SA School and Services for Vision Impaired PE

Ultimate Frisbee Adaptations

Ultimate Frisbee is a great physical game that encourages students and athletes to perform in physically demanding and tactical sport.

Like all information on this website it is important to understand that these are just possible adaptations and for further information please contact your advisory teacher or Andrew Whisson (PE teacher at the SA School for Vision Impaired)

Potential Rule Changes

Communication is incredibly important in all invasion games, and Ultimate Frisbee is no different. So athletes and students with vision impairment are able to identify the position and intent of their opposition verbal communication is vital to enforce. By simply having the rule that a player must communicate their position and intent to intercept a pass by calling "Voi" (Portuguese for "mine"). Failure to do so should result in a 10m walk down field and 10sec count restart.

Keeping the number of players down to a reduced 5 players over the 7 players in conventional Ultimate Frisbee will help to reduce crowding on the pitch and increase the confidence and ability of a player with vision impairment to succeed.

Teachers or coaches may wish to reduce the pitch size in order to reduce the accuracy required over greater distances, and reduce the required tracking of the disc over the larger playing area.

For some students or athletes with vision impairment it will be important to remove the requirement to catch the discin play and instead require the athlete or student to have the disc hit them on their hand/arm or for athletes with no functional vision the upper torso, hands or arms. This allows the athletes to participate and become an active member of the session.

Depending on the students involved and the sun and wind direction it may be easier to not change directions after a team scores. Instead to keep consistency and support orientation, reduce potential glare and confusion athletes and students should return to their own end zone after each score.

Equipment

Depending on the individual students the equipment will differ greatly. For all student's, however, the choice of disc is an important first step to ensure an inclusive unit or lesson. Ensuring the disc is of high contrast to the environment (see PE Adaptations - Students with low vision page) will allow students with low vision to participate in the lesson and increase their ability to track the disc. Similarly by including a buzzer or beeper it will allow students with no functional vision to participate, whilst simultaneously support students with low vision to have an audible cue to track the disc. It is possible to buy a whistle disc, however, the use of a beeper or buzzer attached to the disc allows the athletes to track the disc even when it is not thrown hard enough to make a traceable whistle.

The image shows 5 different coloured plastic Frisbees or discs. One blue, one pink, one orange, one white, one green.

Choosing the correct colour disc is important for students with low vision. Ensuring a high contrast for the environment is vital.

The image shows 2 different coloured foam Frisbees or discs. One blue and one orange.

For those students with low confidence in their skills and have a history of fear of equipment the use of foam discs can also be useful.

The image shows a pink frisbee sitting upside down on grass. There is a buzzer circuit shown attached to the bottom of the Frisbee.

A simple circuit can be attached to the bottom of a disc in order to create an audible disc. Just ensure that the circuit is distributed evenly across the surface.

Audible markers for the end zone are also useful, this allows athletes to orientate themselves while playing, and understand how close they are to scoring. An audible marker could be simple buzzers (see below) placed along the end zone or a volunteer, coach or teacher communicating to the students as to where the line starts.

A buzzer or beeper allows the teacher/coach to walk away from the end zone to support the play and is a constant audible orientation tool for the student or athlete with vision impairment. The downside is unless the correct beep or buzz is produced it can bounce off of hard surfaces or not give a clear positional reference and must be different to the sound attached to the disc.

Clapping or speaking to athletes allows the coach, teacher or support worker to give short instructions like "gap to your left" or "pivot across the line" so the student has more confidence in their attack. This method also allows the teacher to move with the play and does not rely on multiple buzzers to indicate the position of the line. This method does, however, take personnel to work and in many cases this is not possible all the time.

Depending on the number of students with vision impairment in the game or drill it maybe only necessary to audibly mark one try line, as it may just create unnecessary distraction having both lines marked if not required.

Hands clapping as an audible marker

Image shows two batons, one red and one yellow, tapping together

Batons tapping as an audible marker

The photo shows a black pouch with a grey buzzer attached to a red and black wire travelling into the pouch and then travelling out the top to a battery snap with a batter attached.

A simple buzzer can be used as an audible marker

Considering the field marking is also important and the use of high contrast cones or drop lines are important as the generic grass markings or court markings may not be accessible or visible to all athletes (see PE adaptations pages).

The image shows 5 cones sitting on grass. One white, one yellow, one red, one blue and one green. This high lights the importance of colour contrast to the grass.

Selecting the correct colour of cone to ensure high contrast to the environment and surface is important.

The image shows four yellow drop down lines on a dark surface, two straight and two corner lines.

Use of drop down lines can be a simple and effective way to ensure the field lines are marked clearly with a tactile element.

How can all students be involved?

By ensuring the adaptations above the lesson, unit or training will automatically become more inclusive and encourage all students or athletes to be involved. However, further rule changes could also encourage inclusive practice. This could be as simple as all students must touch the disc before a team can score. This forces all students to turn to their team members or peers and support their involvement in the game.

More information

For more information, contact your advisory teacher or Andrew Whisson (PE Teacher at the SA School for Vision Impaired).

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