By Alex Bowley & Illustrated by Charlie To
Wakeboarding, lacrosse, squash. When attending the sports fair, I saw so many sports that I was intrigued by but didn’t see myself signed up for a whole year of. This is where the Give It A Go (GIAG) comes in.
GIAGs are one-off sessions where anybody can come and attempt a sport (or any society). They require no previous experience in the activity and are a place where you can meet other people who are interested in trying out the sport.
So why are the GIAGs so successful in getting people to join? First, it gives the students a chance to experience a sport that would have been previously inaccessible to them. Either because they simply didn’t know the sport existed, or because of the fear of embarrassing themselves in front of fellow students who have been playing since before they could walk.
Wakeboarding has been on my bucket list for a long time. So when the opportunity to give it a go appeared I took it without a second thought. What an experience it was, thrilling and exhilarating. Without the GIAG I wouldn’t have been able to try out this sport which would have required lots of planning and research had I wanted to do it in my own free time.
Squash and lacrosse are both sports that I’ve seen played, normally in highlights on social media, but ones I thought I would be out of my depth in. So, I decided that the GIAGs would be my chance to try them out without any pressure of performing well. I was introduced to the sports and taught some of the basic skills without it feeling like I was being seen as an inconvenience.
My advice for anyone in the first few weeks of the year would be to attend as many GIAGs as you can. My first weeks were filled with them, I probably spent more time playing sports than I did in seminars. These events do not only allow you to try sports that you have never tried before but come with no added pressure as you are trying them out with people who also have little to no experience in the activity.
Meeting people when you are at your most vulnerable, after falling flat on your face wakeboarding, is just an added benefit of the GIAGs. It allows you to meet people who have similar interests and who are outside of your course or accommodation.
Put yourself out there, step out of your comfort zone, and give it a go.
