Ultimate frisbee. Ultimate. Frisbee. For those of us who play the sport, we know what it’s all about. But for someone who has never heard of it, what will they think when we ask if they play “ultimate” or if they’ve ever watched “ultimate”. There’s no reason they should think anything but “the ultimate what”? The issue with ultimate is that it was named on how it made the inventor feel while he was playing it.
Considered by many as the greatest ultimate game of all time, Furious George took on DoG (Death or Glory) in the semi-finals of the 2002 UPA Club Open Ultimate Championships.
In a game that saw only 5 turnovers (including just 1 turnover in the second half), Furious George would go onto defeat DoG and eventually beat Ring of Fire in the finals to claim the 2002 UPA Open title.
If you can’t view this video, watch on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WmsbIkkTjc.
Meet Andrea Rigler, the 2012 UFO Freestyle World Champion and a former ultimate player turned disc dogger.
Andrea used to throw to her dog during halftimes and after games and the more she did, the more she liked it. After watching some videos online, she started doing frisbee tricks with her dogs.
Although Andrea doesn’t play ultimate anymore, she’s also gotten into disc golf. To become a better thrower, it’s really important to throw different types of discs. Always throwing the same type of disc will limit your throwing potential.
To find out more about Pawsitive Vybe and Ron Watson, visit them online at http://www.pvybe.com.
Whether you’re new to the sport or you’ve been playing a long time, there are some throws which are crucial to being a good handler. Some of these throws you will use far less often than the standard forehand and backhand but it’s good to know how to throw all of these throws.
It’s always interesting whenever some of the most well known players in our sport are brought together to talk about the future of ultimate.
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future
So too is this statement true about ultimate. We’re still in our infancy in many ways but in other ways, we’ve come very far. Over the past few years, the popularity of ultimate has exploded online thanks to Youtube, Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and Sportscentre. Over that same period, there have been a National touring team, 2 professional leagues and hours and hours of full game footage posted online. It’s been an exciting time to be an ultimate player and so I found the panel discussion at the 2013 Ultimate Coaches and Players Conference (UCPC) quite interesting.
If you aren’t familiar with the sport of Ultimate; you should read this post on understanding the sport. There are many reasons why you should consider playing my favorite sport. I’ll try to outline a few compelling ones here and see if I can get you to try it. Once you try it you’re going to be hooked! (I can already hear you mumbling about how you have played cricket, basketball or football for years now and there is no reason to pick up another sport!) Ultimate is fun Ultimate is an immensely enjoyable sport, regardless of the level of play. Every year, thousands of people try out this sport and have fun playing it because it is truly uplifting. It is currently played in over 80 countries and is already a part of the World Games and is looking good to be included in the Olympics soon!
Over the years, there have been numerous instructional videos produced – some good and some bad. On Facebook a few days ago, I shared a post that said “just because you are a good player does not mean you can teach“. I was referring to a few people because I think there is a real issue and a real concern with people who teach others to throw the wrong way. Learning to throw the wrong way is inefficient and can cause injuries if that player practices a lot throwing the wrong way.
Malissa Lundgren, one of the captains of the Capitals, the women’s ultimate team from Ontario Canada, talks about her top highlights.
Malissa has played in the finals of the World Championships of Beach Ultimate, the Canadian Ultimate Championships, the USA Ultimate Championships and the World Ultimate and Guts Championships.
She is one of the top female ultimate players in the world and was named Ultimate Canada’s 2011 Female Athlete of the Year.
Malissa Lundgren, Ultimate Canada’s 2011 Female Athlete of the Year, discusses how the Capitals were more successful after changing their team strategy following their 2009 semi final loss in the UPA Championships to Brute Squad. In 2010, they would go on to make the finals where the lost to the powerhouse women’s team, Fury.
If you’ve ever had someone ask you what ultimate frisbee is, and I know we all have, show them this video.
Although I do compete in dog disc competitions with Davy Whippet (and we currently hold 5 World Records together) it’s true that ultimate frisbee is not played with dogs.
But I encourage you to take the opportunity to educate someone when they ask you “is ultimate where you throw to a dog” or “do you play by yourself or with other people”?
Dan “Stork” Roddick, who has been throwing a frisbee for 55 years, talks about what he likes about disc sports and why he still loves it so much.
The unique thing about flying disc is that there are so many areas that you can go into based on your physicality, your friends or your stage in life. You can literally play from the time you’re 2 until you’re 102. Ultimate frisbee, disc golf, guts, dog disc, ddc, distance, self caught flight, gollum, goaltimate, freestyle, accuracy, discathon and more.
Dan “Stork” Roddick talks about how he got into ultimate and shares his experience playing in the first college ultimate frisbee game in 1972.
Dan “Stork” Roddick is a long-time disc sport champion and organizer in both the U.S. and internationally. Stork was an early star of the game of Ultimate with college champion Rutgers University (with a record of 45-1), where he was Irv Kalb’s favorite scoring target, and he was a winner of national and world championships in individual events including disc golf, freestyle and accuracy.
The great thing about ultimate is that as much as your individual skills matter, at the end of the day, it’s still a team game. But, one of the ways you can help your team out is by practicing your disc skills. Throwing, catching, reading, faking. You don’t need to be with your team to work on those skills. Just think if everyone on your team spent a few hours each week working on disc skills. After a few months, your team would be a much better team since your foundation would be much more solid.
Team sports remind me of this quote:
Recently, I was in Santa Barbara for the 2012 US Open Overall Flying Disc Championships and I had the chance to sit down with Tom “TK” Kennedy. We had a candid conversation about how he got into the game, his history with the Ultimate Players Association (now known as USA Ultimate) and his role with the formation of the Santa Barbara Condors, one of the most famous ultimate teams ever. This first video is just a snippet of our conversation and I get his thoughts on the current state of ultimate – the AUDL, Brodie Smith’s trick shot videos and youth ultimate.
In previous posts I have made reference to The Throwing Comfort Zone. This post will explore the concept of The Throwing Comfort Zone whilst also providing some advice on how your Throwing Comfort Zone can be increased and maintained. The concept of the Throwing Comfort Zone is a useful mechanism to identifying where you sit as a thrower and what you can work on in order to continue improving. In addition to reading this post I would suggest reading Rob’s post on The Elements of Becoming a Better Thrower.
The Throwing Comfort Zone is made up of two elements:
This tutorial video for the Calgary Ultimate Association talks about how to create an unbreakable mark and how to beat an unbreakable mark. The key points in creating an unbreakable mark are: Focus, Thrower Awareness and Holding the Force. The key points in breaking an unbreakable mark are: Get the marker off balance, Less fakes and Fake using your whole body.
For more info on playing ultimate in Calgary,
Visit: http://www.calgaryultimate.org or
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/calgaryultimate
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/calgaryultimate
Video produced for the Calgary Ultimate Association.
This is the first of a series of Ultimate Intelligence posts that I hope to write. These posts will hopefully provide some useful information that you can use to improve your game in a variety of ways. For the most part Ultimate Intelligence will be about on-field performance and may include tips regarding tactics, physical work or mental perspective.
This post will focus on an improvement that can be made from both an attitude and a tactical perspective. This isn’t necessarily an advanced tactic, any player could take these instructions on board and incorporate them into their game.
On May 31, 2012, I traveled to Mexico to play in the 2012 Mexico National Ultimate Championships with Malaki UFC, a team who flew me down a year ago to coach them and teach them more about the game of ultimate.
I will not be posting any updates on Ultimate Rob until next week as I am flying out tomorrow morning to Mexico to compete in the 2012 National Open Championships with Malaki UFC. They’re the same team I flew down to coach last year so I hope you all have a great weekend and I’ll let you know how we do!
Rob McLeod
Ultimate Rob
Thomas Kuhn, a member of the 2008 World Champion Canadian Open team, was recently selected to be a member of the Open Team which will be traveling to Sakai, Japan in July to compete in the 2012 WFDF World Ultimate and Guts Championships.
Thomas talks about what other countries he thinks will be strong contenders, how this year’s Canadian team compares to the team from 2008 and who he thinks will win World’s this year (I’ll give you one guess!).
In this video, I introduce my trainer, Curtis Howden, and we talk about how I’m training for disc sports competitions with a specific focus on getting more power in my throw. We’re starting by mobilizing my thoracic spine and by getting more rotation, I will be able to generate more power and throw the disc further. I’m really starting to notice the benefits of working with Curtis and in the past few weeks, my throws have been getting longer every time I throw. I will work on getting some videos up that show how I practice throwing and just how far I can throw the different types of discs.