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While originally called "Ultimate Frisbee", the game is more appropriately called "Ultimate" because the name Frisbee is a trademarked brand name for discs made by Wham-O , which are rarely used in competitive play. The game is played using a 175 g disc; for some national and international tournaments, only discs which have been approved by the governing body responsible for that tournament may be used. HISTORY The early days (late 1960s and Jared Kass) Teenagers from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey were the first to play the game of Ultimate initially as an evening pastime, from which it evolved into a kind of counter-culture joke in 1968. Joel Silver proposed a school Frisbee team on a whim in the fall of 1967 This date may be in error, since Silver didn't learn the game until he attended the Mount Hermon Summer School in the summer of 1968, fall 1968 is likely . The following spring, a group of students got together to play what Silver claimed to be the "ultimate sports experience," adapting the game Frisbee Football. Silver, now a Hollywood Film producer ('' 48 Hrs. '', '' Weird Science '', '' Lethal Weapon '', '' Die Hard '', '' The Matrix ''), first played Frisbee Football at a Summer School in Mount Hermon, Massachusetts in the summer of 1968. Note that this year has sometimes been cited as 1967, but Silver only attended the summer school for one year, 1968, according to the summer school catalogs of the institution. In any case, the teaching fellow who taught him the game was named Jared Kass. Kass created the game with a group of friends while at Amherst College . The name "Ultimate" comes directly from Jared Kass, who came up with the name, when asked by a student, on the whim that it was the ultimate sport. The students who played at Columbia High School were not the athletes of the school, but an eclectic group of students that represented leaders in academics, student politics, the student newspaper, and school dramatic productions. While the rules governing movement and scoring of the disc have not changed, the early Columbia High games had sidelines that were defined by the parking lot of the school and team sizes based on the number of players that showed up. Gentlemanly behavior and gracefulness was held high. (A foul was defined as contact "sufficient to arouse the ire of the player fouled.") No referees were present, which remarkably still holds true today as all Ultimate matches (even at high level events) are self-officiated, though at higher levels of play 'observers' are often utilized. An observer is different from a referee in that he does not typically actively make a call. Observers only make calls when appealed to by one of the teams, at which point the result is binding. {Link without Title} Ultimate goes to college – 1970 The first collegiate Ultimate club was formed by Joel Silver when he arrived at Lafayette College in 1970 {Link without Title} . The first intercollegiate competition was held at Rutgers ' New Brunswick campus between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6 , 1972 , the 103rd anniversary of the First Intercollegiate Game Of American Football featuring the same schools competing in the same location. By 1975 dozens of colleges had teams, and in April of that year players organized the first ever Ultimate tournament, an eight-team invitational called the "Intercollegiate Ultimate Frisbee Championships," to be played at Yale . Rutgers beat Rensselaer Polytech (RPI) , 26-23, in the finals. By 1976 teams were popping up in areas outside the Northeast. A 16-team single elimination tournament was set up, at Amherst , Mass, to include 13 East Coast teams and 3 Midwest teams. Rutgers again took the title, beating Hampshire College in the finals. Penn State and Princeton were the other semi-finalists. While it was called the "National Ultimate Frisbee Championships", Ultimate was starting to appear in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara area. Ultimate spreads to clubs and internationally – 1976 In California clubs were sprouting in the LA - Santa Barbara area, while in the east, where the game developed at the high school and then college level, the first college graduates were beginning to found club teams, such as the Philadelphia Frisbee Club, the Washington Area Frisbee Club, the Knights of Nee in NJ, and so forth. In the same year, Ultimate arrived in the United Kingdom, with clubs forming at the University Of Warwick , University Of Cambridge , University Of Leicester , Purley High School and in Bournemouth. Ultimate gets organized – the UPA – 1979–80 In 1979 and 1980 the Ultimate Players Association was formed. The UPA organized regional tournaments and has crowned a national champion every year since 1979. The popularity of the game quickly spread, taking hold as a free-spirited alternative to traditional organized sports. In recent years college Ultimate has attracted a greater number of traditional athletes, raising the level of competition and athleticism, and providing a challenge to its laid back, free-spirited roots. RULES OF PLAY It should be noted that the Ultimate Players Association (UPA) rules provide the framework in North America whilst other parts of the world use rules overseen by the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) and that the two sets of rules contain significant differences. The rules described below give a general overview of the shared rules. For more specifics see the websites of the relevant organizations listed below. Objective The objective of Ultimate is to score points by receiving a teammate's Pass in the opponent's endzone. (One could of course argue that this is only a secondary goal, and the primary goal is to have fun and a good time; in many tournaments, the "Spirit of the Game" award (see below) is just as valued as winning the finals.) The outcome of a match is usually determined by one team achieving a predetermined number of points first. Teams Regulation Ultimate is played between two teams of seven players. In informal "pick-up" games, this number may vary. Substitutions are allowed between points and teams are usually able to have around 20 players on their roster in a major tournament. A shortage of players may force teams to play the entire game without substitutions, a condition known as ''savage'' or ''Ironman''. Field Regulation games are played on a field of 64 Meters (70 Yard s) by 37 meters (40 yards). Under UPA rules, endzones are 23 meters (25 yards) deep, while under WFDF rules, endzones are 18 meters deep. Normally, Ultimate is played outdoors on a grassy surface. Boundaries are marked by chalklines and cones if available, but any highly visible object may be used. Indoor Sometimes, Ultimate is played indoor on an indoor soccer field, or the like. If the field has indoor soccer markings on it, then the outer most goal box lines are used for endzone lines. Playing off the walls or ceiling is usually not permitted. As indoor venues tend to be smaller, the number of players per side is often decreased. In some indoor leagues, Quebec City rules are used in order to speed up play. For example:
Indoor Ultimate is played widely in Northern Europe during the winter due to the frigid weather conditions. In North America, indoor Ultimate tends to be played in venues that can accommodate a field of regular or near-regular size and the playing surface is AstroTurf or some other kind of artificial grass. In Europe, on the other hand, such facilities are rarely available and indoor Ultimate is usually played five-a-side on a Handball or Basketball court. Northern European and Scandinavian countries usually use handball courts, whereas in the UK, Russia, and Southern Europe basketball courts are more commonly used, presumably because there are few handball courts available in those countries. Players often wear protection such as knee, elbow and wrist pads, much like in Volleyball to avoid bruises and cuts when laying out. European indoor ultimate has evolved as a variant of standard outdoor Ultimate. Due to the small size of the court and of the absence of wind, several indoor-specific offensive and defensive tactics have been developed. Moreover, throws such as scoobers, blades, hammers, and push-passes are rarely used or discouraged outdoors because even a little wind makes them inaccurate or because they are effective only at short range, but they are common in the small and wind-free indoor courts. The stall count is also reduced to 8 seconds due to the faster nature of the indoor game. There are regular indoor tournaments and championships and stable indoor teams. The best-known and longest-running indoor tournament is the Skogshyddan's Vintertrofén held in Gothenburg , Sweden every year. Largest tournament (by number of teams) will be the 2005 NSUT, 20th anniversary tournament of National Student Ultimate Tournament, held in Vaasa , Finland . Beach Ultimate Beach Ultimate is a variant of the sport. It is played in teams of four or five players on small fields. It is played on sand and, as the name implies, normally at the Beach . Players usually play barefoot or wearing sand shoes. BULA (Beach Ultimate Lovers Association) is the international governing body for Beach Ultimate. Most Beach Ultimate tournaments are played according to BULA rules, which take elements of both UPA and WFDF rules. Gameplay The pull or throw-off The players line up at the edge of their respective endzones, and the defensive team throws, or pulls, the disc to the offensive team to begin play. Pulls are normally long, hanging throws, giving the defense an opportunity to move up the field. Sometimes, though, a pull consists of a short throw intended to roll out of bounds upon hitting the ground. If the pull is touched by the receiving team while in the air, without being caught, it is a turnover. The pull is often started by a member of the defending team raising one arm with the disc to show that they are ready to pull the disc and begin play. When the offensive team is ready to receive the pull, one of its members will also raise a hand. The team that pulls to start the game is usually decided in a manner similar to a coin toss. Someone from each team takes a disc and flips it in the air like a coin. A representative from a predetermined team, usually the hometeam if there is one, declares "same" or "different" in reference to whether the discs will land with the same side up or not. If they guess right, they may choose either to receive first or to pick which end of the field they start on. Field position is important in relationship to dominant wind direction and the sun. Movement of the disc The disc may be moved in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc, except a few steps to run out their momentum. They must establish a pivot foot until after their throw, and they may not catch their own throw unless it has been touched in the air by an opponent. Upon receiving the disc, a player has ten seconds to pass it. This period is known as the "stall", and each second is counted out by the defender (a ''stall count''). A player may keep the disc for longer than ten seconds if no defender is present or if the defender isn't counting the stall. Scoring A point is scored when any player catches a pass in the endzone in which they are trying to score. (In older versions of the rules, only offensive players could score. UPA rules allow a defensive player to intercept a pass in the endzone they are attacking to score a '' Callahan '' goal, however WFDF rules do not count this as a point.) After a point, the team who just scored remains in that endzone and the opposing team returns to the opposite endzone; play is initiated again with a pull by the scoring team. The World's Greatest In Ultimate, a disc is considered in-play so long as it does not touch the ground, even if it is out of bounds. A receiver who wishes to play a disc that is flying out of bounds may only do so if his last point of contact with the ground is in-bounds; otherwise, the disc is now out of bounds, resulting in a turnover. If an offensive player leaps from in-bounds, catches and releases a throw again before contacting the ground and another offensive player is able to catch the disc in the end zone, the team not only scores a point, but has completed The World's Greatest, due to its being the greatest play in Ultimate. Such plays often are cause for a certain degree of amazement from both the crowd and the players around the action. Change of possession Whenever a pass is not completed, the disc changes possession; that is, the defense immediately becomes the offense. After a change of possession, the offense must throw the disc from where it first touched the ground, or where it first traveled out of bounds. Changes of possession do not cause a stoppage of play. Common reasons for changes of possession include:
Stoppages of play Play may stop for the following reasons: Fouls A foul is the result of contact between players, although incidental contact (not affecting the play) does not constitute a foul. When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with ("contests") the foul call, the disc is returned to the last thrower. Violations A violation occurs when a player violates the rules but does not initiate physical contact. Common violations include traveling with the disc, double teaming, stripping the disc away from a player who has possession, and picking, or moving in a manner so as to obstruct the movement of any player on the defensive team. Time outs and half-time By Tenth Edition rules, each team is allowed two time outs per game. The halftime break occurs when one team reaches the half-way marker in the score. Since most games are played to odd numbers, the number for half-time is rounded up. For instance, if the game is to 13, half comes when one team scores 7. Injuries Play stops whenever a player is seriously injured—this is considered an injury time-out. Substitutions Teams are allowed to substitute players after a point is scored or for injured players after an injury time out. In the case of an injury substitution, the opposing team is allowed to make a substitution for a non-injured player. Refereeing Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes. Occasionally, official observers are used to aid players in refereeing (see below). This creates a spirit of honesty and respect on the playing field. It is the duty of the player who committed the foul to speak up and admit his infraction. Rock, Paper, Scissors is often used as a neutral way to end otherwise unresolvable disputes. Observers Some additional rules have been introduced which can optionally overlay the standard rules and allow for referees called ''observers'' (the Tenth Edition, Gen-X-Rules or Callahan Rules, named after . As of 2003, misconduct fouls are extremely rare and their ramifications not well defined. Observers are also charged with enforcing time limits for the game itself and many parts within the game, such as the amount of time defense has to set up after a time out or the time allowed between pulls, are honored. If a team does not honor a time limit, it is a turn over. The introduction of observers is, in part, an attempt by the UPA to allow games to run more smoothly and become more spectator-friendly. Due to the nature of play and the unique nature of self-refereeing, Ultimate games are often subject to regular and long stoppages of play. This effort and the intensity that has arisen in the highest levels of competition have led many members of the Ultimate community to lament the loss of the Spirit of the Game. It should be noted that some of the differences between the UPA and the WFDF rules reflect a differing attitude to spirit. Strategy Offense One of the most common offensive strategies in Ultimate is referred to as stack offense. This strategy aligns the offense in a straight line running from one end of the field to the other. From this position, players in the stack make ''cuts'' (sudden sprints out of the stack at a 45° angle to it) toward or away from the thrower in an attempt to get open and receive the disc. The stack generally remains in the middle of the field, thereby opening up two lanes on either side for cuts, although a captain may occasionally call '''stack left''' or '''stack right''' when one large running lane may be preferable to two smaller lanes. Other offenses include a '''horizontal stack''', similar to a spread offense in American Football, and a specific position-defined offense designed to play against a zone defense, appropriately titled '''zone offense'''. While there can be different varieties of zone offense, a typical variation consists of three handlers, two '''poppers''', and two '''deeps'''. The handlers stand in a line spanning the width of the field, and it is their job to get the disc to any popper or deep who may be open. Once the stall count reaches a certain point, the handler with the disc attempts to pass it off to another handler, thereby resetting the stall count and prolonging their bid to advance their field position. The poppers are responsible for cutting into the formation set up by the zone defense in an attempt to give the handler a free avenue in which to pass the disc, while the deeps attempt to exploit the sparsely-defended field beyond the short deep in the event of a long throw downfield, or '''huck'''. Defense The most important idea in defense is that of the force. Since it is physically impossible to block all throws, the defensive player guarding the disc, or '''marker''' will prevent the thrower from throwing to a preselected side of the field. The rest of the defense will therefore know to which side of the field the thrower may throw and position themselves accordingly. The terms '''force away''' or '''force home''' are often used to denote to which side the marker should aggressively defend. The '''home''' side of the field is determined by which sideline the team places their gear. The '''away''' side is on the opposite side of the field. This can be further generalized as a '''break mark''' (or '''closed''') side of the field (on the opposite side of the force) and an open side. Defensive strategy will usually consist of "man" defense, where each defensive player guards or ''picks up'' an offensive player, or '''zone defense''', where players will cover an area. In zone defense, players will try to contain the disc, preventing forward movement while allowing lateral passing. This prevention of the forward movement of the disc is done through hard marks on the handlers and defense formations such as a cup. The zone defense forces the offense to throw a large number of passes while gaining little ground. If done well, the offense will eventually make a mistake and a turnover will result. The central facet of a zone defense usually consists of one of two formations: the cup or the '''wall'''. A cup is made up of three defenders, one in front of the disc handler (the '''center'''), and one to each side. Depending on the position of the disc in relation to the sidelines, the handler will be marked by either of the two sides of the cup. To prevent confusion and any double team fouls, the center will often call out which of the two side defenders are to mark the handler whenever the disc changes hands, changing the position of the cup in the process. A fourth player, called the '''short deep''', plays slightly upfield from the cup and, when playing against a zone offense, has the responsibility of alerting the cup to incoming poppers. A wall is similar to a cup in that the entire formation follows the progression of the disc, although only one defender (called the '''chaser''') has the duty of marking the handler, while three other players form a wall in front of the handler to inhibit forward progress. Because a zone defense focuses manpower on limiting the offense to making frequent short passes for little or negative field progress, it leaves a large portion of the field to be covered only by the remaining players who aren't occupied in the primary formation. Assuming there are seven players to each team and that a cup formation is in effect this leaves three players (in addition to the short deep) to cover the remainder of the field. Often this leaves zone defenses with two hammer stops (tasked with defending the sidelines) and one '''deep deep''', who is in the perilous position of having to cover the entirety of the field behind the short deep in the event of a desperation pass. One final defensive strategy, known as the Clam, uses elements of both zone and man defenses. In Clam defenses, defenders cover cutting lanes rather than zones of the field or individual players. The Clam can be used by a several players on a team while the rest are running a man defense. In this case, when the two players the defenders are covering are standing close to each other in the stack, one defender will move over to shade them deep, and the other will move slightly more towards the thrower. When one of the receivers makes a deep cut, the first defender picks them up, and if one makes an in-cut, the second defender covers them. The defenders communicate, and switch their marks if their respective charges change their cuts from in to deep, or vice versa. The Clam can also be used by the entire team, with different defenders covering in cuts, deep cuts, break side cuts, and dump cuts. SPIRIT OF THE GAME Ultimate is known for its "Spirit of the Game", often abbreviated SOTG. The following description is from the official Ultimate rules established by the Ultimate Players Association:
Many tournaments give awards for the most spirited team, as voted for by all the teams taking part in the tournament. This honor, sometimes called the Spirit Award, is highly coveted. Cheers At some levels of competition, it is still customary for teams to cheer their opponent at the end of the game. This tradition is an example of how the spirit of Ultimate differs from most other sports, as these cheers are meant to be ridiculous, fun, and amusing. Cheers are often creative, and can take the form of a short game involving both teams(very often involving a disc), or possibly a song. Cheers are known as calls in the U.K. Cheers are less common at the higher levels of play, although attitutes towards this custom vary between countries and organizations. PICK-UP GAMES In the spirit of Ultimate's egalitarian roots, 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 are generally held over a weekend, affording players several games during the day as well as the chance to socialize and party at night. Pick-up leagues also exist, hosting weekly pick-up games that may be played on arbitrary week nights. In addition, less formal games of pick-up are frequent in parks and fields across the globe. In all these types of pick-up games it will not be uncommon to have as participants the same people who play on nationally or globally competitive teams. Newcomers are always welcomed at pick-up games or whenever people are simply throwing, and enthusiastic players will sideline themselves to spend time teaching beginners the throws and maneuvers necessary to play. HAT TOURNAMENTS Hat tournaments are common in the Ultimate circuit. They are tournaments where players join individually rather than as a team. The tournament organizers form teams by randomly taking the names of the participants from a hat. In practice, in most tournaments, the organizers do not actually use a hat, but form teams taking into account skill, experience, sex, age, height, and fitness level of the players in the attempt to form teams of even strength. A player provides this information when he or she signs up to enter the tournament. Hat tournaments have a strong emphasis on having fun, socializing, partying, and meeting other players. Players of all levels take part to such events from world-class players to complete beginners. Hat tournaments (and sometimes also regular tournaments) often have a theme, such as: wild west, aliens, pirates, superheroes, etc. The organizers often name teams also according to a theme, such as: beer varieties, movie characters, etc. CURRENT LEAGUES Regulation play, sanctioned in the United States by the UPA, occurs at the college (open & women's divisions), club (open, women's, mixed (co-ed), and masters divisions) and youth (boys & girls divisions) levels, with annual championships in all divisions. Top teams from the championship series compete in semi-annual world championships regulated by the WFDF, made up of national flying disc organizations and federations from about 50 countries. Recreational leagues have become widespread, and range in organization and size. There have been a small number of children's leagues. The largest and first known pre-highschool league was started in 1993 by Mary Lowry, Joe Bisignano, and Jeff Jorgenson in Seattle, Washington . In 2005, the DiscNW Middle School Spring League had over 450 players on 30 mixed teams. Large high school leagues are also becoming common. The largest one is the DiscNW High School Spring League. It has both mixed and single gender divisions with over 30 teams total. The largest adult league is the Ottawa-Carleton Ultimate Association , with 350 teams and over 4000 active members in 2005, located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. High School and Junior Leagues High School division teams have also gained popularity and awareness in the past few years. Many high school teams, including Massachusetts' Amherst Regional High School (Massachusetts) , Georgia's The Paideia School and Washington's The Northwest School have become national powerhouses. Tournaments at the high school level of play range from tournaments hosted by local teams to tournaments at a national level. Easterns and Westerns, a recent move from a combined national tournament, occur every year with an Open and Women's division. The UPA also hosts a national Junior's club team tournament and sends a representative team to the World Junior Ultimate Championships, held every two years. At a lower level, the UPA has also sanctioned organized statewide tournaments in 16 states. College Teams There are over 300 college Ultimate teams in North America and the number of teams is steadily growing. Separated into Open and Women's Divisions, teams compete in the UPA Championship series during the Spring. The series consists of 3 tournaments: Sectionals, Regionals, and Nationals. Each year, the sectional and regional champions advance to Nationals to compete for the Championship title in May. 's ultimate team Contra (located in the South Region) makes a bid for the disk.]] Club Teams UPA Club Ultimate consists of Open, Womens, Masters, Juniors and Mixed divisions. TERMS This is a partial list of terms relevant to Ultimate. ''For descriptions of various types of throws, see Disc Throws ''
:# To break your marker means to throw the disc past them to the side of the field they were trying to deny as part of a force defense. :# A break-force throw is one that breaks your marker. :# A call of "no break!" is an instruction to the defensive player currently marking the disc not to get broken, and is usually called when an offensive player gets free on the closed side of the field (and would therefore be easy to throw a '''break-force''' throw to).
MAJOR TOURNAMENTS
SEE ALSO
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