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Ningbo to hold second ultimate tournament in April

Tuesday, 9th March 2010 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (5)

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by Dan Siekman

The second annual Ningbo Hat ultimate tournament will be held on the weekend of April 3-4 at the University of Nottingham Ningbo.

Ultimate, aka ultimate Frisbee, is a fast-paced and limited-contact sport that came out of the US in the 1970s and is growing in popularity worldwide. Only requiring a flying disc and an open field, the sport is beginning to take a hold in new parts of China.

Ningbo is one of three Chinese cities with two year old tournaments, the others being Kunming and Shenzhen. In China's more international cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tianjin, some ultimate clubs have been in existence since the late 1990s.

"Frisbee" is the original brand name of the plastic flying disc that is thrown between players in the sport. Most players now use discs that are manufactured by its competitor Discraft and in an attempt to cleanse their sport's name of the trademarked Frisbee name, they have taken to calling their sport "ultimate" and saying "disc" instead of Frisbee.

The object of the sport is to move the disc downfield by passing from teammate to teammate. The player in possession of the disc must pass within a ten-count. While in possession of the disc, the player cannot walk but is allowed to pivot on one foot. A point is scored when a player catches a pass in his/her opponent's end zone.

The word "hat" refers to a style of tournament in which players enter as individuals rather than teams and rank their own ability levels. Organizers then attempt to create a set of equally matched mixed gender teams that vie for the championship.

The term derives from formulating teams by choosing players' names at random out of a hat.

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As is traditional for ultimate tournaments, the Ningbo tournament will have a themed party on Saturday night, with plenty of complimentary beer included in the tournament registration fee: the theme this year is "Star Wars." Players of both sexes and all ability levels are welcome to join.

For more information email: liyanguan (dot) forrest ( a t ) gmail (dot) com.

Image: Ningbo Ultimate

Tags: Beijing, Hong Kong, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin, ultimate, ultimate frisbee