Why I fell in love with Ultimate Frisbee (introduction to my favourite sport)

You know how sometimes you start something new, and it is just such a good match that you wish you had been doing it all your life? For me, it is like that with the sport Ultimate Frisbee, or simply Ultimate. One year back I hadn't even heard of it, and now it is somewhere in my top two of favourite things to do! So let me tell you about Ultimate, about how the game is played and why I love it so much.

Outdoor

Typically, Ultimate is an outdoor sport. It is far more popular in the US and Canada and maybe even Asia than it is in Europe, and I have only seen them play it on the field. However, here in Europe (Netherlands for me), in the cold season we still have our trainings outdoors but competition days are inside. And since we had a competition day last Sunday with some nice pictures and videos, I'll introduce you to Ultimate with those indoor images. Just imagine this being played in the nice sunny (sometimes) windy outdoor and you'll get a better feeling of the vibe of the game.

Meet my team!

Actually, our team is a whole lot bigger than the number of people in the picture. We're with a group of between 20 and 25 who come to training regularly. This is the team we played with last Sunday.

Meet my team

I'm the one with the blue shoes, shirt number 16, only girl playing that day but we have more ladies on our team. My husband also plays, he's number 18, all the way to the right with the orange shoelaces.

When you have a look at the videos I'm sharing in this post, keep an eye out for the guy who is beside me on the right, with the dark hair and black leggings, shirt number 23. He's our trainer, Oscar, and he plays Ultimate really really well.

R'damnit

So our team is from Rotterdam, Netherlands, and we go by the team name R'damnit (pronounced as Rotterdamnit). Which is supposed to make us sound little tough I guess, but really all the players on the team are such sweet, gentle people, with a lot of great athleticism none the less.

Reason #1 why I love playing Ultimate: the people who play are awesome.
The Ultimate community is very friendly, the people are sweet and so patient to support you to learn play the game. Ultimate is about having fun at playing sports together. Yes, of course it's cool to win a game. But it's much more about the quality of the game, about the players performing at their best both individually and as a team. I really enjoy spending time with the Rotterdam team specifically, but have seen that this friendliness and sportive play are typical for the frisbee community in all of Netherlands. And from what I've seen in the games on YouTube, from players worldwide - the Frisbee community is very friendly and fun.

FYI: last Sunday we played our first games in our new team outfits, made by Double Happiness, who create sport outfits especially for Ultimate. So we all felt we were looking really smashing ;).

The start of the game

Basically, in Ultimate, there are two teams each starting on their end of the field, who have to move the disc up to the other side of the field and catch it in that endzone to score. In outdoors, teams will be 7 against 7. In indoors, there are 5 people in a team. Before a point is played, all players line up. The defensive team throws the disc to the team that is on offence and all the players start moving.

Five players on the line, ready to throw the disc

Above you see Joep, number 17 on the team, holding the disc up. He's asking the opposite team if they're ready to play. If they signal that they're ready, Joep will throw the disc to their side. They catch it and start their offence. In this point, we were on defence, so after releasing the disc all players run into the field to start marking (defending) the other players.

After a point has been made (means a team has caught the disc in the opposite end-zone), the winning team will then be on defence, and will start the point by throwing the disc to the opposite team.

Easy score

To give you an idea of how a point is made, let's start with a very simple score. In this point, we received the disc from the opposite team (we were on offence), and after catching it there was a very easy flow from player to player, till the disc was caught in the end-zone:

So you'll recognise the team starting on the line, then receiving the disc and beginning their offence. All players have a mark (a player from the defence team), forcing them to throw either backhand or side-arm throws. In indoors, the force is typically backhand. There is a lot of strategy to both defence and offence. Actually, Ultimate is a game with very interesting dynamics. The strategy and defence and offence styles take some time to get familiar with. But all this adds a lot of subtlety and makes it a challenging game. Maybe more on strategics in a next post!
Reason #2 why I love playing Ultimate: it's an intelligent game.

Turnover

Most points are not made as easily as the one above. Typically, somewhere in the flow of the game something happens and the disc doesn't reach the intended team player. Either the team on offence makes an unforced error, or the defensive team is just really on top of it and forces the offence to drop the disc or pulls it out of the air in between. When the disc goes to the other team, it is called a turn or a turnover.

Watch the below point to get an idea of how a typically the disc switches teams before the point is scored:

In the end, the team in Orange, from Nijmegen, made a beautiful score.

The above video also gives an idea of the intensity of the game. Ultimate is fast. To break free from your mark and get open to receive the disc, a lot of running and cutting is involved. And to keep up with whomever you are marking, to prevent them from getting the disc and/or making the score, a lot of running is involved also. So playing Ultimate requires a certain level of physical condition. Next, it's a challenge for reflexes and coordination. To run at your fastest, then jump high to catch the disc before anyone else does, then land with your feet in the endzone... requires agility and requires a strong and flexible body. Last but not least, there is so much skill involved. To be able to make those perfect throws, backhands or side-arms or even overheads - that takes practice.

I play Ultimate for less than a year. Already my condition and reflexes and skills have improved so much since I started. But, well... Let's just say all of those can improve a lot more! ;) And I really enjoy the challenge of getting more fit to be able to play the game better!

Reason #3 why I love playing Ultimate: there is a lot of physical challenge involved to play the game well.

Effortless workouts

When playing Ultimate, I enjoy the company of my team. Having my husband on the same team makes it extra nice, we can go to trainings and competition days together and it's fun to see him getting better too. And I enjoy the flow of the game. Wanting to play well so that I'm contributing to our team's success, for me turns out to be such a perfect motivation to do sports.

I've never really been the most sporty type. I've played other sports before, and some I enjoyed, especially soccer. But before training or before matches, there would always be some feeling of resistance. Afterwards, I would be happy that I exercised and would enjoy feeling fit. But with frisbee, that resistance is gone. It's really so much fun to play, that I am always really looking forward to the next time I can join. And in all my life, it has never been this easy to get more fit and strong, simply because I am so eager to improve myself. So this is definitely a big part of why I love Ultimate so much:

Reason #4 why I love playing Ultimate: getting fitter and stronger has never been this effortless!

Are you looking to improve your health and strength and condition? I would really recommend you don't try to achieve that in any gym. Too boring! Find yourself a coolest team and find yourself a sport you really love, and your workouts will be so effortless and enjoyable!

Below is a point where I make the score :). The little jump I make before catching the disc is to land with my feet in the end-zone, so that it will count as a point:

The Spirit of the Game

I'm showing more of our scores, but the team in orange won the game. We played four matches that day, lost three. But since the beginning of the indoor season, as a team we have really improved our basics. This is of course especially true for us newbies, my husband and me and two other guys on the team who are playing less than a year. So after the matches we had a drink and then all went home very satisfied with our performances, even if it didn't result in winning all the time. This, I guess, is part of the Ultimate attitude. Where it's not all about winning. Where there are no referees because players always handle any faults or issues on the field themselves. Where you are expected to treat the players on any team as you would want to be treated yourself, with respect and patience and friendliness.

There is a whole lot more to frisbee attitude, formally known as 'the spirit of the game'. It's about being honest, open, friendly, respectful and besides that, giving your best at playing the game and enjoying it.

Reason #5 why I love playing Ultimate: it's such a happy, friendly, spirited game to play.

THANKS FOR READING! I'll end my post here because when it comes to Ultimate, I can just go on and on about it ;). I might be posting more on the topic as I learn to understand the game better. And I secretly hope this post will reach out to a lot of you and will inspire some more people to join an Ultimate team close to you and enjoy the coolest sport ever. If it worked, let me know!!

Here's a final score I'd like to share with you where my husband, number 18, takes a beautiful catch in the end-zone: