Sport & Fitness

Battodo
If you’re searching for a martial art with real cut and thrust (or simply want to hit people with sticks), Marcello Zizzari’s battodo Japanese sword class is the workout for you. Beginners are welcome at the Saturday afternoon session at Islington Arts Factory (it costs £5 for an introductory class then £40 fo`r six weeks), where the skill of swinging a heavy sword, stance, sheathing and cutting movements are first practised with wooden weapons and poles. Then it’s on to the real thing…
Islington Arts Factory, 2 Parkhurst Rd, N7 (020 7704 6796/www.battodo-fudokan. co.uk) Highbury & Islington tube/rail.

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British Military Fitness
Join the recruits for a workout in the park without music, machines or Lycra. A typical session includes running relays, team games and circuit-training exercises, graded according to ability. Current venues are Battersea Park, Bushy Park, Canary Wharf, Clapham Common, Finsbury Park, Greenwich Park, Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park, Wandsworth Common and Wimbledon Park. Two classes a week costs £43 a month plus a £50 joining fee, or you can buy blocks of sessions. Atten-shun! British Military Fitness (020 7751 9742/ www.britmilfit.com). Disc golfThe principle of disc golf is the same as the sport’s more conservative version apart from – you guessed it – replacing the ball with a Frisbee, which is thrown into specially designed baskets or at natural objects such as trees. Elthorne Park in Boston Manor and Greenford’s Ravenor Park are both popular with Frisbyterians, who even play on a British Disc Golf Association national tour.
British Disc Golf Association (contact Richard Sampson 020 8568 4441/ www.discgolf.co.uk).

Dragon Boat racing - unusual and sociable

Dragon Boat racing
Based at the London Regatta Centre at Royal Albert Dock, the Thames Dragons crew a 20-seat boat with an ornately carved head in lung-bursting 500-metre races or occasionally over longer distances such as the 22-mile Great River Race. It’s an unusual, sociable sport, with training every Thursday and Tuesday from 7pm, and events around the country on most summer weekends. The Dragons are among the UK’s top clubs but still need some more paddlers, including beginners. London Regatta Centre, Royal Albert Dock, Dockside Rd, E16 (07801 232828/www. thamesdragons.com) Royal Albert DLR.

In-line skating
Get your wheels moving in the same direction with a drop-in beginners’ class from Skatefresh. All the basics are covered in the 90-minute sessions (£15 each), which run on Saturday and Sunday from 1pm, plus stride technique, hills and turns. Check out the website for details of workshops for skaters of all standards.
Skatefresh meeting point, Serpentine Rd (east end), Hyde Park, SW1 (www.skatefresh.com) Hyde Park Corner tube.