Ultimate Frisbee player runs 47 second 400, 20 miles a game...

Seems like he might have some potential in crossfit...possible GOAT stuff there.

I would like to see evidence of some of that.

The 20 miles seems like a huge stretch. One World Cup soccer player in Brazil covered close to 10 miles, but he was the highest.

This thread from Reddit has some links to GPS data: looks like 3-5 miles might be a more accurate measurement.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ultimate/comments/mcjcv/how_many_miles_do_you_run_a_game/

Don't have time to read the article at the moment but will check back later.

I ran a 50.3 400m and played on a college club ultimate team in the same year. I definitely played against a couple guys who would've beat me handily in a 400m. 47 low is really fast, but not completely unbelievable.

20 miles is not realistic for one game. If you are at a tournament where you have to play 4 games in a day, and you play most of the points, then it could be possible for a whole day, but it shouldn't be. High level teams don't turn the disc much so it is more of a sprinting fartlek than a long grind. Good teams also usually have different O lines and D lines.

Let's look at this.

A normal game lasts an hour and a half.

So he has to be running 4:30 miles.

Nike should have picked him for the Sub 2, because he'd have kept up with Kipchoge longer than the Boston Marathon winner or Half Marathon World Record holder. Infact at the 20 mile mark, Kipchoge would have been over 3 minutes behind.

400 time might be legit. The 20 miles is a huge exaggeration obviously. A game is 2 hours and you run like 20% of that time. There are tournaments where you could play many games in a day though.

Ultimate.whaaaaaat wrote:

Outside has an enjoyable, inspiring read about an ultimate Frisbee player who keeps in really good shape with lots of track workouts, yoga, stretching, weights, etc.

The track workouts look pretty solid, but there's a couple problems:

"The 6’4”, 205 pound 34-year-old boasts a 47.4 second 400-meter sprint, 39 inch vertical, and an engine that can cover up to 20 miles in a single game."

Whaaaaaaat?

Question 1: Is this dude still pulling off 47 second 400s or was that back in college?

Question 2 (more importantly): How long are ultimate Frisbee games? Is it like those cricket games that go on for days and days? I highly doubt he's running 20 miles.

Here's the link:

https://www.outsideonline.com/2190906/24-hours-life-fastest-fittest-most-explosiveultimate-frisbee-player?utm_content=buffereb7a7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=tweet

I think that is an exaggeration for distance run in a game (maybe tournament that would be correct).

I play in a Ultimate league and the most I've run in a game is just over 11km and that was a really long game. Games are normally up to 15 and need to win by two. that game was a 19-17 game so longer than the average game.

Typically i'm at 7km a game

HardLoper wrote:

400 time might be legit. The 20 miles is a huge exaggeration obviously. A game is 2 hours and you run like 20% of that time. There are tournaments where you could play many games in a day though.

yeah, i'm sure he is much better player than me, but normally the better players don't need to run as much as they play the positions better and are more efficient

Interesting article. 47.4 would be impressive yet not unrealistic for an Ultimate player.

My take on the "20 miles" thing is that he has covered 20 miles in a day during a tournament, which would be reasonable if he's playing both ways in 4 games. But I think the author mistook that for a single game. I often cover 4-5 miles in a game based on a fitness tracker that consistently underestimates distance relative to a GPS device. I could push that total upward if I played every point on both offense and defense.

The fastest "non-runners" I've ever met are Ultimate players. Some of the players hit the track, especially during the off-season, but many of them just play Ultimate 3-5 times/week, which is enough. From playing Ultimate I am in the best speed shape of my life. I have run 12.1 wind legal 100m with a standing start when in track shape (many years ago) but I would not be surprised if I am faster than that at the moment solely on Ultimate games twice a week and two distance runs per week (haven't hit the track in years).

Of course there are plenty of really slow Ultimate players, too, but they are mostly handlers on offense and they don't play much defense. As for me, I play mostly on defense.

Finally, presumably the guy in the article does some actual disc practice?