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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
When some people think of exercise classes, they might envision of a room filled with brightly colored spandex and people constantly stepping on and off a plastic step.\nBut staff members at the Student Recreational Sports Center see things differently. While step aerobic sessions are popular, they are only one of many group exercise session offered by Recreational Sports.\nColleen McMahon, who oversees all group exercise sessions, said she attempts to make something available for everyone.\n"Our goal is to offer a diverse program for inclusion of students and other members of the community," McMahon said. "We try to offer something for everyone from beginner to expert in all of our sessions."\nThis means that new sessions ranging from cycling to yoga are often added.\n"Hip-hop is one of the newer sessions that we just added recently," McMahon said. "We've also added a lot of 'comboed' classes like step-crunch. Kung fu is also new this year." \n"Our most popular sessions by and large are dance sessions such as Hip Hop," McMahon said, "and also Jazz It Up is a very popular one."\nWhile hip-hop is a session attended by more than 100 women, there are usually about 10 men each session. \nOne of those men, freshman Kelley Rounds, has been attending sessions and said he enjoys it because of the fitness benefits and also because it's interesting.\n"I want to get exercise out of it," he said. "I want to get some physical exercise and just dance and have fun."\nEach group exercise session is directed by one of about 45 group leaders, most of which are students. Personal trainer Adam Gutwein, a junior, is the one of two group leaders for the Cross Conditioning session, an hour-long session that offers a cardiovascular and muscular workout that benefits people playing one or more sports. Gutwein said his session offers an alternative to standard workouts such as lifting weights and running.\n"I just try to give people a different way to work out and try to make it fun," he said. "We try to make it fun and also interesting so that people have a good time and get a good workout."\nHe said extensive talent and a high fitness level are not prerequisites for attending the sessions.\n"It's for varying degrees," he said. "It's not really geared towards any level of ability. People at different levels can both work out at the same time. You can just go harder or add more things if you're advanced." \nRounds said that the same is true for the hip-hop session, which he said is challenging but basic enough that the average person can catch on to the dance steps.\n"Anyone can do it, it's simple movement," Rounds said. "They don't move to fast, and they don't use big words so everyone can understand"
(10/30/01 4:29am)
It was a cold and windy weekend in eastern Iowa with water surrounding the boats in Coralville Reservoir and rain dropping steadily from the sky during the sixth annual Big Ten Bass Fishing Classic. On Oct. 13, the rainy weather prevented the Hoosiers from catching any bass long enough to qualify. But on Sunday, as the freezing wind continued, sophomore Brian Metzler was able to reel in a large enough fish. It would prove to be the winner.\n"Only two fish were brought into scale," club president Danny Blandford, a graduate student, said. "Brian Metlzer and a guy from Purdue were the only ones that caught fish over 15 inches, which was the legal limit agreed upon before the tournament. Brian's fish was two pounds, 14 ounces and was over a pound heavier than the other fish."\nSenior Matt Haddix, the club's vice president, said like many of his teammates, he was able to catch enough fish at the tournament, but none of them were big enough.\n"I had a few that were almost keepers," Haddix said. "One was a half-inch under the limit, but it was tough for everyone out there."\nBlandford agreed that it was a tough lake, and the less than ideal weather conditions didn't help.\n"It was 32 degrees that day, so it was really cold," Blandford said. "And it's much tougher to catch bass after a cold front. (Metzler) really came through, and he caught it when it counted."\nIU has caught quite a few bass when it has counted in the past decade. When IU defeated six other Big Ten schools to take the Big Ten Cup home with them two weeks ago, it was the third time it had done so in the six-year history of the event. \nThe other important annual tournament on the schedule for the Hoosiers is the Old Minnow Bucket match with the Purdue bass fishing club. The tournament location alternates every spring between Lake Schaffer in West Lafayette or Lake Monroe in Bloomington. IU, who holds the Old Minnow Bucket, will host the next meeting of the two schools March 29, 2002.\nSince being established as the first collegiate club of its kind in 1987, the IU Bass Fishing Club has gained a reputation as one of the elite. Freshman Justin Cravens, club secretary, stated that the reputation was one of the reasons he decided to join during his first year at IU.\n"I'd read a lot about it in the fishing world," Cravens said. "It was in a lot of publications."\nMany members of the club try to go fishing once a week if their schedules and the weather permit it.\n"I usually try to get out once a week from mid-March through mid-November," Haddix said. "That's the season to go, but anytime after that the weather is just too tough to try."\nHaddix also said his favorite features of being one of about 25 members in the club are the road trips and the team aspects. One event that builds team camaraderie is the banquet and formal dinner before tournaments. The next banquet's details are being worked out.\n"At the banquet before the Old Minnow Bucket tournament the fishermen are paired with their partner for the tournament," Blandford said. "Each angler is paired with an angler from Purdue."\nFor more information about the IU Bass Fishing Club, visit www.indiana.edu/~bassclub or e-mail Blandford at iubassclub@yahoo.com.
(10/23/01 5:09am)
Athletes and students at any level can benefit immensely when they are taught by the best, and the IU Jujitsu Club tries to give its members that opportunity.\n"Twice a year the kids get a chance to learn from a 10th-degree black belt and a ninth-degree black belt," IU Jujitsu Club instructor and second-degree black belt Marc Guyer said. "In December our grand master comes from New York, and we do the same thing in April with our sister club in Notre Dame."\nBetween 40 and 50 students usually attend each seminar to learn from the masters.\nMembers learn skills at the seminars and get the chance to earn higher belt degrees, said senior Paul Chamberlin. He has earned a brown belt in his two years with the club and has attended each seminar. \n"They teach you self-defense techniques and afterwards, we have testing to advance belts," Chamberlin said. "They can test you anytime, but that's the time that all the senseis are together so everyone pretty much does."\nDuring the school year, practice is held four days a week, although not everyone is expected to attend every practice. The scheduling of practice is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate members' schedules. \nGuyer teaches the club both Jujitsu and Tae Kwon Do, which entails less close fighting than Jujitsu. He explained that Jujitsu is not a sport like some martial arts in which people compete.\n"We use striking, unlike Judo which uses throws. And also, Judo is a sport," Guyer said. "(Jujitsu is) very similar to certain martial arts, and in fact, other martial arts have developed that are based on Jujitsu."\nWhile he admits that many people may not have a specific use for these arts in day-to-day life, he teaches important values through martial arts.\n"What I personally try to do is to build a sense of self," Guyer said. "It's a self-confidence builder. It's also good for your body. We do things with our body that no one normally does in real life, but also we work on things that are useful in real life like balance, and also it's just good exercise. It's good for the body."\nBloomington resident Aric Gibson, who has been a member for two-and-a-half years and has a purple belt, said he has been able to use the skills taught in Jujitsu and Tae Kwon Do in real life situations.\n"It's very practical," Gibson said. "I worked for four years at clubs in town, and I started working security, and I learned many things to keep safe from others like shoulder yanks or joint locks. You really learn good self-defense techniques."\nGibson said he also enjoys Jujitsu because it encompasses a variety of moves, including strikes, kicks and throws.\n"It's fairly inclusive," Gibson said. "We try not to limit ourselves to one way of looking at things. I like being able to come up with various ways to do things"
(09/25/01 3:50am)
Friendship, loyalty, and working together are three of the main ideals of fraternities and sororities. All three of these ideals are personified by intramural sports. This is why greek organizations are a big part of intramural sports.\nSome of the most important fraternity and sorority members involved in the intramural sports are the house managers. Each house that competes in intramurals has one or two house managers. They have to keep track of teams and players and know the rules of the competitions. But their main job is getting people in their house to participate.\nSigma Pi co-house manager, fraternity vice president of intramurals, and Intramural Sports Council representative Troy Hitchcock, a senior, said he thinks it is important to have the best players compete.\n"I put up a sign up sheet to see who wants to play," Hitchcock said. "If we get a lot of people signed up for a certain sport, I make them play against each other and take the top three or however many we need."\nChi Phi co-house manager, fraternity president of intramurals, and Student Recreational Sports Association representative Mark Krodel, a sophomore, estimates that roughly half of the men in most fraternity houses compete in intramurals, depending on the size of the house. But, only about 30 percent of sorority members compete in intramurals. \nJunior Traci Liner, sorority treasurer and secretary of intramurals, said it is probably because most women do not take the games as seriously.\n"It's not that competitive," Liner said. "It's more of a fun thing to do."\nFew sorority members would claim they make it their job to seek out and recruit great athletes as pledges. This is generally a quality that many fraternities like to see when selecting pledges, even if it is a subconscious consideration.\n"The people I talk to are into sports," Krodel said. "It's something we have in common. If I'm picking pledges I'll look for athletes because that's who I associate with."\nAll houses that compete are in one of two divisions, Cream or Crimson. Crimson consists of the houses with the most overall points from the previous year, while the remaining houses participate in the Cream division. Every year the top two Cream houses move up to the Crimson division while the bottom two Crimson houses move down to Cream. Being in a house in the Crimson division is something for which the athletes strive.\n"There's a lot of respect and a lot of pride," Hitchcock said. "If you're a Crimson house, then you're considered one of the top houses on campus."\nHitchcock, whose Sigma Pi house won the overall championship last year, said that to be a Crimson house, it's important for houses to play every game and support their teammates.\n"We didn't forfeit once last year," Hitchcock said. "We make sure we participate in everything. Last year for softball we had 100 guys come out to cheer on the team. We just had a lot of our friends and house members come out and encourage people to win."\nGreek intramural participants believe intramurals unite people.\n"It brings sororities together," Liner said. "Because you never know who you're going to play. It's just a fun way to bring people together."\nKrodel agrees intramurals create unity within greek organizations and also helps members to get acquainted with new people.\n"It's a good way to promote brotherhood within the house and to have fun competing with other houses," Krodel said. "And with the co-ed intramurals, it's a good way to meet with sororities and pull the community together"