kenyakidz|The kenyan family website

National competition for ultimate frisbee players

The ultimate Frisbee club will be holding its annual national competition at Tiwi beach May 30 -31st in the competition's third year. Each time it gets “bigger and funnier”, said Aaron, a member of the Nairobi ultimate Frisbee. This year, teams will be coming from Kakamega Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.

A non-contact team game played using a flying disc that scores points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone; Ultimate Frisbee was invented by a group of high school kids at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey in the late 1960s. The original rules, which allowed for 20 to 30 players on each team, and running with the ball were later changed to allow only seven players in a team and no running with the Frisbee.

Before the invention of the plastic flying disc, people used metal pie tins from the Frisbie Baking Company of Newport, Connecticut; which is how the disk got its name-frisbee. People would however often cut their hands on the edge of the metal tins; until the invention of the first plastic disc in California.

Nowadays, the game combines elements of soccer, rugby and basket ball, but is ‘more relaxing’ as there is no ‘bumping into each other’, say enthusiasts. But it is fast moving, with each player having only 10 seconds to pass on the frisbee and requires a lot of running, on a pitch that looks something like a rugby pitch.

Players need to ‘be in good shape’, said Aaron, who argues that 14 years as the ideal minimum age for participants.

The Nairobi Ultimate Frisbee was started six years ago by the US marines, who came to Kenya and trained some students and PE teachers at the International School of Kenya. When the marines moved on, those who had been training continued playing at the ISK field , until recently, when the club moved to training at the UN Centre in Gigiri.

The club currently has a membership of 75, split roughly 50:50 between males and females, mostly adults and a few teenagers.

The members meet on Fridays between 5 and 7pm and on Sundays between 4 and 7pm, with between 20-30 players meeting on any given day. Members who come from ‘zero’ as beginners are taught by the experienced members. There is no membership fee but a charge of Sh100 during every session as payment for using the field.

To register and for more details on Nairobi Ultimate, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it