July 30, 2014, by studentcontributor
Adventurous extracurriculars!
Hi I’m Alice and I’m just starting my fourth year. I’m going to be talking about the great range of sporting activities to get stuck into at university especially for someone who doesn’t have a particular interest in sport.
As a medic, your day is always filled with lectures or time on the wards and at Freshers Fair there are LOADS of stalls trying to sign you up to their society or sport and they all sound fantastic! But with limited time how do you decide what to choose?
I’ll tell you a little bit about what I did with my time.
So I’m not a naturally sporty person, but I really wanted to try and get involved with something new and interesting, these are what I went for:
Climbing
Climbing is one of those sports that I always wanted to try. The people doing it always look super cool and sporty… I can testify that there is nothing cool about being halfway up a wall, with a reasonable amount of your concentration going into feeling okay about being off the nice, comfortable, safe ground, feeling surprisingly sweating as you’re stretching for the next hold. But when you do reach that hold and get to the top, wow it’s exhilarating! Climbing is frustrating in that addictive way that certain puzzles are, so you just can’t put them down. So if there’s any sport you’ve always fancied trying – go for it! Because it might not be what you expected, but you never know, it might still be brilliant.
Skydiving
Often university is the best time to try more unusual sports as student prices are considerably cheaper. With this in mind I joined the skydiving club to do a parachute jump! Easily the scariest moment of my life being sat at the edge of the door of a teeny tiny plane with the wind pulling at my legs, the sound of the engine droning in my ears and the ground impossibly far below. But I made it out of the door (with the encouragement of other students). The relief of an open parachute, the rush of being so high and the fun of controlling the parachute down to the ground was totally epic. University could be the time you try something totally different – And definitely take advantage of the student prices.
Windsurfing
Another sport in my pursuit of trying new things was windsurfing. It’s tricky at the best of times, especially in the cold waters of the UK but I decided to try it out mid-February! I began not being able to stand on the board… on my first attempt in the cold (and some snow!) at Pondlife – Nottingham’s nationwide student windsurfing event. But it was such fun and such a friendly society that despite the cold I persevered. And now there’s nothing more fun than the point where you get it working and you whizz along the water! (It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s excellent!) I’m now part of next year’s committee – in charge of organising the event that inspired me to join the society in the first place. In every society there will be opportunities to join the committee and be further involved if you want.
Hockey
More recently I attempted hockey, as part of a medics club. It showed me it’s never too late to try a new sport, there’s a lot to learn as someone who has never played before and it’s nice to be part of a team. Joining any medics team is a great way to get to know course-mates and the hours fit more comfortably around the full days of medicine, so it’s possible to keep up with a sport even with limited time.
With so many sports there are always new things to try; in three years I’ve never been bored and there are still things I want to try, in the coming year I intend to join the gliding society. There is no better time to try something new – at university everything is more accessible, cheaper and there are loads of people to try it with you. Whichever activities interest you I recommend getting stuck in and enjoy the best that university life has to offer.
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