May the force (of the wind) be with you!

If you happen to be meandering along the sands lining the sea when the aurora sets in on a weekend morning, it is very likely that you will find teams of enthusiastic young chaps throwing about discs with a lot of fervor and excitement making you reminisce about your childhood beach outings spent playing Frisbee. Frisbee is a purely fun, recreational sport and this may be attributed to the ease with which it can be played, the simplicity of the technicalities involved (which is basically nothing but the ability to fling the disc with a little better than average sense of direction), the environment in which the sport is played and the fact that anybody can play it in a jolly-good manner without any training.

Frisbee in recent times has been taken to a professional level and rechristened Ultimate. Ultimate or Ultimate Frisbee is a non-contact team sport that encompasses different elements from different sports such as Soccer, Basketball, American Football and Netball. All that a person needs, to be able to compete in top contentions are speed, agility and stamina. The game is played between teams of ideally seven people wherein the ultimate goal is to pass the flying disc to the team mate standing at the end zone being attacked by the team. The rules of the game are not very complex. Players can’t run with the frisbee in their hand and should attempt to get the disc towards the end zone by passing from one player to another. If the disc makes contact with the ground, the opposition gains possession of it. Opposition will basically tail the players whose team is in control of the disc and the offence players will try to distance themselves from their markers to be able to complete successfully, a safe pass.

Also, Ultimate is the probably the only self refereed sport and fouls are resolved in the name of ‘The Spirit of the Game’ by the players themselves even at World Championship levels. Opposed to what one would immediately think, this technique has actually been working quite beautifully. Ultimate Frisbee is currently played by scores of people from all over the world and competitions happen time and again at regional, national and international levels. The sport has gained a lot of momentum in India too in the recent times with youngsters drifting to Ultimate from recreational Frisbee. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I were to say that it has become a beach culture in cities like Chennai and Mumbai.

Some of the well established teams are Airborne, Fiesty Falcons, Butzkrieg, Chakraa, Flywild, Stray Dogs in Sweaters and Stall7. Chennai Ultimate Frisbee is probably the most established and biggest community of Ultimate Players in the whole of India. They help to coordinate Ultimate events and are involved in spreading awareness about the sport as such. Chennai heat and Bangalore Ultimate Open are two of the most awaited tournaments amongst Ultimate lovers, players and spectator fans alike. Ultimate is evidently spreading its reach over a wide expanse of the nation embracing spirited youngsters. It’s time that you too jumped on the bandwagon and got yourself the ‘Ultimate’ Frisbee experience.

NivethaThiru

Fashionista,Foodie,Apple fan-girl,Engineer by chance

Leave a Reply