
1968 Created the 'Ultimate' Anti-Sport Sport - js2
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/18/639615807/1968-created-the-ultimate-anti-sport-sport
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aethr
I played a lot of Ultimate in High School in the late 90s, and went on to play
for the top University team in Australia in the early 2000s while pursuing my
undergrad in Comp Sci.

One thing I've noticed about ultimate that makes a significant difference to
other sports, is the degree of control you have over the flight of the disc.
Releasing the disc parallel to the ground it should fly straight in the
direction you release it. But angling it will cause the disc to curve as it
flies, quite significantly depending on the angle.

This allows the thrower to curve the disc around defenders or even out of
bounds to reach a spot on the field where only your player can get to.

While you can curve a pass or a shot to some extent in ball spots like
football, the degree of control is much smaller. This gives frisbee a "3
dimensional" aspect I find really compelling and really adds to the depth of
strategy available to players.

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ubernostrum
_the degree of control is much smaller_

[https://i.imgur.com/XECdomK.mp4](https://i.imgur.com/XECdomK.mp4)

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akvadrako
Do you think people can't do that with a frisbee?

Curving is a better illustration — you can get a much greater angle with a
disc.

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ubernostrum
I'm sure people can do it with a frisbee. The claim I responded to was that
you _couldn 't_ do it with other types of sports equipment. The linked image
is a counterexample to that claim.

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aethr
The type of curve in your video is probably used in about 1/4 of medium range
passes in an intermediate level game of Ultimate. So what you've shown one of
the best football players in the world is capable of in a low pressure
situation, is typical fare for an intermediate level Ultimate player in a game
situation.

There is literally en entire sport called frisbee golf that involves that
level of accuracy and control in every throw, at similar distances.

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aikinai
This is a weirdly anemic article. It could have explored so many interesting
avenues like how the sport spread, what kept the "spirit of the game" alive,
or how that jives with being a professional (and possibly olympic) sport. But
it just ended.

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ndh2
Yea. It went "Ultimate is a thing, and things started existing at some point.
Ultimate also started existing at some point. Also there are no refs. Because
no, man, I'm not gonna."

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Jerry2
I recently discovered Disc Golf [1]. It's basically golf but with a frisbee!
Here's one of the best players going through one of the best of his rounds
[2]. Anyway, it seems popular and I was amazed I never heard of it before
since I play Ultimate every summer.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_golf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_golf)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=352G0B4OClU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=352G0B4OClU)

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Asooka
Non-tracking text-only link:
[https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=639615807](https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=639615807)

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Finnucane
I remember playing it as a kid in camp c. 1973, so it must have become a thing
pretty fast.

