Tag: OutdoorRecreation

You often hear people say, “there’s something in” Clemson’s hills, but there’s also something in its streams. That’s where you’ll find groups of Clemson University students casting flies when the weather’s right.

Mike Watts has been teaching fly fishing as part of the university’s leisure skills program for about 15 years, and estimates he’s taught about 800 students to tie flies, cast a fly rod and understand the ecosystem where the fish they’re hoping to catch thrive.

“Our classes are about fly fishing made simple, but also about the environment that supports the fish and why that’s important,” Watts says. “We also take the time to talk about conservation of our natural habitats and why that matters.”

Fly fishing is one of more than 150 one-credit learning options students can take in subjects such as dance, shotgun sports, yoga, fitness, outdoor recreation, sports and first aid. Class sections are taught by experts in each respective field and coordinated by Clemson’s parks, recreation and tourism management department, which applies a research focus to course development and management.

Students take a leisure skills class for a number of reasons, such as introducing themselves to new activities, or exploring potential new hobbies or career options. Fly fishing is one of the program’s most popular class options.

Eleven years ago, the fly fishing class started growing exponentially, so Watts brought on another instructor to meet the demand. Watts and Mike Harvell have been splitting fly fishing classes ever since. Harvell has been fishing since 1960 and says that teaching the class has helped him continue to share his passion for the hobby with others.

“I’ve always liked fishing,” Harvell says. “I learn new things every time I go out, and I like seeing our students experience that, too.”

Classes are taught using the philosophy that the fisherman that only enjoys the catching of the fish is a miserable person 90 percent of the time.

“The point of fly fishing is partly to catch a fish, but it also helps you build an understanding of what fish eat and how that relates to different flies,” says Watts. “You need to know the natural environment to successfully catch a fish and would do it differently if you’re trout fishing in the mountains or salt water fishing on the coast.”

After their leisure skills class ends, many students keep fishing through the CU Fly Fishing Club, with about two-thirds of them becoming members or participating in club events and many more following them on their Instagram account, which has more than 1,200 followers. The group plans group fishing expeditions and shares photos of successful catches by its members. The club was founded by Watts and former student Robert DiBenedetto, who found his passion for fly fishing is also furthering his career.

“My first job interview centered around my leadership of the CU Fly Fishing Club and got me a job in the United States House of Representatives,” DiBenedetto says. “I also just formed a new relationship with a prominent businessman because of our mutual love for fly fishing and my background with the fly fishing class and club at Clemson.”

Another of their former students, Sam Caruso, who graduated from Clemson University with a Bioengineering degree in 2015, says that the weekly classes were an opportunity to break away from the rush to complete their degree by giving them something else to focus on.

“The best part, however, is the continual growth and connection that takes place after the course,” says Caruso, who’s kept in touch with Watts long after his class ended.

Dan Anderson, who runs the leisure skills program, says that Watts and Harvell have found a unicorn of sorts on campus.

“Creating a huge fly fishing community on campus from scratch and then keeping the student club going through leadership changes every couple of years is a major achievement,” Anderson says. “Their ongoing work with these classes and that club demonstrates the passion they have for the students and the sport.”

Information about Clemson University’s leisure skills classes are available in the undergraduate catalog.

Emily Whitaker Poetz, a mother of three in Clemson, South Carolina, is among millions of parents dusting off their lawn chairs and preparing to enroll their children in sports programs in their community this spring.

About 71.8% of youth between the ages of 6 and 12 participated in youth sports programs in 2018. Poetz says she’s had only positive experiences with the programs in her area, which allow her kids to explore different athletic options.

“We don’t let even my sport-crazy kid specialize in just one sport,” she says. “Instead, we make sure he takes breaks so he isn’t playing something continuously all year.”

Poetz also looks for other ways for her children to channel their energy throughout the year, such as enrolling one of her sons in a private training program to teach him how to work out safely with the experts.

Although Poetz’s experiences have been largely positive, other parents may find themselves navigating other issues on the sidelines, such as dealing with overbearing parents or preventing sports overuse injuries.

Dr. Skye Arthur-Banning of Clemson University’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management department wrote a book to help parents navigate some of these challenges. Called Youth Sports in America: The Most Important Issues in Youth Sports Today, it provides an expert’s perspective on 37 different issues parents may face in a sporting environment.

Because some of the issues in the book fall outside his area of expertise, Arthur-Banning assembled a team of academics and practitioners throughout the country to write about specific topics. An M.D., for example, wrote a chapter on concussions. References are provided at the end of each chapter for further reading.

“The book was written for parents, coaches and administrators and tries to address questions each may have, such as the benefits of playing on an organized team, pay to play, and how to prevent or protect a child from being pressured into playing with an injury,” he says. “This is a guidebook that can help them whether they’re on the sidelines or volunteering as a parent-coach.”

Banning brings a unique perspective to these issues. He researches and teaches amateur sport by day, officiates soccer games on his evening and weekends, and watches his two young daughters play community athletics on weekday evenings.

His advice to parents with concerns about how team sports are being managed is to pay attention to what your child tells you about their experience, and to talk to your local parks and recreation department when issues start to feel out of control.

“Community recreation is there to help children explore healthy activity and encourage teamwork and cooperation,” he says. “Parks and recreation managers want to make sure that children are playing in a safe and supportive environment, so don’t be afraid to talk through concerns with them.”

###

If you’re headed to the 5^th annual Clemson Community Play Day at Nettles Park this Saturday, you’re likely to see several Clemson Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) students and Clemson Outdoor Lab staff on the job.

Clemson’s Community Play Day is a large community event that attracts several hundred people every year, and is organized through a partnership between the US Play Coalition and the City of Clemson. The event is free and encourages families to get up, get out and go play with several fun activities and games, including inflatables and crafts. This year’s event is on Saturday, September 14 between 11 am to 2 pm.

More than 40 PRTM students are volunteering at this year’s event, as part of their learning requirement for either the department’s EDGE undergraduate program or a course in Advanced Program Planning. Their roles include operating the registration area, helping to lead activity stations, and assisting with the event’s set up and take down.

According to Stephanie Garst, Executive Director of the US Play Coalition, having students fill on-site roles at the event is critical to the day’s success. Students also gain an on-the-job perspective of what goes into planning and implementing a large, family-friendly, outdoor event.

“Helping with Clemson’s Community Play Day gives our students more of an understanding of what needs to be considered when implementing an event of this size and scope,” she says. “There are so many factors that come into play, from accessibility and inclusion to risk management and safety.  We hope that everyone who wants to attend our Play Day is able to explore different types of play while they are with us.”

After the event, students write a reflective paper about their volunteer experience, including what they learned and how it connected to what they have learned in the classroom.

“Volunteering for events such as Clemson Community Play Day offers students meaningful examples of the principles they are learning through lectures,” says Assistant Professor Dr. Harrison Pinckney, who teaches the Advanced Program Planning class. “The reflective papers students are asked to write after they volunteer brings their practical and academic experiences together into applied learning.”

PRTM EDGE Coordinator and Senior Lecturer Dr. Teresa Tucker adds that these types of volunteer experiences are also central to the innovative, immersive experience the EDGE program creates for sophomore students, taking a collaborative approach to delivering core parks, recreation and tourism management content.

“We supplement all of our classroom content with applied experiences that give students insight into a concept as both a learner and a future professional,” she says. “This type of experience gives us an opportunity to discuss as a group how they might manage working with volunteers in the future – knowledge that they are likely to draw on when they start working in the parks, recreation and tourism fields.”

###

Clemson Community Play Day is offered every year through a partnership between the US Play Coalition and the City of Clemson’s Parks and Recreation department, with support from Clemson University’s Outdoor Lab.

Visit the Clemson Community Play Day Facebook page for details about Saturday’s event.

Scuba divers never dive alone. A diving buddy is needed to make sure the diver is able to get out of the water quickly and safely, if the unexpected happens. Robbie Bogan, owner of Upstate Scuba in Clemson, says that same general rule also applies to running a successful business.

Robbie’s buddy? The Leisure Skills program managed by Clemson’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management department, which helped him build and grow Upstate Scuba, a local scuba diving business that trains divers in more than nine counties throughout South Carolina and parts of Georgia.

Robbie, who’s been teaching a scuba diving course for the program since 2004, has always had a passion for diving and rescue.

“I started diving as a child, and worked as a firefighter for several years,” he says. “one of the areas I always wanted to explore was rescue diving – applying my scuba experience to underwater rescue and training others to do it too.”

On a trip to Clemson in 2004 and after discussions with people in the community, he realized the area had everything he needed to start a scuba diving business. There were no existing options to learn how to scuba dive in the region, giving him an untapped market.

Most importantly, says Clemson’s Leisure Skills program Director and Senior Lecturer Dan Anderson, a local scuba diving training option didn’t exist for Clemson University students who may need certification to build their careers, such as for some jobs in marine biology.

“When we spoke with Robbie, we saw an opportunity to help our students earn a certification that was otherwise locally unavailable,” he continued. “Scuba diving is a perfect fit for our Leisure Skills program, which helps Clemson students learn new skills, get more involved on campus and broaden their network opportunities.”

Students take leisure skills program for a number of reasons, including introducing themselves to new activities, and potential new hobbies or career options. More than 150 one-credit learning options were offered last spring in subjects such as dance, shotgun sports, yoga, fitness, outdoor recreation, sports and first aid. Class sections are taught by experts in the field, like Robbie.

The Leisure Skills scuba diving course teaches basic open water diving techniques and helps students gain the knowledge they need to meet requirements of an open water diving certification. Students take four classes to learn the basics of open water diving and practice what they’ve learned in three pool sessions.

At the end of the course, students are required to pass a swim test for certification by an internationally recognized and accepted certifying agency. The test requires them to complete three dives one day and two the next. When they pass the swim test, students earn one credit towards their undergraduate degree at Clemson University, while also gaining an international certification that they can use to dive anywhere in the world.

Students can maintain that certification for life, says Robbie.

“All they need to do to maintain their certification is to keep a log of their dives,” he says. “If they complete and record two dives per year, they keep their certification. If they don’t complete their dives, they have the option of taking a half-day update class to get them back up to speed and get re-certified.”

Robbie says that after starting to work with Leisure Skills to train Clemson students, he’s never looked back. His business continues to grow, having certified more than 3,000 students over the past 15 years, and is able to offer rescue diving training to first responders.

He credits his success to Clemson University.

“We’re now making a huge impact in the region by building underwater rescue capacity, but if it weren’t for the university’s leisure skills program, we wouldn’t be doing this,” he says. “The impact of the Leisure Skills program on my small business and so many others has impacted the Clemson community in ways that they may not even realize. We’re very fortunate and appreciative.”

He also says that the program helps people in more fields than you would originally expect.

“We’re seeing scuba diving being used in a number of different professions, such as for engineers doing underwater bridge inspectors, or even astronauts, as being underwater can mimic the experience of being in space,” he says. “Some of our former students have even become rescue divers themselves. Even if they don’t ever need to actually rescue anyone, the peace of mind knowing they’re ready to help is huge.”

***

Clemson’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management department employs experts in leisure studies and outdoor recreation. Learn more about its Leisure Skills program.

Raquel Simpson started playing golf in Illinois when she was 9 years old.

She’d been playing for a few years when she caught the attention of Tiffany Fitzgerald, founder and CEO of Black Girls Golf LLC. Fitzgerald told Raquel’s father about an opportunity to improve her golf game and learn more about the industry through a summer scholars program she was developing with Clemson University.

Two years later, Raquel was practicing her swing on Clemson’s campus.

“When I found out about the Clemson opportunity, I was really excited about the chance to be around people who both look like me and play the same sport as I do,” says Raquel. “My Dad signed me up and now I’m here, and everything is going really well.”

Raquel is one of fifteen African American high school students who improved their golf game and learned about golf management through Clemson University’s PGA Golf Management Summer Scholars program, run in partnership with Fitzgerald’s organization. The program began in 2017 to foster increased diversity in the golf industry, and to help students see they’re not alone in their love of the sport.

“We’ve created a safe space and environment where these girls can show up knowing they are welcome and don’t feel like they need to prove that they belong,” says Fitzgerald. “It warms my heart to know they’re creating new friends and bonding with people who have a shared experience.”

Students also spend the week learning the many benefits the game can offer them outside of physical activity. Classes students take between training sessions cover career paths, industry trends and opportunities, business planning, golf instruction and player development programs.

“The program is more than just golf, because we want these students to consider turning their passion for the sport into a management career in the golf industry,” says Rick Lucas, director of the PGA golf management program and senior lecturer in Clemson’s parks, recreation and tourism management department. “Teaching them key business skills, such as business planning and customer relations, can help them get a feel for managing and running a golf facility and how to work in the golf environment.”

Before they’re accepted into the program, students are required to demonstrate high academic achievement, as well as golf ability. Many of the students in this year’s program have GPAs over 3.5.

As awareness of the program grows, Fitzgerald says more applications are being seen from students across the country.

“We received 50 applications this year from girls as far away as California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, which demonstrates the need for this type of program throughout the United States,” says Fitzgerald. “The sweet spot for our camps is 10 participants at a time, which means that one of the vital pieces moving forward is going to be finding the resources and funding to continue to grow.”

Students receive scholarships from ONE Clemson to attend the program. After taking the program and seeing what Clemson has to offer, some of the students are expressing interest in pursuing their higher education at Clemson University. Additional scholarship support is now needed to help those students achieve that goal.

“These are exceptional students that have the potential to achieve great things in the golf industry if we can find them scholarship support,” says Lucas. “These students have already demonstrated they’re the best of the best, and we want them here at Clemson.”

If you would like to contribute to the Black Girls Golf program or fund a scholarship for one of these scholars to attend Clemson University’s PGA Golf Management program, please contact Rick Lucas at rlucas@clemson.edu.

Related: Clemson promotes diversity through golf camp for African-American girls (Clemson Newsstand, June 19, 2017)

Research on First Day Hike Participants Examines Hiker Motivations

Kristen Grissom enjoys the peacefulness that comes with long walks in remote places. An avid hiker, she can often be found on the trails several days a week after work and on weekends.

“I enjoy the freedom of it and the feeling of satisfaction after spending a day in the woods and conquering a difficult trail,” Kristen says. “My family does not enjoy hiking though, so I go on my own or with friends, if possible.”

Kristen is among 45 million Americans aged six and older that went hiking last year, with per capita participation increasing steadily over the past decade. Day hiking is consistently ranked as one of the most popular recreation activities in the United States for adults and children, making it an important marketing and management consideration for local, state, and national parks. However, although we know people enjoy the act of hiking, we know less about why they choose to hike, particularly among different sociodemographic groups.

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Clemson University recently conducted a research project to find out who hikes, why, and how those motivations might vary among different groups of people. Results were recently published in the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration.

“Most of the research we have seen to date has focused on the environmental impacts of hikers and visitor use management along trails,” says Sarah Wilcer, interpretive park ranger at Grand Teton National Park, who led this research project while earning her master’s degree at Clemson University. “Few studies have focused specifically on the motivations of hikers – what gets them out, how they decide where to go, and who they prefer to hike with, even though these are important resource management and marketing considerations for park leaders.”

The study focused on First Day Hikes on January 1, 2016, in three state park systems that were among the top 10 in terms of the total number of first day hikers in 2016: Georgia, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. Before they started their hike, adult park visitors were asked to complete a questionnaire that asked if it was their first hike or first experience at a park site, the size of their group and who they were with, and why they chose that specific hike. Respondents were also asked to provide their zip code to gauge the distance travelled to the park.

In all, the study sampled a total of 114 first day hikes, with group sizes ranging from 2 people to more than 300 participants on the most crowded hikes, and about two-thirds of the hikes taken were classified as “easy” by hike leaders. About 60% of respondents were participants on their first-ever First Day Hike, though almost all of them had already been on other hiking experiences. The majority of respondents also identified as Caucasian and were highly educated.

Overall findings demonstrated that different groups of people do, in fact, hike for different reasons. First time hikers, for example, were more likely to hike to try something new, while older participants were more likely to hike for exercise. Groups with children wanted to spend time together. The most popular reason, however, was to enjoy time in nature.

Other motivations included the uniqueness of the day and hike location. For example, female hikers were more likely than male hikers to be motivated to hike by the First Day Hike event, and close hikes were also preferred destinations for those coming to celebrate the New Year. Hikers choosing moderate or strenuous hikes further from home, however, were more likely to be motivated by trying something new.

“Our results show that different groups of hikers are seeking different types of recreation experiences, which provides valuable insight to park managers creating trails or marketing opportunities,” says Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University. “If managers know who is using their trails and how far they are traveling to reach them, they can influence use patterns or create new trails with hikers’ needs in mind.”

The group is considering future research to build on the study results. “The study’s findings demonstrate that park managers can market and manage day hikes as a way to improve health, strengthen social bonds, connect with nature, and learn and experience new things in novel settings, but there’s much more we can learn about underrepresented groups,” said Jeff Hallo, Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator for Clemson University’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management department. “This research serves as a base we can build on to explore and contrast motivations of other groups, including those who may not have been on a hike yet, but would consider it.” Faculty at Clemson University are currently seeking graduate students – both in their online and on-campus M.S. and Ph.D. programs – to study and explore these topics and other current issues in park management.