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What is Ultimate?

Ultimate is a sport vaguely reminiscent of soccer and football. You play on a large rectangular field with two endzones.

The point of hte game is to advance the frisbee (aka disc) down the field by throwing it from player to player until it is caught by a player in the opposing endzone.

The basic principles of the game are as follows:

1.You may not walk around while holding the disc.

2.You have to stay in bounds with the disc.

3.You may not kick, scratch, bite, jump on, tackle, or harrass opposing players, or knock the disc out of their hands.

Ultimate is a non-contact sport.

4.You make all your own calls (about being in bounds, being in the end zone, being fouled, etc.).

There are no referees.

One is expected to be reasonable - this is known as the Spirit of the Game.

How do you throw?

The most important thing to remember is that you do not need to learn to throw the frisbee very far. If you can throw a disk consistently for 10 feet or so, that is enough to make a positive contribution to the team.

Also remember that when you are learning to throw, you often get depressed about the fact that you have no aim. Aim is not important at this step. The important thing is to get the disk flying flat and spinning rapidly. Aim will come quickly once you've gotten this down.

The throws of Ultimate

Just as in tennis, there are two main throws: the forehand (aka flick, hence the name of our team) and the backhand. If you've thrown around with your friends, you have probably been throwing backhands.

For both these throws, the wrist action is the most important (far more important than using your arm). You will develop big wrist muscles playing ultimate, which can be beneficial in preventing or alleviating RSI problems. Fortunately these muscles aren't so noticeable, so as long as you don't run around too much you can remain as waif-like as you desire.

Stand facing the person to whom you are throwing. The foot opposite your throwing hand is called your pivot foot. You can step all you want with the other foot, but that pivot foot has to stay in place.

Backhand

To throw a backhand, hold the frisbee with your thumb on top and your fingers underneath the rim. Your index finger goes along the outside edge of the disk.

This is a top view:

Side:

Bottom:

Take a big step with your non-pivot foot. You should step forward and towards your pivot foot. If all goes well you now have your back somewhat turned towards your admiring potential throwee and are looking over your shoulder at them.

Here is where you step:

Snap your arm + wrist real fast (and let go of the frisbee). Ta-da! Your disk is flying gracefully through the air.

Flick

To throw a flick, once again hold the frisbee with your thumb on top and the other fingers underneath. Your index finger

will be under the disk towards the middle. Your middle finger will be pushing against the rim of the disk on the inside. Your

other fingers are neatly folded out of the way.

Top view:

Side view:

Bottom view:

You are facing the person to whom you are throwing. For this throw, posture is important. Remember to have yourshoulders over your hips in a pleasant rectangle. Your throwing elbow is glued to your rib (this is to keep you from using your arm to throw, a big no-no). You should be holding the frisbee as though it were a serving tray, with the side away from you pointing slightly towards the ground. This position will feel somewhat unnatural at first and is important to get used to.

Good flicking posture looks a little like this. The arrow shows the direction to step.

Take a little step out with your non-pivot foot (the one on the same side as the disk). Now snap your wrist and let go. It is important not to use your arm or you will never be able to aim; to compensate, really give your wrist some whiplash. It is strong; it can take it.

Do not panic if the disc falls pathetically to the ground. The important thing is to develop spin and to get the disc flat. The rest will come with time.

How do you catch?

If at all possible, it is best to catch with two hands. It makes it much less likely that you will drop the disk, especially if it is windy. There are two main ways to catch with two hands:

1. the ``clam'' --- make your hands into a v and catch the disk between them.

2. make your hands like two grippers (the way you catch a disk with one hand) and catch the left and right sides of the disk simultaneously.

People argue about which way is best. I personally find the clam the best when the frisbee is near the middle of your torso, and the gripper style is better when the frisbee is very high or low.

What Happens in an Ultimate Game

Each team starts out on the edge of its own endzone. The game begins when one team throws the disk to the other (this is called the pull). The team that caught the disk passes it forwards until they either drop the disk, pass to someone on the opposing team, go out of bounds, or score. If they did not score, the other team gets to pick up the disk and go the other way. At the end of the point, you switch endzones; this means the people who scored stay where they are and the other team walks back to the other side of the field.

How to Play Offense

When playing Ultimate, one's first instinct is to run around in circles around the thrower, yelling ``I'm open! I'm open! Throw to me!'' As you might imagine, this tends to cause confusion. This is why Ultimate players have developed a structured offense.

Basically, players take turns cutting. A cut is one pass where the player tries to get open, usually running towards the disk.

If the player is not immediately successful s/he runs away to give another player a chance. While players wait for their turn to cut they stand in a line called the stack. This line is downfield from the thrower (i.e., between the thrower and the endzone in which they will score) and out of the direct line where the thrower wants to throw.

Here is a stack waiting neatly in line for their turn to cut:

If you are not open or you are totally confused it is important to clear. Clearing means running somewhere the thrower can't throw (because e.g. there are people in the way), usually towards the back of the stack. When you clear you are helping your team by not getting in the way of other people who may have a better opportunity.

How to Play Defense

In Ultimate, we usually play man-to-man defense, i.e. you choose one person and follow them around for the whole point. This is usually the person who was standing across the field from you at the start of the point.

When playing defense there are two main strategies: one for when the person you are on has the disc, and one for when they don't.

When the person you are on has the disc, you are called the marker . Your job as a marker is not to keep them from throwing the disc. Instead, it is to block off their throws to half the field. This means the rest of the defense will know where the throws are going and will cut them off.

How do you do this? First, decide which side you will force them to throw to. This is called the force. Usually the force is the same for the whole point so people don't have to figure it out again after every throw. Then, stand on the opposite side of them. You should get nice and cozy up to them to make it harder for them to throw. You are not allowed to get closer than a disc's width. Good marker posture is to stand with your arms and legs reasonably far apart to make a big wall around them. You should have the arm in front of them somewhat low, and the arm on the other side high.

This picture shows the part of the field cut off by a good marker.

This picture shows Chucky demonstrating good marking posture.

If you are not marking, you should be standing near your person, who is probably in the stack. There are two basic rules of defense:

1. Stay between your person and the open zone (the area where the person is being forced to throw).

2. Stay between your person and the endzone (so they cannot score on you).

You might note that these two rules are sometimes contradictory. Number 2 is more important if you are covering someone a lot faster than you. Then you don't mind giving them some short catches in return for not scoring on you.

When everyone is doing what they should, the field should look something like this picture.

Note that the marker is cutting off half the field, and that the stack is lined up behind the marker so as not to get in the way of anyone cutting. The defense is all standing closer to the open zone than the offense. Good team!! You get a biscuit!

Other Rules of Which You Should Be Aware

Stall Counts

You have 10 seconds to throw the disk from the time you catch it. When the marker comes up to the thrower, s/he may start counting. They should say something like ``Stalling 1,... 2,... 3...''. There should be a second in between the numbers.

Sometimes the marker gets a little overexcited and starts counting too fast. In that case the thrower says ``Fast count''.

The marker should go down two, start again, and be a little slower.

If the marker gets up to 10 s/he says ``STALL'' and it is a turnover. Usually if you get up to 9 you may as well toss the disk as far as you can even if no one is open.

Picking

The offense is not allowed to pick the defense. That is, assuming your defender is reasonably close to you, you may not run around someone so that your defender is cut off from you by human bodies from either team. If you do so they call ``PICK!''.

Play has to stop until your defender has caught up with you.

This is an example of a pick. The person on the top right is running between an offender and her defender.

An important thing to note is that if the thrower doesn't hear the pick call and throws the disc and it is NOT caught it is a turnover. This means if you are a thrower and hear a pick call do NOT throw the disc. Also, if the thrower does throw it, ignore the pick call until you have caught the disc.

This page has been "borrowed" with permission and slight modifications from Phoebe Sengers' super-cool Swiggin' Flickers Ultimate Info Pac site. She deserves all credit. If there's something wrong, it's my fault!