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Toss and turn to health

Photo: R. Ravindran

Play away Tossing the Frisbee is good workout for the upper and lower body muscles.

A visit to Shangumugham beach turned out to be worthwhile, as I came across a trio playing an exhilarating game of Frisbee a.k.a. flying disc. Needless to say, all the leaps and bounds and general merriment involved in the game looked fun enou gh for me to give it a try. Right then and there my friends and I got hold of Frisbee (kindly lent to us by a group of teens) and started playing a ‘freestyle’ version of the game.

In ‘freestyle’ Frisbee, just as the name suggests, we are free to be interpret it as we choose. So we devised our own rules for the game and got going.

While the beach has its obvious advantages such as soft sand to lessen the impact of the jumps and a large enough area, the one big challenge was the wind.

We had to figure out the direction of the wind and throw the disc accordingly.

After a few tries we got the hang of it. The next hurdle was getting the grip and the release right. The most commonly used grip is the one that comes naturally to us, the back hand.

To propel the disc in the air one has to impart the right speed and spin at the time of release.

Too much speed or spin means the disc will turn over and too little means it will fall short of the target. The spin helps the disc to fluidly cut through the air. So finding an optimum speed/spin ratio is ideal.

Once you get the release right the rest is easy. The playing surface being sand one could dive around without worrying too much, although we did have to look out for shards of glass and other debris.

But then that comes with the package. The time spent chasing and throwing the disc is bound to pump up your heart rate and workout your upper and lower body muscles.

The Flying Disc Federation of India website has information on different types of games with the Frisbee and their rules at www.flyingdisc.in/index.html.

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