10 Interesting Facts about Ultimate Frisbee

One of these following facts about ultimate frisbee might be one of the reasons you are going to love this sport. Ultimate (frisbee) is a limited-contact team-field sport played with a disc (frisbee). Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone. Other basic rules are players must not take steps while holding the disc (maintain a pivot), and interceptions and incomplete passes are turnovers.Rain, wind, or occasionally other adversities can make for a testing match, with rapid turnovers, heightening the pressure of play. To get to know more about this sport, here are some facts about ultimate frisbee you might like.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 1: Spirit of the Game

From its beginnings in the late ’60s US counterculture, Ultimate has resisted empowering any referee with rule enforcement, instead relying on the sportsmanship of players and invoking the “Spirit of the Game” to maintain fair play.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 2: Ultimate Around the World

In 2012 there were 5.1 million Ultimate players in the USA. Ultimate is played across the world in pickup games and by recreational, school, club, and national teams at various age levels and with open, women’s, and mixed tournaments.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 3: Invention

Students Joel Silver and Jared Kass, along with Jonny Hines and Buzzy Hellring, invented Ultimate Frisbee in 1967 at Columbia High School, Maplewood, New Jersey, USA (CHS). The first game was played at CHS in 1968 between the student council and the student newspaper staff.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 4: Players Association

In 1979 and 1980 the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) was formed. The UPA organized regional tournaments and has crowned a national champion every year since 1979. On May 25, 2010 the UPA rebranded itself as USA Ultimate.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 5: Offensive Strategies

Players employ many different offensive strategies with different goals. Most basic strategies are an attempt to create open lanes on the field for the exchange of the disc between the thrower and the receiver.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 6: Defensive Strategies

One of the most basic defensive principles is the force. The marker effectively blocks the handler’s access to half of the field, by aggressively blocking only one side of the handler and leaving the other side open. The unguarded side is called the force side because the thrower is generally forced to throw to that side of the field.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 7: Pick-up Games

There are many types of pick-up. Often this consists of tournaments played outside the championship circuit, including hat tournaments, in which teams are selected on the day of play by picking names out of a hat. These are generally held over a weekend, affording players several games during the day as well as the chance to socialize at night.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 8: Current League

Regulation play, sanctioned in the United States by the USA Ultimate, occurs at the college (open & women’s divisions), club (open, women’s, mixed (co-ed), masters and grandmasters divisions) and youth (boys & girls divisions) levels, with annual championships in all divisions.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 9: High School and Junior League

Tournaments at the high school level of play range from tournaments hosted by local teams to tournaments at a national level. USA Ultimate hosts the Men and Women’s HS national championships every year in Blaine, Minnesota. This tournament is known as Youth Club Championships, or YCC’s, and often features at-large teams, no single high school team attends.

Facts about ultimate frisbee 10: College Team and Club Teams

There are over 12,000 student athletes playing on over 700 college Ultimate teams in North America, and the number of teams is steadily growing. Separated into Open (nearly 450 teams) and Women’s (around 200 teams) Divisions, teams compete in the USA Ultimate College Championship series during the spring. The series consists of 3 tournaments: conferences, regionals, and nationals.

Hope you would find those ultimate frisbee facts really interesting and useful for your additional reading.