Fitness for Ultimate

The Demands of Ultimate:

Agility, balance & coordination - changing direction and stretching or diving to throw and catch the disc.

Power & strength – for accelerating, stopping, changing direction, jumping and throwing the disc.

Coordination & technical skill – throwing the disc with intended direction, speed, trajectory and timing, while under pressure from a defender.

Visual & spatial awareness – of team mates, the opposition, opportunities and threats.

Communication – to coordinate with teammates and keep to the ‘Spirit of the Game’ by interacting respectfully and honestly with players of both teams.

Strategic intelligence, patience & flexibility – for competitive advantage, strategies must be learned, practiced and then implemented into the game.

All of these demands are much more effectively achieved by having good physical conditioning.

Endurance and recovery are also very important and allow you to perform and continue performing at your highest level. Most teams do a large amount of fitness work to prepare them for the demands of playing ultimate.

There are numerous fitness plans available for download on the Internet, All have their strengths and weaknesses. Caution should be used when attempting any fitness plan. A proper warm up and cool down are essential to prevent injury, If any any exercise causes discomfort of pain seek professional advice before continuing.

A simple 10 week fitness plan for Bristol University Ultimate team which Matt helps coach is available here;

http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Union/UBUFC/squad/tenweek/index.html

Another exercise they have been working on is to improve their jump height by following this prorgram;

http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Union/UBUFC/squad/jump/index.html

You can follow the GB junior women's team fitness plan on the UK Ultimate Association website

here;

http://www.ukultimate.com/national_teams/gb_junior_women/file_store/fitness