Actively Through the Winter Season with University Sports!
Just a week after the start of registration, nearly all the spaces in the courses offered by the University Sports Center of RWTH Aachen University are taken. Demand was huge again, as the varied course offers are extremely popular as a balance to the everyday grind. Additionally, the coming semester has several winter sport events, health oriented course and true cult events in store.
To take part in university sports you need to be quick, as demand for the Sports Activities offered by the University Sports Center is always huge. Those who aren’t fast enough will have to wait for the second period on December 5 to secure their places. But where does this popularity come from? “Sport stands for balance to study and work”, explains Peter Lynen, Head of the University Sports Center (HSZ). Who learns a lot can clear their head here and recharge their energy. Additionally the courses provide social contacts and soft skills, which can be “decisive in the job market”, Peter Lynen adds.
The University Sports Center’s program contains a dizzying range of different sports, dance courses and martial arts, but also includes health oriented offers, which comprise an important part of it. Whether with the students ‘Pausenexpress’, an anti-sitting workshop or relaxation and yoga courses: “Health Promotion is an important subject” says the Head of the University Sports Center. For this reason RWTH is raising the bar and setting its own standards with „Active Campus Europe“ (ACE), a European project involving 16 partners from 7 countries. It is the very first project to ever be supported by Erasmus+, and that alone shows its significance. “It should bring enjoyment of sport to the people”, explains Miriam Becker, scientific employee at the University Sports Center. As part of the project one could sign up to a now ongoing 10-week program, which can bring more movement into everyday life. The best thing about it: “You only need yourself and fun in sports”, adds Becker cheerfully. Recently, the project has also received its own website, which is “now online”, as Melih Özkardes, event coordinator of the HSZ, highlights. He is not only excited about the great selection of sporting offers, but is especially looking forward to the event taking place in the winter semester. “It is THE semester of Events”, he stresses, explaining that there are ten events to look forward to – ranging from the small meet up of sport representatives to the massive cult event that is the Ice Hockey Uni-Cup.
Additionally, the University Sports Center has a lot to offer winter sport fans during the cold season: The Snowevents are equally suited for beginners and the more advanced. Ski instructor training courses are also highly popular. As they are made “by students for students”, Uli Weber, deputy head of the HSZ, explains, they are particularly popular and provide, as well as new experiences, a great deal of fun.
This is what makes the HSZ: The active and fundamental involvement of students in shaping the sports program. They are “enormously important”, explains Juliana Kirchhoff, sports delegate of the student body. The student course instructors who organize the courses together with the sport representatives, overwhelmingly students who feel responsible for a particular sport form the “link between all areas of responsibility”, she explains.
However, despite all the positive things to look forward to in this sporting semester, there is one problem that has been troubling the HSZ for year: A space shortage. “We urgently need additional sports facilities”, stresses Peter Lynen. In this case he is in dialogue with the university administration and will remain active, so that in future even more students will get the opportunity to visit their favorite courses for the duration of the semester.