Your Favourite Pastime Competition

Tell us all about your favourite activity, group, club, class or any pastime and we'll feature you on our new website, www.whatson4me.co.uk.  And we'll pick one particularly inspiring, funny or interesting entry to win £100 of leisure vouchers on 1st September 2010.  Your entry can be anonymous but we will need your email address if you want to enter the competition so we can contact you if you have won! You can enter as many times as you like telling us about a different pastime for each entry.

Some examples!

"I go to Netball training on a Tuesday evening (8-9.30pm). I'm not in the team but train with the others who are on the local team, and they are extremely fit and train hard. Some of them even play on the rugby team too - so that's the standard of fitness they aim for whilst we are all training! The core fitness training involves repetition exercises such as sit-ups whilst passing the ball to each other, or running backwards (back-pedalling) then forwards over short distances - these are killers!! Then the cardio fitness involves running around the court, zigzagging through the court, running whilst ball passing, star-jumps (make sure to go to the loo before-hand ladies!), side stepping, etc. Then there's time for a twenty minute game at the end. Its brilliant fun, you're always guaranteed to be belly-laughing at something - and a great way to keep fit!"  Marilyn, County Durham

"I was a member of my local Judo Club as a boy from the age of 7 to about 15 and loved every minute of it until I found the appeal of socialising and girls as a young teen! My own children started with the very same Judo Club over a year ago now and I found that sitting and watching was great, but I really wanted to get up and get involved. When the coaches told me that they ran a seniors class after the kids finished nothing was going to stop me from joining in. It was hard at first, my fitness levels were not at their best and it became apparent that I could not just start where I left off, but I improved in time and have just competed in the International Budo Federation Multi Nation Championships. I now help out with all of the childrens' sessions from 6 year olds to young adults and thoroughly enjoy it and when they're sessions are finished I'm taught myself with the other adults by the very same coach that taught me all those years ago."  Jamie, Kent

"I really enjoy playing tennis with my sister. It's great fun and a good way to catch up with each other as we both have busy lives. We joined our local health club and try to play at least once a week. We use the indoor courts so even if it's raining, there is no excuse! It's a fun way of keeping in shape and the more we play, the better we get although I don't think you'll see us at Wimbledon any time soon!"  Sarah, Hampshire

"I wanted to join an exercise class but wanted to try something different so I went along to a taster session for hula hooping! We laughed our way through the hour as we tried different moves with the hoop. It was hard work but great fun so we all signed up for a 10 week course. Each week we learn a different routine which involves spinning the hoop in all sorts of different ways and learning tricks. The hoop doesn’t always do what you want it to but after a bit of practise it all falls into place and everyone encourages each other. We always leave the lesson feeling like we have had a great workout and look forward to what next week will bring!"  Mel, Hampshire

"I've just started going to Body Combat classes again after 4 years and love them!  They involved boxing and martial arts moves to great music.  They are fun, hardwork and less 'girlie' than a lot of aerobic classes.  They say that you burn 1200 calories if you do the moves properly, am not sure about that but they do make you sweat a lot!  I go to a local martial arts centre for the classes and you do them in bare feet on a padded floor which is an odd experience to start with but quite liberating to do a high impact class with no trainers on."  Sam, Hampshire

"Gardening in general I'm not that keen on but I love growing veg! It's a really escape from my every day life and watching those little seeds turn into plants still thrills me. I have a small green house and plant about 6 different types seeds in April/May. I plant them out in May/June into small vegetable beds (about 6ft x 2ft) and then watch the veg develop. My faves are courgettes! I check on the plants every day for a bit of watering, feeding and weeding but they do tend to look after themselves. I'm having a go at a blight resistent tomato variety this year as I've struggled in the past with this problem."  Sam, Hampshire