tldr: Ultimate frisbee offers a model of cooperative, self-accountable, joy-based play that is an antidote to the isolated and divisive world that we have created. we can play more, remix it, and bring the spirit of the game into our daily lives, creating communities of playful solidarity.
in Ultimate, we gather around the disk to make our cheers.
no matter our number, each person squeezes their left thumb onto the disk – closest to the heart.
there’s a moment where we wait in the silence,
an intake of breath
a rising tremor
eager smiles
eyes beaming
the captain counts us in, and —
we scream our name.
we shout and sing, holler in honor of the spirit that brought us here & now,
a 175g circle that binds us together, all equidistant from the center.
we cannot win this game alone.
we were always here to do it together.
The Ultimate Game 🥏
"To allow yourself to play with another person is no small risk. It means allowing yourself to be open, to be exposed, to be hurt. It is the human equivalent of the dog rolling on its back - I know you won’t hurt me, even though you can. It is the dog putting it’s mouth around your hand and never biting down…
To play requires trust & love.”
— Sadie Green, in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
if you haven’t read the first piece in this series, you can discover how Ultimate was born from aliens, pie tins, and a cultural revolution here. otherwise, let’s get to it 🥏
I. when it comes to you, there’s no avoiding it
when the frisbee falls into your hands, life narrows to all that you see.
for once, everyone is taking their cues from you — and you carry the greatest responsibility.
you stand at the center of many stories, poised on the cliff’s edge of the present between two clashing forces — and the countdown is on.
seconds tick by.
it’s time to make a decision.
the fate of your teammates lies in your hands.
the weight of the universe rests on your shoulders.
you hold all the power – but you can’t keep it.
that’s not the game.
this game is about passing it on – sharing || the power || with someone else.
this game is about handling responsibility as an individual in community.
it’s about relationships of partnership and equality.
it’s about owning mistakes, embracing change, and communicating non-violently.
most of all, it’s about the joy of play and a spirit of solidarity that unites even the fiercest opposition, fostering friendship and respect.
this game is about us, and the way we want to live together.
in life, I want to play the Ultimate game.
to me, that means a game that encompasses all others — a game that is constantly active, positive sum, creative & cooperative, and perpetually evolving — a game that is centered on love & the joy of play itself.
people are already playing this game, remixing stories and games past to bring forth new forms of self-transformation and cooperation.
there are real-life wizards like Wendell Britt, who, in a supreme act of badassery, is fusing magic the gathering, DnD, and psychology to help people master the game of allyship. there are people on Twitter / X turning the notorious online platform into a place of positive-sum play and co-creation, utilizing the basic move of good reply game.
yet while this form of cooperative, emergent play grows stronger around the world, most people are still subjected to constructed, divisive narratives of us-and-them.
mainstream media carries myths of scarcity and competition, darkening the horizons of our imagined futures and limiting the games we think to play.
this is good for politicians and corporations — bad for families and humanity.
playing the ultimate game is thus not about defeating one side or the other.
the ultimate game is a vow to subvert division and foster belonging wherever we go, to protect, care for, partner with, and nurture the beings of our world the best we can.
i dedicate the following essay towards cultivating a unifying agreement to play this game the best we can; starting with a time-tested method and guide:
Ultimate frisbee offers a model of cooperative, self-accountable, joy-based play that is an antidote to the isolated and divisive world that we have created.
by embracing it as communities and individuals, we can create a more connected, responsible, and joyful world.
it all begins with the Spirit.
II. spirit of the game
first, some quick basics:
Ultimate is a non-contact sport generally played by two teams of seven on a field. One team “pulls” the disk to the other (equivalent of the American football kickoff) and the offense tries to pass the frisbee to a teammate in the opposite endzone.
players can pivot but not run with the frisbee, and have only 10 seconds to throw before possession is lost.
if the frisbee is dropped or intercepted at any point in the process, there is an immediate and fluid change of possession and the roles flip.
there is no quarterback — all players have equal capabilities on the field — and there are no judges or officials. Ultimate is composed of rules upheld by its players committed to honoring its ideals.
the quality of the game is only as good as the integrity of the players on the field.
in this way, the rules of Ultimate mirror the laws of society…not as we commonly think of them today with coercive legal enforcement, but as they were envisioned by Socrates:
the measured interaction of selves moving towards a higher union - pushing each other towards perfection.
at each moment, every player in the game is responsible to give their best effort to their team while watching out for the safety and well-being of every player on the field.
players don’t obey rules because they otherwise might get punished (fear) — they follow the spirit because that form of play feels right (honor, integrity, justice).
this gives rise to players that hold themselves accountable to the highest standards of their peers and know how to trust and work with others.
frisbee is a game of partnership, not domination.
no all-star can dribble the ball through the enemy team. success comes from trust and communication — trusting that your teammate will cover their defender, that they will cut to the open space, that you are capable of getting the disk there.
even the act of throwing — the most basic move of all — is a fundamental act of trust, a leap of faith where you are releasing control to advance.
this relationship of partnership extends to the live negotiation of rules.
players must know the basic rules of the game and learn to advocate for themselves, making their own calls. within this system, disagreements do happen. conflicts arise, and when they do, players get to practice effective conflict resolution by following procedures designed to reset contested plays.
both players involved share their perspective, listen, and respond. in short order, they can decide on a fair course of action, and play resumes.
a developmental process for integrity, comradery, and autonomy
from an educator’s perspective, Ultimate thus provides the rare opportunity for young people to be fully in charge of themselves, operating on a field of equals responsible for the quality & safety of competition.
Ultimate teaches that they do not need refs, umpires, coaches, or other forms of authority to pass judgement down on the field of play.
it teaches that they are perfectly capable of standing up for what is right and holding themselves to a code of conduct that honors and preserves the joy of play.
this is the Spirit of the Game. the virtue of the joy of play exists above all else, evening winning — and you can see this at any tournament you go to.
having played Ultimate for 11 years and sports my entire life, I have consistently found Ultimate crowds to hold some of the most kind-hearted, open-minded people in the world.
and it’s truly not a surprise — Ultimate attracts these people and cultivates them because that is what the game is all about.
III. universe point
play is positive sum, whether that’s two strangers tossing a disk or 200 people competing at a tournament, all are made richer by the simple act of tossing a frisbee.
as Jared Kass said, “If it [Ultimate] took hold, it’s only because that desire for joyousness, connection, relaxation, and being lovingly, highly engaged in something is in everybody.”
a frisbee is a simple object that can bridge the gap between people and activate relationships of joyful play.
Ultimate frisbee is a sport that cultivates virtuous people by placing equal responsibility on each player to uphold the spirit of the game through a practice of teamwork, improv, and conflict resolution.
an individual can spark friendships and build community with a single disk.
a program can nurture hundreds of people into self-accountable actors and reliable allies, capable of communicating effectively and adapting to change as a team.
this is a recipe for social transformation.
are you ready to try it?
this marks the end of part 2. we have now set the foundation of the ultimate game. moving forward, we will begin developing an ultimate program, create with new disk-games, and experiment with frisbees as the medium of art in an evolving, cooperative storytelling project.
if you’re interested in collaborating on anything, you can reach me via email or twitter / x.
much love,
river