Ultimate Skills

Overview of the essential individual Ultimate skills.

Ultimate stands out from all the other disc sports in many ways and with that comes a unique set of individual skills that go way beyond simply throwing and catching a Frisbee.

Once you've got the basic Frisbee skills working nicely, you're ready to get into Ultimate. Here we cover the essential Ultimate skills - a progression from casual throw and catch play which helps you to deal with the other team. By introducing an opposition you increase pressure, limit time, limit space and add lot's of movement.  At first it can be quite chaotic but practice the following and you'll be just fine!

Throwing

When throwing for Ultimate you need to be able to deliver flat, catchable throws. Producing discs with flights that curve into the path of running receivers is the aim. These are the most effective types of pass because they hang in the air longer and thus provide more room for error.

Body position needs to be well balanced as good form will lead to good throws.

It is important that you choose the thow that has the highest probability of success – i.e. is it catchable?! You can select forehand and backhand,  shaping throws towards receivers, or even overhead throws.

For a full description of throwing see the techniques section.

Inside out (IO) / outside in

Basically IO is skip curve and OI is roll curve as described in frisbee skills.  The terms IO and OI are used in ultimate as they can be cleary and quickly communicated between players on the pitch, "NO IO!!!"

The golden rule is to always seek to use two hands whenever possible!

Leave the casual one handed catching for posing on the beach - this is Ultimate - and it's team sport... if you drop the disc the other team gets possession, and that ain't good!

It helps to adjust body position to make catches as safe as possible.  By placeing your body behind an incoming frisbee you give yourself a second chance to grap the disc if you fumble your first attempt.

There is a lot of communication on the ultimate field which helps the team play together.  For example setting the direction of the force, switching who people are marking to prevent scoring passes and setting an order in which offensive players are going to cut all need to be agreed between teammates.

Though you can't run holding the disc you are allowed to step out as long as you keep one foot planted.  This movement while on the disc helps to open up throws in different directions and gets you into a good body positions to throw.

While pivoting, faking to throw can move your marker producing the space you needed to confidently make your intended throw.

Space is a premium on the ultimate field and to receive a pass you must get away from your marker and find space.  This can be made easier by briefly running in another direction before quickly turning, throwing your marker off balance, and running, or 'cutting' in your intended direction.

Very rarely do ultimate players stand in space waiting for the disc as it makes it very easy for the defence to get an interception!

Generally ultimate is played with a one on one defence. Each player chooses one player from the other team to mark. They work really hard to stay close to their player to prevent them getting the disc.

When the player you’re marking has the disc you stand a disc’s width from them trying to stop their throws whilst applying the stall count (10 seconds within which they must make a pass).  Often teams will force in one direction, e.g. allow throws to the right hand side of the field, but try and stop everything to the left. The rest of their team can all mark their players on that side, knowing that throws are likely to go that way, making it easier to cover the runs or cuts.