It’s Monday evening, at Parkview square. Discs are in the air, legs are churning, and on occasion you may spot a player in mid-flight, horizontal and reaching desperately for that elusive prize. Many ultimate players descend on this pickup game on any given Monday or Wednesday – some for a chance to exercise or practice ultimate, and some come by just to socialize. Yet they all take the evening congregation to do what many have discovered to be very addictive – chasing plastic.
There are over five-hundred ultimate players in the country of Singapore, with popularity continuing to flourish locally as well as in many other countries around South-East Asia. During any given month, one is able to find a large tournament taking place – from Japan’s Dream Cup to the Manila Spirits competition.
In 2006, two local ultimate clubs travelled to Perth to compete in the World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC), placing 29th and 40th. This July, Singapore Ultimate will again
send a team to Prague, Czech Republic, to compete on the world stage once again.
How does Singapore stack up? There is no shortage of talent in Singapore, and there are many strong players playing on the more competitive club teams. The weakness in the growth of Singapore may be the lack of emphasis on basic skills. Skill sets which are often taken for granted on the European or American circuit can be sometimes hard to find. While the specifics of these skills is outside the scope of this article, it has also been suggested to me that perhaps it may be a matter of adapting to the flow of the game. While we all do fine playing within a system, when said system fails, raised voices and disorganized scrambling ensues. Teams will have star players, teammates will mess up, opponents often learn fast, and on many an occasion, the wind will do its best to fling the disc in some random and often unintended direction.
Despite any notions of not playing up to countries half a world away, Singapore has definitely established a reputation for quality play around Asia. Singapore has a growing ultimate scene, with a healthy number of participants as well as structured teams. It is impossible to compare the sheer size or performance to that of Europe or North America, however it is a sport with rapidly growing local interest at the recreational and competitive levels. At the very least, the recreational level can be seen on these Monday nights as yet another player makes a bid to save a disc hijacked by the wind.
