Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Can I be bothered explaning?

"So what's on for the day?"

"Oh, I'm flying out to Perth tonight."

"Really? Sounds alright. What's that for?"


Speaking to close friends/family: "I'm playing national championships for ultimate frisbee."

Speaking to work colleagues and other acquaintances: "I'm playing national championships for ultimate frisbee. Playing with a Melbourne team. We've been training for a few months now. Pretty pumped for it."

Speaking to people who I have only met recently: ""I'm playing national championships for ultimate frisbee. It's like a cross between gridiron and netball played with a frisbee on a field about 100 metres long and 35 wide. Yeah, I can throw about 50 metres accurately, a bit further if I'm not going for a target. Playing with a Melbourne team called Sweet Chilly. There's some pretty good players on the team and we've been training for a few months now. I'm really excited for it because it's the first time I've played Nationals."

Speaking to the checkout chick who is just making small talk: "...oh, just a holiday."

1 comment:

Rog said...

This is something I've been contemplating for a number of years, so I'm definitely not picking on you, but something about ultimate advocacy keeps coming up that bothers me...

When describing ultimate to "the unenlightened", I have a feeling that telling them "it's like a cross between gridiron and netball" does nothing to help their understanding. I know people can't resist the analogy, so if it's to be brought up, I think it's important to explain what elements of those sports (field layout/rules) are common. If one doesn't qualify those common elements straight, the analogy doesn't really work and makes ulti sound quite weird.

Just a thought. Sorry to bombard your post with a tangential brain dump, if I had my own frisbee blog I'd rant there. :p

Good luck in Perth!