I've been playing Frisbee [1] in Bangalore for about a month now. There are actually a handful of teams around the city, and fortunately one of them practices at a field about two miles from my house. The teams periodically play one another and then there are tournaments here in Bangalore as well as in other cities in south India (recently in Goa and Chennai, and one coming up in Ahmedabad).
The team (our name is Air Traffic Control) practices at 6:00am four times per week (weather permitting), which means that I leave my house at 5:30 to make it on time. Fortunately, our office has a shower, so I can go straight to work and grab a quick shower before the rest of the staff arrives.
The field doesn't have any grass, it's just sand. This is what it looks like at 6am:
By the time we finish at 8am, it tends to look more like this:
We usually do an intense conditioning routine, which is good, since I haven't done much cardio in the last few months. It'll be a while before I can keep up with the rest of the team. And after conditioning, we usually scrimmage which has been lots of fun.
There are two big challenges with the field. First, there are lots of shards of broken glass all over the field. No one has gotten hurt on them, but it feels dangerous. (There's also a decent amount of cow manure, but that's par for the course here.) The other problem is the crowds that you can see above. Typically different games will encroach on one another's space. Usually there's a mix of cricket, soccer and field hockey players running through our games (plus the occasional middle-aged person who is walking laps around the field). Today's game was particularly difficult, since there were players from not one, but four cricket games standing in the middle of our field.
The Japanese guy is the only Frisbee player in the picture. The rest are playing different cricket games.
The team is mostly Indian, but there are currently three international players (one from Japan, one from Switzerland and me). We are typically the only expatriates on the field. Frisbee is also usually the only sport on the field that has female players. Normally 2-4 women out of ten players--there are about 20 people on the team, but it's hard to make it to every practice.
I'm really enjoying the group and am definitely getting back into shape. I look forward to joining them for a tournament in the coming months. I also look forward to my circadian rhythm adjusting to this, but so far it's been a hard slog. At least it's easy to get out of bed at 5:15 to play Frisbee.
[1] Yes, I know, I've actually been playing Ultimate, but I typically refer to it as Frisbee. If that offends you, you should probably question your priorities in life.
The team (our name is Air Traffic Control) practices at 6:00am four times per week (weather permitting), which means that I leave my house at 5:30 to make it on time. Fortunately, our office has a shower, so I can go straight to work and grab a quick shower before the rest of the staff arrives.
The field doesn't have any grass, it's just sand. This is what it looks like at 6am:
By the time we finish at 8am, it tends to look more like this:
We usually do an intense conditioning routine, which is good, since I haven't done much cardio in the last few months. It'll be a while before I can keep up with the rest of the team. And after conditioning, we usually scrimmage which has been lots of fun.
There are two big challenges with the field. First, there are lots of shards of broken glass all over the field. No one has gotten hurt on them, but it feels dangerous. (There's also a decent amount of cow manure, but that's par for the course here.) The other problem is the crowds that you can see above. Typically different games will encroach on one another's space. Usually there's a mix of cricket, soccer and field hockey players running through our games (plus the occasional middle-aged person who is walking laps around the field). Today's game was particularly difficult, since there were players from not one, but four cricket games standing in the middle of our field.
The Japanese guy is the only Frisbee player in the picture. The rest are playing different cricket games.
The team is mostly Indian, but there are currently three international players (one from Japan, one from Switzerland and me). We are typically the only expatriates on the field. Frisbee is also usually the only sport on the field that has female players. Normally 2-4 women out of ten players--there are about 20 people on the team, but it's hard to make it to every practice.
I'm really enjoying the group and am definitely getting back into shape. I look forward to joining them for a tournament in the coming months. I also look forward to my circadian rhythm adjusting to this, but so far it's been a hard slog. At least it's easy to get out of bed at 5:15 to play Frisbee.
[1] Yes, I know, I've actually been playing Ultimate, but I typically refer to it as Frisbee. If that offends you, you should probably question your priorities in life.
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