Clubs/Socs

Nietzschean

Boston wrote:

If by fit you mean homosexual, then yes loads.

i always thought that was a tcd thing, but apparently its the same in ucd/dcu, extension of the LGB soc...

Boston

SkyLynx wrote:

i always thought that was a tcd thing, but apparently its the same in ucd/dcu, extension of the LGB soc...

In fairness it appears to be only about 50 / 50

Nietzschean

uhhh must have changed since last i saw it so, either that or those that arn't are extreemly kamp...

Boston

Well thats what the girls say anyway. Can't really comment as the only guys I know that go to it are actually gay. O what a waste of some of those fine women.

Chick

lol, theyre not wasted if more guys wud go to it

Sparks

Only join stuff you think you'll be able to do and that you think you'll like? What a load of codswallop!

Join everything you can afford to join. Try them out. Because believe me, while you think you know when you walk in the door that first day what lies ahead of you (no jokes about the campagnile please...), you simply haven't got a clue. You don't until half-way through the first year! So sign up to everything that even looks remotely interesting and try everything once. Believe me, you'll never - ever - find it that easy to try so many esoteric sports and activities ever again. Wasting the opportunity would be mind-boggingly dumb.

Oh, and the rifle club is good, safe and harmless fun (it's olympic target shooting with air rifles and .22 rifles, not some sort of paintball with Uzis!) ... not that I'm biased or anything ...

article6

Sparks, may I ask if there are any eyesight requirements for the rifle club? I thought I'd ask since you do seem so eager about it

PrecariousNuts

I went and got myself a pair of glasses there last week mainly so I can see during lectures. My eyes aren't that bad so I hope I'll still be able to join!

Sparks

Well, you can't be blind article, but other than that, no, not really. I have to shoot with glasses, so do many others. You can use your normal glasses to start with, and if you take up the sport yourself seriously, you can get custom frames specifically for shooting (they ensure that the lens hands parallel to the back of the sights so you look straight through the lens instead of at an angle).

Basicly, you just join up in fresher's week and they/we teach you all you need to know and have all the equipment you'll need.

There's a leaflet you'll see being handed out, if you want a peek at one from prior years (only dates have changed), take a peek at this 1.4Mb PDF.

Or, you can look at it as a webpage with lousy formatting here.

But please note that the date for the initial safety lecture is WRONG in those leaflets - pick one up during freshers week to find out the correct time and place!

PrecariousNuts

Are there any other societies that you reccommend Sparks?

Sparks

Well, Aikido was fun - one of the only martial arts clubs in there that you had little chance of getting knocked about a lot in (I think we had one injury - a dislocated clavicle - during the four years I was an undergrad, and that one was my stupid fault for mucking about after class unsupervised, the worst we ever had during class was a strained calf muscle). I mean, talk to Karate and pretty much everyone that went to the intervarsities can tell you how they got their nose broken! :eek:

Sparks

And it was interesting to find yourself playing against people with Master ratings in the chess club... but apart from those three, I'm afraid I didn't avail of enough opportunities in college (something I've often regretted since).

ApeXaviour

PrecariousNuts wrote:

Are there any other societies that you reccommend Sparks?

First off DURC is not a society, its a sports club.
I'm gonna say it again:
Join a sports club ya nancies! Socs are gay!

I mean gay as defined as being socially gauche, sad or degenerate. In no way am I implicating people of homosexual orientation in my comment. No more than if I were to say "sinister" and be referring to left-handed people.

Boston

Apex, give us your thoughts on Judo, I'm on two minds about doing it, time commitments and all.

Sparks

True Ape (about the society/club thing).
There are actual differences (in case anyone's wondering) between Socs and Clubs - Socs are managed by the CSC, Clubs by the DUCAC; amongst other things this means it's more expensive to join a Club than a Society because Clubs pay a fee (it's either one or two euro, I can't remember which) to DUCAC for each member that joins (something about insurance) whereas Socs don't do so for the CSC.

ApeXaviour

Boston wrote:

Apex, give us your thoughts on Judo, I'm on two minds about doing it, time commitments and all.

Judo as a club in trinity? Well I've been injured for a while so the last time I trained in the college we were in a crappy little squash court. Talk about dangerous, especially with the numbers. As far as I know it's changed to the main hall now which is why I'm going back. The last thing you need is to be thrown against a wall. As far as Alonzo the coach goes, he's certainly qualified and a good coach, but (IMHO) he's doesn't take the women too seriously, if you're a bird there you need to be able give it as good as you get cos he can be erm.. "socially inappropriate" at times with them.
I'm not sure if he's even coaching there anymore??
The people are very nice, helpful and quite skilled too.

btw have a look at the tcd judo website, it's quality!

As far as judo as a sport goes I love it. It's a very technical game. It's also extremely physical and is a form of full contact grappling. Its nature of practising against a resisting opponent (like boxing, bjj, wrestling, muai-thai) also makes it one of the more effective non-weapon martial arts out there. Moreso than karate, aikido, TKD etc (if you disagree, ask the lads on the martial arts boards, theyll put you straight). Though inspite of this it can still be practised by young and old, men and women.

Sparks

Er, Ape - you do remember that Kano didn't intend Judo to be a martial art but a sport, right?

(and yes, if you want to beat the crap out of someone, aikido's not the one you want. Of course, if you want to do something that's fun, gives you a great deal of mental focus, agility and flexibility, and which teaches you how to fall correctly - sorry Axe, I've seen TCD judoka fall and it's painful to watch by comparison - then Aikido might be what you want. But, as above, try everything.)

Boston

ApeXaviour wrote:

Judo as a club in trinity? Well I've been injured for a while so the last time I trained in the college we were in a crappy little squash court. Talk about dangerous, especially with the numbers. As far as I know it's changed to the main hall now which is why I'm going back. The last thing you need is to be thrown against a wall. As far as Alonzo the coach goes, he's certainly qualified and a good coach, but (IMHO) he's doesn't take the women too seriously, if you're a bird there you need to be able give it as good as you get cos he can be erm.. "socially inappropriate" at times with them.
I'm not sure if he's even coaching there anymore??
The people are very nice, helpful and quite skilled too.

btw have a look at the tcd judo website, it's quality!

As far as judo as a sport goes I love it. It's a very technical game. It's also extremely physical and is a form of full contact grappling. Its nature of practising against a resisting opponent (like boxing, bjj, wrestling, muai-thai) also makes it one of the more effective non-weapon martial arts out there. Moreso than karate, aikido, TKD etc (if you disagree, ask the lads on the martial arts boards, theyll put you straight). Though inspite of this it can still be practised by young and old, men and women.

I joined last year and went afew times, but I didn't like being in a small squash court, seemed dangerous. I think Alonzo was there last year, as well as another guy. Thick north dublin accent. I quite like the idea of doing something very physical, and getting in shape that way. Less for self defence and more about getting fit. There was no chance of me doing it if they where still in that squash courts. but hell Might give it a short again if their in the main hall.

ApeXaviour

Sparks wrote:

Er, Ape - you do remember that Kano didn't intend Judo to be a martial art but a sport, right?

I do, and it is a sport. But look at it for chris' sake! It's a martial sport..

Sparks wrote:

(and yes, if you want to beat the crap out of someone, aikido's not the one you want. Of course, if you want to do something that's fun, gives you a great deal of mental focus, agility and flexibility, and which teaches you how to fall correctly - sorry Axe, I've seen TCD judoka fall and it's painful to watch by comparison

To the untrained eye it does look painful. I can assure you though it's not. The first and most significant thing you learn in Judo is how to fall correctly. If you have forward momentum you roll, if not you "breakfall" (this technique creates a noise that can be misinterpreted). It's different from aikido in the sense you aren't letting yourself fall, you are being thrown entirely against your will and thus have little control. I would even go as far to say that if you were falling realistically, this is how you would fall (little control). I for one would rather judo experience than aikido in this situation.
Only recently I was sparring with a 60yo and I chucked him right proper. He jumped right back up ready to start again not a bother.. Go to a session just to watch and you'll see example after example after example.. They're not "toughened" to it by any stretch. Judokas just no how to fall correctly when being forced to the ground!

Judo also gives you mental focus, agility and flexibility. And tbh, competing in it is possibly the most fun I've ever had in my entire life..

Sparks

To the untrained eye it does look painful.

I meant that to someone who spent four years learning how to take ukemi, that judo ukemi looks very, well, primitive and basic by comparison. Trust me, go watch some of the aikidoka, especially the more advanced students, taking ukemi from some of the more extreme throws like kotegaeshi and you'll see what I mean. Neither judoka nor aikidoka get injured - but it just seems that the aikido ukemi is more flowing than the judo ukemi.

ApeXaviour

Sparks wrote:

I meant that to someone who spent four years learning how to take ukemi, that judo ukemi looks very, well, primitive and basic by comparison. Trust me, go watch some of the aikidoka, especially the more advanced students, taking ukemi from some of the more extreme throws like kotegaeshi and you'll see what I mean. Neither judoka nor aikidoka get injured - but it just seems that the aikido ukemi is more flowing than the judo ukemi.

Aye its the nature of the beast. Judo ukemi is simply concerned with practicality and safety when being thrown with full resistance. There is nothing showy to it whatsoever.. Aikido ukemi is characterized by the circular movement or fashion similar to the conventional somersault.

Sparks

Nothing showy about aikido ukemi either Ape - it just looks that way because in aikido, ukemi doesn't mean breakfalling, it means surviving a technique. For example, in the photo above, the ukemi is rather spectacular-looking - but uke isn't throwing himself over there, tori is just breaking uke's balance in such a way that either he falls forward over his wrist, or he breaks and dislocates his wrist in a rather painful manner. Having been in the position of the poor sod who's being thrown, believe me it's not a faked showy thing - you're trying to prevent your wrist from breaking and simultaenously keeping the rest of your body out of reach of tori so he can't hit you. All aikido ukemi is based on that idea - surviving the technique - and it gives you the best chance to reverse the technique if tori messes up. There's no pushing and jostling and strength competition going on - it's a case of both people looking for, and exploiting, an opening caused by a defect in applied technique.

All of which is a verbose way of saying that just because it looks better than judo ukemi, doesn't mean that it doesn't work better too...

John

Sparks wrote:

Only join stuff you think you'll be able to do and that you think you'll like? What a load of codswallop!

Just speaking from my own experience, spent over €20 in first year during fresher's week only to find that most of the events I would go to were in the societies I didn't join or else they were on bad nights.

Sparks

Indeed John, but the point was that you have an unparalleled opportunity during first year to try a multitude of sports. Once you graduate, sure, you can try football or rugby or GAA - but for pretty much every other sport in the country, trying them out is a lot harder than it is in college, not to mention a lot more expensive...

John

True about the clubs but I'm not really a sports person so I didn't think like that. I liked ultimate frisbee the year before last, great fun but then this last year was **** because instead of it just being a friendly game that made exercising fun it turned into an exercise that made frisbee unbearable.

Niloc

Apart from joining clubs and socs did you guys ever think of starting your own club. Ok i dont know about the big colleges but in iadt Dun Laoghaire where i go all you need is three people to start your own club. I was thinken of founding the paper plane (and drinking) soc.

John

You need to be approved by CSC/DUCAC and show that there's a demand for the soc/club and it's not being catered for by another soc/club. If you look through some of the threads around here you'll see how some people tried to set up a comedy society but were refused because other societies organised comedy nights.

ApeXaviour

Sparks wrote:

For example, in the photo above, the ukemi is rather spectacular-looking - but uke isn't throwing himself over there, tori is just breaking uke's balance in such a way that either he falls forward over his wrist, or he breaks and dislocates his wrist in a rather painful manner. Having been in the position of the poor sod who's being thrown, believe me it's not a faked showy thing - you're trying to prevent your wrist from breaking and simultaenously keeping the rest of your body out of reach of tori so he can't hit you.

When I said showy, I didn't mean fake.. I know there is nothing fake or exaggerated about aikido ukemi but they simply would not be practical for the majority of Judo throws.
As for the surviving and keeping away from tori. That's just being pedantic, though I suppose how else can you be when you're describing a TMA..

Sparks wrote:

There's no pushing and jostling and strength competition going on - it's a case of both people looking for, and exploiting, an opening caused by a defect in applied technique.

This is a common misperception of judo. As I said it is a very technical sport and it is certainly no strength competition! What you describe above would suit it well. The "pushing and jostling" is testing balance, feinting etc. Judo is all about unbalancing your opponent so that you can throw them (It also has another aspect of groundwork/grappling which I haven't mentioned). Having sparred some really good people I can tell you it's like fighting an empty jacket and then you're in mid air..

Sparks wrote:

All of which is a verbose way of saying that just because it looks better than judo ukemi, doesn't mean that it doesn't work better too...

Ya reckon? I'd like to see you do those spinny, flowing somersault-esque ukemis when getting thrown like this:

Niloc

Intresting.
But im prity sure i cud get approval and that no one else is doing it.
Like if your going to make the commitment of joining a club that u might like why not start ure own that can be anything you want.

IDM

John2 wrote:

True about the clubs but I'm not really a sports person so I didn't think like that. I liked ultimate frisbee the year before last, great fun but then this last year was **** because instead of it just being a friendly game that made exercising fun it turned into an exercise that made frisbee unbearable.

Was seriously considering joining it this year ... Care to explain how it turned into an exercise that made frisbee unbearable ? Am pretty sporting really, but haven't gotten involved in anything because of a pretty busy timetable. Thought frisbee would be a good idea due to its seeming relaxed nature.

Oh & it is year-round, right ? I saw a bit of a match in spring last year but wasn't sure if they played in fall. Thanks in advance.