Everything About Ultimate Frisbee

What is Ultimate?

Commonly called Ultimate Frisbee (This is no longer accepted as the correct name as disc manufacturer Wham-O trademarked the name Frisbee or something along those lines. I still call it Ultimate Frisbee.) Ultimate is an organized team sport that revolves around throwing a plastic plate to team mates who run wildly to catch it.

How is it played?

Ultimate is played with two teams of 7, usually split 4 guys and 3 girls. The regulation field size is 40 yards wide, 70 yards long with a 25 yard end zone at each end making the whole field 120 yards long, but it can be played on any field size you want. The goal of the game is to throw the disc between your own team down the field until a team mate catches it in the end zone, giving your team a point. When the disc is caught that individual cannot move except for back and forth on their pivot foot, they have 10 seconds or "stalls" to throw the disc. When your team drops the disc, catches it out of bounds, or the other team intercepts the disc it is a turnover and the other team has possession. Games last an hour unless you are tied when the 60 minutes is up, then you play the last point. I will get much more detailed in how to play in The Rules of Ultimate section below.

The most frequently asked question... What is so "ultimate" about Ultimate?

While there are so many answers we could come up with for this question like the intensity, the adrenaline, and all those sorts of answers, I think that the real answer comes from the sports origins. Back in 1968 a group of high school students created a frisbee team and played a version of frisbee football. They claimed it was the "ultimate game experience," and I think from there the ultimate was added on to differentiate between the crazy, intense, adrenaline ultimate we know today and the mild tossing a frisbee back and forth.

1. It's Simple: All you need to play is a frisbee, a flat piece of ground, and some friends! The rules are simple, the equipment is simple, and it's simply FUN!

2. It's Exercise: Ultimate is a great way to get in shape, you'll be running and jumping all over the place yet be having so much fun you hardly notice all the exercise your getting, until the end of the game that is when you realize you're sweating buckets!

3. It's Unique: Ultimate isn't a sport very many people play, when you say your an Ultimate player people either give you crazy looks or want to talk all about it with you.

Oh Canada! Way to Go!

Seems like I was born into the right country to go far in Ultimate, hopefully one day I'll be at that level! I've got quite a ways to go still.

Don't worry USA you have many top finishes as well! This is just my patriotic display.

Fun Fact: The 1992 World Ultimate was the one my team captain competed in, coming 2nd to Sweden.

This is only the open division, you can see more standings from this division and others at WFDF: World Rankings
Current World Rankings
Open Division - 1st place Canada

2008 World Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 1st place Canada

2006 World Junior Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 2nd place Canada

2004 World Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 1st place Canada

2002 World Junior Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 1st place Canada

2000 World Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 3rd place Canada

1998 World Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 1st place Canada

1994 World Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 3rd place Canada

1992 World Ultimate Championships
Open Division - 2nd place Canada

Now I don't eat McDonald's often, but when I do it's because my friends drag me there. This may sound like a totally irrelevant start to the story but it's how it happened, just trust me. So, a few of my friends and I we're sitting in McDonald's. I finished first and grabbed a close at hand paper. Since I live in a relatively small town we are always looking for something new to do. I found a section that had interesting things to do in my city. Going through them, contrary to the section title, none of them were very interesting until I came across an Ultimate Frisbee recreational league.

And that is how it began... I showed it to one of my friends and of course he said it was the greatest idea he had ever heard and wrote down the website on his phone. Now we are always come up with crazy plans, most of which we don't end up going through with, but that night when I got home, dead center of my Facebook page, was a link to the website saying let's do it. Several comments later from other friends saying they're in too and we were rip roaring and ready to go. (At this point just four of us.)

The website said pick up games Sunday at 2:00 p.m. new players welcome! So we all headed off not knowing what to expect. Upon arrival we introduced ourselves to a couple people but most were busy on the field practicing their throws. We were handed a frisbee and left to our own devices to practice ourselves. Of course being new players we all threw backhands, not even knowing there were other throws. Soon after the game was about to begin, cones were set up to mark the end zones, and teams were divided out. Once on our teams we introduced ourselves to everyone, then we were given a very quick crash course on the rules of the game, and pretty much told we would pick it up on the fly. We lined up on our separate end zones, still eager as ever to play. Since we had the disc, and were going to "pull" to the other team we "marked up" with the other teams players, stating who we would cover in man on man play. Each team's captain them raised their hand signalling their team was ready, and then with a mighty fling the frisbee was tossed from pretty much end zone to end zone and everyone began to run.

Running quickly up to the person I was supposed to be covering, we gave each other a quick, "Hi, I'm so and so, nice to meet you," and continued to run around while the frisbee was tossed back and forth. People we're yelling "stalls" when they were on the person with the disc and "up" when it was thrown so I mimicked this when my own mark had the disc. Soon someone on my team intercepted a throw and we were on the offensive. I still had no idea what I was doing so I just kind of ran around and managed to get the frisbee maybe twice, and I only made one throw, sorry team!

As the game progressed we were learning more and more and pretty soon had a good understanding of how the game worked. It was evident that because of our youth we were faster than many people in the league and our captain noticed this. We were then instructed that instead of running around randomly we would each have a different job. One of us, upon command, would run straight down the middle of the field at top speed then "cut to whichever side of the end zone was open and that this person was not to look back until someone yelled "up". The others were to stay back and be part of a "give and go" or "ladder" play where quick short throws and cuts worked the disc up the field until we made the run to the end zone play. It worked! One of my friends got our first point in league frisbee! We were pretty excited. Soon after we were all getting points and having a great time but we also realized we were a bit out of shape and that ultimate required A LOT of running. The game finished and we returned home excited, proud, talkative, and pumped for the next game.

We went to more pick up games, we got more of our friends to join, we practiced almost everyday, we learned more and more about the game, we learned different kinds of throws, we started talking to other players more, we became part of the Ultimate Frisbee society.

Then it came time that league play was going to start, we decided we were in this for good. We all paid our registration fee and requested to be on each others team, even though we were all new to the sport. Turns out since it is a recreational league they go by friend requests when making the teams so we all got to play together along with our captain.

Now at the time we didn't know too much about our captain, other than that he was some crazy old guy, the oldest in the league in fact, and that he could throw a wicked flick. Soon we learned that he has competed for Team Canada in the Ultimate Frisbee World Championships, and has two silver world championship medals. Looks like we're good to go!

With our crazy captain in command teaching us even more at the sport and practicing regularly we all began to improve tremendously. We got our flicks and hammers going, and learned some basic plays like the stack, and cup. From here we began to dominate. Winning game after game we used our captains handling ability combined with our youthful speed to wrack up points. Until we faced the "best team in the league," and our captain couldn't make the game, we were on our own... We gave it our best, and still did the best out of any team against them, but lost.

After our first loss we were a bit demoralized, but were quickly rejuvenated as we won our next few games... including a total shut out 13-0. Now we are sitting second in the league, and have a good chance for the gold as our captain is back for good and we have improved even farther.

From only starting to play just four months ago it is insane how addicted to the game I have become and how much my whole newbie team has improved. In those four months from never played to where we are now, a few of us have actually become some of top players in the league, and have earned the right to show boat a bit. Just goes to show you how quickly you can get in to this sport if you practice.

Frisbee season is officially over here! We came second in our league with a really close game. Pretty good for a rookie team. Definitely going for gold next year!

And now here I am, addicted to ultimate frisbee, and writing about it on the internet. Even though I'm still new to the sport and have a long ways to go, this page is my way of passing along the sport to others. The more popular we can make Ultimate Frisbee the better the sport will become!

Here's why we need to pass on the word of the sport;

1. Ultimate isn't like other sports where when you make it big you get paid millions, nope, Ultimate is a purely spirit of the game sport! Often teams can get a sponsor to help pay their way to tournaments but it is still really down to the players to cough up the cash to play, even at the higher levels.

2. Still widely unknown that there are leagues, clubs, and championships for Ultimate. Many people just don't know that such a thing exists, they think Ultimate is just something you go and play for fun with your friends. There would be so many more Ultimate players if the knowledge was just passed on.

3. While it has gained much popularity all over the world it is still one of those sports that isn't quite taken seriously but a lot of people. A lot of people I've talked to find it funny that there are world tournaments for Ultimate, they don't realize just how skillful the players are and how physically demanding and intense the sport is.

So get out there and pass on the word fellow Ultimate players!