It’s a Wednesday night, and a crowd of students enters the Ramsey Center. Some girls are going to basketball practice, some guys to play racquetball and several others are headed to the weight room.

In the crowd is Nick Adams, a senior from Austell. He knows that he isn’t going to be lifting, shooting, or swinging a racquet.

Adams is the leader of the University Kashima Shinryu club team. While the students around him go their separate ways, he heads to the third floor martial arts room where around a dozen people gather each Monday and Wednesday night. For the next two hours, he and his peers will engage in a variety of sword techniques and jujitsu, which incorporates on joint manipulation, throws and punches.

Focusing on swordplay and unarmed self-defense, Kashima Shinryu is an ancient form of martial arts that has never been changed to allow for scoring or friendly competition.

The University presents a rare opportunity by offering the program. According to Adams, the only two other universities in the country where one can learn this are UCLA and Montana State University.

“My favorite part is the fact that we are able to practice a practically undiluted art in its original form,” Adams said. “The skill sets that we’re practicing are the same things that were practiced hundreds of years ago and made for explicit combat purposes.”

There are two types of swords students practice with – a bokuto, which is made of wood, and a fukuro shinai, which is composed of bamboo shoots wrapped in leather.

During practice, the members of the club separate into pairs and practice attacking and defending different sets of techniques.

“The feeling that you get when you swing a sword is not something many people get to experience,” said Carter Scott, a freshman from Suwanee. “It’s really fun.”

The remainder of the meeting focuses on the rolls, throws, and punches of jujitsu, with the club members practicing and countering attacks without a weapon.

“Jujitsu is very much like fighting with a sword, but you just don’t have one with you.” said Joshua Rutsohn, a senior from Augusta.

As intense as it sounds, no experience is needed to join the club.

“I didn’t have any previous martial arts background,” Scott said. “Ramsey had a list of clubs, and I saw it on the list. I checked it out and have enjoyed every minute of it.”