Explainer guide to Ultimate Frisbee - you play on the beach, right?
Sports News Blitz covers all sports, from grassroots to elite level, and sponsors a Yeadon CC cricket player, a Horsforth-based rounders team and a South African football team.
Our next venture sees us delving into the world of Ultimate Frisbee, a fast-paced, up and coming, non-traditional, non contact sport that resembles soccer, basketball or team handball.
We have partnered up with Dr. Chris Wirszyla, who is going to introduce the sport to us and our readers as we follow his daughter Bella’s career as an Ultimate Frisbee player.
Chris has played Ultimate since 1984 in upstate New York and has taught the sport and established clubs in most of the schools he has worked at, including at the university level.
He has played club level with Brockport University, the Chelsea School of Human Movement, the Benjamin Franklin International School, the University of South Carolina and Lander University.
Chris has published one of the original Ultimate Frisbee articles in the Strategies Physical Education Journal and presented Ultimate and Frisbee techniques at state, national and international conferences.
He has written for several newspapers, a city magazine (Living Out Loud, Wilmington, NC) and several peer reviewed academic journals.
And now Chris is writing for Sports News Blitz, as we have ambitions to grow a network of brands that open opportunities for writers and content creators in the UK and USA through partnerships with colleges and universities on both sides of the pond.
Ultimate Frisbee - an introduction to the sport
Ultimate frisbee is a fast paced, up and coming, non-traditional, non contact sport that resembles soccer, basketball or team handball.
In competition, two teams of seven play on a soccer sized pitch, with wide end zones, where the points are scored.
Games are up to an hour and a half or to a set point value, usually 15 or 21. Touchdowns are worth one point.
There are also variations of the game played indoors (usually with five a side) and beach play, usually played barefoot on a smaller pitch with fewer players.
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Basic rules
In Ultimate, two teams of seven line up on opposite end zone lines.
When the receiving team signals it is ready, the throwing team “pulls” the frisbee down the pitch (or field) and then is on defense.
The receiving team gets the “disc” and commences their offense.
The offensive team passes the disc to each other with the intent to score a touchdown, over the end line.
Once you catch a disc, you are allowed 2-3 steps to stop, and establish a pivot foot.
You cannot change the pivot foot, or else a “traveling” violation is called, resulting in a turnover.
Anytime a disc is intercepted, thrown out of bounds, blocked or knocked down, hits the ground because it wasn’t caught, or a player doesn’t attempt a pass within ten seconds, a turnover occurs, meaning it is now in possession of the other team.
A player has 10 seconds to throw the disc, or this also results in a turnover. The defense now becomes offense and vice versa.
Once a touchdown occurs, the team that is scored upon goes to the opposite end of the field and gets ready to receive the pull to start their offense.
Offense
The offense in Ultimate has evolved into highly strategic formations and patterns.
Originally, back in the early days of Ultimate, a team had three “handlers” bringing the disc up the field, two “mids” and two “deeps” who were further upfield.
Teams played a flowing offense, meaning players tried to get to open spaces to receive the disc.
Now teams have specific set formations, including “stacks”, where your offense lines up and makes breaks, or “cuts” to get open.
Stacks can be vertical or horizontal, and teams may elect to play a zone type of offense.
The idea is to create passing lanes and opportunities to score.
One thing the offense cannot do is to set a pick, or cause a “moving pick” impeding the defensive player from guarding someone on offense.
The defense can then call “pick” and play restarts from where the thrower originally was.
Players use several types of throws to get around a defense.
A good Ultimate player will develop an effective pivot and grip change when throwing the disc.
This way, s/he can “fake out” the defensive player, who is trying to block the throw.
A good Ultimate player will have exceptional backhand, forehand (commonly called a flick), overhead (using the same grip as the forehand), push, “scoober” and even the overhand wrist fling throws.
Throwers need to consider where the defense is, how to lead a pass, what type of angle to put on the frisbee when releasing it, and the effects of the wind on the disc.
Defense
The defensive team can play either a “person to person” or zone defense.
However, the defense is not allowed to have two people cover one person.
An offensive player has 10 seconds to throw the frisbee, or this results in a turnover.
To start the 10 seconds, a defensive player must be covering the person with the disc, and says “stall” and then counts to 10, in seconds.
If s/he is counting too fast, the offensive player can call them on it, and play stops. This usually results in the stall count being started again at a number mutually agreed upon.
When covering the player with the disc, a defensive player must be one disc width from the thrower.
Defensive players can use any part of their body to block a throw, so legs and feet, as well as hands and arms, are often used.
The defensive team also tries to “force” the thrower to throw to one side of the field to lessen the area to be covered.
This is done by overplaying to one side forcing the thrower to throw to the other side, usually toward a sideline.
A defensive foul occurs when a player hits the hand or arm of the thrower, or causes body contact that prevents the offensive player from catching the disc.
Ultimate has traditionally been called a non contact sport. However, in such a fast paced, competitive game, contact is bound to happen.
It is up to the players themselves to decide if the contact was sufficient enough to impede a player (either offensive or defensive) from catching (or intercepting//knocking down) the disc.
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The spirit of the game
What originally made Ultimate unique was a rule called “The Spirit of the Game” or SOTG.
Born of the Olympic Ideal of fair play and sportsmanship while being competitive, the SOTG leaves it up to players to decide if they committed a foul.
Because, if you commit a foul, you are not playing by the rules, and if you are not playing by the rules, you are not playing the game the way it was intended.
For this reason, Ultimate was originally played without referees or umpires. It was up to the players to govern themselves.
Now, in competitive play with tournament titles at stake, players are still expected to play by the rules.
If there is a dispute, the players involved attempt to come to an agreement.
Failing to do so, the closest players to the action are consulted, and finally, in high level competition, you have impartial “game and rule interpreters” to help.
In most tournaments, the winner of the team “spirit award” is highly regarded…
