Ultimate is a sport played with a disc (frisbee). Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone.
Other basic rules are that players must not take steps while holding
the disc (maintain a pivot), and interceptions and incomplete passes are
turnovers. At peak play there is a higher cooperation within the
striving competition. Rain, wind, or occasionally other adversities can
make for a testing match, with rapid turnovers, heightening the pressure
of play. A prominent feature of the modern game is the "lay out," a
horizontal dive to catch or block the disc.
From its beginnings in the late 1960s US counterculture, ultimate has resisted empowering any referee with rule enforcement, instead relying on the sportsmanship of players and invoking the "Spirit of the Game" to maintain fair play. Players call their own fouls and dispute a foul only when they genuinely believe it did not occur. Play without referees is the norm for league play, but has been supplanted in club competition by the use of "observers" to mediate disputes, and the nascent professional leagues even employ empowered referees.
In 2012 there were 5.1 million ultimate players in the USA. Ultimate is played across the world in pickup games and by recreational, school, club, and national teams at various age levels and with open, women's, and mixed tournaments. In 2013, two professional leagues were operating in North America. The 13th biennial national team World Championships were held in Sakai, Japan in July, 2012. USA won the open division, Japan won the women's tournament, Canada took the mixed and masters' titles, and the women masters' event was won by USA.
"I just remember one time running for a pass and leaping up in the air and just feeling the Frisbee making it into my hand and feeling the perfect synchrony and the joy of the moment, and as I landed I said to myself, 'This is the ultimate game. This is the ultimate game.'" (Jared Kass, one of the inventors of ultimate frisbee, interviewed in 2003, speaking of the summer of 1968).
From its beginnings in the late 1960s US counterculture, ultimate has resisted empowering any referee with rule enforcement, instead relying on the sportsmanship of players and invoking the "Spirit of the Game" to maintain fair play. Players call their own fouls and dispute a foul only when they genuinely believe it did not occur. Play without referees is the norm for league play, but has been supplanted in club competition by the use of "observers" to mediate disputes, and the nascent professional leagues even employ empowered referees.
In 2012 there were 5.1 million ultimate players in the USA. Ultimate is played across the world in pickup games and by recreational, school, club, and national teams at various age levels and with open, women's, and mixed tournaments. In 2013, two professional leagues were operating in North America. The 13th biennial national team World Championships were held in Sakai, Japan in July, 2012. USA won the open division, Japan won the women's tournament, Canada took the mixed and masters' titles, and the women masters' event was won by USA.
"I just remember one time running for a pass and leaping up in the air and just feeling the Frisbee making it into my hand and feeling the perfect synchrony and the joy of the moment, and as I landed I said to myself, 'This is the ultimate game. This is the ultimate game.'" (Jared Kass, one of the inventors of ultimate frisbee, interviewed in 2003, speaking of the summer of 1968).