Ultimate?

[melioris]

OK, so I'm a fairly athletic person. I've played soccer at a reasonably competitive level for 25+ years, I can hold my own on the basketball court, I can play football, and feel pretty comfortable with most sports that involve any form of running and hand-eye-foot coordination. My wife and I just got back from playing Ultimate frisbee for the first time with a group of people. Is it me or is Ultimate frisbee the sport for people who can not play any other sport but fancy themselves athletes?

It was a clusterfuck of jargon, weird and unnecessary order imposed on any creativity, and generally how to ruin any type of fun while taking the game WAY TOO serious. There were a few really good players, but even they had only marginal concept of field awareness and spacing. And the thing is I don't think I sucked that bad, and my wife was down right good, but it is was just too freaky.

Anyone have thoughts?

[Robbie Robb]

As I read this thread, I had this odd vision of a scheduling mixup that resulted in both the Ultimate Frisbee Championships and the Westminster Kennel Club being booked in the same place at the same time...

I've never really paid any attention to this sport but I guess since they have appeared to organize and it is physically taxing, sure, let's call it a sport. I don't know anything about the rules though.

In a city close to us there is a Disc Golf park though...

[claudioxcore]

I played alot of ultimate frisbee when I was in high school, and short of what most people believe, it's actually a very physically demanding sport. It's all cardio. There's no down time aside from throw offs. But you can easily go 20-30 minutes with no one scoring, and you're constantly moving. It's very tactical if you have people that are serious about it, and mapping out plays isn't uncommon.

The general recreational version of ultimate frisbee is nonetheless a bunch of people running in circles throwing around a frisbee, but when you find some serious folk like the kids I went to high school with, it's actually quite the game.

[lightfungus]

Competitive ultimate is impressive, and strategy and plays is definitely what it is about. However, my exposure has led to me thinking everyone only runs one setup with the "stack" and a "handler" blah blah blah.

But I agree with you that casual ultimate frisbee players are usually not the best athletes and they tend to be somewhat elitist about "their" sport.

[Reel Deal]

I just think you have trouble getting along with other people mel.

[GTDawg]

The inevitable Youtube highlight films of "great" Ultimate moments are far too pretentious.

[de-coder]

Ultimate Frisbee - ehhhhh, OK I'll give it to ya

shorten it to:
Ultimate! - Fuck Off.

UF(risbee)C meets UF(ighting)C - mix some of the guys up and see what happens.

Better still UFFC - teams of Ultimate Fighters play full contact frisbee in a large, outdoor, steel cage - now THAT would be a sport involving a frisbee. If it were shown on Fox the frisbee would glow on the screen...

[claudioxcore]

I lol'ed.

[melioris]

good to know it isn't just me.

And although you might be quite correct RD, I think it is only because everyone else sucks. I suspect that you and I would probably have a lot of fun sitting around mocking the rest of the world......