Watch | Chennai’s thriving Ultimate community knows how to work a frisbee

Experience the vibrant Ultimate Frisbee community in Chennai, where players of all ages and backgrounds unite for spirited matches.

A little after dawn breaks over Elliots beach, there are cones being placed on the sand to demarcate areas to play on. A group of children take on an equally motley crew of teens, passing a frisbee and blocking their opponents, running and jumping across the sand. All around, similar pockets have matches going on, with a mix of cheering players and a gaggle of onlookers keenly observing from the sidelines. 

Over the weekends in particular, it is not rare to see discs flying up in the air as Chennai’s many Ultimate teams take to the city’s beaches. The many teams we chance upon on a Saturday, warming up, being coached, and playing matches are all a part of Agni Nakshatra, a beginners tournament. 

“Every year, teams from Chennai try and get new people to play the sport. The Agni tournament is timed with the school and college holidays so that the children and teens who come in are coached, and get to play matches. This is the first opportunity these players get, to be a part of a tournament, and an experience they never forget,” Praveen Balaji (a.k.a Bajji), a player with Chakra, the first Ultimate club in Chennai.

A no-contact sport backed by significant community support and spirit, Ultimate which is played on the beaches in Chennai has five players on each side with an alternating ratio of three men to two women ratio. Players do not just stand on the sand and toss a frisbee. Watch an Ultimate game in action and you realise how much it looks like rugby, full of running minus the contact.  It is not uncommon to spot entire families, covering a spectrum of age groups playing the sport, given how it is inclusive and welcomes anyone who wishes to play. From the fact that the sport celebrates spirit, to how it is self-regulated, there is much that continues to draw people to it. 

Chennai’s seaside has seen the Ultimate grow by leaps and bounds. It was only recently that the India Mixed team, with 16 of its 17-member squad from Chennai, clinched the silver medal at the Asia Oceanic Beach Ultimate Championship (AUBOC) in Shirahama, Japan. Tournaments like these are now aplenty, for Chennai’s many clubs and its stellar players. 

“When we began back in 2007, there were probably seven of us who came together to play Ultimate here. Hardly anyone knew of the sport, and relied on YouTube to learn, and even wrote to international players to coach us via e-mail,” recalls Abhinav Vinayakh Shankarnarayanan, indicating how far the sport has come. A player with Flywild, one of Chennai’s top clubs, Abhinav has seen the number of clubs and players swell since. Chennai currently has around 500 to 600 active players, including children from schools and NGOs. At present, there are between eight and 10 clubs here. 

“From having around four tournaments per year, we now have at least one tournament every month to participate in. There is a large young population that is starting to play — IIT Madras for instance has an upcoming, strong team. The sport is economical, easy to teach, play, and organise,” he says. Abhinav adds that several older people have made a beeline for Ultimate.