Written by Ryan
I started playing ultimate on occasion with my high school cross country team. When I got to college, Utah State University, I signed up for an ultimate class just for fun. At the class I found out that there was a club team for the college and that they were looking for players. This would be my first introduction into competitive ultimate. I quickly fell in love with the game. The camaraderie of the team, the excitement of the competition, and the challenge of the sport were all things that I loved.
I have now played ultimate for over 10 years. During that time, I played on a variety of teams, including club teams, intramural teams, and rec league teams. I also traveled to compete in tournaments that were often played over two days. I have many fond memories of cramming way too many guys into a hotel room to save on costs and people finding any floor space to sleep including under the sink.
Ultimate hasn’t always been all fun and games though. The two biggest injuries of my adult life have come while playing ultimate. I once fractured my foot playing at a practice and was out for 7 weeks. Then while playing an end of season tournament for a local rec league I tore my achilles tendon. This was by far the worse of the two injuries and I was out for a few months, but despite that I still continue to enjoy playing. In fact I remember being in the hospital the day I tore my achilles and telling my wife, “The goal is to play ultimate again.”
As I have gotten older and my body has started to inevitably slow down, I started to think about transitioning into a different sport. I wanted something that was a little less physically demanding and that I could play for a longer period of time, and one day a group of co-workers invited me to play disc golf (aka frisbee golf).
Disc golf is a sport that is surprisingly not very similar to ultimate. It is played with a disc, but that is about where the similarities end. Unlike ultimate there are many different types of discs and they fly in very different ways. The way you throw the disc is quite a bit different as well. However, it still helps scratch the itch I have to throw discs and it is far less physically demanding which is a welcome relief in my older years.
I have been playing disc golf for about two and a half years now and I love it almost just as much as I love ultimate. It is a great way to get exercise, enjoy the outdoors, and socialize with friends. I still play ultimate, but not nearly as much as I used to. They are both great hobbies that I would recommend to anyone and I’ll continue to enjoy for years to come.