***ULTIMATE*** Being on a girls team, versus playing mixed sports in Ultimate Frisbee

Rising High

Last weekend I joined a two day Ultimate Frisbee tournament very close to home, in Delft, Netherlands: Rising High. As I am now playing Ultimate for little over a year, this was my first time attending this annual tournament. And another first was playing on a ladies team. And not just any ladies team - a ladies team in pink.

Since the concept of having mixed teams is quite unique to Ultimate, I thought this post would be a great opportunity to share about my experiences of being on a mixed versus on a ladies team.

My team, ready to play. I'm the only one in a tanktop, so easy to recognise.

Open, mixed, ladies

If you find Ultimate matches online, you'll notice that there are three divisions: open, mixed and ladies. At higher levels, open is equal to men's games. Open means the team decides which gender is on the field, and in theory (and at lower levels) they can include some girls. Mixed means both teams have to have an equal amount of girls on the line. And ladies division - well - that will be girls only.

The Ultimate team I joined in my hometown Rotterdam doesn't have a very large number of members. At trainings, typically 12 to 15 people show up. Last few weeks, a few girls have (re)joined, but during winter time I was often the only lady at training. With the girls who are coming now, we might just have enough ladies to play the mixed competition after summer. But till now, for both indoor and outdoor competition we have been playing open. The level we're playing at, other teams often bring only men to the field. Which for me results in mostly defending or being defended by a guy.

Teammate not on time to prevent the girl from the other team to catch the disc

Playing against men

There are ladies who are very athletic, very fast, and have amazing throws. Definitely there are enough ladies playing Ultimate who will outrun and out-throw many men, and it is always a lot of fun to see them play. But, typically, men are at an advantage. If I'm playing against all guys, defence is tough and requires a lot of my energy.

If I'm marked up against all men, I try to spot the shorter ones, the ones that I estimate as either being a bit less fast or less experienced. Less experienced will mean their cuts are more predictable and I can play smart in defending them, saving my energy. Them being shorter does not always mean they're less fast - some of our team's fastest cutters are not that tall. I'm 1.73 meters in length myself, not very short, but Dutch people can be tall and in Ultimate in Netherlands, the guys tend to go from 1.80 to 2 meters in height. Being tall gives advantage in getting the disc high.

Our number 48 is jumping in an attempt to block the disc, but no luck - it's heading steadily into the hands of the girl in orange.

Offence

In Ultimate Frisbee, a very basic element to understanding game strategy is the position of handlers and cutters. As the team tries to move the disc up the field to catch it in the opposite endzone and score, it is the handlers who stay back and move the disc between themselves, till one of the cutters makes a great move and is free to receive the disc further up the field. The handlers have to be very confident with the disc, being able to move the disc either with shorter dump-passes, or giving it deep to one of the cutters. Handlers need to have a very good eye to spot opportunities in the game, and have to be keen to always provide easy dump opportunities for their fellow handlers. This means they have to be on the move too, but probably less than the cutters.

One of our handlers. Not the fastest girl on the team, but having awesome throws. She's one of the players on the team who gave me the opportunity to go deep for the score

Cutters are further up in the field and have to make fakes and then sprints, to lose the mark (defender) who is keeping an eye on them. Cutters are arranged in the field in either a vertical or horizontal stack. Which means they start out lined up quite close together. Then they fake, trying to get their mark to commit to following them, and make their cut, trying to outrun their mark. If the handler sees this as a good opportunity, the cutter might get the disc. Then either gives a dump-pass back to the handler, or sees an opportunity downfield or even in the endzone, for another cutter to get the disc or even score.

Three of our cutters managed to get away, taking the other team by surprise. This resulted in one of our few scores of this game

Playing with men

If I'm defended by a guy, it really depends whether I'll have any luck at cutting. Sometimes I'll have the luck of being underestimated, I can catch my defence by surprise and get open to receive the disc. It's not only speed. As I was saying, experience matters a lot. I have to improve my cutting skills and especially making fakes to get my defender committed to my deep cut, then go in instead and loose him, or the other way around. Or be alert to when my defender isn't paying close attention and then quickly make my move. There is so much I can still win in playing smart, and I'll definitely be giving those guys a challenge. But if they're both a lot faster and more experienced, being a cutter is annoying. At best, I keep moving to drag my defender away and give space to other team players to make their cuts. Or, I'll move to a handlers position. I have many team players who are better with the disc. But for receiving the disc and playing it safe, giving the dump pass back to another handler or only moving it up the field when I'm very confident with that throw, I'll manage.

Tapping the disc in after a turn, taking the handler position

Then, sadly - throwing the disc away as I'm trying to make the dump pass. See how the disc is already slipping from my fingers? I stuck to cutting after that in this particular game.

So summing it up, playing with and against all guys means I have to make awesome cuts to get open, and work really hard for it. And that in a handlers position, I play it very safe. Means I'm part of the play, but most of the (assist) scores are for my other team mates.

Playing with the ladies team

Turns out, for a girl, I'm not bad as a cutter. I was one of the fastest runners of our team! And I'd get the fastest ladies of the opposing team to defend. Lol. I think playing with guys all the time has helped me improve my speed. Cutting became very effective all at once. In that way, this tournament really added a lot to my experience and confidence. Because as my cuts were being successful, I also fully committed to running my fastest and learned better how I can shake off my defender. This will help me fully committing to my cuts, whoever I'm marked up against.

Getting open on the in-cuts and receiving the disc from a handler a bit farther on the field, also gave me the opportunity to put some deep throws, even while I wasn't handling. This allowed me to make a few assists, meaning I'd give the pass that is caught in the endzone by a team member, getting us a score. Usually I'm very hesitant to throw these passes, because I know there'll be others on my team who can do them with a higher success rate. Playing with the girls, I was more confident to try. I made mistakes, sometimes giving the deep pass to another girl and overstimating her speed. Which probably happens also due to playing with men most of the time - girls will just not make it there equally fast. Other times it worked out. But again, this added to my experience and confidence in throwing too.

High-fiving after a score. I don't remember whether it was ours or theirs. In Ultimate, there's a lot of emphasis on the spirit of the game, and an amazing score is typically celebrated by both teams.

Playing against the Dutch under 20 ladies team

Maybe from what I've told so far, you'd think we were doing fine with our ladies team at the Rising High tournament. But to be honest, we made it to spot 7 of 8. Partly because we had a pick-up team, not used to playing with each other. Partly because we had a lot of new players (like me), with little Ultimate experience. And partly because the level of the other teams was high. The other team in the pictures, playing in orange, was the Dutch ladies team under 20. They won the ladies division of the tournament. And they really rock - what an amazing game they played! They'll join the world cup in Canada in summer, and I'm really excited to see them play. I think these girls really have something in store, and it was so much fun to see them in action! Big cheers and all my support to all of them and their Ultimate careers, hope they'll become even more amazing in the following few years.

Still all under 20, but with a lot of talent - looking forward to watching these girls evolve in their Ultimate careers!

Summing it up

Playing on a ladies team was fun. Since this was a pick-up team, with a lot of less experienced players, I think it could be even more fun. But I liked how all of a sudden, I got to be a strong player on the team, and how my cuts and throws really mattered for our games outcomes.

Team huddle, after the game.

But. Playing mixed or open and even if it means having to match up with men - I do actually enjoy the challenge of that. It makes me work really hard for my cuts, teaches me to play a safe handling game and to stick to the throws I'm very confident about. Then, even if I play a less dominant role in the game, I really enjoy how as a team the level of our performance gets to be much higher.

What I'm sincerely hoping for is that those ladies who've been coming to training more regularly now will stick, and that we'll have enough girls to play the mixed division after summer. That would really give the best of both worlds - allow me to match up against other girls and have my efforts giving me more results, plus playing together with men and enjoying the high performance which they add to the game. If we make it there, will definitely let you know how it turned out!

Ultimate

If you're a girl, looking for a challenging sport - get yourself on an Ultimate team close to you! And if you're a guy, then do the same :). Ultimate requires speed, strategy, technique, stamina, team work and a positive attitude. All you'd want from a sport. I'm so happy I've found this challenging and fun game where I can run my legs off till I'm more than completely exhausted.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and learned a bit more about the awesome game of Ultimate!

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Pictures made not by me, but by my husband this time. Using our camera, Nikon D90