For some students at university, finding a sport is essential in helping them settleĀ into their new surroundings.
Finding the right hobby is sometimes difficult, but with plenty of lesser known sports around campus, there is something to appeal to everyone here at the university.
One of these sports is Archery.
Archery has been around for hundreds of years, where historically it was used in hunting and combat.
Nowadays, it’s an Olympic sport and an ever growing sport here at Teesside University.
There are plenty of opportunities to get involved, andĀ TUXtra spoke to Archery team captain Jamie to find out what students could expect from the sport.
He said: “Archery is not as physical a sport as others and I think that’s why so many people are trying it.”
“It’s a sport that gives you the opportunity to either have fun with it or be super competitive with it.
“We have competitions all over the year with many different universities and it’s even an Olympic sport, so you can move onto the Olympics from shooting at University which I think is great.”
Club member Shadman had never done archery before attending Teesside University.
But he is now hooked.
He said: “I had never done archery before back home as there was no archery club.”
“The main reason I got involved in archery is because our prophet in Islam was very good at archery and it’s basically something we call Sunnah.
“It’s something if we do it’s like a reward you get and besides that the other things that made me interested in archery was movies and TV shows, and super heroes like Green Arrow and Hawkeye.
“I also didn’t know before there was an archery club over here – I did MMA, boxing and kickboxing so when I came over here the plan was to join that club but then I saw archery and I thought I would give it a try.
“The first session was not that great for me but the second session I was doing good so I decided to join and I tried out all the taster sessions, and since then I just improved myself at archery.
“I would like to continue archery for my future life and if I move anywhere I would like to join some club and continue it as a sport rather than just a hobby.”
Club chair Sophie says anyone can get involved, and they will taking on more students after the Christmas break in January.
She said: “Students can get involved by asking questions on club day and they can come see us and see what archery is all about and ask questions to the coach, the chair or the team captain.”
“We’ve also got a Facebook page where you can message and ask questions and see all our updates and things like that.
“There’s also a refreshers week in January where we take a new cohort of people so we’ll be able to put information out about taster sessions and beginners courses before they want to join the club itself.”
Second year Sports Journalism student.
