After our first two rounds about the Most Athletic Ultimate Plays and the Most Miraculous Plays and we’re aiming to continue our quest to find the greatest Ultimate videos available. We’ve picked multiple categories, each showcasing five videos which Skyd will be presenting over the next few months. After you watch each set, vote for the best one in the poll at the bottom. The top plays, as voted by you, will make it to a final showcase of the best Ultimate videos online.

And now, the Five Sickest Layout Grabs caught on video:

The layout is hands down the epitome of the sport of Ultimate. With it’s combination of athleticism, aerialist exclusion, speed and precision it is easily one of the most exciting things to witness in a game. It’s that decision that forces a player to reach with not just the length of their arm, but their entire body – nay – their entire being to make a play. The layout embodies the uniqueness and awesome power of the sport of Ultimate better than anything else.

When it comes to a layout grab, this requires an extra amount of focus. Hurling your body through the air at a flying object is one thing, but having the collectiveness and mastery to not only reach but control is what separates heroes from legends, peanuts from Brazil nuts, cats from…laser cats. If layouts are the electricity that makes Ultimate what it is, the layout grab is the hand of God.

Okay, that’s plenty of poor metaphors for today. On to the videos:



Greg Owens Suspends Time/Space

In a pool play game against Princeton, The College of New Jersey’s Greg Owens #15 launches himself into massive bid for a point in pool play during MNY Sectionals on a huck from Drew Shelton. TCNJ would go on to win that game 11-7.

Greg Owens looked back at the ridiculous grab:

“We had set up a simple string play, center the disc to our thrower and he would hit me on an in or out cut, well, I love running down a huck so I sprinted deep. I saw that it was coming in a bit hot and was probably going out the back, so I jumped and grabbed it. Not sure how I held on because that ground was harder than I was when I saw the video.” – Greg Owens

Junior Worlds Canada

Fleming’s wasn’t the only layout to make some noise at a world tournament this year. Canadian Junior Katie Scarth defines grit and tenacity with this astonishing grab at 2010 WFDF Junior Worlds. With a disc clearly thrown at the very edge of her range, Scarth had no choice but to chase and chase and chase to score give Canada an early lead over Columbia in the finals game. If you count the milliseconds before Katie makes the grab, you can identify hundreds of moments to bail on this disc, but Katie say “hell no” to the odds and doesn’t stop until she’s hold plastic.

Alex Nord Dives A Thousand Feet

Alex Nord of Carleton making an unbelievable catch against Colorado in the 2001 UPA College Ultimate Championship series. At 6 foot a billion, think about the sheer size of Nord and what it means to have a guy like that fully extended for the disc. Freakin’ gross. Alex Nord recounted the play by play:

“It was early in the 2001 college national championship game, down a break. The thrower is Derek Gottlieb, a great friend who is not a conservative offensive player. We called strings, but no plays, and he saw space behind me and put up a low, pretty flat huck that went almost right over my head (which, speaking as a receiver, is never good). I just hoped it stayed up long enough and sprinted towards the spot. Often, a disc like this dies on you as you’re laying out and the layout looks gratuitous. This one stayed up just long enough for me to get my fingers under it with nice wet grass for a landing.” – Alex Nord

Look at Zip

Considering the speed, timing and will power it takes to track down this throw and make the grab, Josh Ziperstein’s layout catch in the finals of the 2009 UPA Club Open Championships is more than impressive, it’s a testament to the importance of never giving up on a disc.

Andrew Fleming Goes the Distance

Of course. The layout heard round the world, Andrew Fleming’s high speed layout grab against Ironside at last year’s World Championships made its rounds in the sports community, even making it on ESPN’s SportsCenter.

We caught up with Fleming and learned more about this fantastic grab:

“That quarterfinal game against Ironside was one of the most hard-fought and well played games I’ve been a part of. The crowd was fantastic and that brought everyone up another level. On this play, we received the disc at 15-14 in a game to 17. Our defense had run off three breaks shortly after half to take the lead. Since then neither offense had blinked. All of us on the O-line knew we couldn’t afford to give a team like Boston an opportunity to even the score and potentially break to win.

[Aaron] Talbot gets great range and speed on his backhand hucks which makes them a dream to cut for. He really uncorked it on this one. It kept sailing but I felt like I could get there. When it started to drop, the only way was to go big and early. On some layouts you know you’ve got it for sure. This wasn’t one of those. Felt amazing to pull it in and bring us to game point. I’m grateful to all of teammates on D for putting us in that position, and O for closing it down for the win.” – Andrew Fleming

Now it’s your turn to vote! The sickest of the sick layout grabs will go on to represent Ultimate in a final gallery of Ultimate at its finest.

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