Ultimate
What is it?
Ultimate is a non-contact, self-refereed team sport played with a flying disc (Frisbee).
Two teams of seven players compete on a playing field about the same length as a football field, but narrower. At each end of the playing field there is an end zone. Each team defends one end zone. They score a goal if one of their players catches the disc in the opposite end zone.
The player with the disc is called the thrower. The thrower may not run with the disc. Instead, they move the disc by passing to team-mates in any direction.
The defensive team gets possession of the disc if an offensive team’s throw is not caught by a player of the same team. Then the defensive team becomes the offensive team and can try to score in the opposite end zone.
How do you do it?
Spirit of the game
Ultimate relies upon a Spirit of the Game that places the responsibility for fair play on every player. There are no referees; the players are solely responsible for following and enforcing the rules, even at World Championship. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.
The Pull
Each point starts with a throw-off from the goal line (“pull”). All players must remain in their end zone until the pull is thrown. At the start of the game a toss decides which team throws the first pull.
No running with the disc
You are not allowed to run while you have possession of the disc (“travel”). After catching the disc while running, you must stop as quickly as possible. Once you stop, you must keep one foot still, but you are allowed to move the other foot: this is called pivoting.
The 10-second rule
The thrower has 10 seconds to throw the disc. A defender can stand in front of you (remember: no contact!) and count aloud to ten in one second intervals. If the disc is still in your hand at the “t” of “ten”, the other team gets possession of the disc.
Fouls, Violations and Infractions
Ultimate is a non-contact sport. Physical contact should always be avoided.
Contact that is dangerous or affects the outcome of the play is a Foul.
Scoring
You score a goal if you catch the disc in the end zone that you are attacking. If you are in the air, your first point of contact must be in the end zone. If your foot touches the goal line it is not a goal. After a goal, play stops and teams swap which end zone they are defending. The first team to 15 goals wins, with a time cap of 90 minutes, but this can change depending on the level of play.
Here's how I got involved
I spent about a year learning to throw a disc before I started playing ultimate. Although I had briefly played a fun game when I was a kid, I was too focused on playing other sports, so ultimate just seemed like a fun thing to do, but not a sport I wanted to play at the time.
As I started getting more and more into ultimate and throwing, I fell in love with the game. The team aspect, the Spirit of the Game, the flight of the disc – it all spoke to me. I grew up as a multi-sport athlete, and was voted Athlete of the Year in Grade 12 so I’ve always loved playing sports and have been very successful as well. I actually spent about 9 years playing ultimate before I heard about and got into canine disc. In 2009 I started UltimateRob.com, which has become a resource for ultimate players to learn all different elements of the game including throwing, catching, training, and coaching. As I started to discover and explore more of the disc sports including disc golf and canine disc, I realized that I just really love to throw, and I’m so glad that there are so many possibilities to play and be active and have fun with frisbee.
Top 3 ways it will help your Disc Dogging
- Throwing Strength – since an ultimate disc is similarly shaped to a dog disc, by learning to throw an ultimate disc, you will gain strength for throwing a dog disc. An ultimate disc is 175 grams compared to dog discs, which can range from 65 grams up to 145 grams. Throwing a heavier disc will build the muscles necessary for throwing more than just throwing dog discs.
- Throwing Accuracy and Control – Since most of the throws in ultimate will be at someone who is moving, you will learn how to adapt constantly, learning how to vary the power on your throw, leading your thrower so they can run onto it, and developing the ability to consistently throw where you release the disc. This is an extremely important skill to have in canine disc, especially for freestyle, but also in toss and fetch, and many of the other games. Being able to react to a moving target is extremely important for the success of your throw so that your dog can have a better chance of getting the catch.
- Fitness – ultimate involves A LOT of running, which will build your cardiovascular stamina, your leg strength, your arm strength, and your core strength. In a freestyle routine, the better you are able to not get tired and have the same throws at the beginning and end of the routine, the better it will be for your dog since you will be more consistent, which will increase the success rate of a throw and catch. That being said, ultimate is definitely not easy on the body so if you have knee or hip issues, it might not be wise for you to participate due to the impact caused by all the running in ultimate.
Here's what you need to do to try it
Since ultimate is a team sport, you will need to find a team! The easiest way is to google search for a league in your local area. Simply search for “<your local city> ultimate league” and you should find what you’re looking for. Some leagues have hat or pickup leagues, which means you don’t need to be a part of a team – you just show up and teams will be created based on who is there. If you have some friends that play, or want to meet some new people, ultimate is a great way to expand your social circle and who knows, you might end up recruiting some new canine disc competitors too!
Links & Resources
The best starting point aside from a google search is to find our your national federation, who will usually have a page with the local state/provincial and city leagues listed. Simply choose your country from the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) member list and go from there: http://wfdf.org/about/wfdf-members/members.
If you’re looking for a disc to buy, I would recommend making sure it’s a USA Ultimate approved disc, which are listed here: https://www.usaultimate.org/discstandards. Not all discs are made equal, so if you buy a disc listed on this website, you know that it’s a great disc for ultimate. It’s not enough to go buy a disc from the dollar or pet store and hope that it will work because most likely, it won’t. You can expect to pay around $15 for an ultimate disc.
Wrap Up
Ultimate celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and is hopefully going to be in the 2028 LA Olympics. It’s a great team sport and worth trying especially if you love to run. Give it a try and let me know if you have any questions.
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Educators and Contributors
Here at DDU we are thrilled to present the best instruction from the best Disc Doggers and trainers in the world. This article was put together by “Frisbee Rob” McLeod.
Rob is a motivational speaker and frisbee ambassador with 6 Guinness World Records and 12 World Championships. He competed with Davy Whippet and together they set the WFDF/Guinness World Record for the Longest Flying Disc Throw Caught by a Dog at 402 feet. They also hold the Quadruped World Record and the WFDF/Guinness World Record for Canine MTA. Rob competes in 10 disc sports including ultimate, disc golf, canine disc, and the Overall. Rob’s goal is to teach others what is possible in frisbee and within themselves. Find out more about Rob and his work at https://www.frisbeerob.com.
