Leeds University Union offers a plethora of sports societies to join during your time at the University; whether you’re just playing for the fun of it or aiming for Rio 2016 there is plenty on offer. Here LS takes a look at some societies you may not have seen much of in the paper….

Swimming and Water Polo

 

We are a large sports club with 150-200 members, we pride ourselves in being a Leeds Gryphons performance sports society who train hard and compete in the British University Championships, aiming and achieving top 10 rankings (4th men’s’ water polo, 5th women’s water polo, 4th men’s swimming BUCS short course, 11th overall). We also have a large social scene and attract many development swimmers who don’t compete but enjoy training regularly and we are happy to include absolutely anyone who wants to give water polo a try, the team is extremely friendly, welcoming and good fun.

Trials will take place at the Edge on Sunday 28th September 2014, 3:00 – 5:15pm. Anyone can join water polo no experience necessary. Polo train on Tuesday (21.00-22:30) and Sunday (16.00-17:30) and there are optional swimming training sessions every day depending on which squad you’re in.

See our website for more details www.luuswimpolo.com

Jessica Kirk

 

Archery

 

Leeds University Archery Society meets on Mondays 8-10pm, Wednesdays and Fridays 7-10pm at Cromer Terrace. After the Easter break we also have an outdoor session every Saturday at Weetwood. We compete in a lot of competitions against other universities in the North England Universities Archery League. On our first meet against Huddersfield and Durham we managed to field the top novice team with one of our archers scoring 3rd overall.

The society is constantly trying to improve our standing in competition and our two coaches are always willing to help improve anyone no matter what ability the archer has. We as a society pride ourselves on our ability to train people from never having held a bow to being confident in their ability in this ancient and disability-friendly sport. We also do fun shoots around holidays where we aim to just have fun and eat as much sugar as possible.

Michael Worth

 

 Motorsport

 

Are you interested in Motorsport, but never had the opportunity to race competitively? LUU Motorsport is a relatively new society at Leeds competing in the British Universities Karting Championship; sponsored by Red Bull we race across the U.K against 72 universities at speeds of up to 70mph. We travel to a number of different tracks within the area to compete and also practice. We are increasing numbers all the time and hope to expand a great deal in this coming University year. We also hold regular socials often starting at Shooters/Bierkeller. We will be going on a number of trips this year with access to BTCC teams and the Ginetta Cars factory.

So if you fancy yourself as the next Lewis Hamilton keep an eye out for our free Give it a Go session coming up in the first semester of the next University year. For more information please e-mail: leedsunimotorsoc@gmail.com or like our Facebook; LUU Motorsport 2014-15.

Tom Moore

 

Korfball

 

Many players describe korfball to non-korfers as a mixture between basketball and netball. As korfball is a court sport with two posts and play driven by throwing and catching, this description is partly true- but all korfers know that their beloved game is much more unique than that. Korfball is literally a game of two halves, as four members of each mixed-gender team stand in two separate zones around the 11ft posts. One zone is the defending zone and the other is attacking and after two goals, the sub-teams switch zones.

This means that during every game, any team member can defend, attack and score goals. A player can’t score a goal while they’re defended, requiring quick thinking, speed and agility to create the space needed to shoot. The Leeds squad is a fun-loving group of guys and girls who party as hard as they train, (twice a week) and they go on regular weekend tournaments around the UK. Training sessions are held Wednesday 5-7pm and Thursday 7-8pm in The Edge.

Eveie Robinson

 

Kickboxing

 

Leeds University Kickboxing & Krav Maga is the biggest and (as voted this year) best of all the martial arts societies within Leeds University. Offering high standard instruction with a focus on personal safety and combat sports fitness training, the society prides itself on its inclusive atmosphere with having plenty of room to progress and advance into senior classes.

The society holds classes 4 days a week, kickboxing classes on Tuesdays (20:30-21:30 in Sports Hall 2), Saturdays (14:30-15:40 Cromer Terrace) and a sparring specialty class on Sundays (16:30-17:30 in Sports Hall 3) also Krav Maga classes on Thursday nights (20:00-21:00 in Sports Hall 1). In addition to our classes we yearly host the national student kickboxing competition, have a huge amount of optional socials, engage in big collaboration charity events and take the society kickboxing on tour.

Daniel Murgatroyd

So if you want to join a sports society this year why not give these a try? Keep reading LS Sport to see more about sports societies in the next few weeks.

Adam LeRoux

Picture: stormkorfball