Laying down the season

By Shane McNamara

This year was by far our most successful at recruiting new ninjas. Swarms of young lads and lassies took over our table at recruitment drive, even having to get an extra laptop to keep up with demand. Our passionate recruitment staff witnessed over 250 people join our club. It just shows that ultimate Frisbee really is growing in popularity.

The next step was training up the recruits. Our first session took place that Thursday. After breaking new records with signups we were all eager to see just how many will show up. I myself was a few minutes late (from being caught up in an exciting lecture), but when I showed up there was a seemingly endless line of recruits warming up.

Over a hundred and thirty people attended in total. All those numbers can only lead to one thing, great banter. Sure most people were inexperienced but their enthusiasm and athleticism still made for great fun. The conditions weren’t spectacular but conditions are never bad for ultimate Frisbee, they only make the game interesting in different ways. The wet and soft surface made it perfect for laying out. Countless numbers of beginners were seen diving for discs and gliding across the glorious pitches.

Over the next few training sessions we experienced the four seasons of Irish weather ranging from glorious sunlight to nearly flooded pitches with both having a wonderful outcome. Nobody minds playing in the sun, its warm sunny and everyone just seems to ooze happiness and enthusiasm.

On the other hand just as much if not more fun was had when the pitches are flooded. No matter how cold, diving into a puddle (to be generous) whilst trying to catch a disc is brilliant fun. You might think “No I don’t want to be saturated from head to toe and covered in mud” but what did we suggest? That everyone do just that, and so they did and not one person regretted it.

We also try to encourage our members in getting to know each other and ourselves. To do this we have a few team bonding games at the end of every training session. We try to involve them in the Ultimate Frisbee world as much as possible by telling them about all events even outside of UL. But of course the best way to get to know our new members is by meeting up outside college and having a friendly get-together or house party as some might say.

We still see new faces every week and we love seeing more students coming down to try it out and have the craic. Everyone is welcome to come down so if you’re interested training is on Tuesdays and Thursdays 6-8pm.