It would be no surprise to a lot of people that sport played a huge part of my formative years, whether it was rugby, golf, cricket or football.
I enjoyed the competition, the physical exercise, the need to improve at something and the skills involved.
However, reading a recent article produced by everyone’s favourite football pundit, Gary Lineker, it made me think further into what sport meant to me growing up and the importance it had on my education and, hopefully, my personality and traits as an adult.
Lineker highlighted his own views on how physical education, apart from reading and basic arithmetic, is the most important part of the curriculum. I must say it rings true with me and is a part of the curriculum that I will certainly encourage my children to take part in as much as possible.
He tells of the lack of trust his teachers had in him becoming anything after he left school and I suppose he had the last laugh there. In my experiences with rugby there are a lot of characters I imagine had the same experience, leaving school with little or no qualifications, yet excelling in their passion of sport.
The vast majority of my childhood memories include sport or exercise, and that is obvious as someone who went on for a career in sport. I’m pretty sure I could have put more effort into other areas of education and I’m not saying that this applies to every individual and we are all wired differently, but it did for me. Winning and losing
Sport and exercise play a huge role in many people’s health and well-being as we progress through life, and I’d argue that this need is as great now than maybe it has ever been. Why shouldn’t we see sport and exercise as an important part of anyone’s daily routine.
With the possibility of some normal times returning, being able to exercise with a little more freedom will sit well with a lot of people I have no doubt.
For me, the chance of running around with a rugby ball in hand, with some form of group training, is something that I really can’t wait to happen.