The Union

The Student Union, located by Harcombe Dining Hall, is another option for on-campus recreation. The Union is like an arcade that offers ping pong, billiards, and bowling. It is very cheap for students to go. There have been several occasions when a few friends and I would eat dinner at Harcombe, and we would decide to bowl a quick game in the Union. It only costs $2 for students to bowl there, yet it is just like a regular bowling alley.

I think that the Union is a recreation option that is often overlooked by students. However, I enjoy the fact that it is often not crowded, because it makes it easy to stop in quickly for a game of bowling.

Twelve Mile Recreation Area

A popular destination that my friends and I recently discovered is Twelve Mile Recreation Area on Lake Hartwell. One of my friends has a boat here at Clemson, and we first went to the park to use its boat ramp. It turns out that the park also offers a large sandy beach area, as well as picnic tables and playgrounds. It is a great place to spend a nice day. Since the boat can only can only hold six people at a time, others can wait on the beach when they aren't tubing or fishing. My friend is able to pull the boat right up to the sand to pick up and drop off his passengers.

I look forward to many more sunny days that we can spend by the water at this park.

Golf

In the spirit of the Master's, I decided to write about some of the golfing options here in Clemson. Of course we have The Walker Golf Course here on campus, but my friends rarely play there because it is too expensive. Instead, they play at the nearby Woodhaven Golf Course in Pendleton.

"Tiger Paw Hole" #17 at Walker Golf Course

While I have yet to go golfing here at Clemson, I have been to a driving range down Route 76 towards Pendleton. Next year, I will be sure to bring my golf clubs down to school, so I can join my friends on some of their many outings.

Fishing

One popular past time of Clemson students is fishing. There are many options nearby in Lake Hartwell, Lake Jocasse, and Lake Keowee. I recently went fishing on my friends boat in Lake Hartwell, which is known for its catfish and bass.

Although we did not catch anything, it is always fun to be out on the water. We did end up seeing a large fish that my friend identified as a gar swim by our boat a few feet beneath the surface.

Gar

We saw this fish lurking in the water only minutes after we were swimming in it! Seeing this picture of it's teeth on our phones made us stay in the boat for the rest of the day.

Club Sports

Another way for students to stay athletically active throughout college in a less serious inter-collegiate environment is club sports. Clemson has many club sports teams that travel to play other colleges nearby. Depending on the sport, they can be laid back or intense.

My freshman year, I played Club Water Polo for Clemson because I had experience from playing in high school. With the water polo team, I got to travel to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech to play various schools from the southeast in tournaments. It was a great experience. Now, I am busier so I cannot be as involved anymore; however, the team is relaxed, so I am free to come whenever I am available.

I also have friends who have played baseball, soccer, lacrosse, rugby, and crew at the club level. Each team has different schedules and requirements, but they all enjoy their sports.

Intramural Sports

One of my favorite ways to be active on campus is through intramural sports. I have played on my fraternity's flag football team and I am currently the captain of our softball team. The great thing about intramural sports is that there are different leagues for different levels of talent. For example, I am not good enough to play on my fraternity's soccer or basketball team in the Greek league. However, if I wanted to I could create my own team to play for fun in the B league for each sport.

Intramural sports are a great option for athletes who wish to still play competitive sports but did not want to commit to being a varsity athlete in college. For example, I could have played baseball at a small college, but I wanted to go to a big school with big sports programs. So, I decided to retire from baseball and begin my softball career.

At a school like Clemson (#1 Jock School), the intramural sports are very competitive because there are many fantastic athletes. Therefore, winning the intramural championship is very difficult. Students really enjoy intramurals, and they take them very seriously. I think they are the perfect level of competition for students who want to focus on school yet still participate in competition in the sports they have grown up playing.

The Dike

One popular location for exercise and outdoor recreation is the dike located in between the athletic complexes and the YMCA Campus Beach. There is an entrance at the end of a neighborhood just behind the Esso Club. The dike is has a great view of campus on one side and Lake Hartwell on the other. I know many people who include the dike in their running routes just for the scenery. I have also seen many people walking their dogs there.

Recently, my friends and I have gone to the dikes to run sprints up the hill as a workout. There is also a nice sandy beach that people go to for tanning, reading, napping, or campfires. My favorite part of the dike is its location relative to campus. From my dorm, I can jog to the lake at the dike within ten minutes.

View from the Beach at The Dike

Leisure Skills

One of my newfound favorite ways to stay active at Clemson is by participating in leisure skills classes. This semester I signed up for my first leisure skill ever, Top Rope (rock climbing). It takes place at the Rock Wall in Fike Recreation Center. I have enjoyed it very much because it is a relaxed class that lets everyone go at their own pace. It is a great opportunity for me to try an activity that I had never tried before and improve my skills each week.

My leisure skill class also offers a great break in the week from my other classes. I look forward to it as a time to relax and have fun, while still getting exercise. I also got a little taste of what Tennis class is like when one of my friends called me and asked me to play with him when there was an uneven number of students in class. Tennis class is also very relaxed and fun, yet it offers an opportunity to always have people to play with, work on your skills with, and learn from.

Some of my friends have taken classes such as scuba, bowling, soccer, yoga, meditation & relaxation, and golf. I have heard great things about each of these classes. After my experience this semester, I have decided that I am going to take one leisure skill per semester for my remaining time at Clemson, as long as my schedule allows it.

Fike

While I love Clemson because there are many options for activities around campus, the one part of Clemson recreational life that I cannot stand is Fike Recreation Center. There are many great things to do at Fike; however, it is far too small for a university with over 15,000 undergraduates. I try to workout almost everyday, but there are days when my schedule doesn't allow me to go until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. At this time, both the weights and cardio equipment are packed with students. It is hard to get into a rhythm, while constantly waiting for machines, dumbbells, or even just open space. I often have to improvise my workout, and, therefore, I cannot keep track of my progress as easily.

Fike Recreation Center - Clemson University

Clemson was ranked the #1 Jock School in the nation when I applied to school. However, out of the three other schools that I applied to (University of Maryland College Park, Virginia Tech, and University of South Carolina) Clemson's recreation center was by far the least impressive. USC has over three times as many weight stations as Fike.

I believe that Clemson should build another similar sized gym on the Horseshoe-side of campus to help split the traffic between the two. I cannot see a way in which Fike can be improved significantly from what it is now because the building was not designed to be a gym for 15,000 very active students. Weight machines and cardio equipment are already crammed into awkward places, and the only way to add more would be to eliminate a basketball court or fitness classroom, both of which are already overcrowded as well.

I know this will never happen while I am here, but as Clemson looks to grow as a top public university, it needs to make sure that it's campus life facilities can handle the growth. In the mean time, I will be very tempted to get a membership to Gold's Gym as soon as I move off campus.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Stone Thrower. This is my blog on exercise, especially what Clemson University has to offer for its recreational student-athletes. I am excited to share my experiences and opinions on various athletic activities available for students to partake in both on and off campus. 

When I applied to Clemson, it was ranked as the #1 Jock School by the Princeton Review. As an active person and three-sport athlete in high school (Water Polo, Swimming, and Baseball), I was attracted to a school where the culture of the student body had a great focus on sports. When I enrolled, I found the ranking to be very accurate. On a sunny day in Clemson, there are always students running around Perimeter Road, tossing a football on Bowman field, or playing volleyball in front of Fike. While I am only a sophomore, I have already broadened my horizons to discover new recreational activities here at Clemson that I would never have the opportunity to do in my hometown in Maryland.