Combining a law degree with top-level sports. Casper and Lisa do it!
Studying at the law faculty is a challenge in itself, but Lisa and Casper kick it up a notch. Both combine their law studies with a top sports career: Lisa as an international wushu athlete and Casper as a goalkeeper at a Dutch Eredivisie club. In this interview, they talk about how they balance lectures and training, what motivates them, and what lessons they take with them from sports to studies – and vice versa.
Casper van Hemelryck-Bray
First-year law student & goalkeeper for the first team of Roda JC Kerkrade
‘When I was in the second year of my high school period, top-level sports started for me. In the past, I focussed completely on wakeboarding and I became both world and European champion in the youngest category. Unfortunately, the sport came to a standstill due to corona, but fortunately a great opportunity arose in football, my second sport, at KV Oostende. In the end, I had to make a very difficult choice: either wakeboarding or football. In retrospect, when you see where I am now, I made a nice choice.
Top-level sports in the Netherlands
During a tournament I attracted attention at Roda JC Kerkade. After finishing high school I transferred to this Dutch soccer club and I started my Dutch Law bachelors. I choose Maastricht University mainly due to the short travel time to the training field where I can be found almost daily. I certainly do not regret that choice, because with some help of the faculty, my timetable can be combined well with my top sports schedule.
At nine in the morning I start my training at the field of Roda JC Kerkrade, but I’m at least half an hour earlier to do some fitness exercises. I have breakfast together with the whole team and during that we discuss video analyses. After that, we enter the field and train for one to one and a half hours. One day I join the training of Jong Roda (the under 21 team) after lunch, other days I end with a strength training. Of course there are also days that I am free in the afternoon. Then it is time to dive into the books and prepare lessons. I usually do that at home, unless I have a lesson or a mandatory meeting at the faculty.
Work ethic and discipline
Top-level sports and a law studies, it’s a combination I choose myself. The training moments are very intense, both mentally and physically. As a youngster between de sometimes thirty-year-old team mates with lots of experience you want to show what you got. Besides that you also want to perform well in your studies, which is also possible thanks to all the help. My soccer career and studies both require a lot of energy, work ethic and discipline. Luckily I have been used to that ever since I was a little kid an I know how to use my top-level sports skills in my studies. That comes in handy in group work and that is why I like to take the lead. Thanks to my studies, I look at many things from a helicopter view. That also comes in handy on the field, for example during a riot, to zoom out and look with a clear view.
In the future, I hope to be able to combine my top-level sports experience and law studies. Maybe I will become a lawyer for a club and deal with player contracts. I will never completely let go of sports, it is a part of my life and I want to embrace that. That is why I am very grateful to the university for their help, so that I can continue to combine sports and my studies.’
Lisa Muresu
Pre-masterstudent Dutch Law & Wushu athlete
“As a five-year-old girl, I could already be found in my father's gym. There he taught, among other things, wushu, a Chinese martial art. It is a collective term for different styles, of which kung fu and tai chi are the most well-known. It is a sport in which you use your entire body: from your finger joints to your hips. In the individual part of the sport, which I do, you present a routine to the jury. The mock fight is judged with a similar points system as we know it in gymnastics.
World Championship
I have been part of the national team since I was twelve. The wushu community in the Netherlands is much smaller than in Asia. There, they can do the sport as an official profession, while non-Asian athletes do it in addition to their work or studies. That makes it extra special for me that I came eighth in the world championship in 2024, because the other seven in the rankings who were above me were Asian.
That takes a lot of training hours, in addition to my pre-master's degree in Dutch Law and a job at a notary's office. The days are long, but fortunately the university gives me the opportunity to change my class schedule if it does not fit in with my training schedule. I have classes from half past eight to eleven. Before I go to work in the afternoon, I prepare the other classes. I work until five o'clock and then the evening is full of sports. This is often a combination of wushu and strength or fitness training. After such a long day, it can sometimes be hard to crawl behind my laptop in the dark, but with strict planning and discipline, it works out well.
Full speed
I think that top-level sport has shaped me into who I am today. Discipline is a very important aspect of martial arts and because I have been a top-level athlete since I was twelve, I have known from an early age how to deal with a very tight schedule. In addition, I can deal well with stress, because I know what it is like to perform under pressure. That of course comes in handy during exams. My law degree has also contributed to my sports development: I analyse my movements much better because I developed my analytical thinking during my studies. Just like a case, I analyse my movement, take it apart and apply it again.
The combination of a pre-master's with top-level sport is tough. I had to get into it when I started in September, because it was at full speed right away. Moreover, I had a competition in Hong Kong at the beginning of the academic year, so I was away for a week. It is a lot of trying, trial and error. Otherwise you cannot do what you want to do. I think it is important to have fun and do something nice. Sports is my outlet, but it should not become a source of stress.
Dreams and goals
As long as my body allows it, and I don't have worn-out knees from year of professional sports, I want to continue with wushu. I make a distinction between dreams and goals: a dream is something beautiful that doesn't have to come true, because the road to it is more beautiful. Then I dream of becoming world champion. After my great result at the world championship, I have set new goals, things that are realistically achievable. Then I look at a fifth place at a World Championship. It's only a difference of three places, but I have to work very hard for those three places. And what about my legal career? As it looks now, my career will be in the direction of consultation. I find giving legal advice very interesting and fun to do.”
Also read
-
ITEM continues: Advancing cross-border cooperation and impact
ITEM enters new phase within UM Faculty of Law from 2025.
-
IGIR seminar series
The IGIR seminar series will be launched after the Summer break. Our aim is to offer a nice and friendly environment for staff members and visiting researchers to present their ongoing research.
-
Inaugural lecture Jan Willem van Prooijen
What drives people to embrace radical conspiracy theories, sometimes with far-reaching consequences for society? During his inaugural lecture on Friday 27 June, Prof. Dr. Jan Willem van Prooijen (radicalisation, extremism, and conspiracy thinking) will address this urgent question.
