As someone who wouldn’t touch the idea of sports at school with a barge pole, no matter how rewarding people made it sound (“you’ll make friends” … “learn life skills” … “not be that chubby kid in glasses anymore”), I’ve come to realise just how much taking up a sport while at school could have changed my life.
If you’ve been anywhere around the internet recently, you will probably have heard the catchphrase “strong not skinny”, as more people are beginning to realise that in order to look good and feel good you need to stray away from fad diets and recognise that exercise is actually important (I can feel 15-year-old me starting to stop reading at this point but continue, even if you hate the thought of “team sports” *shudder*).
Here are a couple of reasons why it could be beneficial to get involved in sports at school.
You will feel more positive
Exercising not only releases endorphins, but because you are achieving something physically you will begin to feel happier in your own skin. It also gives you more energy, so that on days when things do go wrong you don’t feel like binge-watching Netflix in a food coma for three weeks.
It will help with work
Let’s face it, doing your GCSEs and A Levels can be pretty stressful, so busting out a sweat once a week can be a great cure to relieve your tensions and stop the hair-tearing.
It’s an opportunity to get to know a whole new group of people
School is pretty tough on everyone, and it may be that you need to meet some new people outside of this setting in order to escape the claustrophobia of school life. Joining a local club can be the answer to this.
It looks good on a CV/helps at university
Employers don’t want someone who sits at home in front of a TV all day, even if the new series of Brooklyn Nine Nine is pretty epic. There’s a whole plethora of sports out there to choose from, including team ones such as hockey and football, and individual ones such as ballet and trampolining. Universities in the UK have an incredibly diverse range of sports clubs on offer, so joining a sport there after having done one whilst at school can really help you get to know people who have at least one thing in common.
Finally, it’s fun. School can be a bit overwhelming, and you may end up in a rut of school – homework – sleep – school and so on. This gives you a chance to break out of the cycle and do something which will actually help in other areas of your life.
Did you get into a sport at school? Are you planning to, and what are they? Let us know below”
Photo: Tyler Yeo / Flickr
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