Trivandrum Ultimate, the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of Ultimate Frisbee, which promotes the sport, is preparing for a tournament

Started by Benoy Stephen, the player-coach of Delhi-based professional team GK Mad, the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of Ultimate Frisbee aims to use the sport as a way to empower children

Dawn is breaking on Shangumukham beach in Thiruvananthapuram. Emil Thomas Sony launches a frisbee into one of his trademark long throws to his team’s cutter Madhav Dev, who runs and dives into the end zone of the field to catch the flying disc and gain a valuable point for his team.

Players of both teams are part of ‘Trivandrum Ultimate’, the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of Ultimate Frisbee sport. The beach is one of their main spaces for practice as ‘Thira’, the competitive wing of the chapter, prepare for their first tournament in Kodaikanal from May 26 to 29.

The disc is progressed up the field using various throws, such as the ‘backhand inside out throw’ that Emil used to get the disc to Madhav. “Throws and catches are the main moves of this sport. That is why we practise them for a while before starting a match,” says Sankar Ram, the 32-year-old who manages ‘Trivandrum Ultimate’.

Ideally, an outdoor Ultimate field should be 100 metres long with 18-metre end zones at each end. If a team, progressing from one end zone to the other, manages to reach there and catch the disc within that zone, a point is scored. Then, the opposing team starts from the scored end zone and try to get to the other end. Like Basketball, taking steps while holding a disc is not allowed. Instead it should be thrown to a teammate. Opposing team members can try to snatch the disc or make it drop to gain control of the disc, also called a turnover. However, Ultimate Frisbee is a non-contact sport and any contact while blocking or trying to snatch the disc is considered a foul.

‘Trivandrum Ultimate’ was started by Benoy Stephen, the 27-year-old player-coach of Delhi-based professional team GK Mad, in 2021 during the pandemic. Sankar says, “Since he went to Loyola School and I did my schooling at St. Thomas Residential School, both in Thiruvananthapuram, we had a lot of mutual friends and that’s how we met. We gathered a few of our friends and started playing at St. Andrews beach.” Although there was tremendous interest initially, the second wave of the pandemic hit them hard and they lost their momentum.

It was restarted in June 2022, again by Benoy, who runs an NGO called Y-Ultimate in New Delhi that aims to empower kids from marginalised backgrounds through the sport. GK Mad, which is currently the second ranked Ultimate Frisbee team in the country, consists of children and young-adults from marginalised communities from Zamrudpur in Greater Kailash area of Delhi. “I had a teaching stint in Hyderabad after college. There I tried to use Ultimate as a tool for education and improving children’s social skills. The results were encouraging and I moved back to Delhi to start this NGO and focus on GK Mad,” says Benoy.

He wants to try something similar in Thiruvananthapuram, his home town. However, for that, he needed skilled Ultimate players who could work with kids from marginalised backgrounds, especially from coastal communities. Therefore, it made more sense to first start a team with enthusiasts. The group ‘Trivandrum Ultimate’ today has more than 500 members, of which more than 30 are playing for ‘Thira’.