Picture this: Your freshman year of college, your roommate drags you along to the first practice of an intramural team for something called “Ultimate Frisbee.” You figure it’s probably just frisbee golf or a group to organize frisbee tossing on campus. Instead, you discover your new favorite competitive sport: a mixture of basketball, football, and lacrosse that’s downright addictive.
1. When you’re first starting out, you get real humble, real fast.
You’re bound to be a little behind the veterans on your team. Seriously, you’ll probably suck. What you won’t expect is how steep the learning curve will be in the beginning. Within weeks, you’ll be tossing and catching like an old pro. Well, probably not at that level, but you’ll certainly be leagues better than you were at first.
2. You learn a LOT of new vocab.
What’s a scoober? What does poaching have to do with anything? How do you “sky” someone? Don’t ask questions, just make your best guesses at what an unfamiliar word means using context clues and shout it in-game only if someone else shouts it first.
3. Your first aerial catch makes you feels like Hercules
It could also make you feel like any other immortal demigod of your choosing, but Disney put a sick aerial catch in their Hercules movie and by Zeus, I was gonna use a gif of it in this article. The pure joy expressed on cartoon Hercules’ face is just a fraction of how awesome you’ll feel.
4. You start watching Ultimate highlights for fun
It’ll start with an assigned viewing to learn a play or help with positioning… and then suddenly you’re up ’til four auto playing ultimate videos on YouTube and critiquing professionals.
5. You can now play extreme fetch with your dog.
As long as your dog is more cooperative than the one pictured below, you’re gonna be able to toss some pretty challenging frisbees at the park. Watching your dog chase down an expertly placed backhand is truly a beautiful sight.
6. YOU ALWAYS CATCH YOUR DEFENSES
This is just a reminder of the number one thing you’ll hear from your coach, your teammates, and your enemies. Always catch your defenses.
7. You start doing trick shots, no problem
Trick shots are easy compared to handling in a high pressure in-game situation. Now that you’ve been tossing for a while, you’re ready to do some crazy tricks on camera and get some moderately decent attention online for it.
8. Frolfing with friends sounds like the perfect Friday night
When did you start calling Frisbee Golf “Frolfing” anyway? Not sure, but you have all the necessary equipment and an 18-hole course in mind any time anyone even alludes to playing.
9. You now own 17 frisbees and only use one
You’re not even sure when you bought the third one, and at least two of them are “borrowed,” but somehow you end up with an a wall covered in command strips and discs. You’re literally never going to use some of them, you might as well donate them to a good cau…yeah, nope, never mind. Hoarding it is.
10. You realize you literally never talk about anything else
It’s over. You’ll put a frisbee in your newborn son’s hands, speak of the good old days and be referring to ultimate, end up buried with a frisbee in your hands. The rest of your life is defined by the four years you spent playing ultimate in college, but is that really a bad thing?