Obscure Sports Across Cultures, by Aaron Wynmor

Ultimate Frisbee is a sport that is played at varying popularities in many countries around the world. If you don’t know, Ultimate Frisbee is a very fun non-contact sport. It involves a Frisbee and a field similar to an American Football field but a bit smaller. It is fast paced and played 7v7 with NO referees. If you want to make any call, such as a foul, you have to make the call yourself. This means that the only way for the sport to succeed is for there to be a high level of spirit, accountability, and respect. Along those same lines it means there is a lot of communication that must happen on and off the field (if you have not heard of Ultimate Frisbee I highly recommend you look it up!). It originates and is reasonably popular in the Unites States. The culture around the sport in the US is very competitive. I have been playing for 10+ years in this very intense environment. I knew that it was going to be a different experience to play in Sevilla because it is not a very well-known sport. When I arrived, and found a team to play with I realized that there are about 30 people in all of Sevilla that have ever played and about 1/4th of them are either other study abroad students or people that moved here from other countries. In a place where Futbol completely dominates the sports culture, it was really interesting to find this little pocket of a culture similar to my own. During the few months, I have gotten to practice with them I have learned a whole new vocabulary of words that they use to communicate within the sport. On top of that, whenever you play any sport with a new group of people you get to see how they communicate non-verbally. The way people run, cut, fake, and generally move their bodies, varies from person to person but that variety is consistent across cultures. No matter where in the world you go, you will always have to learn how other people communicate just by moving their body.
Something I have always loved about sports is that when you play with a team for long enough, eventually your teammates become like a family. When I first showed up to their practices here in Sevilla, while there was somewhat of a language barrier as I am not really fluent in Spanish, they were so welcoming and made me feel like I was already a part of their family. That is something that can be hard to find in the United States. The culture around Ultimate Frisbee here is much more relaxed. While there is still that intensity and eagerness to work hard and improve, the competitiveness that comes with the more developed scene in the States is not at the same level. I was able to make some really cool friends and got to experience my sport through a different lens. Moral of the story, I highly recommend playing sports in different cultures because it is guaranteed to be a really interesting learning experience and a window into the lives of people like you who grew up differently.