This is one of the most important aspects of the Ultimate game and deserves its own section in the Ultimate Survival Guide for two reasons:

1) Spirit is vital on the field to keep everyone playing fairly as there are no referees in Ultimate.

2) If you see some of the after game antics and wonder what is going on you'll be glad you were told what happens in advance!

The Game of Ultimate is, as was said in the Why Play? section, played from all levels from beginners to Worlds. One thing that remains consistent is that it is always played without a referee. This means all foul calls and stops in the game are made by the players on the field. This requires a huge amount of good sportsmanship and in Ultimate is called the Spirit of the Game.

Each tournament has an award for the best spirited team. This is calculated by votes from all the teams playing and is given to the team which is fairest on the field and other aspects of the teams performance such as a memorable call (I'll explain in a minute) or memorable antics at the party!

That is, very briefly, the spirit. Although there is a lot more to it that that but we don't want to scare you! With that in mind we'll now warn you about the Call.

The Call

At the end of a game, as a show of good will (and sometimes no hard feelings) everybody shakes hands and then gets together in a circle standing in between two players from the opposite team.

Then the loosing team captain says a little something about the game, you'll pick up the clichés very quickly! Then the winning captain acts humble with similar words! This is followed by each teams Call.

The Call is something, anything, usually intending to entertain the other team. There have been things from singing songs and acting out plays to 3 shouts (boring), eating as many marshmallows as you can and playing catch with eggs!

So now you have been warned. This small part of the game is something most Ultimate players enjoy as something to unwind you after a close game. You can read more about Spirit in it's own section.