How many of us don’t just love throwing a Frisbee around on a nice sunny day? It’s leisurely enough and you can impress your friends by launching a Frisbee high into the stratosphere or by making a good catch.
So why not try it as a sport and play ultimate Frisbee (I’m sorry, I mean Ultimate, to use the official name).
To play Ultimate, all one needs is an empty field (ideally one 40 metres by 120 metres) and 13 friends to make up two teams of 7. The pitch is then split up into a 70 yard playing field with two 25 yard “end zones” on either end. Then one can start to play Ultimate to their heart’s content and so give a nice little twist to a leisurely summer game of Frisbee.
It is a very easy sport to play with one really only needing to know the basic rules. Firstly that once a player has caught the Frisbee, they then cannot move until they have passed the Frisbee to another teammate. Secondly they then have ten seconds to pass the Frisbee to a teammate and they are counted down from 10 by an opposing player within 10 yards of them. Finally (and quite importantly) it is a non contact sport and so defenders cannot physically obstruct or tackle the opposing team. Having said this, the game is refereed by the players and so you never know what you might get away with.
The aim in Ultimate is to score more points than the opposing team, with a point being awarded to a team if they successfully complete a pass to a teammate within the opposing team’s defensive “end zone”. The game ends once a team has reached 15 points with at least a two point advantage or after an agreed period of time for those of you who aren’t that confident in your goal scoring abilities.
This exciting sport is now played, believe it or not, by over 60 universities in the country, including by our very own Oxford University. In fact, the Oxford Ultimate team has some form of practice almost every day of the week amd there are many teams that you can get involved in. Alternatively, you can get in touch with your college Ultimate captain (yes there is actually such a thing) and play at a more casual standard, or even take part in cuppers this term.
To start with, however, in a moment of boredom or avoiding of revision, why not just go to your college gardens or parks and through a Frisbee around with mates and give Ultimate a go? What better way to spend a summer afternoon is there? I mean anything with a name like Ultimate has got to be pretty cool.
