What I’ve Learned from Playing an Unconventional Sport
(Author’s Note: This summer has been a time of reflection, so my next 2 stories are going to be about things that have played an impact on me as I’ve grown up)
This past memorial weekend, thousands of viewers tuned into the largest sport event of the nation, a national event attracting more attention than the Super Bowl — the 2019 USA Ultimate D1 Collegiate National Championships.
Just kidding about the popular part.
(No, it’s not NCAA D1) And the reason you‘ve never heard of it is probably because you don’t frequent the ESPNU/ESPN3 channels, or that 90% of the population still think frisbee is just a casual event caucasian frat bros do when they’re not partying.
While Ultimate Frisbee is still far from mainstream, there is been significant growth of the activity in recent years, as it was just a year ago that the professional league AUDL went public with a small, but meaningful IPO.
With Ultimate coming into sports broadcasting platforms such as ESPN, its reach has increased drastically. Schools are adding Ultimate to their physical education curriculum, and summer camps dedicated to Ultimate are springing up around the country (such as National Ultimate Training Camp etc.)
Ultimate gaining traction excites me — I love the sport and everything it has given me. I can’t wait for more and more people to play as a young child and even further grow the sport.
The day I first touched a frisbee was when I was 5 years old, throwing in the neighborhood fields with my dad and older sister.
3 throws later, my sister threw it at my head level, and 5 year old me ended up with stitches above my eye and an irrational fear of flying pans.
I played soccer, basketball, and flag football religiously growing up; I hated running by itself, but when you added scoring with a ball into the equation, it became the most fun thing ever in my eyes.
Fast forward a few years, I had stopped playing sports competitively, and occasionally went to a local park to play pickup ball. It was then that I stumbled upon my school’s newly established club Ultimate team practicing, with a bunch of familiar faces.
I joined into their scrimmage, and by beginner’s luck I did well enough that they asked me to join the team.
One season later, in my senior year, our team won the 2018 Maryland Ultimate State Championship.
As a college sophomore, now I play for USC Lockdown Ultimate, and even though this year we came just short of qualifying for nationals, I experienced the same rollercoaster of emotions, and ultimately pride from competing with my team.
I’ve played a lot of different sports before on a lot of different teams — there’s just something different about playing Ultimate. Ultimate hasn’t just been an athletic activity, for me, it’s been more about developing friendships and learning lessons on and off the field.
Competing in this activity for 2 years has taught me some genuinely useful lessons that have surprisingly transferred over to my daily life.
- Conflict resolution is an important skill to have — but some conflicts are not resolvable and that’s no one’s fault.
Ultimate is a self-refereed sport; as you would expect, that results in many conflicts on the field when it comes to calling fouls. I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of letting my emotions run loose when these fouls are called — I will complain and I will make ridiculous (totally unsportsmanlike) faces. But these antics have never, and will never work in reaching an optimal conclusion to the situation. Instead, when I choose to calmly express my point of view while taking into account the other player’s as well, I am much more likely to get a favorable outcome.
More importantly though, sometimes from the other player’s POV, my argument is complete bull****, so the most favorable outcome for me becomes impossible to achieve. But that’s okay. Sometimes, two parties just can’t reach an agreement, but it’s not either party’s fault. Too many people can’t deal with clashing opinions, but Ultimate has helped me become more privy to the art of conflict.
Ultimate Frisbee may be the strongest part of my resume.
2. Hard work won’t always beat talent but it will open the gates of opportunity
Ultimate is a sport that mixes the athletic needs of soccer and football with the requirement that you must be able to throw and catch a frisbee. Just like a basketball player stands no chance on the court with no ability to dribble and shoot, an Ultimate player strives master their throwing and catching ability — to the level of being able to throw to a dot, and catch anything that touches the hand.
Because Ultimate is such a niche sport, most players head into the sport with little to no previous experience. Thus despite the learning curve being daunting, I have seen firsthand how the success of two players can differ based solely on how much time they put into working out, throwing with teammates, and watching game film. Although I still firmly believe that an athletic player will beat out a slower player regardless of throwing capability, playing Ultimate has been a firsthand affirmation on the genuine potential for work to propel players to new heights.
3. On a similar note, effort is key
One difference I’ve seen with Ultimate and other similar sports like soccer or football is that effort seems to be much more crucial in the world of frisbee, specifically on defense. These days, most sports are offense-biased, with the defense innately being at a disadvantage due to the rules of the game. Often times, while watching these sports it truly seems as if the onus is on the offense to make a mistake rather than the defense to make a play.
In Ultimate however, at least from my experience playing and watching the game, the defense has much more ability to put together plays on their own as long as they really want it. Even though the rules still don’t do defenses justice, a defensive player who puts it all on the line has great potential to succeed, by just running hard, and laying out.
Laying out is when players leap forward in the air to intercept a frisbee in the air, and it is an integral part of what makes Ultimate so fun to me. To want something so badly that you put your body on the line (seriously, layouts hurt), is a clear example of how effort is key to getting things in life to me.
4. Progress has more than one definition
In football, getting stuffed behind the line of scrimmage is almost always a negative — after all, who wants to lose yards when the way to score is to advance? Although Ultimate has the same method of scoring, losing yardage is not always a negative.
One example is when field conditions are windy, and there exists a “high” and “low” side of the field. For Ultimate, it is easier to throw when you’re going with the wind, so it is beneficial to keep the frisbee located on the “high” side (because you can’t run with the disc in hand). Thus, sometimes throws that would result in yardage gains are not beneficial because they would move the disc to the “low” side, whereas a yardage loss will be taken to keep the disc in a beneficial position.
Sometimes the path of life seems to trend in only one direction, but I would like to say that Ultimate has made me more flexible as a person. Progress, success; these terms are all subjective, and one person’s success in one situation isn’t the best direction for another to go towards.
People tend to scoff when I tell them how valuable playing Ultimate has been to me. Yet to me, it’s more than a recreational activity, more than something to do for fun.
Who would have known how a casual trip to the local park at just the right time could have impacted my life going forward?
