Frisbee is for everyone

“Everyone is welcome. All levels”. The red text on the white Frisbee seems encouraging. I’m at my first training session with DTU Ultimate Frisbee. I must admit I was actually unaware this is a serious sport and that Denmark has a national team—and that one of DTU Ultimate Frisbee’ two trainers is on it.

DTU Ultimate Frisbee is the newest sports club at DTU, and the players have been training since autumn 2015. The good weather this summer evening where your intrepid DTUavisen reporter has come along to train has led the players out of the sports hall and onto the field behind Building 358 (Copenhagen School of Marine Engineering and Technology Management) on Lyngby Campus.

The trainer this evening is Philip Bendixen Larsen, and he starts the session with a warm-up, followed by a lesson for the team.

“We played last Sunday and we lost. The reason was that we weren’t good enough at catching the Frisbee.”

He then instructs us in the best catching technique and we are sent off to practice. How hard can it be? Pretty hard, as it turns out.

The goal is the ‘end zone’
The highlight of the evening is finding out how you actually compete with one another in ‘Frisbee’, and after training technique and running patterns, the mystery is solved: two teams of seven enter a pitch the same length as a football pitch (100 metres) but only two-thirds the width.

It is now a matter of grounding the Frisbee in the ‘end zone’, which is behind the opposing team’s goal line—where one of your team mates has to catch it. You are not allowed to run with the Frisbee. You have to stop where you caught it, and pass it to a team mate within ten seconds. Otherwise, you are penalized for ‘stalling’ (see fact box for details).

You talk it out
The DTU players sprint around on the grass to create openings, cover opponents or snatch the Frisbee out of the air. There are no referees, which, I am reliably informed, is one of the more distinctive features of the Ultimate environment.

“If you disagree with something during the game, play stops and you talk about it until you agree on the outcome. If you cannot agree, play goes back to a point immediately before the disagreement arose.”

The Ultimate spirit also applies to an atmosphere of fair play and mutual respect. The idea is for everyone to have fun and enjoy the game. I’m utterly captivated. Just think how many sports would benefit from adopting the Ultimate spirit ...

		Lasse Studying Civil Engineering, fourth semester. “I’ve been playing for four years. You have to be really fit to play this sport as it entails interval running including sprints and quick movements. It’s demanding. The throwing technique is also tough to master. The best thing is the general atmosphere, where the idea is for everyone to have fun and treat one another decently. We also get together outside of training to have dinner or go out for a beer. ”
		Rikke Studying Chemistry, fourth semester. “I’ve been playing for three months. I used to be an elite level horse rider, so I’m enjoying the experience of playing sport with team mates. I’ve built up a whole new network at DTU by playing and some of my new friends helped me out with a physics assignment, for example. It’s great to head off to games together. The throwing and catching techniques are the toughest things to learn, and it’s also quite a challenge to see the whole game and know where to position yourself.”
		Dennis Taking an MSc in Civil Engineering. “I’ve been playing for eight months. It’s fun to train the running patterns and the tactics behind an attack. I also enjoy the intensity. Best of all is that we don’t need a referee – that’s part of the mindset of the Ultimate community. After a match, we form a ‘spirit circle’ where we stand shoulder to shoulder with our opponents and say thanks for the game.”