Agree Ultimate is a great sport. I haven't seen any injuries at the HS club games I've gone too, and I think the "vibe" is "chill." (Sorry, can't think of better words!).
My older child plays on a competitive college club, and there have been some collision type injuries--not like the intentional fouls people commit in soccer, or the purposeful collisions in football, but still can be a big impact, unfortunately. People running full speed on a field and trying to block a catch or get into position can sometimes collide badly.

I’ll chime in to say that Ultimate is a fantastic sport, but there have been a surprising number of injuries on my kid’s team at various tournaments this year.

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Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

And I think frisbee is more in line with basketball than tennis.

NP and parent of a serious ultimate player. I agree with this assessment—basketball is a good comparison in terms of contact.

In terms of overall injury risk, it’s less from contact than from the other elements mentioned above—running, fast direction changes, pivoting, diving.

Not to get too granular...in frisbee there is really no such thing as intentional fouls which happen all the time in basketball. Also, in basketball if you actually pay attention to players off the ball, they are constantly pushing and shoving for position.

The kids would immediately eject anyone who intentionally just like tackled an opposing player so they couldn't catch the frisbee...but it's part of the game of basketball if you just completely intentionally foul someone to keep them from scoring...as long as not flagrant, you can do that 5 times a game per player.

I mean, I think it depends on the level of competition (and, to be fair, it sounds like OP’s kid would be playing in a pretty light/non-competitive environment). In competitive ultimate, players absolutely do jockey for position, both away from the disc and when setting up to catch/defend a long pass. It’s not all that different from jockeying for position under the basket for a rebound, for example.

It is true that intentional fouls are not tolerated, which is one of the great things about the sport! But at the level of physicality and injury-opportunity, I still think frisbee and basketball are similar.

My kid plays on a nationally ranked HS Ultimate team (top 25). He also plays basketball. It's just not the same level of physicality, mainly because the Ultimate field allows you to spread out more compared to the much closer confines of the basketball court and positioning yourself under/near the basket. It's not as though you can only score in Ultimate by catching in some tiny 5x10 box.

You are correct that Ultimate has more diving for catches which can lead to more injuries. The other thing with basketball is that the starters are often playing 75%+ of the game, while Ultimate (at least my kid's team) is kind of like hockey where for the most part the entire team is swapped out after each goal. It's possible my kid's team is able to do this because they have many strong players compared to the day-to-day competition...though they try to still do many substitutions even in tournament play.

So does mine! Maybe we know each other lol. Anyway, seems like our perceptions are a little different, but ultimately not that far off.

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Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

And I think frisbee is more in line with basketball than tennis.

NP and parent of a serious ultimate player. I agree with this assessment—basketball is a good comparison in terms of contact.

In terms of overall injury risk, it’s less from contact than from the other elements mentioned above—running, fast direction changes, pivoting, diving.

Not to get too granular...in frisbee there is really no such thing as intentional fouls which happen all the time in basketball. Also, in basketball if you actually pay attention to players off the ball, they are constantly pushing and shoving for position.

The kids would immediately eject anyone who intentionally just like tackled an opposing player so they couldn't catch the frisbee...but it's part of the game of basketball if you just completely intentionally foul someone to keep them from scoring...as long as not flagrant, you can do that 5 times a game per player.

I mean, I think it depends on the level of competition (and, to be fair, it sounds like OP’s kid would be playing in a pretty light/non-competitive environment). In competitive ultimate, players absolutely do jockey for position, both away from the disc and when setting up to catch/defend a long pass. It’s not all that different from jockeying for position under the basket for a rebound, for example.

It is true that intentional fouls are not tolerated, which is one of the great things about the sport! But at the level of physicality and injury-opportunity, I still think frisbee and basketball are similar.

My kid plays on a nationally ranked HS Ultimate team (top 25). He also plays basketball. It's just not the same level of physicality, mainly because the Ultimate field allows you to spread out more compared to the much closer confines of the basketball court and positioning yourself under/near the basket. It's not as though you can only score in Ultimate by catching in some tiny 5x10 box.

You are correct that Ultimate has more diving for catches which can lead to more injuries. The other thing with basketball is that the starters are often playing 75%+ of the game, while Ultimate (at least my kid's team) is kind of like hockey where for the most part the entire team is swapped out after each goal. It's possible my kid's team is able to do this because they have many strong players compared to the day-to-day competition...though they try to still do many substitutions even in tournament play.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

And I think frisbee is more in line with basketball than tennis.

NP and parent of a serious ultimate player. I agree with this assessment—basketball is a good comparison in terms of contact.

In terms of overall injury risk, it’s less from contact than from the other elements mentioned above—running, fast direction changes, pivoting, diving.

Not to get too granular...in frisbee there is really no such thing as intentional fouls which happen all the time in basketball. Also, in basketball if you actually pay attention to players off the ball, they are constantly pushing and shoving for position.

The kids would immediately eject anyone who intentionally just like tackled an opposing player so they couldn't catch the frisbee...but it's part of the game of basketball if you just completely intentionally foul someone to keep them from scoring...as long as not flagrant, you can do that 5 times a game per player.

I mean, I think it depends on the level of competition (and, to be fair, it sounds like OP’s kid would be playing in a pretty light/non-competitive environment). In competitive ultimate, players absolutely do jockey for position, both away from the disc and when setting up to catch/defend a long pass. It’s not all that different from jockeying for position under the basket for a rebound, for example.

It is true that intentional fouls are not tolerated, which is one of the great things about the sport! But at the level of physicality and injury-opportunity, I still think frisbee and basketball are similar.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

And I think frisbee is more in line with basketball than tennis.

NP and parent of a serious ultimate player. I agree with this assessment—basketball is a good comparison in terms of contact.

In terms of overall injury risk, it’s less from contact than from the other elements mentioned above—running, fast direction changes, pivoting, diving.

Not to get too granular...in frisbee there is really no such thing as intentional fouls which happen all the time in basketball. Also, in basketball if you actually pay attention to players off the ball, they are constantly pushing and shoving for position.

The kids would immediately eject anyone who intentionally just like tackled an opposing player so they couldn't catch the frisbee...but it's part of the game of basketball if you just completely intentionally foul someone to keep them from scoring...as long as not flagrant, you can do that 5 times a game per player.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

And I think frisbee is more in line with basketball than tennis.

NP and parent of a serious ultimate player. I agree with this assessment—basketball is a good comparison in terms of contact.

In terms of overall injury risk, it’s less from contact than from the other elements mentioned above—running, fast direction changes, pivoting, diving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

And I think frisbee is more in line with basketball than tennis.

Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Basketball and soccer are both contact sports. Some people define soccer as "limited contact" but it's still a subsection of the contact category.

A non-contact sport is sprinting, or tennis, or swimming where something would have to go very wrong for you to contact another player.

Anonymous wrote:It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

That's a bit of a stretch. You don't have people colliding into you to head a ball, or slide tackle you or foul you egregiously in order to stop you from scoring. You are immediately ejected from the game if you do that even once (yes, there are no refs...but the kids are actually far less forgiving than any ref).

However, there may be incidental contact and yes there is diving for catches.

It's no contact but similar to how soccer and basketball are "no contact" there is still contact! Also lots of running, pivoting, diving, which can cause injury. But he's not going to get jumped on or tackled if that's what you're asking.

Ultimate frisbee is a great all-body workout. It is a no contact sport, but anything can happen. There is diving for the disc, jumping in the air to catch it, etc - all of these could affect any body part.
Both of my kids play and the biggest injury seems to be torn ACL.

My son has mentioned that he is interested in joining his school ultimate frisbee club (vs. the team, which is more competitive) next year. I don't know much of anything about the sport. My concern is that he dislocated his patella this year during an event in another sport, and we were told it is likely to potentially recur in contact sports (the sport he was injured in is non-contact, it was just bad luck). Is there any contact in ultimate? If so, would it be likely to be an issue at the club (less serious) vs. team level?