William Oktavec

ENGL 393

Due: 2/21/19

Discourse Community

The discourse community that I belong to is that of Ultimate Frisbee, often referred to

as just Ultimate. This not so popular sport has been rapidly growing and is played all over the

world. There are many different levels of competition including college, club, and even a pro

league. The age ranges from high schoolers all the way to players into their mid-forties. In each

of the competitions there is a men’s, mixed, and women’s team.

The game is played with 7 players on each team, both are attempting to catch the disc

in their respective endzones to score a point. The game is started with what is called a pull,

similar to a kickoff in football, and the receiving team gets possession the disc first. Players

must advance the disc up the field by completing passes to each other. However, players are

not allowed to run with the disc excluding momentum steps from when making a catch. This is

a noncontact sport so the defense must cover the player in a way similar to a defensive back in

football, but if the offensive player does make the catch then instead of tackling them they

would stand in front of them, called a mark, and begin to count a stall of 10 seconds. If the

player with the disc does not release the disc before the mark says “ten” then it is a turnover of

possession. Once a team scores the game is restarted by another pull, the game is usually

played until a score cap is reached or a time cap is reached; whichever comes first.
 I believe that the Ultimate community possess all of the defining characteristics of a

discourse community. A set of common public goals does exist within the sport. These goals

would include each player/team wanting to excel in competition and perform to the best of

their abilities. Additionally, there is a philosophy built into Ultimate called “Spirit of the Game.”

This philosophy basically states that each individual should take it upon themselves to play with

integrity and play in a way that you do not intentionally break the rules, even if it’s to your

advantage. Ultimate is self-officiated so spirit is very important.

As well as public goals, there is a unique mechanism for intercommunication among

members. This includes the USA Ultimate website, which contains all the information about the

sport, how to become a member, and even schedules for tournaments across all competitions.

There is also subreddit for Ultimate of the popular social media site Reddit. Encompassed in the

USA Ultimate organization would be participatory mechanisms for providing information and

feedback.

Within the Ultimate community is a vast amount of vocabulary that would not be easy

to understand if it is your first time. There are loads of positional, strategical, and fun terms

used to describe the game. For example, the formation of offensive players is called a “stack,”

the primary offensive positions are handlers and cutters, as well as some idioms such as “snake

in the grass.” The threshold levels of members can range from just being an average college

player up to being a national level tournament director. Being a tournament director has many

requirements and have a certain amount of respect tied to the title. For these reasons I believe

that Ultimate is a very unique discourse community.