Ultimate Frisbee. A sport like no other. A combination of football, soccer, and basketball, but simply much more “ultimate.” This sport has grown over the past decade throughout the entire world, providing ways for people to come together in a community incomparable to any other. The Spirit of the Game has brought together some of the most interesting combinations of people, and provided friendships for lifetimes.

But, before you go looking into more of what this sport truly entails, here are a few things us experienced Ultimate players ask you never to say to us again. (All in good spirit, of course…).

1. "So, it's like frisbee golf, right?"

Not at all. Frisbee golf is the one sport that you throw smaller sized discs into a basket. Ultimate is a combination of basketball, football, and soccer. When you have the disc you can't run with it, but you can pivot. There are cutters and handlers who work together to work the disc up the field. Frisbee golf has no correlation to this sport whatsoever, other than you both use a disc.

2. "Ultimate frisbee? I have a course for that by my house."

That's a frisbee golf course. Ultimate is played on a slightly smaller football field. The object of frisbee golf is to get the disc into a metal basket. In Ultimate, you want to score in the end zones at the ends of the field.

3. "Is that the one you throw into those baskets?"

See above quotes.

4. "Ultimate is a pretty stupid name."

Thanks. There's not much else we can call it though, so if you have a suggestion, please let us know.

5. "Other sports have spirit too."

Yes, I'm sure you do, but is your sport so centered around spirit that they capitalize it in the rule book and call it "The Spirit of the Game?" Didn't think so. It's also extremely important in integrity. One of the very special things about Ultimate is that it doesn't have any referees (except in the AUDL). Everything that is called on the field is called by the players.

6. "I can throw a frisbee around too."

I'm sure you can. It's honestly not that hard to throw one. But add a person in front of you counting to ten, and a bunch of people trying to get open and away from their defenders downfield. Can you throw your frisbee then?

7. "Do you play that with dogs?"

No? That's called a game of catch, friends.

8. "Oh, I play that at church picnics all the time and it's great!"

Yeah, some nice little pick up games with tennis shoes to mark the end zones. Great times.

9. "What's so Ultimate about it? Haha, get it?"

Yes, I get it.

10. "Wait, you actually run a lot?"

We run quite a lot actually. The only time you aren't running is when you have the disc. Other than that, you need to be moving so that you can create space and get open in order to advance the disc up the field.

11. "There's tournaments for that stuff?"

Surprisingly, yes. The sport is huge actually. When I started playing in high school and got asked to play for a club team that competed at a National tournament every year, I went insane. The sport is incredibly huge, there is even world championships, and talks about possibly being in the Olympics soon.

12. "Why are you all obsessed with these buckets?"

Think of it as a soccer bag, baseball bag, or a golf bag. Our precious 5 gallon buckets with padded seats on top are actually a lot cooler than you think. Think your awesome soccer bag protects all of your items when you are playing in the rain? Think again! Our buckets are made of plastic, so no water gets in and no water gets out also. Kinda smart if you ask me, and you have an extra seat on the sideline. 14. "Isn't that something that college boys just play?"

13. "It's an actual sport?"

Yes, it is an actual sport. You should look into it sometime.

14. "Why do you have so many frisbees?"

Collecting discs is just something we do. Every tournament you go to is usually going to have a tournament disc you can buy, and the more discs you have the cooler your wall will look when you hang them all up. You can never have too many discs.

15. "What's jersey trading?"

You know how at the end of professional soccer games at the World Cup where those players trade jerseys? It's kind of the same thing. Except the idea of jersey trading in Ultimate is to collect the coolest looking jerseys. One cool part of Ultimate is to create really cool jersey designs. In return, other teams will and it can make for some interesting trades.

We don't mind explaining the sport to you. In fact, we love it. Growing the support and interest in Ultimate is our goal, but we just ask not to be so ignorant about it. It's okay to ask questions, but sometimes we just get so annoyed. It's nothing personal, just the perks of being a not as well known sport.