Flying disks becoming quite the rage

“I just remember one time running for a pass and leaping up in the air and just feeling the Frisbee making it into my hand and feeling the perfect synchrony and the joy of the moment, and as I landed I said to myself, ‘This is the ultimate game. This is the ultimate game.’” (Howard Kass interviewed in 2003, speaking of the summer of ’68)

After beach volleyball and football, it is Frisbee that has become a familiar and a regular sport that one witnesses on a Chennai beach. As something that started as a mere casual game played for fun and excitement whilst at beach, the sport has evolved a great deal over the last couple of years in Chennai. The game is not native to India and neither does it involve fame and mammoth money. However enthusiasm and vivaciousness fill the air when you see vibrant Frisbee players dive and fly during a game thus qualifying it to be one of the most exciting sports in the country. Ultimate, as it is called in the sport language, is originally a U.S sport that involves catching and throwing flying disks. Though Chennai is only a recent addition to this craze in India, the club- Chennai Ultimate, is the biggest in the country.

The Chennai Ultimate mentors nine other independent teams. Its head, Mr. Manu Karan, lived in the US for five years and learnt the sport after playing with University of Colorado team. He then came back to Chennai and popularised it here and across the nation. “When I moved back from the U.S., I knew I would miss it,” he says, adding, “I wanted to be able to find a game any day of the week in the city and now it has finally become sustainable,” said Manu Karan.

Ultimate is recognized to be game of absolute honesty. It boasts of its exclusive aspect called “The spirit of the game”. Honesty, respect and sportsman spirit are highly valued. The highlight lies in the fact that they award the teams for the best spirit pulled off during the game too. It is a self refereed game and hence helps a lot in building character.

Manu says, “You want to win because you are good. Because you can run faster, throw better, jump higher. Not because you know how to exploit the rules, which happens a lot in competitive sports.” He adds that this self-refereed game, where conflicts between two players are resolved between them with no interference from referees or team captains, builds character.

Shyam. S, a Chennai Ultimate player says, “My favourite aspect of the game is that there is no unhealthy and evil competition. The spirit of the game is pretty light and there is no ‘opponent’ feeling against the other team. In this way, you can totally exhaust your energy and enjoy the whole process without any hard feelings”. He adds, “It’s more of a stress relieving game”.

One uniqueness in this game is that the team which should consist of 7 members should involve a minimum of two women players. This is probably the only official and popular unisex beach sport in India. Mr. Karan said teams are required to include both women and men, so this plays a very pivotal role in bringing the society together without discriminating them sexually. “It’s hard to get women to play, but co-ed is the only way to grow the sport. The current regulation for tournaments requires at least a 5-to-2 ratio of men to women” Mr. Karan said.

This uniqueness is exactly why it was able to strike a chord with the social factor too. The very fact that the sport encourages women to play at par with men pleased and impressed many of the charity schools and institutions that use the sport to address equal sex balance in the society.

Some of the major tournaments on a global level are World Games, World Championship Beach Ultimate, etc. On a national stage, we have Chennai Heat (India’s largest and most competitive tournament), BUO- Banglore Ultimate Open (on grass), etc. Chennai Heat happens every October in Chennai.

Though India has 30 teams nationwide and is closely following the US, Japan and the Europe, it is yet to join the rest of the world in conducting an assortment of tournaments in this sport. Shyam adds, “We have come a long way since the introduction of this sport in the city. But I’d say we still have a long way to go. For instance, there were only two groups when we started in 2007. Now, there are 1500 plus players across India. That is good news but we still haven’t started Hat tournaments, high school, college, and club leagues, etc. All this will take time, I believe. I’d like for Ultimate to eventually become like cricket.”