Cody Tries Ultimate Frisbee in FiveFinger Sprints

By Justin Owings on Oct 15, 2009 | In user stories | 7 comments »

Cody gears up for a flick!
This frisbee is far too clean!
Sprint FiveFingers and Ultimate Frisbee — possible?

Cody wrote in to tell me about his recent experience testing out his Vibram FiveFingers Sprints for Ultimate Frisbee. Here's what he had to report:

Sunday I played my first game of ultimate in a few months. I have been coaching cross country and transitioned to running exclusivly in my FiveFinger Sprints. Throughout the week I was looking forward to my minimal shoe debut in my favorite sport.

First point we received the pull. 6'5" Mike (and very fast to boot) was covering me. I slowed to get him off balance and then hopped up on my newly enhanced toes and burned him for a deep enzone catch.

VFFs: 1 — Tall fast dude: 0

Unfortunatly as you might guess the Sprints couldn't hang with cutting on the defensive side of things. I could keep up and stop the long routes but no good covering handlers.

After the first few points I switched to my adidas football cleats and promptly cleated myself in my heavyfooted clumsiness.

As great as VFFs are, it's not surprising that they don't quite lock you into the earth like cleats. As for the idea I'm sure you're all contemplating — cleated VFFs — I'm guessing they'd be just about impossible due to the rigidity required to make cleats function like tacks.

Thanks for the field testing, Cody!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
has written 712 articles and 260 comments.
Tags: fitness, sprint

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Comment from: MikeB [Visitor]
MikeBI wondered if cleats would work on the euro lace-up style of VFF? Seem like they could provide the needed security.
10/15/09 @ 09:15
Comment from: Justin Owings [Member] Email
I think the problem is that cleats have to be hard to puncture the ground and lock you into your steps. This hardness in turn requires a hard "upper" -- therein lies the problem. How do you have a flexible VFF upper while having a hard cleat attached to it? Maybe a podded variety of VFF could do it?
10/15/09 @ 09:33
Comment from: danielthepoet [Visitor] Email
danielthepoetI was very surprised earlier this week when I slipped on the wet tile step leading into my house. My VFF Sprints had zero traction on the wet tile and I smashed the toes of my other foot into the tile as I struggled to regain my balance (while holding my little girl).

I'm hopeful that the new KSO Treks will provide some better level of traction for slick wet surfaces.
10/15/09 @ 10:09
Comment from: Cody [Visitor]
CodyI would think metal spikes would work... but that would be very dangerous.

Sorry to call out Mike. He owned me most of the rest of the day.
10/15/09 @ 13:35
Comment from: Benny [Visitor]
BennyI tried doing a hard cutting/sprinting/agility workout session on pavement a couple of weeks ago, and it just doesn't work in VFF's (KSO's). I got a couple of blisters on my big toes, and had top-of-foot pain from gripping the pavement with my toes and pushing off and trying to stop. I can only imagine ultimate was the same experience, unfortunately.

I guess the human body wasn't made for such hard cutting movements, which can be verified by the number of ACL and other like injuries incurred from ultimate/soccer/football etc.
10/15/09 @ 20:27
Comment from: Matt [Visitor] Email
MattI played ultimate frisbee in my sprints and they ripped apart at the seams
02/22/10 @ 12:56
Comment from: Robert MacKenzie [Visitor]
Robert MacKenzieI just tried my VFF Sprints in ultimate, 3rd day owning them.
They held up, but on really hard cuts, I lost traction on the astroturf and I would go down hard. I think I'll move back to my cleats next week, but I'll keep the VFFs for the rest of the stuff.
05/12/10 @ 02:59