A Sporting Life

Sport is a massive part of everyday life; you can play it, research it, listen to it, read it or watch it. It has given me life skills which have helped me through my teenage years and will help me cope with a whole range of new challenges I will meet as I quickly approach adulthood... being a grown up, as my parents put it! Who wants to be one of them?

There are many ways young people get into sport, one of which may be through their parents influence; often parents provide opportunities for their children to start playing sport. Kids sometimes feel that if they are good at a particular sport then they will be accepted more at school and amongst friends, despite this sounding ridiculous this still goes on in school today. This brings me on too my second point of how young people get into a sport, and this is because of their friends, often children like to go out and play football in the park and pass around a rugby ball, and in doing this find they get better and find new confidence as they feel as if they have more friends, and of course this is very important, especially at a young age.

Youngsters are often inspired to play sport by their role models, as when children are young they idolise certain sportsmen and women. For example David Beckham or Jonny Wilkinson are both admired by many not only because of their image, but because of their achievements on the pitch, of course Jonny Wilkinson kicked England to victory in the 2003 world cup, and David Beckham played for Manchester United for many years scoring some superb free kicks. Captaining England for 6 years, famously scoring a somewhat exquisite free kick against Greece in the dying minutes to take England through to Euro 2004. Moments like the two mentioned do not come along often, but when they do, the country remember them and for many youngsters it inspires them to be like them.

Commitment in sport is another big issue, often at the age of 16 or 17, peer pressure, stress of exams, dare I say, an increased interest in the opposite sex, can make or break a sportsman’s career. Most either decide to make the effort to train that little bit more, eat healthy and drink very little alcohol, or go the other way, were you train less and less, go out every weekend drinking and partying and live a somewhat poor lifestyle. Of course this is totally up to the individual and if they really do want to go all the way in sport. There is also the issue of how much time you have to put in yourself, I previously mentioned Jonny Wilkinson kicking England to victory in the 2003 world cup. Wilkinson practiced 4 hours after every training session to ensure he would achieve everything he wanted to when he went out to represent his country.

By no means am I saying practice like Jonny Wilkinson did, but unfortunately it does take an outstanding level of commitment like this to achieve at such a high level. There is also the issue in Britain of their being four levels of performance, 1. Foundation 2. Participation 3. Performance 4. Excellence. There is a distinctive difference between all four levels, and of course you have to be considered in the excellence category from the age of 16 upwards. In the excellence category, you are considered to be, county, national or international level at which ever sport and you are classed as an elite performer.