Defending Mixed Ultimate

For clarity's sake, mixed ultimate means at least two females on the field at any time, but more likely three (with four guys). In comparison, in open (men's) ultimate and women's ultimate, only one sex is represented on the field. As mentioned in a previous blog, many open players completely bash mixed ultimate as an inferior brand that doesn't deserve it's own championship. I'll declare my bias up front stating that with the exception of a few open tournaments, I've always played mixed and don't plan on changing that anytime soon. The following is simply one man's defense of mixed ultimate.

The number one complaint regarding mixed is that the caliber of play is lower than open. Well duh…the caliber of play is lower by design! Another obvious counter argument to the caliber criticism is that the caliber of play is higher than women's ultimate. Therefore, you get women who want to push themselves and men who don't want to kill themselves playing for an open team. Since ultimate players tend to take the game up later in their lives, not all of them want to make the time commitment it would take to tryout/compete on an open team. I'll admit to being in awe of the endurance, strength, speed, and quick recovery ability of open players. That doesn't mean I have any desire to get into that kind of shape at this point in my life. To summarize, yes the caliber of play in mixed in lower than open, but it's that lower caliber that its participants are looking for.

Another common criticism is that there aren't the same "bonding" opportunities if you're playing with a mixed team. IMHO, this is another bullshit criticism. If you're playing with people who want play at a certain caliber (probably cause they have things going on in their life outside of ultimate), aren't you more likely to bond with someone on your team? Yes, the number of players of the same sex are lower than they would be on an open or women's team, but you probably have more in common with your teammates. Time for a short story. At the Phoenix/Firebird pre-tryout tryout, while walking back to the line after losing a point, I and every other player within a 100 meter radius smelt what could best be described as a sulfur leak. One of the returning players chimes up with "Damn right that was me. It's my glorious man stink. Breathe it in." This one statement reinforced my belief that I have nothing in common with a bunch of people who think farts are funny and getting wasted at tournaments is appropriate.

Another blog I recently read talked about how guys just wanted to play with their wives in mixed, or how single guys want to hook up. Again, I don't see this as a criticism, as much as it is truthful. If you have a wife who is an ultimate player, and want to play together, mixed is an excellent choice! If you're single and are looking to hook-up, your chances are much better on a mixed squad than a same sex team (unless you're gay…in which case open or women's ultimate might be a wiser choice).

The critics of mixed should also consider that pre-college, all of the development programs focus on mixed ultimate. Furthermore, I have yet to read about a high school men's or women's team, only mixed. As players grow up playing mixed, learn the strategy of mixed, and get comfortable playing with the opposite sex, more quality players will keep playing it as the grow older.

In conclusion, stop bashing mixed ultimate until you give it a shot. If you don't want to give it a shot, that's also fine…more fun for the rest of us :P Until next time, happy hucking!