Photo credit: Rommi Saar ( source
Ultimate Frisbee is now known in many countries simply as the less-catchy "Ultimate" due to 🌜 the fact that Frisbee is a registered trademark.
It is a fast-paced sport with similarities to netball, football (soccer) and American 🌜 Football.
Played by around five million people in the US and with leagues in the UK and other European countries, Ultimate 🌜 is a far cry from the humble origins of the Frisbee.
As with many inventions there are multiple reported variations on 🌜 how Frisbees came to be, but the commonly agreed version is that it comes from the Frisbie Baking Company, whose 🌜 empty metal pie tins were thrown by college students in the 1920s.
Subsequently, in 1948, Walter Morrison invented a plastic version 🌜 with improved aero-dynamics, and then followed the Pluto Platter.
Ultimate was created in 1967 by students at Columbia High School and 🌜 in 1979 the Ultimate Players Association, now USA Ultimate, was formed.
The sport has grown from its early years as a 🌜 relaxed sport played for fun and increasingly attracts better athletes and is played more competitively.
Object of the Game
The object of 🌜 Ultimate is to pass the flying disc to a player in the endzone of the pitch and in so doing 🌜 a goal is scored.
As in rugby and American Football the ends – the last 18m in this case – of 🌜 the pitch are the scoring zones.
The winner is usually decided by whichever team is first to score a specified number 🌜 of goals or whichever team scores the most goals in a given timeframe.
Players & Equipment
One of the beauties of the 🌜 sport is that very little equipment is needed, with an inexpensive disc and an open space sufficient for a rudimentary 🌜 game.
Ultimate is contested between two sides of seven players with substitutions permitted and so with a disc, seven bibs and 🌜 a field you're away!
The pitch is 100m long with the endzones, as said, 18m deep at either end.
It is 37m 🌜 across and a regulation disc is 10.
75 inches in diameter and weighs 175g.
Scoring
Points are scored by getting the disc to 🌜 one of your players in the end zone by passing it through the air.
That's the only way to score, making 🌜 the game a very simple one to understand and play.
Winning the Game
Games are usually played as the first side to 🌜 reach 15 or sometimes 17 goals, although any number can be agreed between the teams.
Sometimes games are played over two 🌜 15 minute periods with a five minute half-time break.
In these games the side with the most goals at the end 🌜 is deemed the winner.
Rules of Ultimate Frisbee
The match is started by a "pull", where one side throws-off to the other.
A 🌜 player cannot run with the disc and must stop as soon as they receive it, although they may pivot on 🌜 one leg (a la netball).
If a pass hits the floor, is intercepted or is caught out of bounds possession goes 🌜 to the other side.
A player in possession has 10 seconds in which to pass the disc or they cede possession 🌜 to the opposition.
The defender (marker) makes the count (stall count).
Ultimate is a non-contact sport and defenders may only stand within 🌜 three meters of the disc-holder.
Substitutions are only allowed after a goal has been scored (and before the throw-off), to replace 🌜 an injured player or after periods of play and not during a timeout.
Ultimate is self-officiating and, indicative of its origins 🌜 and free-spirited reputation, the Spirit of the Game (SOTG) is highly respected.
Only a fouled player may call or appeal for 🌜 a foul and there is a strong spirit of respect and sportsmanship demanded.
Many other sports could do well to take 🌜 heed.
