Ultimate (Wikipedia entry here) is unusual—perhaps unique—in that there are no officials. No referees, no umpires, no touch-judges, nada.
Instead the players officiate themselves, and the sport relies on their honesty and sense of fair play (‘spirit of the game’) to get things done right.
So infringements are called by the players themselves, stuff like fouls (ultimate is in theory a non-contact sport), travels (once you’ve caught a disc you can’t move with it), in- and out-of-bounds calls, picks (not allowed), and a few others.
Inevitably this ethos can be compromised by a ‘win-at-all-costs’ mentality when big prizes are at stake. So teams may opt to have neutral ‘observers’ on the sidelines, as a sort of line judge-cum-dispute resolver.
This is different in the professional game (started in 2012), where there are umpires and line judges.
It’s a very pure running sport: 7-a-side on a field usually somewhere around the size of a football field; endzones not goals; score by catching the disc in the opponents’ endzone; if a disc is intercepted, dropped or goes out-of-bounds, the other team gets possession immediately.
Because a disc thrown right-side-up floats, there’s often enough time for a defender to catch up and bat it away; similarly, there are times when you and the disc are going at the same speed but it’s out of your reach, so the only option is to get off your feet (‘lay it out’) to make the catch.
This makes for some pretty spectacular athleticism, a flavour of which you’ll see in the highlight reel below.
It’s also possible to throw a disc upside-down, when it behaves much more like a ball, with a distinct up-down trajectory. Anyone familiar with American Football will appreciate the skill needed both to make this throw (especially when it’s windy) and to judge the catch or interception (ditto).
The photo at the top of this post (© Toby Green) shows one such. It’s from way back, at a World Club Championships final, but for my money is still one of the great Ultimate photos. What’s happened is that Boston’s Mada has taken off downfield, and the passer has led him with a long upside-down throw that he takes at full sprint in-stride. New York’s John Gewirtz has been distanced slightly on defence, but has seen (or intuited) the throw coming and has laid it out to try for the interception. Alas for him (and to his evident anguish) his right-hand swipe to knock the disc away just hasn’t quite made it. Great play, stunning athleticism (right up there with the best NFL wide receiver vs. cornerback skills), even better photo . . .
The free-flowing nature of the sport means serious aerobic effort—one moment you’ll be running (and thinking) hard to get free, then suddenly there’s a turnover and you’re immediately running just as hard to cover your opponent, themselves now trying to get free to take a pass.
But once you get the disc you’re in effect the quarterback, with a quarterback’s need for clear field vision, calm decision-making and good technique to make the next successful pass.
A very complete sport then . . .
What else? Well, in my day at least, teams would party as hard they played (at some tournaments ‘winning the party’ conferred almost as much cachet as winning the tournament . . . )
Pretty much all big tournaments have an Open Division for both men and women, and these days a Co-ed or Mixed Division too. College or University teams often have their own divisions and tournaments.
And as players have got older, so new divisions have appeared for those still wanting to play but maybe no longer up to Open standards. So there’s Masters (33+ for men, 30+ for women), Grand Masters (40+ and 37+ respectively) and even Great Grand Masters (50+ and 45+).
Most games are played on outdoors on grass, but there are indoor tournaments too, and beach ultimate is also very popular.
I only discovered Ultimate in my early 20s (wish it had been earlier). Played for 15 years or so and retired aged 37 when it became clear that cutting it against the best of the next generation was getting harder.
But during that time I had the privilege of getting to know some of the great teams and great players from around the world, not least the world-dominating New York franchise of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Damn, we had some fun . . .
But don’t for a moment think this is a game just for the boys. Women’s Ultimate is equally fiercely competitive―supreme athletes from other disciplines, discovering Ultimate, can’t wait to make the switch. Here’s a more recent video from USA Ultimate that gives a taste of the atheticism, sportsmanship and co-ed appeal of this magnificent sport:
More on Ultimate at Wikipedia, USA Ultimate, World Flying Disc Federation