Sport Activities At HSE
There is a variety of sport activities at HSE. It may be difficult to explore all of the school's sports-related social media. We have already written about sport at HSE in brief. Today we would like to share with you some interviews with people who know everything about HSE sport.
HSE Chess Club
Alexey Kachur, a third year student of World Economy, the manager of HSE Chess Club answeres our questions.
I’m the manager of the HSE Chess Club. I am in charge of preparing the materials to be published on our social media. E.g., news, chess puzzles, etc. I give assignments to our SMM managers and they make content on the topics given. I also do the scheduling and organize our classes and tournaments.
In general, our activity is aimed at popularizing chess both inside and outside our university. Right now, we have online classes, because not all members of our team have yet been able to get to Moscow. In these classes, we analyze openings, solve chess problems, and sometimes the guys conduct game sessions if they wish.
In addition to classes, we’ve started holding tournaments offline, since HSE has lifted restrictions on meetings of student organizations. We’ve already held one prize tournament, and now we’re running a series of tournaments every Saturday, based on the results of which, at the end of the module, the 3 most successful participants will receive awards.
Anyone can participate in the tournaments, even non-students, the only thing that is needed is for those who don’t study at our university, indicate their passport details in order to be allowed to pass by the guard.
Also, we’re active in our group on VK, where we publish news and facts from the world of chess, so that our subscribers learn something new and get interested in this wonderful game.
Of course, we welcome students from other countries. For them, we publish announcements of events, news or links to lessons both in Russian and in English, so that foreigners don’t feel the language barrier and can perceive information in the language in which they’re comfortable.
But so far, our classes are carried out only in Russian. I mean, we have such an opportunity, there’s a person who can easily do simultaneous translation into English. However, now there are only Russian-speaking students in the club, so we stopped translating classes for a while. But if there are guys who need a translation, we can easily do it, all the conditions for this are there.
Classes are usually held on Thursdays once a week at 6 pm. In the morning, we publish the announcement of this event and 5 minutes before class we post the link to the conference in Zoom.
As I’ve mentioned before, we also hold tournaments every Saturday at 4 pm at Bolshoi Trokhsvyatitelsky lane, 3 (Moscow). This is the Faculty of Law. Our inventory is designed for a maximum of 14 people, but we plan to increase this number in the future.
We have no restrictions on the level of play. We have both those who play at a fairly good level and have grades, as well as those who have recently learned what chess is and how to play it. We welcome people of any level of play and make no distinction on this basis.
If you have questions about participating in interuniversity tournaments, you need to text to Shavarsh Badalyan, because he’s the captain of our team, he recruits to the team. And for all other questions that relate to the activities of our club, it’s better to contact me.
Football League
Let us talk to Ruslan Gaynutdinov, a first year student, the head of Organizing Committee of the Football League.
Since 1996, we’ve been hosting the traditional HSE football championship. HSE now has 4 football leagues, which are organized according to the player's level. Any student, both a graduate of a sports school and a beginner, will be able to find a team and a league according to their level.
We’re as open as possible to foreign students, since the language of football is international. For a long time, a team of international students from ESN played at HSE, but due to the pandemic, the team temporarily suspended its activities. I hope that when foreign students return to Moscow, the team will start training again.
A student has to post their candidacy in the special topics for discussion in VK describing their experience. The captains will quickly invite you to training.
Championship games are held on Sundays. Additionally, a team usually does one practice session on a weekday. The level of training can be any. Even if the student initially got into a strong team of guys who have extensive experience in football schools, usually the student quickly begins to navigate the level of the teams and finds a suitable one.
You can contact me.
Basketball League
Everything you wanted to know about Basketball is told by Dima Prokopyev, a Master's student of Strategic Management and Consulting, the head of Basketball League.
I’m the head of the basketball organization at HSE that includes about 20-25 people. Among my responsibilities there’s coming up with the concept of events, such as the All-Star Game, League, Championship. The Championship itself runs from October to May. I also do strategic work, search for partners, search for a hall, etc.
In general, our organization deals with all basketball activities at HSE, from holding the championship to training, covering national team matches, organizing friendly matches. On Saturdays, we gather everyone, regardless of age, gender, nationality, or HSE affiliation, and play in our hall.
There are some difficulties due to the language barrier, because all our resources are in Russian, but we had cases when some students contacted us, and we gave them the contacts of the team captains and the schedule, because everyone can speaks English. But still a problem is that we run VK, Instagram and TikTok in Russian. We don’t make an English version because there’s little demand from international students. In addition, the coach doesn’t speak a sufficient level of English to explain something in training, but the team will certainly prompt and help.
In the case of our international students, there is no clear outline. Our contacts are on various English-speaking student life resources. Sometimes students reach out to our community on VK, we always answer and try to work individually.
We run 2 open practice sessions per week for everyone interested. It’s for free. The one is held with a trainer on Fridays at 7 pm at Armenian Lane, 4. This is the building of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Psychologists, as far as I know. We spend another one on our own on Saturdays at Novozavodskaya, 27a. We make an announcement in VK, and the first 15 people who put a plus in the comments get to this training. In this hall we also hold closed Championships every Sunday.
You can come with absolutely any level of play, even if you see the ball for the first time. No one will laugh at anyone, the coach will explain everything, and you’ll train with pleasure.
You can contact me or any people who’re listed as contact persons in the group in VK.
Streetball League
Pavel Ivanov, the head of Streetball League is here to give you some information about streetball league.
I’m the head of the league, i.e. I’m the main founder, motivator, I make various strategic decisions; all the design and info posts are on me.
There are 3 founders and we call ourselves "3x3 Family". Therefore, we decided to share our love for this sport and are engaged in its popularization among students. Briefly, the differences between streetball and basketball, without going into technical details, is that streetball is a game of 3x3 players on a half court, whereas in basketball there are 5x5 players on a court. It’s important to note that in June 2017, the Olympic Committee added streetball to the Olympic Games roster.
We’re a young organization, we started to exist only in October 2020, but we already have a number of achievements. We’re actively sponsoring, negotiating with various large companies on mutually beneficial terms in order to create good conditions for our athletes and spectators.
We have absolutely no barriers for them to participate. We’ll be glad to every person regardless of their country of origin, the main thing is that they meet all the requirements for a sportsman. I mean not only physical fitness, but also personal qualities. They must be honest, respect the judges and organizers, so that we can trust each other.
Unfortunately, we don’t have streetball training on a regular basis yet. For our League, this is just the first season, everything happens in the demo mode: this time only 8 teams participate.
At the moment, it’s impossible to get into the season, because we have certain statistics for the further qualification of the teams. This season we played 3 games out of 5, there are only 2 left, so, unfortunately, there is no opportunity to join in right now. However, until the end of April, we are recruiting four new teams for the further seasons. Since we’re almost finishing this season and preparing for the next one, we want to change the format a bit to a more loyal one, so that anyone who wants to have the opportunity to join during the season.
The student doesn’t have to play like a pro, because we have players with different skill levels. The main thing is that they understand what streetball is and are motivated.
Aikido Sengenkan Club HSE-NES
Dmitry Belikov, a 4th year student of Double Degree Programme in Economics, HSE, the manager of Aikido Section talks about this sport activity.
I’ve been practicing Aikido for the 4th year already. In this section, I’m the manager, do the administrative work and oversee the organization and the visits of people. I’m also a senior student. This means, I teach newcomers technique and movements and help the coach.
That style of aikido, which we’re engaged in, it’s slightly different from everything that exists in the world, because in general 70% of the styles of aikido are just dances. This is absolutely not serious, and it’s not surprising that many people laugh at aikido. There are a little more serious and fighting styles, with us it’s probably the most applied. This is reflected in training, i.e. it can be tough and quite painful. Many leave after 2-3 sessions or a month. Therefore, this particular style of aikido develops self-discipline.
Our classes are held in English, so we’re for sure open to foreign students. We had a lot of them, more than two dozen, as I remember. Kevin Cansellaro is our coach. He left America as a Marine at the age of 17, then lived in Japan for 12 years and taught aikido from one of the best sensei. He’s been to many countries and knows many languages.
Classes are held every Tuesday and Thursday from 8 to 10 pm. We accept all newbies. Rarely do people with experience in aikido come. I mean, they came several times and then quickly left, because we are different from what they studied before. Therefore, even better, if there’s no experience at all, it’ll be easier for them to learn.
Extreme Sports Club
Harry Rutberg, an HSE graduate, the head of Streetball League is here to answer our questions.
I’m a graduate of the HSE and one of the directors of the Extreme Sports Club. There are also some students and alumni lead different areas of the Club's activities.
There is rock climbing, there are water, hiking and mountain sports tourism, there even sightseeing sports, where we walk a lot and explore Moscow. We pay special attention to snowboarding and alpine skiing. There are classes with both instructors, and general joint trips and camping.
In addition, beginning in the fall of 2000, Tourist Rally has been one of the favorite traditions of the HSE. The rally has a special atmosphere. There are campfire songs not only with a guitar, but also with an accordion or percussion instruments. Everyone who comes to the rally for the first time or is a regular is welcome here.
XXXIII Interuniversity Open Tourist Rally of Friends of the HSE will take place on May 29-30, 2021. Everyone is welcome!
XXXIII Interuniversity Open Tourist Rally of Friends of the HSE will take place on May 29-30, 2021.
We have any opportunities for training and foreign students are always welcome. They participate in tours and many other activities.
It’s easy to become a member. Just send a message in any language to the group in VK, and the member of the Club responsible for the corresponding will answer.
We have quite free schedule that is set for the participants individually or for a group. The background of a student can be absolutely anything. It’ll be interesting for both beginners and advanced sportsmen. One of the goals is to get any student involved in sports and an active lifestyle.
There are many ways to get involved in sports at HSE. Among those offered, there should definitely be something that suits you!
