You Put Your Forehand In... (Ultimate Frisbee)

Member Name: DudeGlove

Product:	Ultimate Frisbee
Date:	27/12/04 (2242 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Inviting Social Atmosphere For All (Yes, girlies can and do play!)

Disadvantages: Takes a little while to get used to

"Okay, we're on defence this time, so we're going to force home and remember...

...stay on your marks all the time!

On the turnover, me and Jenna will handle, Doug will play Iso and Niall and Sarah will go deep!

Everyone ready?!"

Hello. Either, you understand the title and you're now wondering about what the little blurb at the top there means, or you don't understand the title or the blurb. In either case, you're probably confuddled. If on the other hand you're a smart arse, then you can skip to the end and leave the obligatory smart arsed comment. Apart from that I've nothing else to say as this is probably the poorest introduction I've given. But hey, it's Christmas and I'm a Scrooge, so all you're getting out of me is bad grammar: plot holes and poor spieling.

Ultimate Frisbee, despite the best intentions of its most hardcore players, is a game. Technically it's referred to as "Ultimate" as being the nanny state that we now live in, names of products and so-forth are copyright and trademarked and the name Frisbee is owned by some corporate toy company that just can’t wait to litigate. I can’t wait for the new Extreme Lawyer Action Man that I’ve been petitioning for, for ages, but again, much like “Ultimate” being a game, we can’t get what we want sometimes.

If you want the long, drawn-out, written down description, courtesy of moi, then do read on. If you want to be a lazy fat arse with a good cable connection, then one of the members from the Glasgow University Ultimate Frisbee Team will describe it in some detail in this little featurette http://galah.src.gla.ac.uk/gust/media/play.php?id= 198
(disclaimer: this short clip is done by students and as such they give cameras to any boob who stumbles into the studio, so quality may and will vary)

Ultimate is played on a rectangular area. If it’s indoors then it’s usually the size of a basketball court, if it’s outdoors, then the size varies depending on the number playing. Indoor “Ultimate” usually involves five people playing in a basketball-sized court. Outdoor “Ultimate” can be up to seven or more people but the area depends on the number of people playing and it’s unlikely to exceed that number as no one can be arsed running around a huge field.

Think of “Ultimate” as a mixture of Netball and American Football, except without any balls involved, which is a pretty poor analogy when you think about it. S’like Netball because once you have the Frisbee, or “Disc” in this case, you can’t move, except on one foot whilst your other foot, your “pivot” foot, is rooted to the ground. If you don’t have the disc, you can run around like a lunatic until you do manage to get it. So basically think that you have one of your feet in a Wellington boot stuck in mud and it’s making that sucking noise and you can only rotate yourself around in a certain radius. That’s what you should be like when you have the Frisbee. Sort of. If you’re right handed, then your left foot will be planted and vice versa. It’s similar to Basketball in this case too, if you’ve stopped bouncing the ball, you have to stop moving and can only pivot around. It resembles American Football in that you have to catch the disc in an end-zone that is opposite to your starting position in the game. An end-zone is a small rectangular area situated at both ends of the hall, or playing field. Both teams start in an end zone and the object of the game is to pass the disc between members of the team so that the disc can eventually be caught in the opposing team’s end-zone. Those are the basic rules, but I’ll bore you to death later with a break down of a typical game.

Let’s involve ourselves more with what the game revolves around, the humble disc. It’s a Frisbee to everyone who doesn’t give a damn about product nomenclature. Proper Ultimate Frisbees are meant to weigh about 175 grams, but whoever knows how much that much weighs by actually holding one is probably a big fat stinking liar. They’re quite thick plastic and about 10”-12” in diameter (that’s inches, missy). And on the first few catches and throws it can’t seem quite a heavy thing to chuck and if you don’t catch it properly, it’s not uncommon to stave your thumb. But the more you use it, you better realise that if they were any lighter or more flexible, then they wouldn’t be thrown as well. On top of this they have a bit of a lip on the circumference of them (that’s the bit around the edge), so you’re not carrying a plastic plate, you’re carrying a plastic plate with bumpers to stop your food going off the side. On an aerodynamic level, it means that the air gets trapped beneath the lip of the Frisbee and combined with the rotation of the disc it gives it lift that makes the thing able to fly across the hall in the first place. But no one cares about that.

The disc can be thrown in a huge number of ways, but they boil down to two basic throws: the Forehand and the Backhand. The backhand throw is the one everyone will be familiar with. Like tennis, it is when you throw the disc with your arm coming across from the opposite side of your chest making a sweeping motion in front of you. That’s an exaggerated way of describing it; you can throw without moving the arm at all, using only the wrist. It’s the simplest one to do. The forehand is the reverse. You throw from the same side as your arm, so say you’re a right hander you’ll be throwing the disc from your right hand side, instead of sweeping your arm from the left hand side like in a backhand throw. Simple? No? Okay. Backhand, the opponent in front of you sees the BACK of your hand when you’re throwing it. Forehand, the opponent sees the palm of your hand. Still not got it? Tough.

You can get by on these two throws quite easily at the very beginning of playing “Ultimate”, but you don’t wanna do piddly small anally retentive throws. Nahhh you wanna be hurling them in huge impressive broad arcs that barely scrape the walls and sweep straight back down into the end-zone for someone to catch in the last seconds of a dead heated match. Each of the previously mentioned throws has three variants. You have the basic straight horizontal throw for both. For all intents and purposes, let’s assume all you readers are right handed. This is because there are more right-handers out there and I just don’t trust you lefties. You have the outside-in throw. For the backhand, you throw the disc at a 2 o’clock angle to the ground (does that make sense?) and slightly further out to the side so when it flies through the air it will curve out to the right and then back in to the centre. All throws should end up in the same place, but putting a curve on it makes it harder for the opposition to try and block it. An inside-out throw is the reverse, in that you release the disc more on your left hand side at a 10 o’clock angle to the ground so that the disc will curve in to the left and then back out to the centre. Wonderful. Same principle for the forehand, except it’s the reverse. So the forehand inside-out throw will be the same hand position as the backhand outside-in throw except that you’re throwing from the other side of your body. If I’ve lost you, you're just going to have to play to get a better sense of it.

Having persevered with backhands and forehands, you eventually get bored and want to do more exciting, or just plain silly throws. One common throw that’s used on top of the previous ones is the Hammer throw. A hammer is an overhead throw. It’s main purpose is to throw it up high, usually very fast and for some distance, over the heads of your opposing team so that someone with big long arms can catch it as it whizzes through the air. The disc is held almost upside down. Think the beginning of a forehand throw, except bring your right arm up your side and hold it over your head so that the disc is past it’s vertical position. Now, arch your arm back to get some momentum, bring it back and release it with all your might just as it passes over your head. In theory it should head up in a high angle flying almost vertically but as it descends the air flow will cause it to angle, even turn flat upside down so that you can catch it easily, as if it were a regular throw. A poor hammer throw will come straight back down like a lead balloon. A good throw will fly fast and turn over quickly making it easier for your team-mate to catch it, but hard for the opposing team to knock it out of play.

Other silly throws exist that aren’t very practical but just fun to do. Throwing between legs and so forth. They’re still the same as forehands and backhands in principal, just done in a more physical manner. My favourite is to throw a backhand behind my back. It’s really easy to throw but impressive to see. Mwaha.

I think now would be best to describe an example of a simple indoor Frisbee match. We have five people on each team, totalling ten people present (there are no referees or line callers but more on this later), playing on a basketball court. Each team starts their positions in an end-zone. They both line up facing each other. One member of either team calls one of the other team members to say heads or tails. They flip the disc in the air just like a coin. Whoever gets the right call receives the disc at the start of play.

So let’s say Team A flips the disc. Team B calls Heads or in Frisbee, “Up!” This means that this disc lands face up, showing the design on the top of it. Team B gets the call right so they will be receiving the disc. This means Team A is throwing, or “pulling” the disc (like in clay pigeon shooting) to Team B. I said before that both teams line up in the end-zone facing one another. Whoever is opposite you at the other end of the hall is who you are marking and you cannot move. But if you are the team who is “pulling” the disc, then you can rearrange your team to make it fairer so say for example that your taller guys will be marking the tall guys on the other team. This is because Team A is on defence at the start of play, whereas Team B is on offence as once the disc is pulled, they will receive the disc and begin their attempt at passing between one another in order to get the disc into the end-zone. Team A has re-arranged their team, girls are usually facing girls, and dudes usually face dudes. Tall girls or dudes will face other tall girls or dudes. This game doesn’t discriminate between the sexes, just between their sizes. Team A pull the disc.

Team B have received the disc. At this point we are going to discuss formations. Team B on this play are playing the basic “Stack” formation. This will be hard to grasp as unfortunately like most sports, there’s a whole terminology surrounding it which is hard to grasp. A “Stack” is the most common and easiest formation to demonstrate with beginner Frisbee players. What happens is that two players of Team B are “handlers”. What this means is when Team A pull the disc, they are the people who catch the disc at the start of a game. They are also the two players who can pick up the disc on a turnover of play. A turnover of play occurs when the disc hits the walls or the ground or goes out of play like out of bounds at the sides of the court. If the offensive team screws up and the disc is grounded, then whoever is a handler on the previously defensive team will pick up the disc and begin their play. Handlers also stay back in a line on the pitch. They’re a passive support element to the team in that they aren’t meant to score in the end-zone. Instead they are there so that whoever has the disc can’t throw it up the court; a handler will approach from behind in order to re-arrange their formation i.e. to “dump” the disc. There is a reason for this which will be explained later.

The remaining three members of Team B will be in a stack formation. Before the pull of the disc, the team discuss who is handling the disc and who is going to be in the stack. The three people in the stack are ironically numbered, one two and three, and this is the order that they will “cut” or run towards the handler in order to receive the disc. The stack therefore is the group of all three of them and they are situated about three quarters of the way up the court, so there’s plenty of open space for the first person “cutting” to run through and lose whoever is marking them.

Christ, I hope this isn’t sounding boring and isn’t putting you off wanting to try the game out. Let’s get back to the play.

A handler from Team B has received the disc. Remember he can’t move from his spot, so he passes to his co-handler, moving the disc further up the field slightly. The other handler wants to get the disc up, so he (or she) beckons cut number one, either by looking at him (or her), or shouting “FIRST CUT!” What they really want to shout is “F***ING MOVE YOUR BUTT YOU LAZY GIT!” but that wouldn’t be in the “spirit of the game”. The first cut will immediately break from the group and bolt towards the handler. He may dodge from side to side in order to shake his opponent marking him and as such give himself free reign to grab the disc once the handler throws it. First cut successfully receives the disc. As soon as this happens, the handlers will move up closer to the first cut on opposite sides of the court, and the second cut will be moving towards the guy (first cut) who just caught the disc. First cut does a nifty forehand towards the second cut and she catches it gracefully. At this point, the first cut, having transferred the disc and now able to move, will now bolt it up the pitch towards the end-zone to get back into the “stack” where he was before in order to support the person who just caught it. In theory with a stack formation there should be at least two people lined up in a group in order to receive the disc. The third cut is having problems. He’s caught the disc after a simple straight backhand throw from cut number two but he can’t get the disc into the end-zone for cut number one to catch. Now we need to introduce the stall count which involves a long paragraph and should hopefully explain everything that I said I would explain later.

The stall count is what the defensive team will begin to count when they approach the offence. Let’s relate it to our situation. Cut number three can’t get the disc to cut one because there are just too many people about the end-zone and it’s cramped. At the same time, the opposing team-member who is marking him is counting him out, like when a boxer is floored and the referee is giving him a count out, except no one is getting decked here. The defence trying to block him throwing the disc begins the stall count which is this. “Stall one, stall two, stall three, stall four, stall five, stall six, stall seven” After stall seven, it doesn’t matter if you shout “stall!” or “eight!” or “AHHH!”, cut number three will have stalled the disc and Team B will lose possession of the disc. Bad thing for Team B, good thing for Team A. The stall count must be said at a reasonable pace, you can’t race it, as again it is not within “the spirit of the game”. The “spirit of the game” is basically the element of fair play. It sounds a bit happy clappy, but it works and instead of an impartial referee, you resolve things mano a mano with your opposition. Altogether this makes it a lot more sociable. However this can make some exchanges heated. Say cut number three of Team B threw the disc after stall seven, and as such was stalled out by the defence. Cut number three may say that Team A’s stall count was too fast. What will happen in this case is that there will either be a turnover of play in Team A’s favour, or the play will restart again from where the stall count occurred (if of course the member of Team A, who was marking cut number three agrees with the fact that the stall count was too fast due to the hyperactivity of the game).

In this case however, cut number three was not stalled out and instead “dumps” the disc to one of the handlers behind him. This handler in turn then has the angle to throw the disc to cut number one who is in the end-zone. Cut number one catches the disc in the end-zone area. Team B score a point, everyone cheers, team A sulk off to the other end of the pitch ready to receive the pull of Team B. This means that on the second play Team A will be on the offence and Team B will be on the defence. As in tennis, whenever someone wins a game, the service changes sides.

In this hypothetical play, at no point did the disc go out of play i.e. it did not go out of bounds nor was it hit to the ground by any of the members of the defensive Team A. Team B scored a straight and simple point with no turnovers in play occurring. A turnover means that the possession of the Frisbee and thus the ability to score, changes sides.

Right, even I’m bored by all that now. I hope you get the picture. It’s really not as mundane as it reads. It’s actually great great fun! I would say that playing Ultimate, especially with the Glasgow University team, which by the way goes by the name of “Far Flung” (a ha, y’see what they did there?), that 90% of it is social rather than physical. I’ve made a great new bunch of friends by throwing heavy plastic discs at them, on top of the fact that everyone goes to the pub after practices. That’s not all however! Frisbee teams aren’t exclusive to one another.

Regularly several times a year, Frisbee tournaments will be held across the country by different universities or clubs. Recently Edinburgh hosted the beginners indoor tournament in September where a huge number of teams turned up and not just from around the Highlands. Teams from England such as the Bradford “DISCiples” (y’see that one?!), from Northern Ireland such as the Belfast Ultimate Giants and even from Dublin Universities such as UCD, DCU and Trinity. Mostly there were teams from Scotland, such as Stirling “Blaze”, Dundee’s “Shooting Stars” and Strathclyde University’s “Dark Horses” as well but still a substantial number of teams from every corner of the UK. Strangely, if you’ve seen the recent film “Dodgeball” it was a lot like that, with every team having their own bizarre strip and colours and chants and so-forth.

The tournament was hugely successful, mostly because of the fact that the tournaments take place over a weekend and on the Friday prior to the tournament, everybody gets lashed at a local and then play the next day still drunk, or hungover, in the group stages. Then if that weren’t enough, on Saturday the proper organised party begins, usually themed. Sunday is more of the same except that it’s the final rounds to decide the winner. To be honest, with beginners’ tournaments, it really doesn’t matter a damn who wins or who loses, the atmosphere is great and it’s a fantastic spectator sport. Beginners’ tournaments are silly though. Hardcore teams play in the regionals, where teams from the region play against each other except at a much higher, and less drunk, level. The first two teams from each regionals qualify for the nationals, which combine all the regionals together to find out who the best in the UK is.

After that? Then the UK Ultimate Association decides whether or not you’re good enough for Team GB to play in the Worlds. The most recent Worlds was held in Finland, which is a rather bizarre place for anyone to have a world competition if you think about it. It may not seem very big here, but in America, where it all began, and countries in Europe such as Germany or Scandinavia, Ultimate is huuuuuuuuge. Colleges in the US play all the time against each other. I think Colleges in California or Colorado are currently the best across the US. Needless to say it’s not so fashionable here, but it’ll probably pick up in the next few years. Hardcore players are hopeful that in the next couple of Olympics it’ll be recognised as a “sport” but it’ll be a long time before that ever happens.

It can be a difficult game to get into. Being tall, male, and nimble on the feet is definitely an advantage but if you have the co-ordination of a dead animal then you’re not much use. I have seen tiny girls playing ultimate who have impeccable throws, which is bloody irritating when they wing a hammer past you into the end-zone for the umpteenth time. The jargon is a bit hard to penetrate too. Words like “cut”, “break”, “pick”, “stack” and “iso” can all seem a bit confusing when you first speak to other more experienced team-mates. On top of this, injuries do occur. People trip over one another, twist ankles when coming down from jumping to catch the disc, thumbs get staved, Frisbees hit noses etc… You get the idea. Persevere however and you end up playing a great team game that everyone is fair about and enjoys. It is competitive but only in teams; an individual can’t win on his own in Ultimate.

So yeah. I love playing it and I love the social side. It’s a pretty fast sport and playing two or three times a week keeps me fairly fit. Nearly all the Ultimate teams about the UK will say that they appreciate anyone of any fitness level to come and play and enjoy themselves with a bunch of other idiots chasing after a plastic circle.

I’ll leave you with a few links:

UK Ultimate Association: http://www.ukultimate.com
Search for your nearest club, general information on the sport, and loads of other stuff.

Lookfly Custom Gear: http://www.lookfly.com/
Buy discs, club gear and any other Ultimate related accessories.

Ultimate lingo: http://www.superiorultimatefrisbee.8m.com/lingo.ht ml
A-Z of Frisbee related terms explained.

Glasgow University Ultimate Frisbee Club “Far flung”: http://www.gla.ac.uk/Clubs/Frisbee/farflung.html
More of the same.

Summary: