By Ultimate Frisbee Batch ’18
What is Ultimate? It is running after 175g of plastic on a muddy field. It is screaming your lungs out as you see your teammates chasing that same plastic disc. To some, it is a performing art. But to us, it is a physical sport, a mental sport, but most importantly a team sport.
In Ultimate, highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of being on the same field, Ultimate Frisbee relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility of fair play on the players themselves. This is why our games are fully self-refereed, something which is unique to this particular sport. Players are expected to uphold the spirit of the game and adhere to the rules, and all calls are made and agreed upon by the players themselves. This is only possible because of our love for the game, our belief that Ultimate is so much more than just winning.
You might have caught a glimpse of us in the amphitheatre (scrim? scream? who cares because we do both anyways), but behind the crazy laughter and stupid plays are the countless hours of training bearing heavy rains, intense scorching heat, and low light conditions to achieve our ultimate goal: the championship title at the annual Inter-JCs. We fight hard at Inter-JCs not just because we are competitive, but because we know our teammates are fighting for us, and we sacrifice for the team because we know our teammates will do the same.
At this point, it might seem that we are mindless canines who chase after a plastic disc, but beyond a CCA, we are a family that cares for our team, both within the batch and for batches before and after. Our coaches are predominantly RU alumni and it is a common question: Why would the alumni take time off their busy schedules to spend hours coaching us under the hot sun? It is all for the love for this Raffles Ultimate family, a testament to the saying that Ultimate is not merely a sport, but a culture, a lifestyle.
Raffles Ultimate is not a place for you if you want to just keep fit, Raffles Ultimate is not the place if you are looking for a recreational club, Raffles Ultimate is not the place if you want an easy win. The road for each batch has always, and will always, continue to be one filled with pain, frustrations, with a pinch of toxicity and tears. When asked why we joined RU, many of us struggled to answer this. But the fact that we still stand together and continue to fight for and with each other is perhaps a bigger testament, bigger than anything we have mentioned above.
