The sport of Ultimate Frisbee
The Frisbee is a small plastic disc that is a great toy to play with. It is thrown in the direction of another person who tries to catch it. The Frisbee is a very popular toy among children and even adults all over the world. The immense popularity of the
plastic toy led to the formation of a sport called Ultimate Frisbee. It is a very interesting game which features two teams and is played in a similar pattern as American football or rugby but it has limited contact. It started off as a university sport and
then moved on to become a professional sport with a governing body and international tournaments being held. The sport will just continue to grow and become more popular as the years go by.
This interesting sport was actually invented in 1968 in Columbia High School in America by a student named Joel Silver. He wanted a new sport to be played by the school and proposed it to the student body. It slowly started to become popular and the rules
were codified. It became an established sport at Columbia High School and from there spread to other schools and then to the college level.
It started to become very popular in colleges all over America and the first intercollegiate game was played between Rutgers and Princeton in 1972. Soon clubs were being formed and games were taking place all over campuses in the States. In 1975, the first
Ultimate Frisbee tournament was held. The new sport became so popular that tournaments started to appear that featured teams from the Northeast of the US and also the Midwest. A whole counterculture developed around the sport similar to what developed around
skateboarding and later snowboarding as well. There just did not seem to be any let up in the popularity or spread of the game and soon it was being played all over America and then slowly the UK and the rest of Europe.
With the spread and popularity of the sport came a problem. The name of the sport was Ultimate Frisbee but the word Frisbee was trademarked by the company that made it, the Wham-O Toy Company. To avoid any litigations or unwanted problems with the name,
the sport is now called Ultimate instead of Ultimate Frisbee. This is a bit strange because Wham-O could have just sponsored the tournaments and given their approval to the sport and they would have ended up selling a lot more Frisbees in the process.
The rules of the game are very similar to American football. The field of play has two scoring ends and a middle area where the game occurs. The game starts by a defensive player throwing or pulling as it is called, to the offensive team who then catch it
and throw it to a teammate who is running downfield to catch it and score in the end zone. There are no referees in the sport and because it is a limited contact sport injuries and fouls are rare. But still fouls do occur and it is up to the players to decide
what happened and either replay the play or give a foul to the offending player.
There are several versions of the sport; traditional Ultimate which is played on a grass field, indoor Ultimate which as the name suggests is played indoors, beach Ultimate, intense Ultimate and Rocketball. There are several strategies that are employed
when playing Ultimate from specialised offensive strategies to concentrated defensive strategies. The strategies employed are similar to American football except without the tackling.
The sport is played with what players call the Spirit of the Game. This is a feeling of mutual respect and sportsmanship that runs all through the game and is employed by all players in every form of the sport. It is a call for fair play that players themselves
have to employ because of the fact that there is no officiating involved in the game. There are several governing bodies of the sport at the moment; the Ultimate Players Association was formed in 1979 and rebranded as USA Ultimate in 2010. There is also the
World Flying Disc Federation, which is the European Ultimate association.
This sport is slowly gaining in popularity and can be found in Europe, UK and Asia. This fun sport which is played with fairness and a great spirit is something that all can enjoy. In the years to come it may become better known and major tournaments will
be seen all over the world.
Tags: