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How long has your country had Ultimate?

France first met ultimate and other disc sports in the late 70s.

Does your country currently have:

Leagues? How many? How many people play in them?
France has two open championships which teams participate in: one is played indoors with 5-player teams in the winter, and the other is played outdoors in the spring. In the summer, the mixed championship takes place. Each of these competitions spans over two weekends. Summer also plays host to the "Beach Ultimate Tour", a series of open beach tournaments, the team placing the best all along the series gaining the title of beach ultimate champion.

Women, Juniors and Masters, because of a smaller number of teams involved, have one-weekend national championship held in the spring.

The only city to have a winter/summer league is Paris.

Club Teams? How many? Are there dominant club teams?
France doesn't have club teams in the same way the USA does. The French scene revolves around approximately 60 "clubs", the biggest of which have A and B open teams, a women's team, and a mixed team. Since the open, women's and mixed seasons don't overlap, a lot of players play both open/women's and mixed during the same season (the French governing body allows players to with one team in each category, as long as they belong to the same "club").

The French open division has historically been dominated by 3 Parisian teams (Friselis, Ultimate Vibration and Iznogood) and one team from the north Atlantic coast (Jack'Suns). Yaka and Fillelis (both from Paris) lead the Women's Division.

Jack'Suns also has had a lot of success on the European scene recently, taking 6th place at the latest European Ultimate Club Series in '08.

University or College teams? How many?
There is a very small college scene in France: around 20 colleges have teams, which compete in an indoor tournament held once a year to determine the French college national champions.

Youth (under 18-years-old) teams? How many?
About 5 "clubs" also have youth teams.

A National administration for Ultimate?
The FFDF (Fédération Flying Disc France) has been in charge of ultimate and all other disc-related sports in France since 1977.

Where or how do most people learn about the game?

Since there is no widespread college or high school scene, people in France learn about ultimate mostly from word of mouth, which hinders ultimate's development greatly. New players join the ultimate "clubs", which usually host practice sessions for beginners. When clubs have smaller numbers, players of all levels must play together to be able to scrimmage.

Do people in your country play in or against other countries?

One of the advantages of playing ultimate in France is that we're never far from other strong ultimate-playing countries: if they are willing to drive 3 or 4 hours, players in the south-east can go play in Switzerland, those in the northeast can go play in Germany, and those in the north are close to Belgium and the Netherlands. All of these countries organize quality tournaments, making it easy for French club teams to face off with teams from all over Europe.

As for national teams, the European Ultimate Championship (EUC) takes place every four years. In 2007, the French fielded teams in the Open, Women's, Mixed, Masters and Junior Boys divisions. The best placing French teams were in the open and masters division, French Open taking 7th place out of 16 teams, beating teams like Finland and Denmark in the tournament, while the French Masters came home with a bronze medal.

What does your country need to continue to develop? If the UPA were to donate $3,000 to you to help develop Ultimate in your country, what would you do with it?

On a personal level, I feel the next step for French ultimate is to start developing youth ultimate, both at the high school and college level. This could provide the club scene with a flow of fundamentally sound athletes, and possibly make the overall scene progress towards a "tiered" system like the one present in the US. I feel the image of ultimate also has to be somewhat renovated: a lot of people in France like to present ultimate as a self-refereed and mixed sport. Even though I believe these to be key concepts of ultimate, the male-soccer-dominated French culture often tends to see these qualities as disadvantages. In this light, publicizing the truly athletic nature of the sport could be a way to break through in the minds of the people.

Every country has a different 'style' of play...what is yours? (This question is particularly interesting to North American readers!)

The French style of play has a lot to do with speed, agility and quickness. Tall receivers are harder to come by in France than in Britain, Germany or Nordic countries, so the French are usually a lot less trigger-happy than a lot of their European counterparts. The French make up for this by having faster cutters and technically gifted handlers, often working the disc upfield slowly with under cuts, breakside throws and away passes.

(France v. Denmark at EUC '07: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rGKZR5lk10)

What is next for the game in your country? What is one upcoming development, or what is a hurdle that Ultimate will have to overcome to continue to spread?

I believe the main hurdle for French ultimate is its recognition as a sport by the government. Getting fields to practice on or to organize tournaments is extremely hard for sports not recognized by the government, especially in bigger cities. Ultimate systematically takes a back seat to popular sports like soccer and rugby, and many other sports recognized by the government. The French ultimate governing body is working very hard on this issue, and it could be the key to the development of ultimate in France, facilitating multiple weekly practice sessions for teams and cheaper tournaments.

Eric Maniez has been playing since 2005, starting off with and eventually captaining Moustix (French club team from the city of Lyon). Internationally, he captained the French Junior Open team at the European Ultimate Championships in 2007 and played for the French Mixed team at WUGC 2008. In September 2008, he arrived in LA and is currently playing for Smaug, UCLA's Open team.