Ultiworld is the home of disc sports media. In addition to our tournament coverage, livestreams, video library, and podcasts, we publish news, opinion, analysis, and other writing pertaining to ultimate frisbee on an ongoing basis.
While many of these pieces are produced by our staff and other established contributors, we’re always seeking new perspectives from the wider ultimate community, and we compensate writers for their work. This page presents an overview of our process and some of the content we publish.
Potential sponsor interested in partnering with us? Contact [email protected]. Have a tip for our reporters? The [email protected] line is open. Interested in contributing to our tournament coverage, video library, podcasts, or other areas of the site? Check our job listings or email [email protected].
General Information
- Email [email protected] to pitch a piece, check our interest in a topic, or ask a question about submissions. If you have a draft, you’re welcome to attach it.
- A piece will often go through one or more edits for structure, clarity, and best fit with the site’s format. This may involve rearranging or reframing the piece or, when applicable, fact-checking details by seeking corroborating accounts from other sources. We work with the writer throughout this process to arrive at a final version that reflects their individual perspective and goals for the piece.
- We’ll also edit pieces to our house style, but you may find it helpful to consult the Ultiworld Style Guide for standard language (including team names, division terminology, upfield vs. downfield vs. backfield, and others).
- Beyond providing accurate and responsible coverage of matters of relevance to the ultimate community, we want our site to be a place for ongoing conversations in the sport, whether on strategy, business, or equity and justice. For that reason, we seek to publish a variety of perspectives and opinions, including opinions some or all of our editors disagree with as well as opinions that challenge work we’ve done.
- We aim to publish a diverse range of voices as well as equitable coverage of populations within ultimate competition and community. We especially value perspectives beyond those well-represented in ultimate media already, including but not limited to BIPOC contributors, LGBTQ contributors, disabled contributors, and contributors outside the United States. Read our Equity Statement for more.
Section-Specific Guidelines
We’re always seeking to publish this kind of content from a wide range of contributors from around the ultimate community:
Our weekly space for tips, tricks, and how-tos for anything and everything ultimate, from strategy to technique to nutrition to cross-training to memes. Tuesday Tips is one of our most-read features, and a great framework to add your distinct perspective, experience, or expertise to the ultimate conversation. As you can see in the archives, we’ve published wide-ranging interpretations of the prompt, so don’t be afraid to get creative.
Tuesday Tips are typically 750 to 1000 words but can run shorter or longer, although pieces longer than 2000 words should probably be edited down or broken into multiple posts. You can read more about Tuesday Tips submissions here.
Contributed opinion pieces tend to fall into two categories: op-eds directly arguing a point or expressing an opinion on a matter pertaining to ultimate, and opinion essays describing individual experiences and perspectives, usually with an emphasis on what the author wants others in ultimate to know, learn, or add to their understanding from reading the piece. If you’re not sure which yours is, don’t sweat it; just know that we publish both, and your piece need not be either purely impersonal argument or purely personal narrative.
We strive to publish a broad range of perspectives as long as they’re based in fact, cogently argued, and respectfully expressed, in keeping with our mission as a well-managed platform for important conversations in ultimate as well as our commitment to equity across the site (see “General Information” above).
These pieces are typically 600 to 1200 words, but can run shorter or longer when appropriate.
Some examples of opinion writing closer to the op-ed format:
- Ravi Vasudevan, “WFDF Should Give Russia a World Games Bid”
- Tim Smith, “Ultimate’s Infrastructure Needs an Overhaul”
- Jen Pashley, “The Danger of Yellow Lights”
Some examples of opinion writing closer to the opinion essay format:
- Shylynn Rodrigues, “Wearing a Mask: The Experience for Players of Color in Ultimate”
- Domenica Sutherland, “Mental Health in Ultimate: It’s Not My Fault, But It Is My Responsibility”
- Mags Colvett, “Most of Us Didn’t Think We’d Be Here”
These sections are often covered by our staff and established contributors, but we’re open to publishing strong work from new voices:
Sometimes overlapping with opinion writing, but typically longer and more detailed, this broad category includes pieces that break down elements of gameplay, close-read film, look through large sets of data, report step-by-step on an experience or experiment, or otherwise consider a complex topic in a systematic way. If you’ve done the math, research, and/or reporting, applied the critical thinking, and have something valuable to share with our readers, we’d love to see it.
Some examples:
- Bryce Merrill, “We Ran an Ultimate Summer League. Here’s Why — And What We Learned.”
- Sam Echevarria, “Owning the Deep: The Game Plan That Brought Oberlin A Title”
- Jenna Weiner, “The State of Gender Equity In Mixed at Club Nationals 2019”
- Jonah Boucher, “Do the Nice Finish Last? Spirit Scores vs. Performance”
- Valerio Iani, “Hexagon, the Bestagon: A Look Inside the Hex Offense”
More like magazine stories than news items or opinion pieces, these articles take in-depth looks at people, teams, and events in ultimate. While many profiles in our archive focus on the game’s best-known stars, this can be a good format for highlighting undersung heroes or communities and bringing out why their stories matter. We’ve published excellent pieces in this genre from writers outside our usual stable of contributors, including Jennifer O’Connell’s “Long Live The King.”
Some other profiles:
- Daniel Prentice, “A Minor In The Majors: The Youngest Player at Club Nationals”
- Zakk Mabrey, “Warao To Wear Venezuelan Colors With Pride At WUCC”
- Zoe Collins Rath, “Shanye Crawford: Businesswoman and Brains Behind Con10enT”
- Patrick Stegemoeller, “Worth the Disappointment: How Inception Reframes Years of Nationals Near-Misses”
- Michael Ball, “A Privilege, Not A Right: The Ultimate Life at Military Academies”
Other Content
Interested in contributing other writing, such as a review, an interview, or fantasy content? Want to pitch us on a new regular column? Have an idea for a podcast or a video feature? Any other form of storytelling or information-sharing in the world of ultimate that we haven’t thought of? Email us at [email protected].
Payment and Other Information
- Ultiworld compensates all contributors for work published on the site. Typically, payroll is handled on a monthly billing cycle for the previous month’s work. US-based contributors are usually paid via ACH through Bill.com; international contributors are paid via Transferwise. Pay starts at $25 for a full-length article. Other forms of compensation include free or donatable subscriptions or in-kind advertising.
- Ultiworld’s core editor team handling editorial decisions and content across the site is Charlie Eisenhood, Steve Sullivan, Keith Raynor, and Theresa Diffendal. Contacts for specific editors can be found on our About page; emails to the [email protected] address are seen by all of us.
- We try to communicate in a timely manner, but if it’s been more than a week or the piece is time-sensitive in some way, don’t hesitate to send a follow-up email.