Recently a bunch of my colleagues started a new routine, i.e playing football once a week at Xtreme Sports Bar. Although I resisted the invite 2-3 times, one fine day, one of my colleagues dragged me to it. After I played my first ever minimal serious football game, I was thrilled ! It was a aha moment to score three goals on debute !
Highlights:
Outstanding ambiance: I had earlier visited sports club which featured Lawn Tennis, Cricket Nets and football, basketball grounds but I found Xtreme Sports Bar to be entirely different and highly sophisticated than them. In the Sarjapur Road Branch, the football ground is the major highlight. With synthetic grass ground, anyone who like sports will get enticed by the atmosphere. It’s a well maintained facility with many options like Cricket Nets, archery and indoor games like TT etc. There are good food outlets as well, inside the complex.
The football ground is very good. With the synthetic ground, the possibilities of injuries come down by a great margin. Injuries were one of my key concerns to stay away from football but on seeing the ground, I just barged into it instantly.
Flexible modeling: The grounds and the stalls have been well designed with great flexibility. Based on the count of people, the group can choose to play in half ground or full ground, convert football area to cricket nets etc. The boys are very cooperative and arrange all the required logistics for a hassle free game.
Initially I was apprehensive about visiting the place, as I didn’t have proper sports shoe. But later I was told by my friends that they were playing bare foot. That motivated me to try once. Although certain norms are followed in the premises, there’s good room for flexibility in all sorts of matters and that makes everyone comfortable.
I was stumped on seeing kids from around 5 years age, practicing football under the supervision of coaches over here. This is the place which offers space for a very young kid to an old person.
Affordable cost: There are different models in pricing. The way we played was by contributing Rs 100/- per head for a game. The experience is definitely worth the price. Usually sports club have a membership model but here it was pay per game kind of model which is good for beginners.
Sidelights:
- There has to be pre-booking done for the ground. With the growing demand, it’s becoming difficult to get the ground based on our convenience. So one has to be pro-active in getting the required slot.
- The synthetic grass, although a very good thing to play on, makes the foot blackish when you are playing barefoot.
- It would be great if some guidance is provided with some coaches about warm up and best practices. Many of my friends pull their leg and get minor injuries due to lack of exposure on the methods to get ready for the game.
Summary:
I never played a serious football game before and the experience of it at Xtreme Sports Bar was wonderful. Especially a game after a hectic day at office is a great recreation option. Football is a very demanding game but at the same time has the beauty of engaging all the players through out the game, unlike other games like Cricket.
If you have not experienced football @ Xtreme Sports Bar so far and are interested, this is a must try place. Go for it !