Written by: Sibi Selvanathan, Tharmegan Tharmaratnam and Athletics Council of CTYA
UTSG Tamil Students’ Association has been doing something commendable at University of Toronto St. George campus. The TSA’s Athletic Coordinators have been stepping up in having their TSA members staying fit during the past school year. Sibi Selvanathan, an Electrical Engineering student, and Tharmegan Tharmaratnam, a Kinesiology student and also a council member of Athletics and Recreation at UTSG, were the first UTSG TSA to have regular scheduled workout lessons and soccer games. Athletics Council of CTYA is ecstatic to see this amongst TSAs in Canada. We hope to see this healthy attitude amongst many TSAs in Canada in the future. Sibi and Tharmegan share their story with us.
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When first asked how we would get Tamil women more involved in athletics, we decided to wonder first why Tamil women shied away from athletics and worked our way from there. Common answers were “We’re just not sure what to do when we go to the gym,” and “It’s intimidating.” We wanted to help in ameliorating the stigma surrounding women going to the gym, which in the Tamil community is inherently seen as a guy thing.
Being gym regulars, we decided to hold workout sessions with not only the intention of keeping fitness levels strong, but to get people more accustomed to the gym environment so that they feel more comfortable and at ease with the idea of going on their own.
Our expertise and workout plans specific per week helped all our attendees understand the do’s and don’ts of the gym, how not to hurt yourself and the most effective techniques to reaching your goals. From understanding how to warm up and cool down through stretching and cardiovascular exercise, the knowing of how to use the different machines and special classes such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and plyometrics, we were able to convey simple, yet effective, ways of staying in shape.
Different attendees received different benefits. Some were able to gain tips on how to improve their own workout sessions’ effectiveness and others were able to feel comfortable enough to go to the gym on their own. One of the primary reasons for the success behind this initiative was because exercise basically served as an outlet for social interaction, since this weekly initiative that was conducted within a group setting. Working out in a group setting or with a partner is more recommended than going alone.
The success of the weekly workout sessions has allowed this to be seen as long term plan for UTSG TSA. The positive reviews from the different attendees have shown that people are happy with the little start we gave them towards a healthier lifestyle. As busy university students, we should devote some time to maintaining an active lifestyle; which has a multitude of benefits such as improved brain and cognitive function, improved sleeping patterns, and better skin through the evaporation of toxins as sweat. We hope that future TSAs representing not only UTSG, but others as well will continue this custom. Here are some simple steps to lead a more active lifestyle suggested by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology:
http://www.csep.ca/CMFiles/Guidelines/CSEP-InfoSheets-adults-ENG.pdf
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With the wide range of intramural sports that University of Toronto St. George offers, we felt that it would be great to allow some of our brightest athletes a chance to shine at a high and competitive level. Indoor soccer is considered the most popular of all intramurals, with a total of 24 teams entering the Open Division. With some of the best players on campus playing against each other here, we felt that it would be great competition for our athletes.
The team started with tryouts during the first week of classes. Everyone was encouraged to attend, from first years to students almost graduating and across all programs. All the players that came were highly skilled. As Athletic Coordinators picking the team, we were not necessarily looking for the best players but the players that would make the best team. This involved a combination of skill, but more so, a great attitude and work ethic. We found our players and happily invited them onto the team.
During the regular season, the team remained undefeated against heavy competition by finishing with four wins and one tie. Unfortunately, the season came to an end after a close defeat in the quarter finals. However, each and every one of the players benefited by playing in a competitive league that they normally would not have known about and meeting other individuals that share the same love for the game.
We especially would like to thank all the fans that showed up to our games and cheered us on, which really helped promote TSA spirit. Waving our TSA banner and cheering for us while we played made us play all the more harder because we knew we were not just representing ourselves, but the entire UTSG TSA community.
The success of this soccer team in its competitive level, cheering from the fans and benefits to the players has allowed this to be a very successful endeavor. We have shown that we can compete with some of the best soccer players on a big campus and would like this to be a yearly tradition from now on, perhaps even moving towards other sports as well.
Players From Top Left to Top Right:
Gabilasan Gengatharan, Harenssan Kandiah, Alok Bapat, Braginan Vakeesan, Sri Thanabalasingam (assistant captain)
Players From Bottom Left to Bottom Right:
Mathen Sundar, Sibi Selvanathan (captain), Tharmegan Tharmaratnam (assistant captain), Marshel Selvarajha, Roshan Annalingam
We would also like to add that we could not have done all this without the continuous help and support of our executive team, UTSG TSA. We appreciate all the help and suggestions we received when planning our initiatives and are glad to have worked with such an incredible group of individuals.
Sibi Selvanathan
Tharmegan Tharmaratnam
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