“Have you played before?”
“No, first time.”
“Do you play any sports?”
“Not really.”
“What about when you were younger?”
Welcome to the first-ever indiaca session where the investigation into my athletic past lasted longer than my ability to direct a receive.
The experienced-player investigation
People asked during play and afterward. Someone said I looked athletic; another said I seemed to fit into the group already. A plausible clue was my ready stance: knees bent, body prepared to move.
Here is the classified training history behind that stance: I had looked it up beforehand. The posture was borrowed from beginner advice, not years of competitive experience.
It is funny how easily “looks ready” can be mistaken for “knows exactly what they’re doing.” Being comfortable talking with new people may have added to the illusion.
Successful attacks, mysteriously independent receives
The attacking side felt manageable. I could hit the shuttle with reasonable confidence. Receiving was another universe.
The goal was simple: send it upward toward the middle so a teammate could play the next shot. The result? Sideways. Behind me. Occasionally somewhere that felt like a completely new postcode.
Several people kindly said, “Receiving is hard, isn’t it?” They had apparently noticed the shuttle taking unscheduled excursions.
That split is entirely plausible. Indiaca uses a feathered shuttle struck with the hand or forearm; returning an incoming shot and making an attacking hit demand different adjustments. Official rules also distinguish first-contact receiving from other touches.[1][2] Being comfortable with one action doesn't automatically mean you've mastered the other.
The possible culprit was a sound effect
Why was the ball going everywhere? I'd bent my knees and knew the intended destination, but trying to imagine the entire flight path while chasing the shuttle was too much.
Eventually the conversation reached a crucial clue.
“Were you swinging your whole arm?”
“Whoosh.”
One sound effect, one promising hypothesis: the huge swing may have changed my hand angle and timing on each contact. But this remains a hypothesis; positioning, contact point and the facing of the hand could also explain the misses.
Beginner guidance suggests a stable contact surface, slightly bent knees and small adjustments of the feet.[3] The lesson is not “never move your arm.” It is to stop treating every receive like an emergency home-run contest.
What to test next time
Start with easy incoming shots. Aim for a high, controllable pass to a teammate. Reduce the exaggerated arm swing, keep the contact surface consistent and compare how often the shuttle veers sideways or backward.
If the errors shrink, the swing hypothesis gains support. If they persist, change one variable at a time: where you stand, where you meet the shuttle or the angle of your hand. Local recreational rules may differ, so use the group's rules for the finer points.[1][2]
The next-day fitness report
After all that, I woke up sore all over. Chasing shots, crouching, recovering from awkward positions and hitting attacks apparently constituted a full-body workout.
One session cannot establish someone’s overall athletic ability. It can establish that attacks felt promising, receives need practice, and several people saw enough to ask about sports history.
Final score: beginner on paper, veteran in the ready stance, tourist in the receive direction, and full-time employee of the soreness department.
Sources: [1] Japan Indiaca Association, rules; [2] Aichi Indiaca Association, rules; [3] Beginner receiving technique (Japanese). Accessed October 19, 2026. The remarks and performance are one participant's account; the suggested error mechanism has not been tested.
