Success! Our turnout for the first practice for the Men's Ultimate Team was great.  At least 30-40 new guys (mostly freshman) decided that it was time to bail on all those fun parties on Thursday nights and pickup a sweet new game.  I feel like sometimes that parties are the only thing that people enjoy around here, but the strong new class of freshman give me a little hope every year.  You are probably thinking that Ultimate Frisbee is still just a game, why should people change their plans for a game?  I feel like this mentality permeates USC more than other universities in the US.  Despite having 17,000 students, only around 50 play on the team.  For me, there's something skewed about those numbers.  Ultimate is THE college sport.  It has all the elements.

1. free form lacking any strict rules if  need be. 

2. supports creative ideas for strategy, jerseys, cheers for your team and other teams

3. You can throw a frisbee anywhere.....as long as you dont hit anyone

4. it has cool traditions like dressing up to play croquet, one of my classier moments in my college career

5. Frisbee's look awesome in flight!

So why isn't the Men's Ultimate Frisbee team teeming with new talent? I don't man, I don't know.  My only guess the blanket of greek life here at USC and it's college football traditions.  I could also have something to do with having almost no green on our  campus, 2 turfs fields is where we practice and there is  a quad where we have to throw over the foot traffic.  However, our Ultimate team is very resourceful and we make use of what we have, and more importantly the city that we live in.  There are many types of frisbee sports that we use to bring interest to Ultimate Frisbee.

One of my favorite types of Ultimate is beach ultimate.  Contrary to your belief  beach ultimate frisbee requires a whole new set of skills.  A great Ultimate frisbee player on grass does not translate into a great on sand.  These beach days or tournaments usually have a casual but competitive tone ending with some kind of hang out session or party later in the day.

A favorite among many Ultimate Frisbee players is Disc Golf.  It is exactly what it sounds like except the targets are statues or any land marker instead of a hole like in golf.  Disc Golf gives a chance to release all your power into your driving throw to see how far you can accurately target something.  Although Disc Golf does not get much publicity, there are courses specifically made for Disc Golf all over Los Angeles and it is a good place to practice throws and technique.

At USC we have a game called "mini" which is a variety of Ultimate Frisbee which is a 3v3 matchup and gameplay never stops.  The only difference between mini and regular Ultimate is the fact that when the offense scores in the endzone, the field switches and the offense can go to the other end for another score immediately.  We use this when we have limited field space and to keep our bodies fit for the spring season. 

Between all these games and the quirky traditions, Ultimate Frisbee brings in a wide variety of people.  Our team is happy to teach and play with people of all skill levels.  The USC program is growing quicly, and we are working hard to make this happen.  Hopefully with some of these interesting tidbits of Ultimate, we can at one point be one of the largest club sports on campus!