What is Ultimate Frisbee?

Ultimate is an exciting, non-contact team sport, played by thousands around the world. It blends various features of sports such as Soccer, Basketball, American Football and Netball into an elegantly simple, yet fascinating and demanding game. To compete at top levels, Ultimate players require exceptional levels of fitness, speed, agility and stamina.

Ultimate is a seven-aside sport played on a narrow football-sized pitch (100x37m), with two end zones, both 18m deep.

A diagram of an Ultimate Frisbee pitch

Players cannot run with the frisbee, but have 10 seconds to pass to one of their team-mates in order to keep possession for their side.
A point begins with both teams lined up at the front of opposing end zones. The team starting on offense receives a long initial throw (known as a "pull") from the team starting on defense.
A point is scored when a player catches the frisbee in the end zone the opposing team is defending.

A picture of 2 players laying out to catch a disc
Image courtesy of Mark Dolan

Spirit of the Game

Ultimate is unique in that it is refereed by the players themselves, even at World Championship level, according to a code of conduct known as "the Spirit of the Game". This places the responsibility for fair play on the players themselves.
"Spirit of the Game" is the central governing principle of ultimate. Respect for one's opponent is paramount. The official rules of ultimate strictly forbid any action that might be construed as bad sportsmanship.

Highly competitive and committed play is encouraged, but never at the expense of the bond of mutual respect between players, adherence to the agreed upon rules of any event, nor the basic enjoyment of play.
(WFDF 2010)

In place of referees, the players call their own fouls or infractions. In Ultimate, every player is responsible for their own conduct on the field. The emphasis on fair play and good sportsmanship is present throughout the rules, which stipulate the correct resolution to a variety of commonly arising situations. This enables play to resume in a manner closely resembling one in which no foul or infraction had occurred.

For more about Ultimate Frisbee in Ireland, visit the official Irish Ultimate Frisbee website.

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