this was even before like you know all the disc that you play with ultimate and all that kind of stuff now like the other thing is they they were just so cool with how they respected like the

The great of the sport they like did all sorts of hand drawings like like highlighting everybody that’s sick oh I know that guy yeah exactly John Kirkland’s written back here like they almost look like Greek philos he really does which is so cool um but yeah this actually this particular

Frisbee came from the collection of Jen Velasquez who is another legendary freestyler and wow this is like the Connecting Point you were like one of my favorite people to play catch with and I’ve been told by multiple old heads that jens’s Velasquez obviously being a good freestyler was also one of their

Favorite people to play catch with wow so we’re going to unbox this and we’re going to toss and I I just I hope it it you enjoy it as much as I I’m very excited let’s do it let’s do it should I like yeah just just go for it just puncture

Ito High steaks here wow I’ve been saving this for like this is wild either this show or like the perfect like opportunity to play catch I feel like this is one of those we got what’s the best way to open this without try to keep it clean you know do

You do this with like Christmas presents or like birthday presents this is like this is like a cool oh we got a little oh I’ve seen these before you the old IFA catalog and everything like that the newsletter yes this is going to be fun you’re ready toss yeah I’m ready yeah

First person to make it touch the ground is an absolute failure this is Fun yes oo that was saucy how much do uh DDC discs weigh they’re less they’re like 105 okay have you played DDC yeah I have that was crazy I was like how do I even like you have to just it’s like so just popping it it is one of my favorite games period

It’s so fun my first time playing was in San Diego I was going to interview Juliana corver for uh flight Diary episode yeah and we got randomly paired to play double disc together that’s sick yeah I played with her it’s pretty good who it’s like it’s kind of stable it’s

More stable than I expected yeah it’s a distance disc yeah it’s for distance Ella I just feel like anything that light I don’t expect it to actually like have any sort of stability oh did kind of a yeah more Hiser lucky when I taught youth ultimate I

Teach him to throw like like you’re trying to hit somebody with a towel that’s a great idea actually would you teach them like Heiser first yeah like just make it curve against the spin I just teach it teach him how to throw up flat you know heads

Up but it’s funny because flat in disc golf is so different than flat in Ultimate elaborate on that well in in Ultimate like if I’m trying to throw a flat hook I’m going to release it like here and then it’s going to flip like flip up like that and so like all

Ultimate players like think that that’s flat cuz that’s like the only obviously like flat is a little bit different in disc golf depending on whether you’re what kind of disc you’re really throwing but like in essence it’s more flat than ultimate flat is especially with forehands cuz if

I’m throwing a forehand like that’s not super like all the way flat when it gets to you but like pretty close yeah like when I think of flat I think of like forearm is even to the ground yeah disc comes out exactly at that it’s almost like hard to even think about cuz

Everything in Ultimate or any kind of frisbee has popped up nose up yeah plus like if I throw like if I want to throw it like what would be like an anheiser flight for dis Golf and ultimate like I’m basically just throwing it flat actually flat nose up

And then it pans cuz it’s so flippy whereas like you know like that was like pretty flat throw and it it curved left when you told me at Maple Hill that the reason you throw such overstable forehands is cuz you want to get away from the like pretty much the polar

Opposite of like throwing an ultimate disc that clicked in my brain so much cuz for a while I was like man like why is she not heer flipping well I just feel like then everything is going to be nose up you know like like I can I’ve

Been working on more of the heer flip but it’s just like it’s hard to trust it too yeah I mean at first when I started playing I definitely noticed a point at which like my body finally like under understood that there was a difference between a disc golf throw and an

Ultimate throw for a backand but I don’t know if my body’s done that yet for forehand I am like so fascinated by that I think it’s such a smart way of just like getting good now rather than having to like work through like yeah weird Kinks that you do because of your

Experience and also like you were a baseball player yep so like that makes total sense to me yep yeah just different pitch or something like that you know this like pretty much exact spot is where I mean it’s where I really like learned about discol for the

First time but it’s kind of also just where like I understood like I don’t know like like the convergence of ultimate and disc golf almost usdgc 2018 the company that I was a camera op for for ultimate was hired to run the live production for usdgc

And I had no idea what I was like signing myself up for at all but I showed up here my assignment was to they they had a dock built out on 17 like right behind the basket and my job was to film every single shot on 17 I played a lot of

Catch on this little part we had like a tent here that’s where they were doing commentary was Avery and Jamie Thomas doing the commentary and I like talk to Avery a tiny bit cuz we both went to Oregon and played a little ultimate there and then I think I realized like three four

Months no six months ago that I had also met nice good good Dodge I had also met yussi and Essa who’s the dmania marketing manager over in Europe they were also here and they were like cuz I you know I didn’t know that they had done I didn’t know who

Yussi was I had no idea I didn’t even remember that I had met him until literally this year it was a good time what was your first like reaction of professional discol for you like H this is kind of lame or like uh how did you see it I

Mean I I could tell like that there was Prestige but I really I just thought everybody’s form looked really stupid like really stupid like coming from an Ultra player for me seeing people putt by like kicking their back leg up I’m like that looks so dumb like it just

Looked so stupid to me uh I remember seeing Paige play she was playing she was the only woman in the tournament and I thought that was pretty sweet I would play like frol on campus but it was just with an ultimate disc like you know we’d have we had 18 holes

It was great I loved it but I watched everyone all four rounds and we even filmed some practice rounds too cuz what else were we going to do and uh I watched every single person throw this shot I think I got hit a couple

Times too and like at the end of the end of the Sunday I was like it’s not that hard like what is wrong with these people why can’t they get in this dumb Island and so I took a Ultra star up top to the tea and I tried to throw it and I

I think I was probably like I don’t know 50 feet short like trying to throw a touch shot and then I like yeeted it into the pond the next one cuz I was like I’m going to make it on there but I was like yeah okay that’s like that’s not as easy as

It looks you picked up disc golf and then you went on tour so quick it was like you were ready to throw yourself full time into like disc Sports were you dreaming of that with ultimate 2 like were you scheming like what the next step was for you I mean like

I would have liked to but not really I mean I growing up I always wanted to be a professional athlete I wanted to be the first female baseball player in the MLB that was like my dream as a kid but like I played a lot of ultimate and like

All the ultimate that I played at the highest level like cost me money you know yeah so I didn’t really think about it as like oh I could go pro in this I’m not I don’t think I have like I’m that entrepreneurial minded where I could be

Like Oh I’m going to make this into my job you know C I also just like I don’t know I like to do a lot of different things so I was like I could do one of those other things for a job you know coming back I came back here in

2020 when it was a major for both no and fo and that was really the moment where I was like oh I could do this professionally like this could be my job CU I came and played the course and I knew I was like pretty raw but I was

Like I could I can do these things I’m not that consistent at it but I know I can you know so did you have like a golf family at all like did you ever have golf chatter in your household or like dis golf or golf golf just like the

Concept of golf we had a a pitch and Putt course near my house I think the longest hole was like a 100 yards maybe so my dad died when I was 12 and my middle school was right by this course so he died when I was in sixth grade and

He used to go he was unemployed for a little bit and he would go and like play two rounds of two balls so he’d play like four rounds and that was like what he would do with his day W and we would go and we yeah I played a lot of pitch

And putt golf which is funny because like in my disc golf game I feel like you know I got I’m pretty good at the long distance driving and all that and like my short game is like less strong but in regular golf I can’t drive to

Save my life but my short game is great really yeah so you thought about golf like early on in life like you were thinking in that man yeah and my dad was like he was really he liked to learn stuff and he liked to teach he definitely in put instilled that like

Desire to like learn and figure out the the right way or the most efficient way to do stuff you know was he a frisbee player I don’t think so there’s like there’s like some old pictures of me playing frisbee so I’m sure I’ve like probably threw a Frisbee with him

Once or twice but no I I think he would have absolutely loved disc golf though I could totally see him like just having a his group that he goes and plays like every single morning with at the local course that would that totally would have been his thing what do you feel

Like has been like the big breakthrough this year for you like I’m sure like obviously you’ve been playing like ultimate your whole life so you’ve been throwing a disc your whole life what do you feel like you’re learning in regards to like the golf side of things um

I think I’m learning trust which I think like comes from both from like actually physically getting better and getting more consistent and then yeah just like trusting that part of myself of like knowing that I can do the thing that I want to do just trusting that like I can

Do it and I’m not worse than like the people I’m competing against you know oh I know what you mean yeah oh that was close that was nice that was my bread and butter yeah I think my Lefty scuber might be better than my righty scubber are you

Lefty by no okay I don’t know why if you threw a 100 throws in a game how many of them would be hammers no wind probably only like three or four okay so you weren’t getting yelled at no I would mostly just get yelled at for throwing turnovers so you would call

Yourself an aggressive uh play oh so aggressive WG when you look back do you wish you weren’t um o I think that I had I continue to play ultimate like at a high level I probably was like in the process of really learning that like how to use my skills but I

Also feel like disc golf kind of taught me that too you know like the value of each throw is a lot higher in this golf so it is weird to think about though like you if you turn the the disc over and ultimate the play still goes

Right and the other team could very easily do the same thing yeah and you’re fine so you’re just conditioned to like shlef off the mistake but then at the same time you’re allowed to make so many more mistakes right exactly you’re allowed to make more mistakes but like

It kind of adds to like that creative creative creativity that’s what I was going to say and then I paused and then it sounded weird that like creativity aspect of it where like you know I can throw something like that in an ultimate game like I can throw shots that are

Like lower percentage that was nice by the way thank you and they’re less punishing you know they’re like I can play defense whereas in disc golf like you know that’s like part of the trust and like the the decision making of like okay I could throw this like low release like nose up

Spinny you know like push pass kind of thing or not push pass but like air bounce kind of but I could there’s other option that I feel like is more high percentage and so I’m going to throw that pretty much 100% of the time in disc golf whereas an

Ultimate like maybe I’ll be like Oh I’m going to throw a forehand just kidding I’m throwing a backand you know do you feel like playing disc golf at the highest level stifles creativity uh a little bit yeah how do you feel about that I mean I think there’s

Like a lot of ways that’s that’s part of like why I like playing catch so much that was that was good nowadays like I used to play you know I used to throw my teammates all the time in college but it was more of a

Workout then like a we would do like a throwing workout you know where you do a certain number of each kind of throw and stuff but now playing catch is more of the creative side of like fris I’m I’m I’m more interested in the like different games that I don’t know and

Playing DDC and yeah I just like messing around with it than I used to be playing ultimate just because that creative aspect is like that was that was sick yeah I feel like the creative aspect is definitely limited if you want to be like a consistent disc golfer cuz

There’s like a sense of Shame whereas like if you try to do something creative in disc golf and it doesn’t work it feels really bad didn’t you do that recently you threw some weird like lefty or some crazy shot but it paid off oh no that was that prinet Island you threw

That massive like oh I threw yeah I threw a night a a hammer you nervous about that that was a sweet shot that was really fun I knew that there was like where I was throwing to I knew there was like a gap back there so even

If I messed it up I felt like I could have gotten up and down but that was interesting cuz like you know I still wanted to play good but I also was like felt more confident in myself just based on the field which is like not to

Say that I actually played any better or worse than I would on a day when I would get third at like an Elite Series you know yeah so it’s just like it’s interesting how my mental game there was like oh you can throw this shot because you like trust yourself and doesn’t

Really matter if you mess it up I don’t feel that way in most of the tournaments I play that’s true what that’s like I don’t know I feel like that’s really cool experience to though I feel like giving space to actually be creative is like so important cuz you can feel like

You’re just getting squashed sometimes like yeah playing such high stakes yeah I guess it’s like watching any sport when it’s getting played high stakes like everybody starts to tighten up like the game gets a little sloppier yep that’s kind of what I’m like going for

In life with like all my things is is balance of like being able to you know be serious and be a a good athlete and then also like have fun at the same time and I think that like for me as a person and like most people you’re probably

Going to like enjoy yourself and have a better life if you have fun while you’re doing what you’re doing I feel like I play better when I’m having fun so it’s not yeah kind of going along with this how are you at this point in the season

How how is your life going like overall how’s my life going it’s pretty good I mean I feel like I’ve had a pretty good season it’s it’s interesting because like I feel like I’ve had a pretty good season regardless of what happens like at the last couple tournaments it’s a

Little weird cuz I want to win you know of course I’m also satisfied with my season at the same time so it’s kind of a strange in between I’m also ready for the off season I’m ready to go home and do some other athletic activities people are sleepy at this point in the

Season yeah yeah it’s been like 34 four tournaments or something like that like mhhm yeah it’s been a lot it’s been a lot well we’re here at winre we’re on 17 yeah how do you feel like let’s let’s get away from frisbee like like do you actually feel like you like this is

Yours yeah I mean I I know I can shred this course I haven’t necessarily shredded it in years past but I know that I can I know I can birdy every single hole I know that I know I’ve played it enough to to trust in what what’s going to be a good

Shot and what’s maybe uh risky I feel like I can win you know I don’t know if I will but I feel like I can good job homie that was beautiful that was fun that was great good job yeah on the next episode of C I have the

Honor of throwing with one of the most decorated flying disc athletes of all time Juliana corver I’ll see you then wow that’s so crazy I’m sure at some point disc golf like when you’re winning that much has to feel like monotonous at some point right