Fun, friendly and spontaneous. But the lack of people in charge and the serious attitude of some of the players makes it a bit hard for beginners. Lundagård has tried out nation sports.
My attempt to play in a nation-organized sports night started with a long, dark stroll through the campus of a deserted Swedish primary school. I was looking for the gym where the Torna-nations organizes games of volleyball and floorball, but as my wandering continued, my goal slowly became a bike, a lit room, or any other sign of civilization. I was on the hunt for a traditional Swedish experience in the form of floorball, or innebandy, a relatively informal sport played with hockey sticks and a ball.
After several minutes spent meandering past darkened classrooms and pint-sized playgrounds, I spied a few guys carrying what looked like hockey sticks.
I followed them to a large, rectangular building with one lit window that turned out to be the school’s gymnasium.
No sticks available
It was full of 30 to 40 Lund students, most of them already engrossed in volleyball games. The guys with the hockey sticks rapidly set up a corner of the gym for themselves, using a line of benches from the wall to create a partition. Unfortunately for international students, you need to have your own stick in order to play floorball at these games. The nations supply the players with the goal nets and balls, but there seemed to be no sticks available at the school’s gym, and a player told me he and all the others had brought their own.
No nation representative present
Stymied by this development, I turned to the three games of volleyball that were taking up most of the gym. Perplexingly, there was literally no one in charge. Hallands organizes sports, including volleyball, football, foot races, basketball and floorball, at Tunaskolan every weekday.
But it seems that there is no nation representative in charge, or even present, at these games. After a bit of confusion, I learned that you join a game by walking on to a court and making it known to the other players that you want to play.
Sports clothes needed
Also, make sure you wear sport or workout clothes. I had shown up in my usual jeans and a T-shirt, expecting a “sports night” like my friend’s “football game” in the park had been – essentially kicking a ball around.
Not so. Everyone wore sweat shorts, tennis shoes, t-shirts and so on. Some even had headbands. And not all, but some, are quite serious about the game. If you do want to play floorball, and manage to find yourself a stick, make sure you learn how to play first. There’s no one to teach you, and the guys simply start playing.
Hard for beginners
As far as I could tell, the nation simply makes the school’s gym and supplies available to students. In theory, one should need a nation card and identification to get in, but the entrance was completely unmanned.
The few people I talked to said they come and set up their own volleyball nets and simply start a game as soon as they have enough people gathered on the court. The result is a completely functioning gymnasium full of different sport games, although it can be tough to join if you’ve never been before and don’t know how it works.
Volleyball embarrassment
I did manage to work my way into a volleyball game, then rapidly tried to remember the rules to volleyball as I found myself playing in a game of three-on-three within minutes.
So began about an hour of me embarrassing myself at volleyball. I hadn’t played in years, and I was never that good in the first place.
A lot of English
Luckily, the guys on my team were nice, and English was spoken just as often, if not more, than Swedish. Sometimes the calls of “I’ve got it!” or “mine!” were in Swedish, but they were still completely understandable: a basic “min!” or a long “jaaa” as the ball descended towards them.
My teammates helped me by pointing out my position and what I was supposed to do there, and didn’t seem too put out every time I knocked the ball in the opposite direction it was supposed to go. It helped a lot that many of the other players were not a whole lot better.
Late nights
I stayed til about 11 p.m., but there were easily two dozen players still in on the court when I left. One of them told me the latest they had stayed was after one in the morning. I don’t have the stamina for that, but it’s nice that you can come and go as you please, and use the gymnasium’s supplies for free.
On Thursdays, the gym is available from 19 onwards, so you can show up whenever you like, and pick from the sports that are available. Now, I just need to learn how to play floorball.
