Shanghai Frisbar League

I recently reached out to the Shanghai Ultimate Players Association (SUPA)and signed up for their Spring League. The league is still pretty small and there isn't a whole lot of local participation. Low per capita income, travel restrictions, and lack of interest in all physical activities that aren't basketball or World of Warcraft (WOW), are all contributing factors to poor local participation. Conversely, my Shanghai contact tells me that the sport is seeing tremendous growth in Singapore and the Philippines, mostly through local participation. When/if ultimate becomes an Olympic sport, China will most certainly pour money into the sport for the opportunity to increase their medal count. However, the group in Shanghai and Beijing have been doing some work to help promote the sport throughout China.

The league in Shanghai has 4 teams. Their are a lot of new players, so the play is pretty low level and is primarily utilized as an environment to teach new players how to play. I would say the level of play is equivalent to playing in the Simpsons division of Chicago Spring League. The games are played in the evening at a lit Stadium near the Jing An temple metro stop (or $25RMB cab ride from Jiao Tong). The league cost $400 RMB (about $50 USD), I believe most of the money goes towards renting field space. The surface is field turf and pretty nice.

The teams were assembled using some sort of draft method. Upon registration I was asked about my level of experience (no rating system). These responses are kind of tricky for me, I didn't want people to think I was being a pompous ass (at least not yet). I mentioned something about 4 yrs college & 4 yrs club. On a side note, NS formerly of BAT and Magnum is in Shanghai. Apparently he stated "have played before" as his level of experience.

So far the people seem to be really nice. I try to do my part and help with instructing the new players. I've tried to be careful and not step on too many toes. There have been a couple awkward situations where I've told somebody something and 5 min later someone else will contradict what I just said. I'm still too new to the scene and plan to tread lightly until I can get my head around the politics and different cliques of SUPA.

We've had two games and are 1 - 1 right now. I've been playing around 60% and have been trying to preserve my body for future club seasons in the US. Although my first ever contact with a disc in Asia was a Callahan goal. I got caught playing lazy and managed to get hand blocked as a result (Kevin pwned - 1). "Quasi-Serious Cho" came out and consequently got a catch block against the guy and gave him a good look at my pretty ass while skying him for another D (noobz pwned - 2).