The Ultimate Game

am the type of person that cannot seem to get away from sports In college, I knew I wanted to stay active, even if I was not on a varsity level team. What I found instead was something a thousand times better than what I had hoped for.

It all started with friends of mine joining a club sport team as a freshman. Many people play this sport for fun rather than competition. I thought about this disc sport the same way most people do: just as a fun game with minimal rules I could not have been more wrong when I joined my school’s Ultimate Team last year.

Ultimate is played with a disc, not a frisbee, as that is a brand of disc (like Kleenex or Band-Aid), and is very similar to football, minus the contact Players cannot shove or hit other players. If they do, this is a foul. There are seven players on each team that are on the field, and fourteen in total On both sides of the field, there are end zones that each team needs in order to score points. The field is the length of a soccer field but is a bit shorter in width.

Some of the more technical rules include the positions of the seven players, which divide up into handlers and cutters.

Cutters are the players that make runs and plays in order to move the disc down the field The handlers are the players that have the most skill with the disc and can get the disc down the field to the cutters I will admit, I am more of a “cutter ” But my teammates that are handlers are something else, as they truly can get the disc to anyone making a run.

I feel the need to also mention that there is a time limit with being a handler The other team guards, man on man style, meaning every player has a defender, even the handlers The handler has till the count of ten, ten seconds, to throw the disc to another player. This, of course, makes the game more difficult, as a lot can happen in ten seconds.

In most competitive contact sports, players get snippy with each other This is normal in sports: or, at least, it was normal for me. In Ultimate, however, the players do not get snippy with each other. In fact, throughout each point, players will complement each other and ask questions. I have been told I am fast, I have good positioning, and one girl even apologized for pushing me over on the field When the teams disagree on a play or a call, the play will stop and both teams will politely talk out the disagreement and come to a conclusion. Truly, I have never participated in a nicer sport.

With Ultimate, I have gained an amazing group of friends and learned to channel my competitive spirit in a nicer, more democratic way Of course, the usual practice and competitive spirit exist, but being kind and respectful of others makes this sport my Ultimate game.