I would like to inform my readers about the sport Ultimate Frisbee. Ultimate is a fast paced game borrowing from football and soccer. I have played Ultimate for 3 years on the Crescent Valley High School team and various parks and rec. teams. I’d like to teach you about Ultimate, by sharing the rules, strategies for offense, and strategies for defense.

One of the most important parts of Ultimate Frisbee is the rules. These rules are determined and promoted by the Ultimate Players Association, or UPA. The UPA was founded in 1979 in Boulder, Colorado. In Ultimate there are 14 referees on the field at a time, this means that each player is his or her own referee and line judge responsible for calling fouls, and resolving disputes ("Corvallis Ultimate Frisbee").

In standard Ultimate Frisbee there are 7 players per team on the field at a time. There are three main types of tournaments/leagues. The first are open tournaments with no gender restriction, but are only men’s at higher levels. There are also women’s tournaments, and lastly the most casual type is co-ed. In a co-ed tournament there must be at least 3 members of each sex on the field at all times. This means that there are 4 men 3 women or 4 women 3 men.

Ultimate Frisbee is stated by the UPA to be a non-contact sport, however incidental contact is ok. Incidental contact is defined as contact between opposing players that does not affect continued play. For example it is ok to jostle for position as two players are attempting to catch a disc, but it is not acceptable to simply throw the other player out of the way.

In Ultimate once you have the disc in your possession you must hold a pivot foot, just like in basketball. If the pivot foot is moved at any time before the disc is released a travel can be called and the person must walk back to were the foul was called. If the disc is thrown as the travel is called, the throw comes back to the thrower and must be done again.
When a turnover occurs, play continues with the opposing team in possession as in soccer. There are two main ways for turnovers to occur an incomplete pass, interception or the disc is thrown/caught out of bounds.

Because of the pivot foot rule, Ultimate Frisbee is very much a team sport. Each player has an individual role to play in a larger team-wide strategy. There are two main roles for the individual players, cutters and handlers. Cutters are like wide receivers in football. They try to get open to catch a pass, and try to return the disc to the handler. Handlers are like quarterbacks; they call plays and make the majority of the throws.

Defense is much like offense in that it has a overall strategy for the team (The type of defense being run) and roles for each player in that strategy. There are two main types of defenses that can be run by a team, man to man and zone. In a man to man defense each player guards one other person until a turnover happens or a point is scored. In a zone defense each player is responsible for an area of the field until a turnover or a point. Zones are particularly effective on inclement days. It’s difficult to throw a Frisbee with large amounts of wind so throws will go wide. The zone is an excellent way to capitalize on these messy throws ("help with zone defense").

The rules and strategies of Ultimate can be somewhat overwhelming at first but as a person starts to play they become second nature. Some of the most important things to remember are that it is a non contact sport, that you cannot run with the disk, and how turnovers occur. If you keep all these things in mind you can pick up ultimate in no time.
There are many opportunities to play Ultimate in the Corvallis area. ("Corvallis Ultimate Frisbee.") It is a fun and friendly game that is easy to learn.






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