Joining a sports club to meet people — worth the awkward first month?

Padel, here in Spain. It's perfect for this, because you need four people and the club matches you with others at your level. After a few weeks I had a regular Tuesday group, and now we go for a beer after every game. The awkward first month was real for me too, but padel has a built-in excuse to talk: someone always needs a partner.

Cricket club. Obviously. The fastest way into any community in Australia, I think, and the teas afterwards are very serious.

I joined a local Gaelic football club in Ireland, knowing nothing about the sport, as quite possibly the worst player they've ever had. I've never been welcomed more warmly anywhere.

A colleague dragged me along to a training session for adult beginners, which exists in a lot of clubs apparently. I didn't understand the rules, I couldn't do the thing with the ball and the foot, and I was the only person there who'd never seen a match. By the end of the evening, three people had explained the rules to me in three different ways, and one had invited me to watch his daughter's under-twelves game on Saturday.

The club is the centre of the whole community here. Within a month I knew half the neighbourhood, the man at the petrol station asked me how training was going, and I've been roped into selling raffle tickets. Being bad at the sport turned out to be an advantage, because everyone wanted to teach me, and nobody felt threatened by the Italian who kept falling over.

Lars, I'd second everything you said about the awkward first month. It's the price of admission, and it's worth paying.

Planning to join the university badminton club the week I arrive. Reading this makes me feel better about the awkward first month.

Paolo's "being bad at it helped" matches my experience with curling here. Nobody expected anything from the French person.