If you’re a bit bored with chucking a frisbee about with your friends, then you need to up your game and try ultimate frisbee. It requires speed, quick thinking and powerful throwing. Accuracy is a bonus.
What is Ultimate Frisbee?
Ultimate frisbee, usually shortend to just ultimate, is an exciting, non-contact team sport recognized by the UK Sports Councils and the Australian Sports Commission. So it’s an official sport, not just a game in the park.
How to Play Ultimate Frisbee
Youtube video of how to play ultimate frisbee
Ultimate is played between two teams of seven players on a large rectangular pitch. A line drawn across the pitch at either end marks two endzones. Players throw the disc to each other heading towards the end zone. A goal is scored when a team successfully passes the frisbee to a player who is standing within in the endzone they are attacking.
The defending team attempts to stop the attacking team with the disc from making progress upfield by marking them. The general aim for the defending team is to mark the other team closely so that their players find it difficult to get a clear throw to their team mates. If a throw is made then there is a good chance that any closely marked player will get intercepted.
The Field is a rectangular shape with endzones at each end. A regulation field is 64m by 37m, with endzones 18m deep.
Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense’s endzone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.
To initiate play, each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective endzone line. The defense throws (“pulls”) the disc to the offense.
Ultimate can be a very intense sport but it’s very newcomer friendly. The rules you need to know to start playing are easy to pick up.
Rules of Ultimate
Ultimate frisbee is a unique sport in that it is self refereed by the players themselves, even at World Championships. Known as “the Spirit of the Game,” this places the responsibility for fair play on the players themselves.
Players cannot run with the disc. When you catch the disc you must come to a stop and try to throw it to another player on your team. If the frisbee hits the ground or is intercepted or knocked down by the other team, then the other team takes possession. Possession also changes if a receiver is outside the playing area when he or she catches it.
The disc may advance up the pitch in any direction by completing a succesful pass to a teammate. The person with the disc has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower counts out those ten seconds, called “stall count.”
Ultimate is supposed to be a non-contact sport. Any contact between players is a foul.
When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs. When a foul disrupts possession (i.e. removes the disk from someone that would have had it, had the foul not occurred), the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone so the disk is taken back to its position before the occurrence of the foul.
Where to Play Ultimate
Ultimate frisbee can be played on any open patch of ground such as a park or playing field. All you need is to mark out the pitch corners and end zone line with a few coats or jumpers.
Ultimate Frisbees and Discs
You can use pretty much any type of flying disc for ultimate frisbee, but for cometitive games it has to be a complete disc rather than a flying ring.
The best frisbee to use for ultimate should be 12″ in diameter.
You can also use flying discs and frisbees for playing disc golf or dog disc retrieval.
Ultimate frisbee is one of the best team building activities for team bonding.