With what's left of the warm weather, why not plan a Frisbee unit?
By Mark H. Zmudy and Lance G. Bryant

With what's left of the warm weather outside (depending on what part of the country your reading this from), why not plan a Frisbee unit for your students? Flying discs, commonly known as "Frisbees," are disc-shaped objects that are generally made of plastic, but can be found in many material varieties (depending on what is age-appropriate for your students). The name Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company (www.wham-o.com), but is often the name used to describe all flying discs. The history of the "Frisbee" is often traced back to The Frisbie Pie Company in Connecticut which, as the story goes, made pies for many colleges and universities in the Eastern part of the United States. Ingenious college students discovered that once consumed, tossing and catching empty pie tins would provide hours of free entertainment, and thus a sport was born.

Physics in PE? With a Frisbee? Lift is what makes the Frisbee fly. Lift is generated the same way as a traditional asymmetric airfoil. In laymen terms, the upper airflow accelerates in such a manner that a pressure difference gives rise to a lifting force allowing the Frisbee to fly. The small ridges on a Frisbee act as turbulators which reduce flow separation by forcing the airflow to become turbulent after it passes the ridges. The Frisbee has a vertical angular momentum vector that stabilizes its altitude. Depending on its cross-sectional shape of the airfoil, the amount of lift generated by the front and back parts of the Frisbee may be unequal. If the Frisbee didn't spin when thrown, it might pitch. The Frisbee, and many like it, is aerodynamically stable so any roll is self-correcting for a broad range of velocities and rates of spin. Higher rates of spin lead to better stability, and for a given rate of spin there is generally a range of velocities that are stable. (Note: Neither of the authors claim to be physicists, so to help us, we did like many of our students do, and received our highly technical jargon from Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org).

Many of you reading this may already teach a unit of this nature in your annual physical education plan. In the event that you do, we're sure you have many outstanding ideas that you've incorporated, and would encourage you to share with other readers in future articles on pelinks4u. However, should this be uncharted territory for you, below is an easy one to two week plan that students of any age are almost sure to enjoy. Hurry and beat the cold! (Soft varieties of the Frisbee can be used indoors in a gym as well!)

LESSON ONE – throwing a Frisbee

• Stand, throwing arm side to the target (your partner)
• Point to the target with the elbow of the throwing arm
• Step in the direction of the throw
• Follow through and point at your target (youR partner)
• Practice with both dominant and non-dominant hands

LESSON TWO – accuracy in throwing

• Set lines of 3 cones; one cone is the start cone, one is the short throw cone, one is the long throw cone
• On your signal ('go') the throwing sequence is as follows: start to short, short back to start, start to long, long back to start, start places Frisbee on the ground, ROTATE (students at start cone moves to long throw cone, student at long throw cone moves into short throw cone, student at short throw cone moves to start cone)
• One round is completed when the student who began at the start position has returned to the start position.
• After practice, have relay races of 3 rounds, 5 rounds, dominant and non-dominant hands

LESSON THREE – soft defense no contact

• Same set up as lesson 2, except a defender is placed next to the receivers at the short and long throw cones. "Soft defense" means defender must keep at least an arm's length away

LESSON FOUR – true defense no contact

• Same lesson set up as lesson 3 except defenders are actually trying to get the Frisbee away

LESSON FIVE – keep away

• Set small boundaries (e.g. divide the gym into 6 squares)
• Play 3 on 3 keep away (or 2 on 2, 4 on 4, etc.)
• Rules: 1) no walking or running when in possession of the Frisbee. Pivoting, as in basketball, is ok; 2) turn over to the other team is constituted by out of bounds throw, knocked down Frisbee, intercepted Frisbee, or missed (dropped) Frisbee.

LESSON SIX – Ultimate Frisbee

• Small sided games is KEY for high activity level (3 on 3 , no more than 4 on 4)
• Set up end zones
• Same rules as keep away, except now you can score in the end zone; after score play begins again with the scoring team doing a "throw off" (kick off) to the other team from the opposite side of the field
• For higher inclusion, minimum 3 throws required before scoring is allowed. This avoids a game of all "long bombs"

Note: Mark H. Zmudy, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of HPER at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and Lance G. Bryant, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the HPESS Department at Arkansas State University.

FRISBEE RESOURCES:

• List of Frisbee Games - This resource is intended as a collection of games which can be used with Junior teams to add variety to coaching sessions while still concentrating on the basic disc skills needed for Ultimate. Many of these games are actually played by senior players and some even have international competitions.
• Team Frisbee Games
• The Ultimate Frisbee Game - Kan-Jam is the ultimate frisbee game. A fast-paced, team based, backyard game that is great for people of all ages.
• Ultimate Frisbee - Great information on Ultimate Frisbee found at Wikipedia.
• Wham-O, Inc. - Good variety of Frisbees
• Thirty Thrilling Frisbee® Facts - An object of fun, amusement and sport, the FRISBEE® disc has enjoyed a colorful history, maturing from an instant fad to a permanent part of the American cultural Scene.
• Where the Frisbee First Flew - The Untold Story of the Flying Disc's Origin 50 Years Ago in SLO
• Rules of Playing Ultimate Frisbee - Get some quick and easy rules for playing Ultimate Frisbee at Kitzworld.

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