Before I ever went to a training, my friend who invited me to a training said they were casually training. A few people were going to some sort of tournaments. Other came whenever they wanted. There was no obligation to go to the tournaments or train regularly. Now that I think about it…she lied to me. After two years of playing Ultimate Frisbee, I know it’s impossible not to go to a tournament or skip a training. If you’re serious, that is. Are you ready to know how does a typical schedule look like? I wasn’t.
It starts with one…
…training a week. Or two. It depends on how serious your team is or at what level of creating the team they are. If you’re serious you’ll go to every training. Then there come the tournaments. I went to my first tournament two months after I started training. Ever since then I went to almost every game. That one training turned into two a week and then three.
Pretty much every weekend during the indoor and outdoor season there’s a there’s something going on. How can you not go if it’s so much fun? Yes, even for an introvert. It’s four-five days out of the week.
Going back to sports was my 2014’s New Years Resolution. It’s the only one I intend to keep! I can think of a few reasons why this sport is called Ultimate… Ultimate time-stealer. Ultimate “take-my-money”. Ultimate drug. Ultimate non-frisbee friend eye roll. Ultimate hobby. Ultimate fun.
“Hi. Can we re-schedule that I’ve got a–“
Everything’s fine if you take out all the other stuff from your life. However, there’re other obligations like family, non-frisbee friends, work or studies. Life was easy before joining the team. I can remember all those long weekends when I could read three books or spontaneously meet up with someone (rarely, to be honest). There were movie marathons, board game nights or video gaming! Now it’s impossible to fit in fangirling over another Marvel movie or proving to someone in 2000 words why Loki is the misunderstood anti-hero. There’s not much time either to sail the high seas and be a pirate/assassin.
That’s giving up lots of free time, but somehow I’m fine with it. I like being focused on something meaningful. The irony of the situation is that when you’ve got so little free time then everyone wants to suddenly meet up. Last week, when I was at the Open/Women tournament my friend texted me. She wanted to meet up. Once I told her how my schedule looked like, she said she would text me on March. That makes me feel guilty. It does… Juggling all that is a hard task. Scheduling a meeting for another month has become a reality.
Juggling all that is a hard task. Scheduling a meeting for another month has become a reality. Suddenly instead of spending too much time at home, I’m spending too much time outdoors. It was such a shock to my family that there could be only one reason for my change of lifestyle.
Yes. It’s a love at first sight. Or should I say at first flight? My mum’s built a whole conspiracy theory around my renewed love for sports. Can’t a girl just train and like sports?
Sometimes such an intense time comes with great price. An introvert meltdown. If you’ve never seen it, you’re lucky. It’s ugly, irrational and dark. All of the problems and frustrations blow up. That’s why it’s so important for introverts to get some time alone. 😉
Another drawback is…leaving your introverted cat alone. Whenever I come back it’s guaranteed she’ll be stalking me for the next two days. Forget about sleeping.
So how does a week in my life look like?
It’s busy. I’m torn between needing some time alone and not missing a game. The worst and the best time is when there are tournaments each weekend. There’s not much time to even write this blog. Ultimate Frisbee is fun even though it leads to some serious lack of sleep. After all, sometimes it’s okay to sleep at work, right? Would I like to change it? Hell no. 🙂