Ultimate Frisbee summer league

dublin | miscellaneous | event notice Monday June 18, 2007 15:25 by Coilin ÓhAiseadha aatchoo at gmail dot com 0860603818

Beginners welcome!

Monday evenings in Herbert Park, Ballsbridge,
throughout summer from 25 June.
Sign up now to meet the closing date of Thursday 21 June.

Ultimate frisbee is the ideal sport for grassroots activists: a non-contact amateur sport with mixed-gender teams, where beginners are welcome.

This is a fast-moving but fairly simple team sport, where a point is scored by throwing the frisbee to another member of your own team, who catches it inside a box at either end of the pitch. It is a non-contact sport, so speed and skill count more than size or physical strength. And it is almost exclusively an amateur sport, so people don’t take it too seriously. It’s good craic!

Read more here: http://www.irishultimate.com/beginners/what_is.php

At the end of each game, opposing teams sit in a circle together, modestly accepting victory or graciously conceding defeat, while thanking and complimenting each other for the game. All very friendly.

Beginners are more than welcome in the Dublin summer league.

You can sign up for a team even if you find yourself ticking the box that says:
“Know how to throw a backhand.”
- Or even:
“Have never touched a disc or seen ultimate played”!

Teams are selected in such a way that each team has a fair distribution of experienced players and beginners. If you have never played before, the experienced players will teach you to throw backhand and forehand, explain the rules and give you advice and encouragement throughout. Also, only seven players from each team go on the pitch at a time, so that you can have frequent breaks to catch your breath, have a drink of water and watch how others play.

Having played as a beginner in the Dublin summer league both last year and the year before, there were a few times when I lost track of what I was supposed to be doing, e.g. who I was supposed to be marking, so I did feel a bit silly on occasion, but the more experienced players were very patient and helpful. And, even as a beginner, I was able to make a useful contribution to scoring points for my team, or to defending.

There was a fair share of women on each team, a mixture of races and nationalities was taken for granted, and students and working-class players intermingled freely on the pitch, on the sidelines and in the pub afterwards.

So I would say Ultimate frisbee is a perfect way to practise collective, goal-directed, non-violent action, based on principles of inclusion, autonomy and self-organisation. And also a good way to make new friends.

Please contact me at the phone number above if you have any questions.

Sign up here:
http://www.irishultimate.com/players/League/Summer/2007...n.php