Then one day in 1948, Fred Morrison was passing the Frisbie Pie Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He slowed down to watch two truck drivers throwing empty pie pans back and forth in the parking lot.

As he watched, a wind sprang up. The pie pans wobbled and fell to the ground. They were not heavy enough to stay in flight for long.

Fred continued on his way, his inventive mind was working on an idea. 

When he got home to L.A. Fred went to work. He wanted to make something round and flat, something that would fly through the air even on windy days. He attached a steel ring to the inside rim of a pie pan. This added extra weight.

Fred practiced throwing the pan at a tree trunk. The weight gave the pan enough stability, or steadiness, to sail straight at the target. There was one problem though. His invention was heavy enough to fly straight at the target but it was also heavy enough to give someone a good "donk" on the head if they got in the way. What material would be heavy enough to fly through the air, yet be light enough, not to clobber unexpected participants?

The answer was not long in coming.  Plastics were just beginning to be widely used in the late 1940s. Fred studied and read and tested. He found that a simple plastic circle didn't work. But the right design might do it. Eventually Fred worked out the design- a disc, round and flat on the bottom, but with a sloped top. Then he curved the rim under, and put small rounded projections on the top of the disc. Finally he had a toy that would fly straight and that would not harm people wandering into its flight path. The plastic used was soft and resilient, or "bouncy." 

This disc was called  "Morrison's Flyin' Saucer." To sell them Fred needed a "gimmick" to catch people's attention and he came up with a good one. He took a friend to the County Fair in Pomona, near Loa Angeles. They each had a carton of Flyin' Saucers. They also had bundles of something else-  "invisible wire." Of course there wasn't really any wire. The boxes were empty.

"Make way! Make way for the invisible wire!" Fred called as he made his way through the crowd.

"Invisible wire." What's he talking about?' "Is he crazy?" Fred heard the people murmuring to each other, as he set up two posts several yards apart. He looked very serious as he strung his 'wire' between the posts.

The spectators hushed as Fred move to one post and his friend to the other.

"Now I shall throw my flying saucer along this length of wire right into my partners hand," he announced.

As predicted, Fred's saucer flew straight as an arrow into his friends outstretched hand. They repeated the feat many times. Not once did it wobble or fly off course.

"Sure looks like that disc is attached to something," someone yelled. "How much is that wire?"

One cent a foot," Fred replied. "And if you buy a hundred feet I'll give you a Flyin' Saucer free."

Each day at the fair Fred and his friend did lots of invisible wire business.

After the fair, Fred decided to change the design of his disc. He had found that it flew well when spun in one direction but not as well when the reverse spin was used. He thought the projections on top might be the problem so he removed them and the "Pluto Platter" was born.

One day, Rich Kerr and "Spud" Melin from the Wham-O Company were watching Fred demonstrating his toy in Los Angeles. They asked Fred to visit their factory in San Gabriel, California, to discuss manufacturing his Pluto Platters.

Rich Kerr, while visiting Harvard University one day, saw student throwing Pluto Platters. While talking with them he found out that they used to throw Frisbie Company pie tins and that they were now calling their Pluto Platter Games "Frisbie-ing."

Rich recalled Fred Morrison telling him about the Frisbie Pie Company. He talked with Fred and the people at Wham-O and everyone agreed that it would be a great name for their disc and the sport but they changed the spelling to "Frisbee."

And Frisbee it remains. Hundreds, and maybe thousands of different models and designs have been created to cater for the many new sports that have evolved and developed, since Fred's inventive mind was spurred into action by two truck drivers, flicking empty pie pans to each other in a parking lot, just over 50 years ago.

It has been described as netball, played on a rugby field with a frisbee, a essentially applying the same rules, but players may move anywhere and if a pass is dropped or intercepted, there is a turnover. 

The aim of the game being to get the disc to one of your team members standing in the end zone at your end of the field to score a point.

Ultimate is usually played up to 19 points to find a winner, with a time limit of 2 hours.

Seven players at a time are on the field and teams sub fresh players on as needed. 

Ultimate can be very fast and is a physically demanding non contact sport requiring good speed and agility when played at the highest level.

Ultimate has a strong following in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Palmerston North, Nelson, Dunedin and in Christchurch. For more information on Ultimate in New Zealand, click this link.
 
 

Ultimate Rules What Is Ultimate? The Ultimate Frisbee Resource

Ultimate Players Association (UPA) British Ultimate Federation

Guts is one of the team events in the flying disc sports. It is played by two teams of five players each.

The official disc of the game is the Pro model Frisbee disc. For informal play, a lightweight, blunt-rim disc such as the 100 G DDC is sometimes used. 

The playing field consists of two parallel goal-lines 15 m in length and 14 m apart. The teams stand in line opposite each other. Each team defends a goal-line.

The disc is thrown back and forth between the teams. The object is to throw the disc through the line of defending players.

The throwing team scores a point when the other team does not catch a correctly thrown disc. The receiving team scores a point when the disc is not thrown correctly. When a correctly thrown disc is caught by the other team, no points are scored. The team that first reaches 21 points, wins the game.

Tip: if you want you can play with fewer players on a team.

Tip: at first you can make the game somewhat easier by suspending the rule that the disc must be caught with one hand.

The most important rules.
A game consists of a series of exchanges in which one team throws the disc and the other team attempts to catch the disc. The teams are alternately throwing and receiving: in the next exchange the throwing team becomes the receiving team and vice versa.
For the first exchange of the game the throwing team appoints a thrower. Then in each exchange the disc is thrown by the player who caught the disc. When the disc was not caught, the throwing team scores a point. The next thrower is the player who last touched the disc or where the disc passed most closely.
A disc is thrown only when the players of the receiving team stand on their own goal line. The defenders stand an arm’s length apart so that their fingertips can just touch each other. The thrower must stand behind his or her own goal line.
A correctly thrown disc passes the goal line of the receiving team topside up and within reach of at least one defender. Players may not throw the disc above the extended reach of the receiving team. When the throw was not correct the receiving team scores a point. If a disc is thrown cor-rectly, a player of the defending team must catch the disc with one hand. The disc shall not touch any two parts of the defender’s body at one time. Also the disc shall not have touched the ground.
Each time a total of eleven points is reached, the teams change the goal line they are defending.
With the score at 20-20, play continues until one of teams leads by two points.
No referee.
Like all flying disc sports guts is played without a referee. The players themselves are responsible for the course of the game. Observers sometimes assist in the determination of throws. This sheet provides the most important rules only. This is enough to get started. Of course, when you want to participate in official competitions, you must be familiar with all rules. Your national association can provide you with these. Or you can download them from the WFDF website. And beyond that, the more experienced players at a tournament are often willing to give an explanation when needed.
Text: Peter Cornelissen, Mike Ocon

Attacks can be mounted in two ways: by getting both discs in the hands of the opposition at the same time, or by landing a disc in the opposition court so that it comes to rest within the court without ever having touched the out of bounds markings.  A point is scored when a successful attack is made or whenever the opposition throws the disc out of bounds.

The number of points required to win a game is determined by the competitive format or by the players themselves on social occasions.

The game is best played on grass surfaces.

The intent of the game.

The intention of freestyle is performing creative, artistic manoeuvres with a flying disc (one, or more if you want). In competition freestyle is played by teams of two or three players who perform a routine to music. A routine consists of throws, catches and moves and has a fixed length of 3-5 minutes.

The players themselves choose their music and built up their routine. The routines of all participants are compared by judges, who evaluate them on difficulty, execution and presentation.

The team with the best joint score on these three aspects wins the competition.

In between the “official” routines you will often find players who are performing freestyle just for fun. They are improvising with each other, often in large groups. This is called jamming, and to most players it is an important part of the sport.

Below some basic techniques are listed. Also the judging system is explained.

Some basic techniques.

As you would expect, throwing and catching the disc are basic parts of each routine. There are a lot ofways to throw a disc and even more ways to catch it. You can use a backhand or side-arm throw (see also the info sheet on throwing techniques). By changing the angle of the disc it will curve to the left or to the right. By flipping the disc with your thumb when releasing a backhand throw you can make the disc “bounce” to the ground.

The easiest and most safe way to catch the disc is the “pancake catch” (with both hands). In a freestyle routine you will mostly see more difficult and therefore more adventurous catches.
A few examples: one hand low, one hand high, under the leg, reverse under the leg (the other way around), under both legs, around both legs, around the extended angle, around one leg, behind the back, behind the head, around the body. Take your pick. It is more spectacular when you jump high in the air.

Then there is the delay. Basically this is spinning the disc on your fingernail (although some people can also do it on their teeth). You can move the spinning disc around: under your legs, behind your back, etc. For this technique it is very important that the disc has a very smooth surface. Most players are using silicon spray for the inside of the disc and a fake fingernail. It is allowed to do this.

When you hit a spinning disc from below exactly in the middle it will go up. You can repeat this a number of times. This manoeuvre is called percussion. Also here there are numerous variations. And the experts: they can also kick the disc with their foot.

Another way to keep a disc spinning is brushing. By repeatedly hitting the disc with your hand (or foot for the experts) on the outside rim it keeps spinning and therefore remains in the air.

The final manoeuvre is the body roll. Spread your arms, tilt your torso a bit to the back and let the disc roll from your fingertips over your arm and chest towards your other hand.

For more information and  photos, try these links.