Spirit of the Game

What the SOTG is and how it exists in Ultimate.

“Spirit of the Game places the responsibility for fair play on every player. Highly competitive play is encouraged but should never sacrifice the mutual respect between players, adherence to the rules of the game, or the basic joy of play.” (WFDF Rules of Ultimate).

As Ultimate games do not have referees, even at international level, they are governed by the player's sense of sportsmanship and fair play.  When an incident occurs, such as a foul being called, play is stopped and it is discussed by the players involved.

If players are unable to come to an agreement about an incident, all players go back to where they were before the incident occurred, the disc is returned to the previous thrower and play continues from there. There are no yellow or red cards in Ultimate and there is no need for a referee.

As ultimate is a non-contact sport, a foul can be called when:

- A marker touches the disc or the hand or arm of the thrower before the disc is released; which is called as 'contact'.

-  A player makes contact in such a way as to make the opposing player drop the disc in the act of catching; this is called as 'strip'.

-  A player pulls, pushes or barges another; although incidental contact is allowed.

- An offencive player, blocks the path of a marker trying to follow another offencive player; which is called as 'pick'

When a foul occurs, a player directly involved will call ‘foul!”. Play stops, an agreement is reached about the nature of the incident and the consequences according to the rules, then players resume their positions to continue as though nothing happened.

Spirit is also important more generally amongst the frisbee community; see further in tournament play.  Frisbee clubs and players are very welcoming to new players and always happy to passionately explain this great sport we all love!  If you move to a new city or country a quick email to the local team contact will bring you loads of new friends almost instantly!