New Delhi: Chartered accountant Asmeet Bhatia, MD of Northville Consulting, has developed a daily habit to engage in some sporting activity to cope with demanding work schedules. He plays football three days a week in Lajpat Nagar while plays pickleball or box cricket on remaining days in Defence Colony. “Playing sports is more than just an exercise. It is a ritual that concludes the day on a positive note. It’s a powerful reminder that there’s more to life beyond work and responsibilities. It’s an opportunity to unwind, have fun, and rediscover simple joys,” he asserts.
Bhatia is among a growing community of working professionals and homemakers across Delhi-NCR who are taking up outdoor sports as a fitness activity.
Mayur Hola, a senior professional who likes to unwind over a game of football than being a ‘mall rat’ or go bar hopping, says playing with his football group ‘Training with Lefty’ feels like going back in time, when as a kid, all he wanted to do was kick the ball around. “You find another side to yourself in your adult life. You relearn with the beautiful game with childlike curiosity. It’s just the best feeling to be young again for 90 minutes on a green turf,” Hola says.
Former professional footballer Anuj Sharma had started the group Train with Lefty post Covid lockdowns to teach kids. He recalls being approached by a group of women if they could play as well. Soon the word spread and Sharma now has almost 500 people training with him at five different venues across the city. He has observed that venues in South Delhi—Defence Colony, Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj and the ones in Sector 56, Gurgaon are almost always sold out.
One promising trend that Sharma has noticed is that even contact and gruelling sports like football is seeing more and more women participation. Each session gets 18-24 participants and almost 40% of them are women. From judges, bureaucrats, lawyers to professionals, the participants come from various professions, he says.
There are many apps now such as Huddle that specialise in booking sports sessions or grounds and have led to popularity of such outdoor activities.
A working mother, Aditi Sabharwal says she cannot emphasise enough the role sports has played in tackling the physical and mental load of motherhood. She says groups like Train with Lefty offer her a safe space and like minded community to enjoy sport, train her mind and body. “Sitting for eight hours a day at a desk job, I would not have been able to keep up with my active toddler. But football gives me that endorphin hit to match my son’s,” she shares.
For lawyer couple Shri Venkatesh and Kanika Chugh, activities such as pickleball are an ideal way to combine fitness with leisure that offer a refreshing break from daily routines. They play three to four evenings a week, from 9 to 11 PM at ‘top-notch’ courts in south Delhi, including Defence Colony and Panchsheel, which have recently been developed. “It’s a fantastic mix of exercise and social interaction, as we enjoy friendly matches with a group of friends, many of whom are fellow lawyers. The energy and camaraderie keep us coming back for more,” they say.
Basketball, tennis, badminton, cricket, pickleball or paddle ball, all the facilities offering these sports activities are seeing an increased demand. Samir Sahni of ClayGrounds By Plaza that operates 18 sports facilities across Delhi-NCR shares that their facilities get almost 1,700-1,800 bookings and over 2 lakh participants every month. “Each booking means a group of 10-15 participants. From Karkadooma, Anand Vihar, Rajouri Garden, Defence Colony, Chhatarpur, to Gurgaon, Noida and Faridabad, there is huge demand for sporting activities across our facilities,” he says and adds sports recreation is gaining popularity and more and more people are opting for more intense outdoor workouts such as football.
With 15 out of his 18 facilities located in schools, Sahni observes a new trend is to have sporting events as a part of personal or professional celebrations. An event organiser concurred with Sahni and says many wedding celebrations or corporate functions now insist on having a six to nine players a side game of cricket or football as one of the activities.