Bahrain Ultimate Society kicked off their Ultimate Frisbee Challenge yesterday at the Orouba Club in Juffair, writes Mazin Rizk.
Founder, Moosa Awadha, 21, started playing Frisbee three years ago in the UK. “I started the sport three years ago while I was studying abroad and found that every other sport is out of my league,” the University of Sussex graduate said.
Upon returning to Bahrain, Awadha noticed that the only place he can play the sport at is the American Base, once a week for two hours. The numbers he saw at the American Base was an encouragement for him to expand the game to people who would be interested.
Awadha’s first step was to go back to his old highschool and offer free volunteering to coach ultimate frisbee.
“I started by coaching the kids and once I noticed the kids are passionate about it, I knew I can translate this passion to local adults,” said Awadha, who graduated from Ibn Khaldoon National School.
He also highlighted that the game rules are quite simple, welcoming and is friendly with people from both genders.
“It’s a non-contact sport, so it’s not muscularly demanding. Teams can be as big as seven-a-side, and the basics are not moving when you catch the disc,” he said. “Players try to throw each other the disc, until they eventually catch it in the end-zone.”
The game is team-spirit oriented as players evaluate the opponent’s competitiveness and fair play at the end of each game.
The team, currently training together, has just returned from their first tournament: the MENA 2016 Ultimate Tournament in Jordan. Though they did not place they have set a goal to constantly improve and spread ultimate frisbee awareness in Bahrain. Many Arab countries around the region are forming their own national teams with the UAE and Egypt taking part in the World Ultimate Championship Series, with Jordan coming up next.
The team welcomes anyone who would like to try out the game to join the Facebook page on https://www.fb.com/groups/BahrainUltimateFrisbeeSociety/ and stayed tuned for future pick-up games.