Like soccer, ultimate is a contest of constant speed. You're either trying to outrace a defender or trying to catch someone moving on offense. If a pass falls to the ground, or if it is intercepted, the opposing team gains possession from that point. Some of these players are marathon runners. Folks who consider a 30-minute jog a good workout are better off watching from the sidelines.
Players start arriving, put on their cleats, and split themselves into teams of seven.
The handlers have mastered the multitude of throws that make up ultimate, and the longs have the energy to run constantly in and around the end zone as well as a knack for plucking the disc out of the air. A good team needs both types, and the best players excel at all these skills. Pretty soon, handlers like Warren Packard a managing director at high-tech venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson are hucking passes to speedy longs like Cantrill. But Packard has dozens of throws in his ultimate toolbox throws he learned playing for ultimate powerhouse Stanford. Packard fakes right and then extends to his left, beaming a low pass toward Cantrill in the end zone.