Ultimate Frisbee
 

So from the athletic socks thread, it was pretty clear that a number of people on this board play Ultimate, and someone suggested starting a thread. So here it is.

I play Ultimate for Northwestern University. For those who don't know, colleges treat Ultimate as a Club sport, so it gets some recognition and funding from the schools (highly school-dependant, however). I've been playing for four years now.

I also play a ton of Ultimate in the summer, since I come home to Seattle, where there is a ton of Ultmate being played. I play on a summer league team and with the U of Washington team.

So if you play, post here; where you live/who you play for/how long/whatever.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Never played, is this the frisbee golf? if it is, i have a "course" nearby, Can you post rules,or link to rules?

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Never played, is this the frisbee golf? if it is, i have a "course" nearby, Can you post rules,or link to rules?

[/ QUOTE ]

no.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Have played since I was in high school in 1993 or so. I played 4 years at the University of Illinois, captaining the team my senior year. After moving to Chicago, played with decent men's and co-ed teams for around 4 years, then a very good co-ed team that made Nationals in 2003. I have been out of competitive Ultimate until this year. Played a few tournaments here or there, played some league stuff in madison in the past year. Now playing in Chicago with Mr. Briefcase, which went to Nationals in the co-ed division last year. We'll see about this year. The team is supposedly better, so hopefully it will be another trip to Sarasota.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Youtube videos?

Links?

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Thanks for starting this thread, OP! I considered making one myself.

I play at Stanford. I've played there for three years, and three years in high school. I play year round at school , in pickup games, and summer leagues. Basically Ultimate is the best thing thats happened to me sports wise. I remember being a sophomore in high school wondering what the hell this sport was my friends were playing. I hated track and had been too short for basketball since middle school, so I joined the team and never looked back.

Ultimate gets a bad rap sometimes for being "not a sport" or "only for hippies" but anyone who has seen a real competitive game knows the truth. It has all the ingredients necessary to be an extremely popular sport with national media coverage, but most players and organizers are content to maintain a niche community, probably fearing any attempt to "professionalize" the sport would result in rule changes and otherwise harm the spirit of the game.

Personally, I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. I want Ultimate to retain its principles and tradition, but I would love to see it become popular.

Anyway, I love Ultimate, great sport, great community.

-Nate

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Youtube videos?

Links?

[/ QUOTE ]

Go to Ultivillage.com and look at the clips of the day.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

tons of kids played it at my college. i think its pretty boring compared to othe sports.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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tons of kids played it at my college. i think its pretty boring compared to othe sports.

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You might be retarded. It's kind of like football where everyone is a QB and a WR and play never stops. You have the same kind of patterns and timing throws, and the skill of throwing of a good ultimate player is unbelievable, curving all kinds of ways to get around defenders, it's sick.

IMHO Ultimate is really awesome because the "honor system" works so well in it. When you play with people who try to play "hard defense" and play cheap it really sucks. I mean if it was professional and people played like they do in the NBA or whatever it would be retarded with constant fouls. I never played serious like you guys, but lots of pickup games, and some of the Seattle and Palo Alto inter-company geek wars.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Do people call it Ultimate because Frisbee sounds too childish and easy to dismiss as a serious endeavor?

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Do people call it Ultimate because Frisbee sounds too childish and easy to dismiss as a serious endeavor?

[/ QUOTE ]No, they call it that because it was invented by hippies.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Also, to NT!:

I just realized this is technically a "sporting event" thread but the point was more to find out who in OOT plays, rahter than actually discuss a specific game. So it belongs more here, IMO, because I don't care who in SE plays since I don't post there.

But move it/lock it if you must.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

One of the problems with Ultimate (and I have no idea why it's called that instead of Frisbee, Duke) is that there is a fairly sizeable learning curve before you can get any good. A lot of the kids you see playing it in college suck horribly. The elite teams in college and beyond are training as much as any other club sport though. I watched the Wisconsin men's team's practices a little this past year (they won the national title) and their track workouts were sick. Watching good teams play can be breathtaking at times. There are definitely awesome athletes playing - of course not at the level of pro sports, but for instance one of the players on the Chicago men's team was a former cornerback at Georgia Tech.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Youtube videos?

Links?

[/ QUOTE ]

Here is one.


Also, definitely check out the clips of the day on www.ultivillage.com as the poster above said.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

What is Ultimate?

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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tons of kids played it at my college. i think its pretty boring compared to othe sports.

[/ QUOTE ]

An Ultimate game played by novices is going to look and be a lot worse than a football/softball/basketball game played by novices simply because the average person doesn't know how to play Ultimate at all, whereas the average person has some idea of how to play the major sports, due to seeing them on TV and playing them as a kid.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Best thing about Ultimate IMO is the community. I can go to practically any city and meet people and have a game. I have played pickup in Taipei and Singapore without knowing anybody before I showed up at the field.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

I never played very competitively, but I was one of the better kids in our pickup games. A few kids from the Boston University team would come play with us because it was a really fun game/less hardcore.

It's fun as hell, I know that.

I guess I'm technically a novice, but what I noticed that most people tend to suck at is making runs/moving without the disc. Maybe there's some intricacies of Ultimate that I'm not aware of, but just from playing soccer I sort of got the "flow" of the game pretty early on.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Never played, is this the frisbee golf? if it is, i have a "course" nearby, Can you post rules,or link to rules?

[/ QUOTE ]

www.pdga.com

course listings, official tournament rules, lists of worldwide tournaments.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Guy jumps over another guy in ultimate frisbee

I just figured that this was a neat link I'd seen that is related to this topic.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Ahh beau kittredge...he's really just a big dumb animal (nice kid actually, he's from fairbanks and I'm from Anchorage, so we've played together a fair amount)

I've played for ever, started in College (Carleton), played club for a few years (Sub Zero) and now play mostly coed (probably playing the Carleton Co-ed monstrosity in the series this year. Booyeah...)

9 nationals
1 Worlds
2 rapidly deteriorating knees

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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[ QUOTE ]
tons of kids played it at my college. i think its pretty boring compared to othe sports.

[/ QUOTE ]

You might be retarded. It's kind of like football where everyone is a QB and a WR and play never stops. You have the same kind of patterns and timing throws, and the skill of throwing of a good ultimate player is unbelievable, curving all kinds of ways to get around defenders, it's sick.

IMHO Ultimate is really awesome because the "honor system" works so well in it. When you play with people who try to play "hard defense" and play cheap it really sucks. I mean if it was professional and people played like they do in the NBA or whatever it would be retarded with constant fouls. I never played serious like you guys, but lots of pickup games, and some of the Seattle and Palo Alto inter-company geek wars.

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ok the main problem i had with it was there are really no 1v1 confrontations.

bball, you can dribble a dude and shoot a contested layup.

soccer, yourre constantly making moves to avoid defenders.

flag football you can juke dudes with the ball and on routes.

ultimate simply doestn compare to any of these sports.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

[ QUOTE ]
You might be retarded. It's kind of like football where everyone is a QB and a WR and play never stops. You have the same kind of patterns and timing throws, and the skill of throwing of a good ultimate player is unbelievable, curving all kinds of ways to get around defenders, it's sick.

[/ QUOTE ]

I sorta see Victor's point, but I still love it. Yes, when competition gets really good, the throwing skills are what's really freaking impressive. But from a game flow perspective, it's basically like soccer with no 1v1.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

lol

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Is it just me, or are ultimate players really clique-y?

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Is it just me, or are ultimate players really clique-y?

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You might be retarded. It's kind of like football where everyone is a QB and a WR and play never stops. You have the same kind of patterns and timing throws, and the skill of throwing of a good ultimate player is unbelievable, curving all kinds of ways to get around defenders, it's sick.

[/ QUOTE ]

I sorta see Victor's point, but I still love it. Yes, when competition gets really good, the throwing skills are what's really freaking impressive. But from a game flow perspective, it's basically like soccer with no 1v1.

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i disagree with the "no one on one" getting open, is all about beating your guy, one on one, getting a good throw off is the same, as is stopping your guy from doing either...

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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Guy jumps over another guy in ultimate frisbee

I just figured that this was a neat link I'd seen that is related to this topic.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was really cool. If it was basketball or football, this would've gotten played on ESPN night and day for weeks.


I've played Ultimate once in my life, and that was before many of you were born. Would it be stupid to try to pick it up now?

Also, I am old.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

[ QUOTE ]
Ahh beau kittredge...he's really just a big dumb animal (nice kid actually, he's from fairbanks and I'm from Anchorage, so we've played together a fair amount)

I've played for ever, started in College (Carleton), played club for a few years (Sub Zero) and now play mostly coed (probably playing the Carleton Co-ed monstrosity in the series this year. Booyeah...)

9 nationals
1 Worlds
2 rapidly deteriorating knees

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Beau is pretty impressive. I play in Seattle on a co-ed team but don't really have any desire to play seriously (club), though we'll probably be playing at club sectionals this year (we'll get destroyed though). [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Rob

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
tons of kids played it at my college. i think its pretty boring compared to othe sports.

[/ QUOTE ]

You might be retarded. It's kind of like football where everyone is a QB and a WR and play never stops. You have the same kind of patterns and timing throws, and the skill of throwing of a good ultimate player is unbelievable, curving all kinds of ways to get around defenders, it's sick.

IMHO Ultimate is really awesome because the "honor system" works so well in it. When you play with people who try to play "hard defense" and play cheap it really sucks. I mean if it was professional and people played like they do in the NBA or whatever it would be retarded with constant fouls. I never played serious like you guys, but lots of pickup games, and some of the Seattle and Palo Alto inter-company geek wars.

[/ QUOTE ]

ok the main problem i had with it was there are really no 1v1 confrontations.

bball, you can dribble a dude and shoot a contested layup.

soccer, yourre constantly making moves to avoid defenders.

flag football you can juke dudes with the ball and on routes.

ultimate simply doestn compare to any of these sports.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not really the world's biggest defender of ultimate as a general sport (I love it, but it's not for everyone), but wtf -- no 1 on 1 confrontations? I've played all of the sports you've listed above and I find way more 1 on 1 confrontations (skying people, sick layout D's, just general jukes and beating people to the disc) in ultimate than I have anywhere else.

Rob

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

In my neighborhood there is a group of like 30-45 year olds who meet Tuesdays to play a pickup game. Senior year and for two summers after high school a bunch of my friends and I would show up at the field and we'd play a big pick up game.

The biggest problem with the game on a semi-skilled level is how ridiculously easy it is if you have a height or leap advantage. I was 6' at the time and could out jump everyone we played with. A friend of mine was 6'4 with decent leaping ability. Games basically degraded into lobbing the disc to us in the endzone

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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The biggest problem with the game on a semi-skilled level is how ridiculously easy it is if you have a height or leap advantage. I was 6' at the time and could out jump everyone we played with. A friend of mine was 6'4 with decent leaping ability. Games basically degraded into lobbing the disc to us in the endzone

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That's no different than if you play basketball with one tall guy who can dunk. Think of the game in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - have the big Indian stand by the hoop and lob him the ball. If you have a sport where someone with much greater physical ability doesn't have an advantage, that's one screwy sport.

Just put the two tall guys on different teams and it's still a game, they can defend each other. A skilled team of small guys will definitely beat unskilled big guys though.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

I handled and played deep at Drew U. (NJ) and then Skylands summer league for 3 years after college until I popped something in my leg and couldn't sprint any more. I keep meaning to go to pickup with Your Mom, but I'm too lazy to go up to Montclair on Sundays. Gonna play with some friends tomorrow afternoon though, looking forward to throwing around and goofing off.

It was nice being 6'3 and outjumping everybody in the endzone, like blackize said. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Ultimate Frisbee is a sprt for people that are crap at sport. Several people form my school now play for England. I've never seen them play it, but I was in gym class with them and they were the most uncoordinated bunch of monkeys in there. If those guys can be on the national side of a country like England, well, its not going to be a sport I have any respect for in the slightest.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Played for many years, but have not done played for a few years now.

I highly recommend the Paganello tournament in Rimini, Italy, as something every Ultimate player has to experience once.

Good parties, good food, and a well organized beach tournament. Worth the trip.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

I played for four years on the team at American University. Never even made regionals; we forced a turnover on universe point against Salisbury in the game that would have sent us through, but we couldn't score and they worked it downfield and scored on us.

Now, I play for an alumni team in various Washington Area Frisbee Club leagues (fall league is starting up). However, I have arthritic knees that are slowing me down so much that I've often considered quitting because of how frustrating it is to play at essentially half speed.

-McGee

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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That's no different than if you play basketball with one tall guy who can dunk.

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Only somewhat true I think. In basketball the tall guy who can dunk still has trouble defending smaller faster guys. Greater speed, maneuverability, and coordination can go a long way toward overcoming a size advantage in basketball(especially 1 on 1).

In ultimate though, size is a HUGE advantage that speed doesn't even come close to making up for. It's basically impossible to cover someone much bigger than you while it is possible for the bigger slower guy to cover the smaller faster guy pretty well.

I think what I really want to say though is that the incentives to really play Ultimate are so limited that it doesn't attract great athletes. So the talent pool is of average athletic ability and thus things like height and leaping ability make a disproportionate impact.

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A skilled team of small guys will definitely beat unskilled big guys though.


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A team of big guys with zero experience yeah, but if they can throw even reasonably well the small guys are in trouble.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

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ok the main problem i had with it was there are really no 1v1 confrontations.



[/ QUOTE ]

Ultimate is full of one on one situations, at least once you get past the point that every throw just flies way up into the air and allows everyone to camp underneath it.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Blackzie,

once you get a game with a bunch of skilled players, the throws won't be just floating around really high. Shorter people can just amke quick throws to space that don't float. Also shorter people are often quicker, which allows them to get open underneath.

Re: Ultimate Frisbee
 

Height is a big advantage but disc reading, positioning, and speed can all make up for it pretty easily.