What Makes an Ultimate Expert?

First of all sorry for the late post. I was out of town at a Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Charlotte, NC and I did not have time to create a post. If you're interested here is a link to the scores from the weekend and I have attached a picture of OU Ultimate from this weekend.

(OU Ultimate at Queen City Tune- Up 2013 in Charlotte, NC)

The main objective of this post is to show What separates or defines me as an Ultimate Frisbee expert?

This will be my fourth year playing for OU Ultimate at the collegiate level. We recently attended College Nationals last year in Boulder, Colorado. I have also played at the Club level with A-block, a team based out of Athens, OH and Matador, a team based out of Columbus, OH. During the summer I occasionally attend pick up games and/or play for a summer league team which are both recreational forms of Ultimate Frisbee.

As with any sport, the more years you play, the more you learn about the sport. This is no different with Ultimate Frisbee. Most of my knowledge stems from playing with Ohio Ultimate where I learned about the game through older college players and from our team coaches, Kent Butler and Todd Grace. However, College Ultimate is limited to the Fall, Winter and Spring seasons. During the summer many players, like myself, play for Club teams which help broaden your knowledge of Ultimate Frisbee and allows you to play with different players which ultimately shows you how to adapt to different players abilities. Todd Grace, one of our coaches for OU Ultimate once said, "You learn more by attending tournaments...". This is very true because you play other teams and learn even more about the sport and how to adapt and play to other team's playing styles.

My experience with College, Club, and recreational Ultimate has allowed me to become more knowledgeable about the sport. One thing that separates me from other players with the same level of experience as myself would be my devotion outside of the sport. I like to stay up to date on a lot of the information within the Ultimate community. There are many sites devoted to Ultimate Frisbee:

1. RSD No Spam (which is forum based)
2. Sky'd Magazine (Articles about the sport, teams, and tips)
3. Score Reporter (Scores of recent tournaments, Team rosters, Team wins/losses)
4. UltiWorld (Articles based around the sport, teams, tips, and tournaments; similar to Sky'd magazine)

(This is only a small list compared to how many sites there actually are)

These sites give me even more knowledge into the sport beyond what you learn on the field and allows me to keep up to date with current events happening in the Ultimate World. The knowledge I acquire off  the field as well as on the field makes me an expert on Ultimate Frisbee compared to someone who only plays the sport and doesn't reach out to acquire new information.

Thank you for reading and have a great week!