It’s been a whole year since we kicked off our first ever Rabble session outside of London and what a journey it’s been! I remember apprehensively heading to Manchester for the first ever game. It felt like I was beginning Rabble all over again. I had the nerves that I used to have at every session when I began Rabble in London. Would anyone show up? Maybe everyone will hate it? Maybe there will be a problem with the park? Will it ever work? And it was true, we were almost starting again. Nobody had heard of us, we had no community and we were hoping people would have enough faith to come down and check us out.
But that first session was great. We had a great group of players and some amazing weather. Our newly trained instructor Kieran, was the first we had brought down to London to train. We felt lucky that we’d found someone as committed and as enthusiastic as Kieran. Kieran quickly grasped the dynamic of the games and got the principles surrounding Rabble, able to adapt games to suit the players, keeping it fun, social and still a workout. And as a result, he has built an incredible community in Didsbury. I’m extremely proud of our Manchester group. There’s a great ethos, a fantastic bunch of people, committed both on and off the pitch ;). I can’t wait to see them grow again through next year!
We asked Kieran to honestly describe his experience over the past year. He wrote the below, which against all odds we have not edited, nor payed for! Thanks Kieran and Manchester Rabble for all your sweat, laughs, rain and tequila! May there be many more!
It only seems like yesterday when I had finished my teacher training for the summer and was a poor student looking for some coaching work to do over summer. I wasn’t exactly sure what Rabble was when I got the call from Charlotte to say my application was successful. I was invited for an open day in Manchester where the founders told us their stories and lead some Rabble games. Just meeting two inspirational people with such big ideas inspired me to build my own community and so I began my Rabble instructor training in London the following weekend.
Going down to London and seeing Rabble live in action and what it meant to such a large number of people gave me a real feel for it. I was completely sold! There were adults playing really fun active team games and everyone was enjoying themselves. However, the thing that set Rabble apart from anything I’d seen before was this tight-knit community feel at each of the parks. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. Experiencing this I knew I was involved in something amazing and unique!
I thoroughly enjoyed training in London, surrounded by amazing people and when qualified I came back up to Manchester to do my best to replicate what I had seen. The main thing I wanted to recreate was always that community feel, similar to all London parks.
When beginning my sessions we battled the elements and had smaller numbers to begin with but that tight-knit community was there from very early on. We always had a committed core group who attended regardless of weather!
Here I am one year on and it hardly feels like the case! They say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ and this has absolutely been my experience with Rabble Manchester. I’ve just had such fun times with such amazing people and it’s hard to believe a year has passed. Over the last 2 months in particular our numbers have significantly grown and we still have that same community feel that I strived for from the beginning.
Rabble just seems to attract the right kind of people and is simply amazing from my point of view. I’m so proud of what we have up here in Manchester and would like to thank everyone who has attended and played a part over the first year. You are all amazing people! I tell you this when buying tequila shots every month so you should know by now! Bring on year 2 ☺
I would also like to thank everyone else at Rabble who helped and inspired me when I was down in London training and thereafter. If I can be half as inspirational and successful as an Instructor as you guys I’m very happy!
Come and join us for our first birthday party on Saturday 🙂