Ultimate is a
team sport played with a flying disc. The object of the game is to score points
by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end
zone in American football or the in-goal area in rugby. Players may not run
with the disc, and must keep a pivot while holding the disc.
While
originally called ultimate frisbee, it is now officially called ultimate in
many areas because Frisbee is registered as a trademark, albeit genericized,
for the line of discs made by the Wham-O toy company. In 2008, there were 4.9
million Ultimate players in the US
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More about Ultimate:
Rules:
The basic rules of ultimate are as follows:
The two teams begin at opposite end zones and try to advance
the disc to the other end zone. The disc is put into play by one team throwing
off to the other team. This throw-off is called the pull. Once in play, the
disc may be moved only by passing, so the player holding the disc must stay put
(but may pivot on one foot). If a team successfully advances the disc into the
end zone, that team scores a point, the teams swap directions, and the team
that scored pulls to the other team.
If a pass is incomplete, intercepted, or caught out of
bounds, the opposing team immediately gains possession and tries to move the
disc in the other direction. Another way to change possession is that the
player holding the disc, called the thrower, has a limited time to throw the
disc: A defensive player within 3 m - 10 feet of the thrower may loudly count
to 10 (by seconds), and if the disc is not thrown by the 'T' of ten, the
defense immediately gains possession. This defensive player is called the
marker, and the audible count is called the stall count.
The game is played until an end condition is reached,
typically a time limit or when one team reaches a certain number of points.
A regulation game features teams of 7 players each, with
substitutions allowed between points. A USA Ultimate regulation field is 120
yards (110m) by 40 yards (37m), including end zones each 25 yards (23m)
deep. In USA Ultimate Club Championship Series (2012) the endzone length was
shortened to 20 yards (18m) to allow for consistency with WFDF rules used in
international competition and to increase the number of field sites that can be
used for ultimate.
History
The original "frisbee" was nothing more than a tin
pie plate from the Frisbie Pie Company located in New Haven, CT. It was in the
early 1920s that students from Yale started playing catch with these pie tins.
Truck drivers for the Frisbie company began throwing the pie tins to passersby,
and it eventually became a major activity introduced to soldiers around the
country during WWII.[6] In 1948, a man by the name of Fred Morrison developed a
plastic version of the disc which he called the Flying Saucer, and then in
1951, created an improvised version known as the Pluto Platter. The Wham-O
Manufacturing Company bought the patent from Morrison in 1955 and renamed it
the Frisbee.The game of Ultimate, derived from Fred Morrison's original
product, was invented by Jared Kass and Joel Silver, along with Jonny Hines and
Buzzy Hellring, in 1967 at Columbia High School, located in Maplewood, NJ. Its
collegiate roots can be traced back to the first ever game played between
Rutgers and Princeton in 1972.
