Last summer Rabble launched in Manchester, Lottie was one of our Manchester pioneers. Brave enough to check out this new sports group, she quickly became one of our most committed northern players. Several months later she accepted a job in London and became our first player to transfer from Manchester to London Rabble. Lottie is now a key member of both London and Manchester Rabble. She’s an incredibly humble, positive role model as well as now being super mega fit! She took some time to tell us about getting into Rabble, moving to a new city and taking on the fearsome 30 days of Rabble challenge.
We are seriously impressed!
Why did you choose to come to Rabble?
I first heard about Rabble on Meetup.com, it had only launched in Manchester the week before, and I was looking for a new sports group to join that didn’t require previous experience. I had a look on the website and it was just what I was looking for. I went along to my first session in Didsbury Park, I knew the game was called The President, but I had no idea what it involved or if I would be any good at it. It turned out neither of those things mattered as the games all started simple and progressed throughout the session with new rules being added, making it easy for everyone to follow even if you had never played before. Everyone was really friendly, and all the games played were fun and I have been hooked ever since.
How has Rabble helped your move to London?
After joining Rabble in Manchester in the summer, I happened to get a job in London. Not knowing many people in a new city was quite daunting but Rabble has been a great way to make new friends. The fact that I was part of the Rabble community in Manchester, and having been told about how good Rabble London was by the Manchester instructor Kieran, I went to my first London session at Clapham Common as soon as I moved. Knowing about Rabble before I moved to London made moving so much easier, and it has defiantly helped me settle in. It was great that all the instructors and players made the effort to introduce themselves, which really showed the strength of the community side of Rabble.
Has it improved your fitness?
Yes, after my first few sessions I ached for days, and could only sprint a few meters without needing to stop to breathe. Now I can run quicker and for longer, and it has also improved my co-ordination.
I like that at Rabble you don’t realise how much of an improvement you are making to your fitness as everyone becomes so involved in the game the focus is more on winning than it is on the exercise. I like the fact that rabble brings out everyone’s competitive side but it’s not like normal team sports, it doesn’t matter if you get tagged or don’t catch the ball, there’s is no pressure to be great at it and win, the main focus is having fun.
Have you made friends through Rabble?
Rabble has been a great way to meet people in a new city. It’s full of a mix of people from across the world, with different interests and backgrounds. Everyone is really friendly and I have found it easy to get involved in the social club. After most sessions everyone goes to the pub and so far I have been to board games nights, supper club and the black tie event.
30 Days of Rabble
30 Days of Rabble was created by Graham. It was before the Christmas break when Rabble was stopping for a few weeks. We were in the pub after Rabble and he suggested going to a rabble session everyday for the whole of January. I was looking for a challenge for the New Year and this sounded like a great idea, so without much thought I agreed. Within five minutes of our conversation Chris and James were also in, and the four of us were committed to the challenge.
The idea was simple, we would go to one session per day for the whole of January. It could be any session, morning, evening or Rabble X, as long as you attended one a day. The first few days were great, the classes were full and we were all eager to get back into Rabble after Christmas. The games varied from Circular Dodgeball to The President to Nesketball.
After the first week the tiredness started to set in, and the struggle of juggling work, life and getting to Rabble sessions on time turned out to be tougher than we expected. However, with the motivation of each other and other Rabblers we quickly got over the couple of tough days and fitting rabble into daily life now feels normal.
People have asked if it gets boring going everyday but because of the variety of games, the different instructors and the different number of players it doesn’t. No session ever feels the same, the number of players this month has ranged from 4 to 42 so that in itself mixes up the session and we haven’t played the same main game twice which has been great! Going everyday also means we make the most of the different locations and over the month we have got to see almost everyone who is involved in Rabble.
If someone challenged me to go to the gym everyday for 30 days, I would have probably given up by day 4. I would have no motivation as the focus is purely on getting fit whereas Rabble is the opposite, its super social and you forget your exercising! And personally I work out harder than I ever would at a gym session because it’s fun. Due to the nature of Rabble we all still look forward to every session and no matter how tired we are. When turning up to a session as soon as the florescent bibs are on, and the session starts you forget all about how many days you have done and how tired you are. The competitiveness just takes over and forces you to give every session all you have. I think we will be all ready for a break by the 31st, but I’m sure it will only be a day or two and we will all be back!