Ultimate, Japan-style

Last weekend I went to an ultimate tournament in Okazaki city, which is just east of Nagoya, in Aichi prefecture. For those of you who don't know, ultimate is a team game played using a frisbee (or disc, as the players call it). It's a bit like a cross between basketball and American football: when you catch the disc you have to stop moving, and the aim of the game is to score points by throwing the disc to someone in the end zone.

 

I started playing ultimate when I was at university (which was nearly seven years ago - blimey, time flies doesn't it?). One of the things that first got me into it was the emphasis it placed on fair play and keeping good spirit between the players. For instance, there's no referee in ultimate - players must call for the game to be stopped if they think a foul has been committed against them, and if the other team disagrees they have to work out the best way to continue between them (usually by replaying the last throw). It sounds crazy, but it works - genuine arguments are very rare in ultimate.

 

I stopped playing when I moved to London, mostly because I couldn't find anyone to practice with. When I came to Fukui last year I was keen to get back into it, so me and Mac (American guy and all-round ultimate-playing legend) set up some regular practices, and it's been great to introduce some new people to the game. I was never that good an ultimate player, but it's been fun to teach people the basics of throwing a disc, and I love watching people as they get better and better, week after week.

 

Anyway, we sometimes practice with the local Japanese team, Inesperto, and a few weeks ago they asked if anyone from our team would like to come along to the Aichi tournament. Hudson (Californian JET from Katsuyama) and I jumped at the chance - we were really intrigued to see what a Japanese ultimate tournament would be like.

 

I used to love going to the university tournaments in Britain - there would usually be a good mix of teams, from absolute beginners to experts, and the atmosphere was great: competitive, but friendly. Saturday night would be spent partying with the other teams, and the final matches on Sunday would be played through the haze of a raging hangover and memories of the new "friends" you'd  made the night before, and more often than not woken up with too.

 

The first thing that struck me about the tournament in Okazaki was the standard of playing - I was seriously impressed. Every single team looked incredibly professional, displaying flawless catches and throws with pinpoint accuracy - there were definitely no weak teams here. The ability level went from "strong" to "very strong" to "ultimate-playing-robots-from-the-future". It was all the more impressive when you take into account that it was only a relatively small, local tournament - most of the teams were from Aichi prefecture itself.

 

I think the sheer ability of the players is indicative of the general attitude to sport in this country - the Japanese take their sports very seriously. Joining an after-school club (sports or otherwise) is compulsory at junior high school, and compulsory in all but name at most senior high schools. In England, a school sports club would practice maybe once or twice a week, but in Japan it's more like everyday, often including weekends. The kyudo (Japanese archery) club at my school practices for an hour every morning and until seven every evening - as you'd expect, the students get pretty good at it.

 

The second thing I noticed at the tournament was the competitiveness - every team was clearly out to win. That sounds like an obvious statement, but at the tournaments I've been to in the past there were usually a few teams who just came for fun, rather than to win anything. The friendly spirit of the game was definitely there in Okazaki, but I've never seen ultimate played so seriously: every point was fought to the bitter end. Suddenly I was a bit worried that I was going to let down the team - I'd say I'm a fairly good player, but I can safely state that I was way out of my league at the weekend. In the end though, we won 2 out of 4 matches, and I scored a point in one game, so I was pretty pleased.

 

However, it came at a price - my entire body now aches. Hudson and I could barely walk after the last game, but everyone else seemed fine, effortlessly sprinting up and down the pitch like there was no tomorrow. Two conclusions can be drawn from this: either Hudson and me need to get down the gym more often and stop eating so much pizza, or everyone else at the tournament was a super-fit mecha-athlete with bionic legs. I favour the latter explanation.

 

I was a bit disappointed with Saturday night - I was expecting all the teams to get together for a bit of a knees up after the games were over, but instead everyone went their separate ways, which was a shame: it would have been nice to meet a few more people. Instead we went back to the hotel with our team, and I was a little surprised when they got out a whiteboard and started talking about strategies for tomorrow's game. This wasn't the ultimate I knew! What happened to the wild parties?

 

By the time 10 pm came around it looked like there was little chance of a party developing, so me and Hudson decided to go out and make our own party, which involved going to a karaoke bar and singing Metallica with a Filipino family. Much fun was had by all.

 

It's so great to be playing ultimate again - if you've never tried it, I highly recommend it. Many thanks to Mitsuji for driving us down there, and thanks to the team for letting me play - I hope I didn't make you lose too badly!