Bengaluru's sporting grounds regularly witness all manner of sporting activities, with the likes of cricket and football being the usual suspects. In the past few years, small groups of people have started flocking to these spaces to indulge their passion for a different sport, one referred to around the world as 'ultimate'.
Played in teams of seven, the sport involves the use of a frisbee, and draws inspiration from basketball and Amercian football. Players toss the disc between team members, scoring points when they catch the disc in the opposite team's 'end zone'.
While the sport is believed to have originated and gained popularity in the USA in the late 60s and 70s, ultimate has been in India for over a decade, according to Sumedha Kandpal, secretary of the Karnataka Ultimate Players Association (KUPA). "Ultimate in India took off primarily in Chennai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, and the first formal tournament between two places happened around 2009. Bengaluru has one of the most active ultimate communities made up of adults. The city has around ten clubs, and some of them have more than one team."
The clubs, Kandpal explains, generally have one team that represents them in the national roster of players, and other developmental teams. Nationally, the activities of the sport are overseen by the Ultimate Players Association of India (UPAI).
While knowledge of the sport is still scarce outside of the playing community, the informally-organised regional and national associations are doing their best to spread awareness and get more people into the fold.
"In the US, Europe and parts of Asia, the sport is taking off, but these places have had active communities for decades, and the Indian ultimate community is still young by those standards. Internationally, all ultimate-related activities are anchored by the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF). Ultimate has also got approval from the International Olympic Committee, and we hope to be able to participate by 2024."
One of the reasons for ultimate being recognised over other sports, Kandpal says, is that it is a self-refereed, mixed-gender sport, and the Indian ultimate community is striving hard to stay true to these tenets. "We ensure that we play the mixed format, which mandates that there be at least three girls in the seven member team. This is tougher to organise than the open format, where the absence of this restriction means it is easier to put together a team, but we want more women to join the sport and help it grow in a robust manner."
Participants of an intra-club league
Bengaluru has a number of teams, ranging from Air Traffic Control (who Kandpal plays for), Disc-O-Deewane, Learning To Fly, and Thatte Idly Kaal Soup, among others. All these teams play across different parts of the city, ranging from Malleshwaram to Jayanagar and Frazer Town to Bannerghatta Road. Training sessions are held multiple times a week, and inter-club matches often happen on weekends, coordinated through Facebook and WhatsApp.
The clubs in the city and across the country also try and promote the sport in schools, with the mixed gender nature of the sport encouraging healthy interaction among students and boosting conversation and communication. Kandpal cites an example of how an ultimate player's trip to Assam has led to thousands of children in the region taking up the sport recreationally.
Kandpal states that the age of the players ranges from the teens to their 30s and 40s, with some picking up the sport rapidly and advancing to national stages while others play just for the fun of it. "Many people just play the sport as an alternative to going to the gym, and the community is always welcoming new members. The best thing about the sport is every club has people who are willing to give their time to train new players. So it becomes more of a community; a happy place made up of people brought together by the love of chasing the disc."
