Guts (flying disc game)

The sport grew from a pastime of the Healy family — specifically, brothers James (Tim), John (Jake), Robert (Boots), & Peter (Beka) — and, in the 1960s, its national profile was increased by Jim Boggio Sr.[1] As guts evolved during the 1960s, players started throwing faster and faster, until it wasn't unusual to see presumably unbreakable discs traveling at 60–70 miles per hour (97–113 km/h) shatter on impact with an unlucky defender's hand.

One tournament player even required fifteen stitches to close a gaping wound across the palm of his hand.

[2] With over 60 teams at a tournament in the heyday of the game, matches became intensely competitive affairs, seeking the IFT's Julius T. Nachazel Trophy.

With radical curving shots, deflected Frisbees bobbled frantically among teammates, and spectacular diving catches, guts had become an extreme sport demanding fast reflexes, physical endurance, and concentration.

For North America, the more game-specific United States Guts Players Association (USGPA) officiates.

The fiftieth annual International Frisbee Tournament (IFT), held in Hancock, Michigan, June 30 – July 1, 2007, was a large guts disc tournament, drawing players from all over the United States and Canada, and for the first time, two strong teams from Japan – including Katon, the WFDF World Champions.

As of 2007,[citation needed][needs update] the USGPA plans to induct some of the most outstanding players into the Guts Hall of Fame, joining Fred Morrison (inventor of the original Pluto Platter flying disc), the Healy brothers[clarification needed] (inventors of guts and founders of the IFT), and "Steady Ed" Headrick (IFT champion and inventor of the standard "pole hole" basket used on modern disc golf courses).

The final players tend to execute several simultaneous "attacks" until one is hit without catching a disc thrown by the opponent.

The main rule change is that the disc must be thrown such that it does not rotate about its central axis (i.e. it can flip, but it cannot spin).