Eating right to play GREAT

As Sectionals stated drawing near for the Ohio University women’s team, our senior standout Sarah Soled took it upon herself to gather the team together and talk about one of the most important things any athlete should know….Nutrition! Ok, I know it’s nothing like laying out for a disc or throwing a sweet-ass huck up field, buy nutrition is the thing that makes all of that possible. Sarah’s main statement to us was “why bust your ass winter quarter condition if you only are going to provide crummy fuel for your body? You can’t expect to perform your best unless you put in (to your mouth) the best.”

"Eating right is really important when you play Ultimate. Because it is so physically demanding, you must eat healthy foods that have enough carbs to keep you going,” Evan Conrad, a player on UC Cinister said. Eats carbs, or carbohydrates are important, they are the primary fuel used in sprints and they are the quickest way for a person to fuel.

But athletes need more than just carbohydrates in their bodies, they also need protein. According to the Sports Medicine section of About.com, athletes need protein to repair and rebuild the muscle that exercising brakes down. The amount of protein an athlete needs is dependent upon intensity, duration of exercise and the degree of training. It is recommended that endurance athletes take in about 1.2-1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight per day.

Another important part of an Ultimate player’s diet is fluids! According to Colorado State University, “athletes should start any event hydrated and replace as much lost fluids as possible.” Even when the weather is less than perfect, snowy, cloudy, rainy, make sure you are drinking fluids on the sideline.

Recap: Nutrition is important to any Ultimate player, the objective is to provide you with foods and fluids to sustain hard training promote rapid recovery and promote adequate hydration. As Sarah told our team, it’s all about food quality, not quantity. So after that next practice or tournament, make the smart choice when you reach into that refrigerator.

Spirit of the game

The thing that makes Ultimate unique the game is run on the idea of spirit of the game. This means no refs, just you and the other team; the players are responsible for calling any fouls and scores. The spirit of the game is a way to show respect to the other team. Through my six years of playing I have learned that spirit of the game expands further than just on the field. Because we are talking about respect, one has to be respectful off the field. It is because of this we shake hands after every game and congratulate a player after a big play.


This past year I have found that people’s talk on the sideline can affect other people on the sideline as well as those still playing. For example, if the sideline is up and moving with the disc yelling positive feedback, the players on the field will get pumped up. This can be found on any sports teams.

On the flip side of things, people take this idea of talking to the players in a negative route. Instead of talking positive to their team, the focus solely on the other team and giving them negative feedback. While playing, we seek out people’s voices on the sideline to help us figure out where people are and who the biggest threats are. So when you get people on the sideline start talking bad about your playing you can’t help but let it affect you, which is what they want.

So, how do you deal with this? Breathe, just breathe. This might seem to be a small step, but you would be surprised how much it helps. With breathing you slowdown your body and your mind (which is working in overdrive during a game), and this helps you concentrate on what you’re doing. The most importing thing is to know that they are just trying to get to your head, so breathing will help you keep your cool. If this doesn’t work and the situation is getting to far out of hand you may want to talk to someone on the other team. This doesn’t have to be rude, just explain the situation and how you feel like this person is disrespecting the spirit of the game.

Recap: Spirit of the game is essential to the game of Ultimate. And that spirit has to extend to off the field. The most important thing to do if someone is disrespecting the spirit is to not let it get to your head. Also, you have to make sure you don’t sink down to their level. Don’t fight back; don’t start doing the same thing during other games. Spirit of the game is what makes Ultimate unique, and if we lose that, this sport will lose its integrity.

Run your butt off!

Personally there is nothing worse than watching the girl you’re defending causally jogging into the end zone to catch a floating huck, while you’re halfway down the field with an empty tank of gas. The reason for this is lack of endurance.

One of the most important parts of Ultimate is running. In every point, you should be busting your butt up and down the field. So an important thing for all players to do off the field is to work on their endurance. This is a very slow process that takes a lot of dedication. Most of the sites that I read suggested that you start out with an easy 15-30 minute run, and then causally add distance on to your run. The Livestrong Web site made a good point of slowing building distance on your run to prevent injury. Make sure you stretch a lot before and after your runs to prevent injury. Stretching also helps prevent you from being extremely sore the next day.


There are two main workouts that one can do to help build endurance. One is running hills; running up hills exerts a lot of energy. Constantly run up hills will make running on the field will seem easier. Another popular workout is Fartleks, or interval runs. Players will alternate between fast sprints and slow jogs.


Recap: Endurance is really, really important in Ultimate. Building endurance is something that every player has to work on off the field, it does not occur in practice. So I hope you take these tips into consideration.