The Stand Sports Freshers’ Guide #3 – The Ice Skating Club

A trip to a pop-up ice rink has become an essential component of my family’s festive period. Every year, still as hopeless as I was the previous year, I spend the hour clinging to the barrier and blaming my faulty skates. My sister on the other hand, far more experienced and naturally more dexterous, gracefully glides along the ice, highlighting my extreme incompetence and making me wish I had never agreed to go. I’m sure that many St Andrews students have been in a similar position but the Ice Skating Club wants you to know that it doesn’t have to be like this…

Fun, sociable and easygoing – that’s how the members of the University of St Andrews Ice Skating Club describe themselves. The Club invites you to come along to Dundee Ice Rink every Wednesday to skate at your own pace whilst the Olympic-standard facilities are at their quietest. Aside from the occasional friendly race at training, the Club is non-competitive. The 30 dedicated members can think of no better way to spend a Wednesday afternoon than by tearing up the ice in Dundee and capping off the trip with a much vaunted Big Mac and a free McFlurry. Can you?

The club’s main objective is to offer an opportunity to skaters of all abilities and to improve their skills in a relaxed and friendly environment. If you’re aiming to make serious improvements however, club membership will give you access to lessons from Olympic coaches at a discounted price. As if this wasn’t enough, the Club is introducing an ‘Off Ice’ project – a weekly session in St Andrews dedicated to improving fitness, strength and flexibility. What better way to maintain some modicum of fitness in an alcohol/Empire infested first term?

While each and every trip to the rink has a distinct social flavour, this doesn’t stop club members getting together outside of the Wednesday sessions. The Prosecco-fuelled annual club dinner, open to all members, is a much-anticipated event every year. If boozy affairs aren’t quite your thing however, then how about a spot of altruism? The club’s members regularly volunteer their expertise to push wheelchair bound skaters around the rink – what better reason to get involved?

Perhaps one of The Bubble’s least complicated clubs, the Ice Skating Club, is all about having a bit of fun. Whether you just want to learn to keep your balance on the ice, tricks or tone up those calves, just bring your gloves and a smile and the Ice Skating Club will look after you!

Faithful to their easygoing and laid-back ethos, the Club is hosting a picnic outside the sports centre on Wednesday 10^th September from 2pm – 4pm. This will be followed by drinks (on the club) on the mezzanine floor of The Rule from 7pm.  If you can’t wait until then to get involved, then why not get in touch?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/104416923154/?ref=ts&fref=ts

 Twitter:  @IceSkatingStA

Website: http://iceskating.saints-sport.com/freshers-2014