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Ultimate Frisbee Journey

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College embodies a time where young adults explore both who they want to be and what they want to do. An important part of this journey is the involvement in extracurricular activities, such as athletics, Greek life, or academic clubs. In particular, athletic clubs can be overlooked by many students. To many, it is harder to join a sports club that seems to require certain skills to enjoy it or to feel apart of the community. This is why many shy away and choose to focus solely academics or join Greek Life because it seems easier to feel included in these. Yet, I think that athletics create a more well-rounded, more positive atmosphere than other clubs. Athletics offer a rich community based on teamwork and loyalty while developing life skills …show more content…

I spoke with some players on the second team. The GW Men’s Team offers two teams: an “A” team with a higher caliber of players, and a “B” team with often includes new players and ones trying to improve their skills. The grades of the interviewees ranged from freshman to seniors, with a variety of different majors and hometowns. Most of the players had originally heard about the team by either previously playing, knowing someone who did play, or word of mouth around campus. Before conducting the interviews, I had also heard from various people that the Ultimate Frisbee teams had a tight knit community, almost comparable to that of a family. This sentiment was echoed by the players as …show more content…

In Ultimate Frisbee they use a Frisbee, or as they refer to it a “disc”, and bright orange cones to set boundaries at practice. The disc is the most well known artifact associated with Ultimate, but like any club they also have shirts made to state their affiliation with the sport. The Ultimate team also has a distinctive language to communicate advice, instruction, or call out certain plays that only the team knows. For example, the phrase “mark him” in Ultimate Frisbee means covering someone defensively. “Crash” refers to the defense surrounding the offensive player with the disc. The most common phrase I heard, “It’s up,” refers to when the disc is in the air, which is usually followed by all players looking up to find the disc. The vernacular that Ultimate players have created allows them to communicate with each other in a way only they know. The phrases and words refer to certain characteristics or instructions within the game. It is similar to how fraternities and sororities use the Greek Alphabet. The Ultimate Frisbee vernacular has the same function, to create that feeling of belonging that students

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