A power-packed game, Ultimate Frisbee puts patience and integrity first

In a world obsessed with contact sports, ultimate stands out for its 'no-contact' and 'no-referee' policies

On a Sunday afternoon, about 40 girls and boys from Zamrudpur village in Greater Kailash in South Delhi make their way to the Siri Fort Sports Complex for their weekly practice sessions. Every Saturday and Sunday, for two hours each, the hockey field at the complex transforms into an Ultimate Frisbee ground. The game of frisbee that young adults and children flock the field for is not the kind you see being played at picnics, but one with rules, points, teams, discs and cones.

Vivekananda Srivastava, 41, and Benoy Stephen, 23, have been coaching these players from Delhi-based ultimate clubs, GK CRAZY and GK MAD, for two years now. While some of the enthusiasts prefer playing the game barefoot, others wear studs to run as fast as they can on grass. Their energy is infectious as they throw, run and catch the disc in an entertaining, power-packed match. 

Ultimate, as it is called, is a competitive sport that involves two teams of seven players each whose goal is to catch the disc-in-play in one of the two “end zones”. Picture two teams standing on either side of a field 64 metres long and 37 metres wide, with two “end zones” similar to football goalposts. Both these end zones are 18 metres deep, allowing the player to run into this space to catch the disc. 

The game begins when a player from one side (the offence) throws the disc to one of its own players. Through a series of passes or throws, just like in sports such as football and basketball, team members attempt to catch the frisbee within the opponent’s end zone. The players on the other team defend to prevent a catch in their end zone by intercepting the throw. Catching the frisbee in the end zone classifies as a point for the offence. To win the match, a team must score 15 points or have a higher score of the two by the end of the 100-minute match. The teams switch between defence and offence after every point.

In a world obsessed with contact sports such as football, ultimate stands out for its “no-contact” and “no-referee” policies. Spirit of the Game (SOTG), an ideology that drives ultimate, places the responsibility of fair play on the player. This means that each player calls out her own fouls. While ultimate is played as a competitive sport, mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the rules of the game and playing for the love of ultimate are given prime importance. In fact, if two players are unable to resolve their disagreement over a possible foul, the play is redone — as if the disagreement never happened.

Photo: Courtesy Ultimate Players Association of India

Udaya Kumar, the 24-year-old head coach of Team India, the national team, has been playing ultimate for five years. He is also the captain of Airborne, one of seven clubs under Chennai Ultimate Frisbee. For him, ultimate is not only a passion but also an integral part of his personality. “The Spirit of the Game has taught me to first listen to other perspectives, think and then react. I used to get angry at the smallest of things, but that has stopped now,” he says. 

Like Kumar, many have noticed the effect of the sport off the field. Jaidip Patel, founding director of 91 Ultimate, a one-stop shop for ultimate players that offers equipment and coaching, says, “We organised a five-day programme during the Traffic Awareness Week in February where the West Delhi police played ultimate to learn values like patience, integrity and honesty.” 

Another feel-good factor about the game is its genuine commitment to gender diversity. Mixed matches dominate international ultimate tournaments, promoting female participation. Last year, Kalpana Bisht, a 17-year-old from Zamrudpur, represented India at the World Under 24 Ultimate Championship at Perth, Australia. This year, 14-year-old Megha Rawat, also from Zamrudpur, will go to Shanghai for the Asia Oceanic Ultimate Grass Championship in July. While Bisht has already made her international debut and Rawat can’t wait to make hers, both the girls have done their village — an impoverished island in a plush South Delhi locality — proud. 

The story of ultimate started in 1965, when a few students from Amherst College, Massachusetts, invented a team frisbee game based on rugby, basketball and football. Modern ultimate, a sport that has 10 simple rules, was developed in 1968 by a group of students at Columbia High School in New Jersey. Ultimate is governed by the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), which has been representing flying disc sports and their athletes in 80 countries since 1985. In 2015, the International Olympic Committee fully recognised WFDF. This made ultimate frisbee eligible for IOC funding and placed it in a position where it can compete with other sports for inclusion in future Olympic games.

Team India at the 2017 World Championship of Beach Ultimate at Royan, France

India’s initiation into the sport happened in the late 2000s, but it has gained popularity only over the last few years. “The expat community in Chanakyapuri in Delhi had a major role to play in this,” says Shishir Gupta, president of Delhi Ultimate, a community of 200 players based in Delhi and the National Capital Region. Delhi Ultimate has been around since 2008 and is affiliated to Ultimate Players Association of India (UPAI), the governing authority for all things ultimate in India. 

Community-driven player associations like Delhi Ultimate also exist in other parts of India such as Chandigarh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan and Gujarat. But, only Goa Ultimate, Karnataka Ultimate Players’ Association and the Chennai Ultimate Frisbee are registered player societies. As of now, 14 other associations across different states are in the process of getting registered.

According to UPAI, there are about 10,000 players who play ultimate both competitively and recreationally in India. The sport has a presence in 15 states with 116 club teams. “Ultimate can join the category of recognised sports in India once it has 19 registered state associations,” says coach Srivastava. 

Last year, UPAI initiated its National Championship Series, which took place over a period of six months during which 21 sectional tournaments (between clubs in a state), three regional tournaments (such as north-west, north-east and south-west) and one national tournament took place. Over 90 teams participated from all over the country. Other than such large-scale tournaments, informal tournaments are conducted throughout the year in Auroville, Kodaikanal, Goa, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Despite this progress, ultimate is nowhere close to getting the kind of attention sports such as cricket and football get in India. Due to this, funding and sponsorships continue to be a problem, prompting those who are passionate about the sport, and privileged enough to pay for it, to fund their own expenses. Both Srivastava and Stephen coach players from Zamrudpur with their own money, which hampers sustainability.

Manickam Narayanan, president of UPAI, is confident that “with its low costs, low barrier for entry to people from different backgrounds and abilities, along with the gender-equal nature of play, the sport will attract more players and followers in the next five years”.

With a sport like ultimate, a positive attitude is never too far behind.