From karate to birdwatching, professors find many different ways to deal with stress

Some students look to meditation to relieve stress. Others like to work out. If you're Professor William Thompson, you need to hit people to let out your frustration while working on your dissertation.\nThompson, a political science professor, took up karate and worked his way up to the black belt level. \nHe said karate differs from other martial arts, such as judo and jujitsu. Jujitsu is a martial art that allows a person to use any kind of physical strength to eliminate your opponent. Judo is the more polite form of jujitsu, where it's mostly throwing your body against your opponent's to defeat him or her. Karate has more punches and kicks, whereas judo has none.\nThompson took part in competitions in Florida and California but never liked it.\n"I usually got beat up but managed to avoid concussions," he said.\nTo achieve black belt status, Thompson said you have to pay your dues and show up several times a week to perfect skills. Once you have perfected your skills, you are ready to take the black belt exam.\nThompson's longest exam took seven hours. \nThompson said it was half a test of endurance and half a test of creativity in planning your next move.\n"That one particular test was against eight black belts, and I had to fight each one until they admitted defeat," Thompson said. \nHe was basically fighting them each in self-defense, one after the other. \n"Hit and run is always a good strategy," he said, chuckling.\nTraditionally, karate is 100 percent mental. But Thompson would beg to differ and said karate is only 50 percent mental. \n"You have to train your mind so it does what you want it to do without thinking about it," he said.\nThompson's favorite karate move is to hit with the back of his hand in his opponents face. That way, he is less likely to get hurt and keeps the opponent an arm's length away.\nHe used to be the head instructor of karate at the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, but this semester, schedule conflicts arose and he no longer teaches. \nWhile Thompson took up karate to relieve the stress of writing his dissertation, for another IU professor, nature can be equally calming.\nProfessor Lee Sterrenburg, who teaches English, has had extensive knowledge and interest in nature since he was a child growing up in rural San Diego. His family took trips to northern Wisconsin, and he attended canoe camp as well. In fact, his earliest childhood memory is of listening to loons on the lake at night in Wisconsin.\nSterrenburg's primary interest in nature runs toward birds, their distributions, occurrences and movements. Lying on the floor of his office is a book titled "Extinct Birds." On his printer sits a book on owls -- his favorite type of birds. \n"I really like mysterious birds of the night, such as owls and hawks," Sterrenburg said. "It's surprisingly diverse here (in Bloomington)." \nBut owls aren't the only things that interest him.\n"Though it's artificial, I like the reclaimed strip mines," he said. \nSterrenburg belongs to a myriad of nature clubs, including the Sassafras Audubon Society, Indiana Audubon Society, American Birding Association, Neotropical Bird Club and Indiana Bird Records Committee.\nHe teaches classes on nature writing -- particularly ecological and environmental criticism. These focus more on how nature and the environment are processed in culture. \nHis classes just finished reading "The Last Dinosaur Book" and "Jurassic Park." His graduate level classes focus more on Charles Darwin and evolution. One class he taught actually camped at Lake Monroe overnight.\nSterrenburg said Bloomington fosters his hobby because the city is rural and has key features like Griffy Lake and Brown County State Park.\nIt's obvious professors do more than just lecture and grade exams. Thompson and Sterrenburg are just two of many who have unique interests outside of the classroom. \n-- Contact staff writer Laila Hayat at lhayat@indiana.edu.