Sports have long been regarded as a means of staying healthy and fit, but their significance extends much further. Sports, in fact, teach life lessons such as discipline, responsibility, self-confidence, accountability, and teamwork. As a master’s student majoring in aeronautical engineering, I had exceedingly difficult classes and occasionally had to deal with bad homework or midterm grades; my ego suffered as a result. However, I once read in a study that Exercise has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain and help the body build more connections between nerves, resulting in improved concentration, memory, creativity, and problem-solving skills. In short, sports help your brain grow and function better. As a student, playing sports taught me how to deal with failure and disappointment in life. I learned that I will not always get the results I desire, but that I must persevere and not give up. Sports instilled in me a positive attitude in which I view failure as an opportunity to learn how to pick myself up.
Consequently, I started to integrate sports in my routine sense my arrival here in Sweden. However, I was in front of many options that I wanted to try all of them to be able to choose one sport that I am passionate about. So, here are the sports I tried till now.
Squash
Egyptians have long dominated the squash world, and the entire world is curious as to what the secret formula is behind this phenomenon. In today’s world rankings, 10 of the top 20 players are Egyptians. So, when a friend of mine suggested going to the international free squash session in Linköping Squash center, I was so excited as I believed that my genes would drive me to be passionate about this sport. Also, squash can be played in all kinds of weather, so it was suitable with my sensitivity towards Sweden coldness. When I tried it was so exciting, fun, and enjoyable. However, I did not find my passion in the long term. So, I decided to try another sport.
Swedish dance
As a person who is in love with dance, I always want to try different dances. One of the first things was thinking about when I come here was to try the Swedish dances. I tried the most common two tradional Swedish dances which are Bugg and foxtrot. Bugg is a four-step dance that is performed at various speeds. Bugg is a partner dance that follows some basic rules but is largely improvised, with the woman following the man’s lead. National and international dance competitions do not allow acrobatic moves. Another Swedish dance that I really enjoyed practicing was the foxtrot. The Foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance with long, flowing movements across the dance floor. It is performed to big band music (usually vocal). The dance consists of walks, runs, and chasses. Both dances I learnt in an event hosted by Linköping Sportdansklubb.
Climbing
If you are a large group of friends and want to have a fun time together, I recommend that you try climbing. Linköping Climbing, LKK has a great Climbing and bouldering halls. For me, Bouldering is considered as one of my interesting activities. It is a type of rock climbing that does not require ropes or harnesses. It not only allows top rope climbers to practice specific moves with ease, but it also helps build stamina and finger strength.
Skateboard
The Hangaren is a physical activity center in Linköping that includes a large cool skate hall, a climbing hall with a 14-meter-high climbing wall, and an activity hall for a variety of activities such as budo, inline skates, bmx, trick kick bikes and mtb. I tried out skateboards in the skate hall, which was a lot of fun. However, my only concern was that there was no trainer or monitor there. You can learn on your own and practice there.
