The Radboud Sports Centre attracts almost as many students as before the covid crisis. Some measures taken during the pandemic, such as reserving a spot in the gym, are still in place. Not all students are happy with that: some would prefer to work out spontaneously.

The sports centre is busy as ever now that the latest covid restrictions are almost a year behind us. Business administration student Isah Huijbregts has also noticed this. ‘You really have to claim your spot in the gym, otherwise you won’t get in’, she says in one of the sports rooms on the Heyendaalseweg.

Huijbregts started studying during covid and remembers it being less crowded back then: ‘I do remember that some treadmills were turned off, it was much quieter.’

That is different now. Moreover, with the introduction of a reservation system for fitness, students have to plan carefully when they want to exercise. The same has been true for group classes for some time: some members of the Radboud Sports Centre (RSC) even set an alarm clock to be the first to reserve a spot online.

Reservation system

At the moment, the RSC has some 17,000 members. ‘We are back at 94 per cent of the students at Radboud University that we had before covid’, says department head Joris Hermans. ‘Due to covid, sports and other physical activities among young people declined nationwide. We are very happy things are starting to get picked up again. But we do have to work hard for that – during the first week after the break, we started presenting ourselves in all buildings on campus.’

Some things that were introduced during covid are still in place. For instance, some group classes can still be attended digitally (from home) and outdoor fitness is also still possible. But as with indoor fitness, a time slot must be reserved.

‘That way we can control the influx’, says Hermans. ‘That is convenient: by spreading out, people are ensured of a nice and safe place to practice sports. After all, not everyone can always exercise at the same time because of peak traffic. So this way, we try to avoid extreme peaks and avoid people showing up for nothing. Moreover, we monitor the crowds.’

Unregulated

According to some students, it can still get busy in the RSC during certain time slots. ‘Sometimes it takes a while before a fitness machine is available’, Martijn Hendriks notes. He is a member of Profectus, the student strength sports association. ‘Profectus has hours during which you can work out  without being interrupted, that is the only day of the week that you don’t feel rushed.’ According to him, the solution is expanding the sports centre’s capacity. If that is not an option, he at least hopes that the reservation system will be abolished.

‘Unfortunately, there is no room for a larger sports centre’

But Hermans has to disappoint him: that system is here to stay. He points to an aerial photo of the campus hanging on the wall. ‘And there is really no room for a larger sports centre, unfortunately. Besides, that does not constitute a sustainable solution’, he says. The department head prefers to focus on collaborations with sports clubs in the vicinity of the RSC. For instance, FC Kunde has been playing football on Union’s football pitches for a while now. For the new, popular sport padel, the department head is looking for similar collaborations. ‘We don’t necessarily need to build to get people doing sports’, Hermans said.

Hermans wants  to get other places on campus more involved with the sports centre. Think of, for example, the volleyball court next to the Spinoza building, where students and staff can play sports themselves. The idea of a running track across the university grounds is also currently being worked out. ‘People can then go for a walk or run during their break. And how nice would it be if students were playing frisbee on the lawn near the Maria Montessori building? As a sports centre, we can provide the equipment for that.’

Translated by Jan Scholten