ACCURACY – Players get a total of  28 throws from 7 different stations, 4 from each of the 7 different stations. Stations are from side angles and from straight away. Discs must go through the upper square.  Discs are required to be the of the vintage variety. Most popular discs are Discraft Ultra-Stars and Innova Zephyrs (162 grams or less) are used. World record is 25/28.

DISCATHON – This event is basically a 1 Kilometer running race while you throw a disc through an obstacle course. Your disc must pass the correct way through the course, but if you throw well, you can run a shorter distance. There are tests throughout the course, which, if you succeed, allow you to bypass an obstacle. Exciting to watch too because of its head to head format.

FREESTYLE - The “show” event but also as rigorous and demanding as gymnastics. An enormous variety of throws, spinning moves, and amazing catches that will make you wonder how they did it.  This is the art event of the flying disc. Routines are constructed to music as you would see in a dance routine. The Freestyle Players Association web page will get you started at www.freestyledisc.org. There are many youtube videos to see how it’s done. It’s a steep learning curve but the most fun you can have with a flying disc.

DISC GOLF - One of the fastest growing sports in the world and always one of the most popular disc events for participants. Disc Golf is Easy to start, hard to master. Just like the kind with a stick and a ball. Same basic rules: put the object in the target.

SELF-CAUGHT FLIGHT - Sounds easy. Throw the disc in the air, catch it in one hand. Two parts to the event: Maximum Time Aloft (MTA) – your throw is timed; then Throw, Run, Catch (TRC) – distance from throw to the catch is measured. World records? 16.72 seconds for MTA, 94.00 meters for TRC. Start running!!

DOUBLE DISC COURT – It’s a court game with two players on each team. And two discs in play. The object is to land your throws in the opponents court and / or make them be in contact with both discs at the same time.

DISTANCE - Pretty simple really. Throw it as far as you can. Anyone can do it.

When you’re not playing ultimate, learning any of these disc sports will be invaluable to your disc skills, especially throwing and catching. For a video description of the overall events, check it out below:

Thomas Kuhn, member of the 2008 World Champion Canadian Open team, was recently selected to be a member of the Open Team which will be traveling to Sakai, Japan in July to compete in the 2012 WFDF World Ultimate and Guts Championships.

Thomas talks about what other countries he thinks will be strong contenders, how this year’s Canadian team compares to the team from 2008 and who he thinks will win World’s this year (I’ll give you one guess!)

As I saw Nat’s face I knew, without a doubt, that this disc was hers. And as she scooped it out of the air, she pulled it in with such velocity, force, and conviction that I also knew there was no way she was going to let go of it.

That moment was, purely and simply, the epitome of the most important part of the game of ultimate: Valuing the disc.

Another beauty of the play was that it was not a universe point. It was not the finals nor the semi finals. It was not a game that mattered in anyway. If fact, it was the last game of tournament where we failed to meet our team goal and it was against a much weaker team in a game that we were clearly going to win. It was a trivial moment by most standards.

Nat didn’t have to want that disc, but she did. Why? If I asked her, she’d probably give a few practical reasons and talk about her role as a captain and setting an example. But I think the answer is much deeper.

That determination to get the disc is something that Nat has and can tap into at any moment. It is that determination that makes her one of the best players on the field and has earned her the respect of being a captain on Lotus. It is also the same determination with which she was able to compete against some of the top female ultimate players in the world while being a player on Capitals.

Valuing the disc is a huge part of ultimate. In fact, I would argue that it’s the most important part of ultimate, yet also the most basic and simple. On an O point, the line’s job is, quite simply, to value the disc enough to retain its possession all the way across the goal line and score a point as a result. On a D point, the line’s job is to value the disc enough to want it back in their possession to then keep possession successfully all the way until the final throw from teammate to teammate across the goal line. The team that does this the best, wins.

Practicing this concept comes in many forms, including a deep focus on technical skills that allow for this value to present itself in every throw and in every catch. The development of every offensive and defensive strategy and play also entirely comes down to this value. Even the moment before a team scores, this value is first and foremost more fundamental than scoring a point, because if the idea of scoring a point trumps valuing the disc… well, any ultimate player knows what happens 9 times out of 10 when we try to force a throw into the endzone without thinking about the value of the disc.

As captains and coaches this is difficult to teach. As players this is difficult to learn. But if we fail to learn it and fail to apply it, we will never achieve our potential in ultimate, as a team or as an individual. But if we remember and embody the concept that possession, and earning possession, IS the most important part of the game, we will.

The best players in ultimate already know this.

How to? Ultimately, it’s up to each player to find value for the disc. Treat the disc as your most valuable possession every time you play ultimate. Remind yourself of its value every time you go to practice, every time you step on the field, and in every moment of ultimate that you can. Even from the sideline, reminding yourself that possession is most important will help you be a better sideline teammate. Visualize yourself catching every disc and throwing every disc with 100% accuracy. Mentally warm-up to play with as much intention as you do physically so both your mind and body show up to the game ready to win. And then execute it on the field and let your body feel this value.

In many ways, I’m not sure it can be taught. Intrinsic determination and motivation are within each of us. As players, it’s our jobs to find it within us as our commitment to the team. As captains and coaches, and even other players, it’s our job to express it so that our teammates might feel the same absolute rush I felt inside MY body when I saw it come through Nat’s body in that moment.

Michael Lawler takes us in detail through 3 clips showing what a vertical stack offense looks like and how to execute properly. He takes us through each clip, explaining what either went right or went wrong, focusing mainly on the cuts from the stack and compares the cuts in each clip. This is a great video for understanding how a vertical stack should flow and will show you how it leads to scoring.

For most of it, I would recommend going to a personal trainer who has experience training athletes and has some sport specific training and knows the fundamental movements as many of these exercises/workouts will have to be done correctly or else you won’t get benefit from them or even worse, you’ll get injured.

This post is based on my years of playing sports and seeing what skills it takes to be successful in a variety of different sports (provincial champion in swimming and hockey, 2nd in soccer and rugby, provincial finalist in track and field, 2 bronze medals at the Canadian Ultimate Championships, World Champion in canine disc distance and 3 world records). It’s also based on training for sports since I was a kid and having only suffered one major injury (broken ankle playing hockey). It’s based on working for a gym for the past 2 years in marketing which involves me talking to personal trainers on a regular basis and doing a lot of reading, watching videos and documentaries and learning as much as I can about the industry. I’m not a movement expert so I won’t be telling you how to do a proper deadlift or squat in this post – that’s what the experts are for. What I will be telling you are the skills and subsequent fitness elements that you should be working on at the gym and in your track workouts.

This post is also influenced by a great article from Melissa Witmer at Ultimate Results called Movement Analysis: Lateral vs Forward Motion. Basically she did a study of 3 players from Southpaw (open team, Philly) who were recorded during a pool play game at Bell Crack 2010. Their motions were then categorized and timed. The categories of motion were walking/standing, jogging, running, shuffling, and sprinting. Only motions exceeding about 2 seconds were recorded. What I found surprising about her study was the amount of time handlers spent moving laterally. When you put it in the context of a game it’s not surprising but I would argue that we don’t spend near enough time working on lateral movement and so I also recommend some fitness elements which will help with this movement.

First, as I recommended, I would suggest getting some sort of program developed by a personal trainer and be very specific about your goals, timeline, etc. You can probably get a good program developed for a few hundred dollars and you could split the cost amongst your team. It’s good to switch up what you’re doing every 4-6 weeks roughly depending on the type of exercises. For me, right now I’m on a 4 week cycle.

Specifically for ultimate, you will want to improve speed, power, strength, recovery and mobility. Olympic lifting is great for power and speed and strength. The video I posted with the Prayers exercise is great for mobility and will also help your power. You can do interval training or Tabata type training to help with your recovery and speed. I like a simple interval running workout – run fast for 2 minutes and jog for 1 minute. Alternate for 20-30 minutes. You’ll find this will help you in ultimate a lot. You can also do telephone poles – basically you sprint from one pole to the next, jog to the next one, sprint the next one, and so on. Also, you’ll want to focus a lot on your hips (power and mobility) and single leg exercises (squats, lunges) to help develop stability in your knees, hips and ankles which will help you be able to play longer and help prevent injuries.

What I’ve found has really been helping me feel more free in my movements and my power has been olympic lifts and the fundamental movements involved. Squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, clean and jerks. I’ve found that my posture has improved, my vertical has improved, my speed has improved, my recovery has improved and my throwing power has improved. I’m throwing longer than ever before. And that’s just after a few months of being on a program – most of that time has been spent learning how to actually do the movements and just recently, I’ve been adding more and more weight so I expect those results to continue.

There are always opinions about what is the best way to train but as I said, this is what I recommend based on all of my experience, learning, teaching, listening and observation.

How do you approaching training for ultimate?

One of the key parts of getting more power in your throw is to increase the mobility in your thoracic spine. Prayers, a thoracic spine mobilizer, is an exercise I’ve been doing for a few months in my warm-up before every workout. I’ve noticed in the past month that I’m becoming more mobile which is translating directly into more power in my throw and subsequently, more distance on my throws.

Michael Lawler takes us in detail through 2 poor endzone points in the Brute Squad vs Scandal game, Boston Invite 2011. Before watching this video, you should check out Ultimate Project #5 first – which shows 4 good endzone points. Watching Project #5 first will show you what good endzone points look like and as Michael says, puts you in a good mood before watching this one. It’s good to learn what both good and bad points look like both to learn what good and bad positioning is all about and also see how execution matters that close to the endzone.

This summer, I’m partnering up with the Calgary Ultimate Association. They’re a not-for-profit group focused on growing ultimate in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with their goal being to make ultimate the sport of choice for athletes. They’ve done a great job and along with running a league with over 120 teams, they also have a juniors program (12-18 year olds), a men’s, women’s and master’s team and they run an annual ultimate frisbee tournament called HoDown and SloDown, which has been held for more than 25 years.

As part of my partnership with the CUA, I will be producing 5 custom videos, which I will be filming this Saturday, May 12, and will be posted on their website for the benefit of their members.

We’ve thrown around a bunch of ideas about what content should be on those 5 videos but I’m reaching out to you to ask you what you’d like to see. Rules, throwing, strategy…what would you like to see?

In this video, I introduce my trainer, Curtis Howden, and we talk about how I’m training for disc sports competitions with a specific focus on getting more power in my throw. We’re starting by mobilizing my thoracic spine and by getting more rotation, I will be able to generate more power and throw the disc further. I’m really starting to notice the benefits of working with Curtis and in the past few weeks, my throws have been getting longer every time I throw. I will work on getting some videos up that show how I practice throwing and just how far I can throw the different types of discs.

If you play anywhere else in the world, the WFDF official rules of ultimate: wfdf.org/index.php?page=rules/wfdf_ultimate_rules

If you play in the AUDL, here are the official rules: http://theaudl.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40&Itemid=68

1. The Field: A rectangular shape with end zones at each end. A regulation field is 70 yards by 40 yards, with end zones 25 yards deep.
2. Initiate Play: Each point begins with both teams lining up on the front of their respective end zone line. The defense throws (“pulls”) the disc to the offense. A regulation game has seven players per team.
3. Scoring: Each time the offense completes a pass in the defense’s end zone, the offense scores a point. Play is initiated after each score.
4. Movement of the Disc: The disc may be advanced in any direction by completing a pass to a teammate. Players may not run with the disc. The person with the disc (“thrower”) has ten seconds to throw the disc. The defender guarding the thrower (“marker”) counts out the stall count.
5. Change of Possession: When a pass is not completed (e.g. out of bounds, drop, block, interception), the defense immediately takes possession of the disc and becomes the offense.
6. Substitutions: Players not in the game may replace players in the game after a score and during an injury timeout.
7. Non-contact: No physical contact is allowed between players. Picks and screens are also prohibited. A foul occurs when contact is made.
8. Fouls: When a player initiates contact on another player a foul occurs. When a foul disrupts possession, the play resumes as if the possession was retained. If the player committing the foul disagrees with the foul call, the play is redone.
9. Self-Officiating: Players are responsible for their own foul and line calls. Players resolve their own disputes.
10. Spirit of the Game: Ultimate stresses sportsmanship and fair play. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules, and the basic joy of play.

Thanks to Steve Courlang and Neal Dambra, 1991, for the development of “Ultimate in Ten Simple Rules”.

Throwing 101 – Tips and Cues for Teaching Throwing and Catching (pdf)

Glossary – Glossary of Ultimate Terms for Quick Reference (pdf)

The Wright Life Store – Buy discs, cones, videos, books and more (http://wrightlife.com/site/store/dcs/B2/Ultimate_Frisbee)

The Huddle – Take your team to the next level by learning from some of the best players in the game as they write about the advanced concepts of ultimate (http://www.usaultimate.org/multimedia/the_huddle/default.aspx)

Play Ultimate Better: The Basics – Ultimate Rob’s first dvd will help you teach the basic concepts to your team and will help you diagnose the most common issues people face with their game (http://www.ultimaterob.com/the-basics/)

That type of thinking does not come naturally to most human beings. It is hard for us to accept that not every detail of every game actually means something. But the science of statistics tells us that we are not in complete control of our destiny. Mistakes are going to happen, and sometimes they are going to come in bunches. And that sixty yard huck you
just threw for a score? Yeah, maybe that happened because you are truly awesome. But chances are good that you might have just gotten lucky on that one, too.

One of the reasons I wanted to create the database of statistics that I described in my previous post was to help players identify which aspects of their game they were truly good at, and which aspects of their game were just the result of the random chance that is an inherent part of every game of ultimate frisbee.

Through four weeks of play, I have been able to collect data on nearly 7,000 passes in the Calgary Ultimate Spring League. A logistic regression analysis has shown that there are two primary factors that affect whether or not a pass will be completed: (1) the length of the pass and (2) the distance the thrower is from the end zone that he is attacking. The two
influences are pretty simple: (1) the longer the throw, the less likely it is to be completed, and (2) the closer a thrower is to the end zone he is attacking, the less likely he is to complete the pass. These two factors do not interact, which means that they counterbalance each other nicely in a way that prevents the game of ultimate from ever becoming too easy. You can play it safe by chipping your way down the field with short, easy to complete passes, but it’s only going to become harder and harder to do so, the closer you get to the end zone. At some point, you’re going to have to
strike.

To help the players in the league visualize how much these two factors influence their own play, I have broken down everyone’s throwing statistics into two different tables. One of these shows the number of ”passes on target” (POT) out of passes attempted–along with the yardage gained–on passes of various lengths. The other table shows the same
information for passes made at different spots on the field. Next to each table are posted the league averages for the same tabular breakdowns. This enables players to identify prominent deviations in their passing game from the league norms–the objective being to help each player identify the consistent trouble spots in their throwing game, rather than the
individual plays which may or may not have gone in their favor. A good example is Thomas’ page, which you can find here:

http://www.ultisheet.org/spring2012/passanalysis/pages/Thomas%20Kuhn.html

Or you can just poke through the directory of every player in the league:

http://www.ultisheet.org/spring2012/passanalysis/

For myself, I have learned that my completion percentage beyond the halfway point of the field is pretty miserable–63.2%, compared to the league average of 81.5%. That’s a pretty hard pill to swallow, but I also know that identifying what parts of my game need the most work is the first step I need to take to becoming a better player. And then, maybe
someday, I’ll be able to throw one into the ground for Furious George, too.

Nothing is better than water.

Our bodies are comprised of approximately 70-percent water. When you work out, you sweat and you lose water concentration. It’s important to drink enough water before and during a work out to maintain energy during the work out. Not only does water transport oxygen and glucose through your body, but water also helps to maintain flexibility and strength within your muscles as well as keeping your joints agile and lubricated.

While you might be attracted to the wide variety of flavors in juice or sports drinks, these types of beverages might actually hinder a workout. Drinks with high sugar content will actually cause your body to become dehydrated and make you thirstier.

It’s likely you’ve heard the advice that it is important to try and drink a least eight glasses of water a day. In order to avoid dehydration, if the weather is really hot or you are increasing your workout, you should try to drink more than eight glasses per day. The more you sweat the more water you’ll need to replenish and stay hydrated. Not drinking enough water can cause your head to ache and decrease your energy. These are early warning signs of dehydration, which you should try to avoid at all costs.

Another drink that may not be given as much attention as water but that can be very beneficial to athletes might come as a surprise: Chocolate milk!

A study by physiologist Joel Stager, director of the Human Performance laboratory at Indiana University reports that drinking chocolate milk after rigorous exercise can help recharge tired muscles by providing carbohydrates and aid towards post-workout recovery.  The carbs and protein found in chocolate milk give your muscles something to metabolize and offer significant health benefits, especially to athletes.

The combination of drinking enough water throughout the day and drinking a glass of low-fat chocolate milk after exercising will help to ensure strong and healthy workouts.  Chocolate milk is easily accessible and more beneficial than the sugary sports drinks that stock the beverage shelves. Next time you leave the gym and stop at the store to rehydrate, choose chocolate milk.

If you’re interested in learning more about nutrition, you can study for a nutrition degree online.

Thomas Kuhn, an ultimate frisbee player living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, won World’s in 2008 with the Team Canada Open team. He was recently selected to the roster again this year and will be traveling to Sakai, Japan in July to compete in the 2012 World Ultimate and Guts Championships.

I’ve been playing ultimate with Thomas for about 5 years so I recently had the chance to sit down and ask him some questions. Thomas has worked hard and earned his spot on the team. He’s a testament to how hard work and practice pay off and help you become a better player.

Most people focus their time working on throws or running laps at the track and there’s no question both of those will help improve your game. But if you’re not tracking that improvement, how can you expect to keep getting better?

There are 2 important points here, both of which I will cover in more detail in following posts.

However, I first want to lay the groundwork for why I feel it’s so important to set goals and to track progress.

In relation to goals there are team goals and personal goals. I think it’s incredibly important to sit down as a team and figure out what those goals. You don’t have to share your goals with your teammates but if you do, they can help hold you accountable and help support you in working towards your personal goals. And if everyone is in it together, there will be more chance of the team goals happening as well.

Let’s look at some specific examples. Let’s say you play on a club team and your team decides that the team’s goal is to win the USA Ultimate Championships. What is your team is ranked 15th in the country and winning isn’t realistic? What if instead, the team goal was to beat seed? So that if your team finished 12th, you would have achieved your goal? And the next year, set the same goal and if you finish 8th, you achieved your goal. Each year, you can improve on your ranking with the same goal and be happy each time. But if you set your goal as an end goal, as an outcome and if you don’t reach that outcome, then you’ll look back and be disappointed, what’s the point in that?

Same with a personal goal. What if you set your personal goal to be the best player on the team? How can you measure that? Why not set a more measurable goal like: “To have a tournament where I don’t drop a single disc.” That is measurable, it’s attainable and you can work towards that.

You may have heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals. The acronym stands for Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic and Timely. I think it’s a good structure with which to set goals but I think the most important thing to realize here is that goals should help keep you moving forward. If you set a really lofty goal and it’s all or nothing, what happens if you don’t achieve that goal? If I go to a competition for disc sports and my goal is to break a world record and although I don’t break the record, I end up winning the competition, should I really be disappointed? Of course not. But it was how I framed that competition and what my desired outcome was.

A good rule of thumb to follow is that each goal should be a 20% improvement on where you are at now. For example, let’s say you have an average pull of 60 yards. Your goal should be to increase that to 70 yards roughly. If your goal was to increase it from 60 to 80 or 90, that would be a huge gain and would take a lot of work and before you ever put in that much work, you might give up. But, if you set your goal as a smaller gain, you will reach it more quickly and then you can set a new goal to go from 70 t0 85. That is a much more realistic gain.

How about tracking progress? There is progress at the gym which is easy to track and you can work with your trainer on that. You can also track your progress in throwing distance. This is important because if you want to have an accurate full field huck, then the longer you are able to throw an ultimate disc, the more consistent your hucks will be. For example, if I can throw an ultimate disc 130 yards, then my 70 yard huck should be pretty accurate since it won’t take as much effort to throw 70 yards. But, if my longest throw is only 80 yards, then my 70 yard huck won’t be very consistent since I’ll be putting all of my power into that throw and there will be more variance on where it ends up. You can also track your own stats like # of drops and throwaways. Stephen Winters is doing a lot of work right now on gathering stats during Spring League ultimate in Calgary and has shared some of his thoughts with us in his latest post “The Season of Ultimate Stats – Part 1.” For example, if I know what in a given game, I had 3 drops and in the next game I had 2 drops and the 3rd game I had 1 drop, that could mean I’m getting better. But, I would have to look at how many times I touched the disc because I may in fact just be getting the disc less. A good way to track your progress as a player is during the course of a season and to compare tournaments. In any given tournament, depending on the skill of your team, you will probably be playing teams you can beat and teams who can beat you. Based on this, looking over a series of tournaments, you can reasonably assume that you had roughly the same amount of play time and so if you compare drops/throwaways from one tournament to the next, you should be able to gauge your improvement in a rough sense. Enough to know if there is something you need to work on. And a point here is that you could be improving in a physical sense but that your mental game might not be, which would account for an increased number of drops. I believe that a skill like catching is mostly mental so while it’s important to look at the numbers, it’s also useful to look at what is going on in your life and how that could affect your game.

In my upcoming posts, I will provide some worksheets you can download, fill in with your goals and put up on your wall to see how you’re progressing. I will also help you learn how to track progress. If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t count.

Do you set goals? Do you track progress? How do you keep yourself on track?

Over the winter, I got together with the directors of the Calgary Ultimate Association and pitched them the idea of tabulating my stats for an entire league’s worth of games. They were keen on the idea, and we decided we would try it out for the CUA men’s spring league this year. This league is basically envisioned as a developmental/tune-up league to help guys either get in shape for the summer season or introduce them to competitive ultimate if they have never played in a men’s league before. The idea of quantifying what everybody was doing on the field thus seemed to fit in well with the “how am I doing and what can I do better?” vision for this league. The season is also relatively short (6 games) and the league is relatively small (10 teams), which meant that the amount of statistical data to be processed would not be too overwhelming. But most crucially, all of the spring league games are played on (Canadian) football fields with yardlines and stands for excellent filming angles. This meant that I could add yardage stats to every single throw I tabulated for my stats, and thereby add a dimension of distance to the analysis of every qualitative event which affects a game of ultimate.

We’re now two weeks into the spring league season, and I’m happy with the way that things are turning out so far. I have been posting game-by-game stats to a website located here: http://www.ultisheet.org/spring2012 which anyone and everyone is welcome to check out for fun.

It is interesting to scroll through the results as I work through the data each week. To a great extent, the top-level club guys dominate the “leaders” pages–as expected–but it is interesting to see how some players find their own niches. My friend Michael has been playing ultimate for all of a year, but nonetheless leads the league (by a lot) in yards per reception. (Hint: he’s fast.) Ultimate Rob took one look at the average pull distance stats and immediately identified which guys he ought to start working with to improve their distance. Stumbling upon statistical surprises like these is a bit like finding bounces in the wind–you never know exactly where they’re going to be until you throw a disc through it.

The response from the Calgary Ultimate community to this project has been fantastic, as well. None of this would have been possible without all sorts of help from a small army of volunteers who have been willing to film games, lend cameras, process data and even just help me identify players. There’s a great quote from an old Canadian writer that goes: be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid. It has warmed my heart to find out over the past couple of weeks just how true this is.

With that in mind, I would also like to add that my vision for this project goes beyond just the small but friendly world of Calgary Ultimate. Before turning my attention to ultimate stats, I worked for many years in the realm of baseball statistics (check out www.basesproduced.com, if you’re a fan). One of the most important lessons that baseball statisticians have learned over the years is the value of sharing data.

Projects like Retrosheet and PitchFX have dramatically changed the way people understand baseball, and they have done it by simply putting as much game data as possible out there, in relatively unanalyzed form, for anybody with a good idea for a new statistic or analytical approach to work with. My own ultimate stats website tries to follow this example by posting the coded data from each game along with some basic processing scripts to help any fellow enthusiasts out there to get started in figuring things out about these games that I might never have even thought of in isolation.

The fact that we now live in a world where we have so much information about everything makes it even more remarkable that, in ultimate frisbee, we seem to have so little information about anything. I think that if we work together, we can change that, and maybe even become better ultimate players for it. And either way, I’m certain that we can make it a lot more fun to be a fan of the game.

Now that I’ve succeeded in putting together a basic interface for these stats, my next goal is to work on some analysis of what all these numbers seem to be telling us. I plan on writing up the basics of what I’ve found out so far in my next post for ultimaterob.com. In the meantime, I welcome you to go check out the stats that I’ve posted so far and let me know what you think.

In people with celiac disease, eating anything with gluten can cause symptoms like bloating, gas, cramping, diarrhea, anemia and other nutrient deficiencies. Some people with celiac disease also develop a rash called dermatitis herpetiformis. There is no cure for celiac disease; the only “prescription” is a lifelong gluten-free diet, which allows the intestine to heal and provides symptom relief.

Now, it is known that about 1 in 133 people in North America have celiac disease, and the multi-billion dollar gluten free market is one of the fastest growing sectors in the food industry. Niche companies, like Edmonton’s Kinnikinnick foods, and big manufacturers like Kellogg’s – who recently introduced Gluten-Free Brown Rice Krispies – are now bringing more gluten-free products to grocery store shelves.

Restaurants of all sizes are catering to the gluten-free crowd as well – Boston Pizza offers gluten-free pizza, while the Cheesecake Café and Olive Garden both have special gluten-free menus. In Calgary, Lakeview Bakery has been known for its gluten-free treats, while Without Papers Pizza can make your pizza on a locally-produced gluten-free crust made with brown rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca starch and xanthan gum.

How is it possible that less than 1% of the population can fuel such a huge industry? The simple answer is, it’s not. There are some people who are sensitive to gluten and experience gastrointestinal symptoms despite not having celiac disease, but even more are choosing to go gluten-free because it’s “healthier”.

Gluten is a type of protein found in some grains, like wheat, rye and barley.

What makes gluten so “bad” for you?

Some believe that since there are so many people with gluten intolerance, gluten is difficult for everyone to digest and causes inflammation in the body, which in turn leads to poor digestion, fatigue, weight gain and other ailments.

Celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon – Elisabeth Hasselbeck of The View, who has celiac disease, believes that “even people with no health issues have a great deal to gain by giving up gluten.” Tennis player Novak Djokovic, football player Drew Brees and cyclist Tom Danielson all credit their gluten-free diets for their athletic performance.

There is very little scientific evidence to back up these claims. Nearly all of the studies on gluten and the gluten-free diet have involved subjects with a co-existing condition. Whether it is celiac disease, inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS) or autism, the latest scientific evidence shows no benefit and it is inappropriate to extend these results to a healthy population. It is similar to saying, “Some people have peanut allergies, therefore peanuts are bad for everyone,” which is not the case.

Some people do experience weight loss or improved energy on a gluten-free diet, but that is more likely because they are inadvertently eating fewer processed and refined foods, cooking more from scratch and choosing more fruits and vegetables, not because they have eliminated some magical fat-storing substance from their diet. In fact, a recent study found that people with celiac disease gained weight once they were treated with the gluten-free diet – most likely because they were finally absorbing what they were eating.

What about the improvements in digestion, fitness or mental clarity? Again, there is virtually no research that looks at the effect of the gluten-free diet on these claims, and you can’t ignore the placebo effect – people reporting that they feel better just because they made a change in their diet, as opposed to a benefit from the diet itself.

Simply replacing foods like bread, cookies and pizza with their gluten-free counterparts can in fact do more harm than good. Some people see the “gluten-free” label as a license to overindulge on these products when they don’t really provide any special benefit. Gluten-free substitutes often have the same amount, if not more, calories compared to the gluten-containing originals. Gluten usually brings elasticity, springiness and chewiness to baked goods, and some manufacturers add more sugar and fat to gluten-free products to make up for the difference in texture. A gluten-free diet can also be lower in fibre as there are very few whole grain gluten-free products available.

Can a gluten-free diet be healthy?

Of course! Vegetables, fruit, lean meats, legumes and dairy products are all naturally gluten-free. Gluten-free grains and pseudo-grains, like buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth are becoming more popular and more accessible. Healthy gluten-free recipes are becoming readily available in cookbooks and online. Planning a healthy, gluten-free diet involves the same principles as any eating pattern – choose mostly whole, minimally processed foods, including foods from all four food groups in Canada’s Food Guide.

Shauna James Ahern, better known as Gluten-Free Girl, frequently notes on her blog (www.glutenfreegirl.com) that being diagnosed with celiac actually helped her to expand her palate and enjoy a wider variety of healthy foods.

However, maintaining a balanced, gluten-free diet requires a lot of work label reading, recipe altering and meal planning. It is also known to be one of the most expensive eating patterns, and some gluten-free foods may be difficult to find. While more and more restaurants, bakeries and cafés are bringing in gluten-free options, you still have to be choosy in terms of where and what you can eat. If you are otherwise healthy, why impose these restrictions on yourself when the benefits may be minimal?

If you do insist on going gluten-free, or if you must go gluten-free because of celiac disease or another sensitivity, it is best to consult a dietitian to help you identify foods that you can and cannot eat, and to make sure that you are meeting all your nutrition needs.

You can also refer to the Canadian Celiac Association (www.celiac.ca), which has great gluten-free resources, or the book “Gluten-Free Diet” by Shelley Case, RD (www.glutenfreediet.ca)

What I mean by this is, if you spend all of your time practicing throwing or practicing running plays or practicing catching, how are you actually going to get better?

Of course your skills will be better. You’ll learn to throw further and more accurately.

You’ll learn how to run the vertical stack better than any team out there.

You won’t drop a disc.

But what happens when you finally play a game and just as you’re about to huck, a defender steps in front of you and distracts you from making a perfect throw?

Or what happens when you make the perfect cut, but a defender is standing in between you and the thrower?

Or, just as you are about to make an easy catch for a point, your defender reaches out and knocks the disc away?

The point is, to become a GOOD player. No, to become a GREAT player, you need to play. Play tournaments. There are lots of them, depending on where you live of course. But generally, I would say that for every few weeks of practice, you should play a tournament. At least one tournament per month if you want to become a GREAT player. Less if you are ok being a GOOD player.

Practicing all the time is a great way to develop skills but it’s not a great way to learn how to play the game. Even if you scrimmage within your own team, it’s not the same as playing different teams. From playing different teams, you’ll learn how to play in different situations, against different defenses and offenses and you’ll learn the most important thing, HOW TO WIN. Winning is fun. Playing well and challenging yourself and your team is fun. Playing as a team is fun. Dropping the disc, throwing away and losing games isn’t fun. If you’re going to spend time and money playing ultimate, why not become the best player you can, within reason of course. If you’re not willing to put in the time practicing or playing tournaments, you have to be realistic about how good you’ll become.

What about when you’re not playing in a tournament? Playing league is good too.

Look at it this way:

Tournament > League >Practice

Before you try a throw in a tournament game, you should be comfortable with that throw in a league game. Before trying that throw in a league game, you should have worked on that throw in practice. With practice and experience comes confidence. When I first started playing, I was afraid to turn over a 40 yard huck. But once I got confident with a 40 yard huck, I worked on longer hucks. It’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. But you’ll get there. Just follow the simple formula above and in no time at all, you’ll be a seasoned veteran and you will be a GREAT player.

I’ve been talking to several of my friends who are women and who play ultimate and there seems to be a lack of resources online that are targeted at female ultimate players. Too often, the videos are frisbees in trash cans or videos targeted at high level men and women and completely intimidate the newer female ultimate players.

That being said, I’d like to help in serving this niche better. If you enjoy writing, if you love playing/coaching ultimate and you’re a lady, please send an email to rob@ultimaterob.com and we can talk about you becoming a contributor on Ultimate Rob. What’s in it for you? The same thing I get out of it – helping others learn based on our knowledge and experience, which is how I got to where I am today…from someone else sharing their knowledge and experience.

With your help, we can can make ultimate a great sport for everyone to learn and grow – no matter their gender, age or level.