Vaše Liga, photo credit: Tereza Navratilová
Brno, Apr 1 (BD) – If you enjoy playing badminton, tennis or squash but need some motivation, want to be more competitive or simply meet new people then Vaše Liga may be right up your street. Players sign-up for either doubles or singles for a 3 month period and usually play 4 matches per month with the winning team uploading the score to the website. At the end of the month the top team is promoted with the bottom team(s) relegated.
Although the website is in Czech it’s easy to navigate once you figure it out, which doesn’t take long, and I think of it as a free mini-Czech lesson. If you have problems you can e-mail the organisers who can communicate in English. Games are organised through the website. You or your opponents post times when you have a court and hopefully somebody accepts.
“Basically, it inducted me into a lovely new stage of my Czech experience.”
I played in the league for several years and in that time I had a lot of fun, played people ranging in ability from beginners to scarily good, saw people change badminton partners in order to keep their marriage intact, witnessed a few tantrums and celebrations and met new training partners and friends. Basically, it inducted me into a lovely new stage of my Czech experience.
Photo credit: Tereza Navratilová
Going back to communicating, even if your Czech is non-existent you can survive on the court. The majority of players are Czech or Slovak, with some ex-pats thrown in, but sport is a universal language and you can quickly pick up numbers and quite a few more colourful phrases when things are not going quite so well.
A few words, quite a few actually, of warning when it comes to organising games. Only offer times when you already have a court booked. Generally, if you cancel a court more than 24 hours in advance, you won’t pay so try to post times as early possible. Next, particularly for badminton, courts are often booked in the evening so you need to be fairly organised and book in advance unless you have a regular booking. Have some flexibility in your playing times – while I prefer to play at weekends many Czechs are at the cottage or doing some other sport.
Another advantage is that the majority of sports centres give a discount when you inform them that it is a Vaše Liga match, which you do when you are paying – every little helps. On the same subject, it is typical for each person or team to pay their half at the reception.
If that sounds like too much commitment but you want to play occasionally then Vaše Liga regularly organises one-day tournaments which are advertised on their website or you can sign-up for e-mail updates.
The ball is in your court and it’s time to play.
For more information go to Vaseliga.cz.
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