Things To Do In Marion

A golf training ground with indoor and outdoor practice facilities, Woods to Wedges invites club-wielding trainees to shore up unstable swings year round. Aspiring aces can tame disobedient drives with a private 45-minute lesson from PGA instructor Tim Chrzan, who scares off unwelcome slices and snap-hooks with an incisive understanding of swing mechanics and a gunny sack of golf balls painted like eyeballs. Those bearing a punch card for 10 buckets of range balls reap 115 dimpled orbs during each session, each of which obediently prostrates itself at the spiked feet of its master before lifting off into the stratus. Punch-card sessions can be used at one of Woods to Wedges' two indoor hitting bays or at the outdoor range, where all-grass tees emulate natural course conditions and help break pathological nine-irons from their irrational fear of dirt. Woods to Wedges rounds out its all-encompassing practice facilities with a practice sand trap, an indoor putting green, and video swing-analysis technology during instruction.

An organization of coaches with years of experience studying the game, Breakthrough Basketball teaches clinics for aspiring young ballers. With five 90-minute sessions, students will drill on dribbling and footwork concepts until they double-pivot in their sleep and perform hook shots while bowling. Burgeoning ball-handling skills are nurtured as players learn fundamental techniques—such as post footwork, perimeter footwork, shooting, and scoring off the dribble—through repetition and intense instruction. At no time do Breakthrough Basketball's lessons break into 5-on-5 games or senior bridge tournaments. Clinics will be held at Anamosa school gyms, and separate classes are held for children aged 7 to 10 and those 11 or older.

Anytime Fitness, which boasts more than 1,800 clubs in North America, makes it easier for average folks to etch out time for exercise by doing one simple thing: staying open 24 hours a day for 365 days a year. As fitness seekers challenge themselves on cardio and Hammer Strength machines and hoist Iron Grip free weights in clean, well-stocked facilities, security monitoring ensures they’re safe and producing enough sweat to meet official government standards. Members can also ramp up their exercise regimens with the help of Anytime Fitness’s staff of personal trainers, who demonstrate moves and sling motivating tips. After workouts, guests can shower in the private restrooms or hop into one of the tanning booths available 24 hours a day.

Like joining the Army with a Get Out of Army Free card in your back pocket, the Squaw Creek Army Challenge pits mud-caked combatants against the same obstacle courses used to condition and train modern soldiers. Designed by Army officers still on active duty, the race covers over three miles of treacherous terrain where contestants run, walk, and slither to the finish line. Mixing physical and mental challenges, the fun run creates team camaraderie and obliterates recent mani-pedi work, and ends with awards for the top males, females, couples, and teams.

Cleaved through a dense forest of trees within Wapsipinicon State Park and situated along a bend in the river of the same name, the park’s nine-hole golf course awaits golfers of all skill levels. The course stretches to 3,187 yards, challenging players with tight fairways lined by dense foliage. The history-steeped course opened in 1923, and its clubhouse followed a year later, built entirely by prison labor with rock from the river bluffs, white-oak logs hauled by horse-drawn bobsleds, and a fireplace made with the world's only fireproof stones.

ActivEdge Fitness Club's experienced fitness gurus shepherd clients toward a tighter body with two stories worth of cardio and weight equipment, an ample number of group classes, a basketball court, and a 25-meter lap pool. Gain a better understanding of your overall well-being with a health screen, a preliminary fitness assessment that utilizes resistance and balance tests, optional body-fat measurements, and a trainer consultation to calculate an individualized plan for achieving physical goals. Then guests can put their plans into action by piloting more than 50 cardio machines in workout zones equipped with several flat-screen televisions. A variety of group classes, which include Kardio Kickboxing and the pool-based Nautical Noodles, confuse muscles much more effectively than performing a triathlon in zero gravity or telling sinews they were adopted. While adults enjoy postworkout tanning, the kids' club's mini basketball court lets active little ones exercise away pent-up energy and mimic legendary video-game character Michael Jordan.