Who said you can’t play sports during winter?

Written by: Min Q Lee, MEng in Bioengineering

Are you a sport lover? Afraid that you can’t exercise due to the freezing weather? Don’t want to play sports under the strong wind and cold? Don’t worry; Sheffield has great sports facilities for those who like to play sports. Sport Sheffield, is the University’s sports department: it offers a lot of facilities including swimming pool, sauna steam rooms, bouldering wall, squash courts and many more. 

Sport Sheffield also offers some sports that are exclusively FREE for the residents who live in University student accommodation. The programme is known as the Residence Sport. I have been involved in a few sports that I would like to share with you.

Every Wednesday, Sport Sheffield organises a table tennis social in Stephenson Activity room. It was indeed fun and I learnt to play a new sport. It was actually my first time playing table tennis in my life. (It is exclusively free with Residence Life)  

On Friday night, I will book my place online for a swimming session since I am not a party go-er. Swimming on a Friday night is the best way to release stress and relax.

This is the Olympic sized, 33m indoor-heated pool. The temperature is kept constant at 28 degrees. Lifeguards are also always on duty, supervising the swimming pool.

Changing rooms are also available. The changing rooms include lockers, shower rooms with shampoo, hairdryers and also a cool machine to dry your swimsuit (on your left).

If you prefer extreme sports, consider bouldering. Bouldering is rock climbing without ropes. Do not underestimate bouldering, it is not as easy as it seems. Every session of bouldering has a professional instructor to guide and explain some simple rules to you.

Bouldering was considered tough to me (because I am small sized and do not have enough upper strength), yet it was challenging and fun. 

David, he is a very professional instructor. He gave me a lot of useful advice and tips for bouldering. 

These are some of the sports organised by Sport Sheffield in which I have been involved so far and they are all exclusively free for residents living in University accommodation (how cool is that?!). Sometimes, after a long day of classes and studies, it is good to relax and give yourself a break.