r/ultimate • u/0rcaKeiko • 1d ago
Language differences in US vs Europe
I'm going to be playing a tournament in Europe soon and I'm curious if there are any notable differences in field language between Europe and the US that I should be aware of?
I'm not talking about rule differences, more so just want to be sure that I can communicate with my teammates effectively.
Terms I'm specifically thinking about are "roll", "wheel cut", "popper/wing", "inside/around", "force in/out", etc. I assume most of these are generally the same, but I'm sure there are also some alternatives to these since the US also has variation in these terms.
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u/goshafoc 1d ago
From what I remember (though maybe out of date), though due to American influence, most Europeans probably aware of American lingo in ultimate.
Universe point -> Sudden death
Hammer -> "Upside" (especially in France)
When playing against some Italian sides (and also some from the Balkans), they called force left/right on the line
Though of course if you are playing for a side that predominantly speaks another language, they will probably talk to each other in that language (and hence use translated English terms).
Though stall count and calls are done in English. Though be patient when discussing calls with someone who is not proficient in English, though their English is probably better than you trying their language.
Have fun!
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u/--buddhistboy-- 1d ago
I'll second left/right being popular in Europe in my experience as well. that one was confusing /slightly annoying to me (I understand it, but as soon as you turn your body around it technically changes, and I'm quite literal. Always preferred home/away)
Sudden death I also heard, but is more self explanatory.
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u/tunisia3507 1d ago
If you say that there was "a foul on someone", I (as a European native English speaker) would find it difficult to parse what you mean. If someone has committed a foul, it's a foul by them. If someone calls a foul, it is because a foul was committed against them.
In my area, junk is a structured zone with 1 chase, a 3-person cup, 2 wings and a deep. I think in the US it tends to be a more floaty switchy defence scheme?
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u/AlwaysDreamer0 23h ago
Yes, “foul on” is one that always causes confusion when I hear it, because I would see it the exact opposite meaning to how the American meant it. We had exactly that confusion at an American tournament (many years ago) which took a long time to clear up.
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u/Dr_Stoune 1d ago
Most experienced players know and use the generic terms, in some countries they might use alternatives terms in their own language but ultimate terms are pretty universal all around the world. You'll be fine.
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u/HonestJackfruit9028 1d ago
Not a lot of people say flick. Forehand/sidearm is more broadly understood. In Germany know left from right because forces will be called links/rechts auf. Italy uses uno/due for (righty) backhand/forehand force. There are 1000 ways to call wheel cut, it will depend on the team People generally use the wfdf hand signals more, definitely helpful when not everyone speaks the same. Learning and using them will go a long way
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u/LegoRunMan 1d ago
I play in Germany and stalling is often in English so that’s okay. Biggest issue for me is that they call the force with left/right (links auf/rechts auf) and for someone that played for 10 years with home/away force and force flick/force backhand it’s still confusing to me which way the force is actually (I convert it in my head each time to my own home/away)
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u/AlwaysDreamer0 23h ago
My impression is a lot of those will depend on the exact group of people and what they are used to. Many terms are popular or change meaning or are misinterpreted by other groups, etc.
I recently came across someone who had only come across the term cup (as in zone) as referring to a deeper middle position, because arrowhead and the like are so common that they hadn’t come across the old style 3 person chase cup.
And of course it will depend which country you are in as I’m sure they will use local language for a lot of that even if they stall in English.
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u/CrispyKollosus 1d ago
Semi-related. My mom was living in Italy for a while so I went to live with her for a couple months. Found a frisbee team in the area and they invited me to practice so I spent the next day making sure I could very confidently count to 10 in Italian so I could stall correctly.
They stall in English.