A Hands-On Experience: Ultimate Frisbee

Over the course of my Fall semester at the University of Iowa, I have been working on a story about the ever-popular sport of Ultimate Frisbee. I attribute this sport to Dodgeball in the sense that it kind of sprouted up out of nowhere (for me at least) despite having been around for decades.
I - and I'm not alone in thinking this - was under the impression that Dodgeball popularity really took off when the comedy movie starring Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughan hit the mainstream in 2004. After that everybody wanted to play dodgeball. Kids in my high school formed a team and went to Chicago for a weekend. They even managed to roll their SUV in the ditch and had one of the kids' parents come and give them another SUV to finish the trip.

Ultimate Frisbee is much that way for me too. When I got to Iowa, I knew nothing about it. I thought, wow, college students still play catch with a frisbee. Then I noticed just how many kids were playing and how popular it really was. I still couldn't understand what the draw was so I decided to make it my topic and do some investigating.

In the process, I thought to myself, hey maybe I should try playing Ultimate Frisbee. Just give it a chance and see what it's like. So I managed to get in with some guys in a few pick up games throughout November and I recorded my experiences from each encounter.

For the record, Ultimate Frisbee is pretty much like 7-on-7 flag football, except the game speed is more like soccer. You pass the frisbee and then you get a certain amount of time to get rid of it. If you drop it, it gets intercepted or knocked down, then it's a turnover. The game can be played on any kind of field, usually a soccer or football field, just so long as you have an endzone.

Note- I thought about having pictures taken, but quite frankly I didn't want anybody to have anything embarassing they could pull on me for future references.

November 4th- First day of Ultimate Frisbee. I am a little nervous considering I don't know most of these guys and I will have no idea what I'm doing....check that. I did look up the rules on the internet. Not that I understood what it meant, but it's effort. They hand out A's for that don't they?
After the game- Ow. I didn't realize how much running was involved in Ultimate Frisbee. I always regretted not being able to continue playing soccer after the 3rd grade, but if this is suppose to be easier than soccer then maybe I made a smart choice.

The guys seemed to be okay with my presence there. It could just be that they know what I'm there for and are "dealing" with me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not unathletic...I just can't throw a frisbee. At least not for this game.

November 9th- It's cold, but who cares Iowa beat Penn State last night and I wore shorts to the game. I'm going to work on getting the disc to somebody who can handle it better. I'm also going to wear pants today.

After the game- That went better. I didn't drop too many passes today and actually caught a pass for a score. I also managed to get to know some of the guys a bit better, although they still kinda look at me as an outsider.

November 13th- Back at it again. Today should be a little warmer, so I'm looking forward to that. The one thing I hate about playing in the cold is that my nose acts like I have a cold by the time I'm done. It really is hard to breathe when your nose is full of junk. My basketball coach never understood that. He always thought I was slacking. I just couldn't breathe out of my nose.
Try playing a sport with your nose plugged. There's a difference. Anyways, my goal today is to try and help my team win. So far I am 0-4. We've played more than 4 games, but we've also had enough guys each time that they'd replace people from the losing team. Kinda like how it works with basketball at the Field House.

After the game- Another goal accomplished. I went 1-2 today. No that's not good at all, but a win is a win. I am also starting to get the hang of some of the offensive stuff they do. It's more about creating a path to free a guy up to get him the frisbee as one of the responsibilities of a cutter. I scored a couple more times too. I have to admit, though, I am nowhere near the most athletic person on the field. A lot of those guys are quick and can jump pretty well. They also must be good at football because there have been some pretty amazing catches.
It sounds like next week will be it for me.

November 20th- This is going to be my last game...for now. The guys wanted to get one more game in before Thanksgiving break. It's gonna be chilly, but I'm up for it. My only goal going in is to not get hurt. Of course that's been my goal all along, but since it's the last game there's no need to put anything else at a greater priority.

After the game- My most successful outing. I went 2-1 with my teams today. My ankles are sore of course, but the good news is that I'm injury-free otherwise. It's a good thing they're done too because the ground is getting pretty solid. I hit it a couple times today and it felt more like landing on gravel and dirt than on soft grass. I guess that's what astroturf feels like (maybe I'm wrong on that assumption but oh well).

Overall, I'd say my experience with Ultimate Frisbee was very eye-opening. I have a newfound respect for the game and I wouldn't mind finding people to play it again. I don't intend to keep working on it to perfect my craft like I do with basketball, but maybe I'll practice tossing a frisbee around more often. I still suck at throwing the dang thing. It's not like I'm throwing a ball with my opposite hand, I can throw a frisbee straight for miles. The problem is you don't want to throw a frisbee straight for miles. The field is only like 70 yards long. Also I never did keep track of how many "trick-throws" I attempted that saw the frisbee land immediately in the ground in front of me. I think I made more people laugh at me in one game than times I had the frisbee in my hands that day.
It was a fun experience and it was nice to meet new people. I am not the most social person in the world. In fact I am very shy when it comes to trying to talk to people, mainly because I am not a smooth talker, but nonetheless I was able to learn about other people's experiences and have a good time. I learned how to play a game I came in knowing almost nothing about. All in all I am glad I decided to investigate the sport of Ultimate Frisbee.