Shanghai Frisbar Pickup

I didn't get home till around 5:30am Sat (3/17) morning and going to pickup wasn't exactly high on my list of priorities at the moment. However, it was nice out and I felt better after 4hrs of sleep. So like all good soldiers I decided to sack up and play.

Pick up in Shanghai is held every Saturday from 12 - 2ish pm (when its warm). The fields are located in Pudong (across from the Carrefour). The area we play at is close to residential housing for a lot of expat teachers (i.e. rich) and is located right next to a British school. AH tells me the teachers at US and British schools do really well here and get great perks like free trips back home. It took me about a 25-30 min cab ($55RMB) ride from where I live (Xu Jia Hui). I can also take the subway ($6RMB) and take a cab to the fields ($15RMB), I hear this route takes around 1 hr 15min. My friend AH (also my Spring league captain) and I shared a cab this past Saturday.

If you want to play you have to pay a membership fee ($1500 RMB/year?). Fortunately there is a student discount so I only had to pay $300RMB for a 1 year membership. We play on well maintained lush grass fields, which is a nice change from the hard field turf. The club is primarily used for rugby, but they seem to welcome/accept Frisbar as a legit sport.

Pickup started at 12pm ultimate time (12:30 or so). There were around 20 players who showed up. We kicked things off with your standard endzone drill (different continent, same drills) to warm up. Then moved on to your basic continuation drill. The group at pickup had a higher concentration of the stronger players in Shanghai. Currently as a co-ed team, I would say that we would have a difficult time making it Sunday at regionals in the Central Region. The group was mostly expats. The stronger players had played in college programs like Wesleyan and Carleton. There were also some decent players who learned how to play in Asia.

Overall I had a lot of fun. Although I do feel like I have a big target on my back. All the dudes wanted to take a crack at the new hotshot US import. It'll probably be like that at all the Asian tournaments too. For those who don't understand, its kind of like an Alpha male thing. I don't blame them though I'd do the same, but they need to take care and not wake the tiger.

There was this one particular player who was only in Shanghai for the weekend. His name was Chris and had just graduated from Amherst. He is about 5' 7", Asian, and around 22 or 23. Basically me about 4 years ago, except with a lot less awesome. I wish he was going to be in town longer. He was very unpolished, but was the type of player who with a little help could make an impact on a decent club team.

I have to give the kid credit though, he definitely came out to play. He had a motor that didn't quit and got not one but two layout blocks on me (although 1 was a poorly thrown dump pass). I was only able to respond by giving him a mushroom tattoo, while skying him for a D. He definitely got the better of me that day and there wasn't enough time at pickup for me to even the score. I feel like he was that guy who sits at your poker table wins a ton of chips early then leaves. I've permanently burned this transgression into my memory and will someday have my revenge.