Walking and cycling are among the most popular athletic activities in New Albany, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg.
Beyond those and the usual sports – the basketballs, baseballs and footballs – the community also offers options for the unconventional athlete.
From the leisurely to the intense, these opportunities are among New Albany’s most unorthodox.
Croquet
As sports go, it’s not exactly full-contact, but at the New Albany Country Club, croquet is serious business.
Croquet is one of the many sports available to the private club’s members. And in the world of tournament-style croquet – differences between tournament style and standard backyard croquet include the regulation, 75-minute timed games and decidedly tighter wickets – you can’t do much better than the club’s croquet lawn. Jennifer Joseph, a club member who chairs the croquet program, says the six-wicket lawn has a reputation as one of the best in the U.S.
That reputation led to a gig hosting an official United States Croquet Association tournament: the New Albany Country Club Invitational, which Joseph organizes. This year’s tournament, the third annual, is slated for Oct. 10-12.
A tournament-style croquet lawn was one of the amenities Les Wexner wanted the club to have when it was originally built, Joseph says. Today, the club members who play there – including Joseph and her husband, John, who live in downtown Columbus – are members of the USCA, and they play in tournaments all over the country.
The lawn is fast, impeccably groomed and pleasantly challenging for those who aren’t used to it, Joseph says.
Tournament-style croquet is like a combination of billiards and chess, Joseph says, so many of the skills it hones are mental rather than physical.
“For me personally, croquet makes me a better lawyer,” she says. “It has taught me patience and it has taught me the benefit of stepping back and thinking through where I’m going in the next hour, rather than acting impulsively.”
A good player must anticipate the opponent’s moves and determine the perfect angle at which to hit the ball, she says.
“You always have to think five moves ahead,” Joseph says. “If you don’t, you’re going to end up sitting in a chair on the sidelines while your opponent spends the next 45 minutes destroying you.”
There are physical benefits, too, as the game does require a good amount of walking. Joseph relates a story of a friend who started wearing a FitBit during games and discovered that a regulation 75-minute game racks up about 3,300 steps.
Though players tend to be highly competitive, regulation croquet is still a sport for gentlemen and gentlewomen, Joseph says: All players wear white, and each must have not only the proper mallet, but also the proper demeanor, which means no swearing or bad manners.
Dynamic Self Defense
Personal protection is the No. 1 goal of martial arts discipline Dynamic Self Defense – hence the name – but it doesn’t hurt that practitioners get a high-intensity workout at each class.
In New Albany, Dynamic Self Defense is taught at a Zarley Street studio presided over by Reynoldsburg resident Scott Mulhollen. The studio, which estimates about 75 percent of its students are New Albany residents, opened nine years ago; Dynamic Self Defense originates from the late 1990s in Atlanta.
The discipline is focused entirely on practicality. It takes techniques from a variety of other forms of combat, from traditional martial arts to modern military combatives, and eschews rituals and competitive techniques such as punching from the hip.
“We’re all about reality-based movements and responses,” Mulhollen says.
The idea is to instill in practitioners the best techniques for personal defense that fit his or her daily routine and limitations. It’s different from highly regimented, tournament-focused techniques that may lack real-world application, Mulhollen says.
“A father of three who travels all week and can’t hit the gym too much, or the mom who has a bad knee or is a little overweight – they’re going to find those curriculums not effective for them,” he says. “You don’t have to be highly athletic in order to protect yourself.”
Because there are no rule
s in a real-world physical encounter, Dynamic Self Defense does not shy away from eye gouges, knee strikes and similar attacks, and every drill imagines a multiple-attacker scenario.
“It’s looking past the immediate threat and your awareness of other potential threats that could come at you,” Mulhollen says.
Rotation is a key part of training, he says; the entire body is used during drills, so practitioners burn calories quickly in the process. Airshield drills improve power and strength, and chaos drills train the mind to be ready for quickly developing situations.
“It’s extremely intense, cardiovascular-wise,” says Mulhollen.
Mulhollen grew up on martial arts such as karate and taekwondo, but found them ineffective at fending off bullies. It wasn’t until he discovered Dynamic Self Defense at age 15 – he learned from discipline grandmaster Robert Lowery when Mulhollen was still living in Atlanta – that he found a down-to-earth technique that worked for him.
Like the students he now teaches, Mulhollen found the discipline made him feel empowered to defend himself against threats.
“When they come to my school, they feel strengthened,” he says.
Rugby
Given the ubiquity of such sport staples as soccer, football and lacrosse, many athletically-inclined students may not even think to explore the world of rugby.
New Albany resident Joel Bonnaud, who grew up playing rugby in France, aims to change that.
“Rugby is really growing here in the United States,” he says.
That means educating people on the rules of rugby – it’s more than just football without pads, he stresses – and on its widening appeal, as evidenced by the fact that rugby union, the traditional seven-on-seven form, will be an Olympic sport in 2016. He travels to local schools to talk to gym classes and drum up interest.
Bonnaud is the local youth development officer for Tiger Rugby, an academy that helps train players and, eventually, sends them to compete on regional, national and even international levels. He administers the central Ohio youth rugby program, a partnership between Tiger Rugby and Ohio Rugby that trains and plays on a field at Bevelhymer Park.
There are about 100 central Ohio children in grades 2-12 involved in the program coordinated by Bonnaud, with players making the transition from flag to contact in middle school.
At this level, players have the opportunity to play all positions, which means no standing around. There are no downs like in football, so players also have to be quick to get back to their feet and catch up.
“In all the levels, starting with th
e kids, you run a lot,” says Bonnaud.
Having players at all positions also forces them to be capable of every skill the sport throws at them – running, tackling and throwing, plus the technical aspects. To prevent injury, players are given intensive instruction on blocking and tackling; no hitting a player who doesn’t have the ball, no hitting above the shoulder level, no tackling out of the air or without wrapping the arms around the tackled player, and making sure to properly position the head and shoulder.
Rugby provides an option for children who have yet to find a sport that appeals to them or who are just beginning to enter the world of organized sports, Bonnaud says.
“Some kids will burn out on the other sports’ schedules, or they can’t find an interest in (one),” he says.
Sign-up information can be found on the Rugby Ohio website, www.rugbyohio.com.
Garth Bishop is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
