In this article, we talk about the benefits of rekindling your passion for a sport you love and encourage you to make the time to play it!
I’ve always loved sport.
I’ve grown up loving sport and enjoying the plethora of benefits that come with partaking in exercise.
For me, there’s not many things that can match that natural endorphin high alongside the athletic skills you can develop when playing a sport.
Yet, being in my eighth year of fatherhood, I recently realised that I have allowed myself to neglect this passion of late due to the rigours of life and the demands of being a dad.
Sure I watch it. I talk to my friends about it. I certainly read plenty of it.
However, it dawned on me recently that actually playing a sport; living it, breathing it – out right just DOING IT, have fallen well down the pecking order of priorities.
As much as I am a sporty dad and play sports with my young children, I do make sure I maintain a daily morning HIIT workout plus implement the evening sit ups.
Yet, my old passions for participating in football, surfing, snooker, golf, basketball, swimming, long walks have all reluctantly and subconsciously, become less of a fixture in my everyday life as fatherhood and work have taken priority.
After realising this, an opportunity at work allowed me to rediscover a youthful zest I once had for Basketball and (with pun aplenty intended!) I grabbed it with both hands!
See my employers in my FE establishment were looking for a basketball coach for the new basketball academy. I immediately showed my interest having loved the game growing up, spending many an hour down the local basketball courts in summers of old and back in September I landed the gig as coach.
Now as much as I love the game, I have not played for time! And I mean, a long time!
Back in my personal B.Ball prime, I was watching Jordan, Pippin, Barkley, O’Neil, Penny Hardaway, Rodman, Muggsy Bogues lighting up the NBA!
And at 38, I soon found I was not as agile as I used to be and my handling / shooting was way off, to say the least!
However, now twelve weeks into my enrichment role as Basketball coach, I have made the effort to put the graft in and work on my game. And I have loved every minute of it.
Not only have I led the weekly training session but with my new found zest, I have put 2-3 extra solo practices in each week.
Ranging from 15-60 mins and whether that be in the sports gym, the local outside court or in the living room!
As a result, I have already noticed my game develop ten-fold, while my shooting arc is getting back on point and I have up-skilled my handling ability, all while burning calories and falling back in love with the game of Basketball.
I have also discovered some great tutorials and training drills on YouTube, for which I have applied to my routines and I am now integrating this into my training sessions for my students.
If you want to find some b-ball tips check out:
I’ve also made the time to get back into watching this seasons NBA to learn from today’s greats in Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo & LeBron James etc and am once again hooked!
It feels great to have invested some time in myself to get fitter and to be playing a sport again.
As a result of rekindling this old hobby, I’m a better, reinvigorated & active father for my children and I’m feeling happier due to the natural mental & physical health benefits.
If you want to read more about the Benefits of Playing Sport, check out this fab ’10 Benefits of Playing Sport’ article @ https://howtheyplay.com/misc/Advantages-of-Playing-Sports.
If you love sport and can relate to having not played a game you share a passion for for sometime, then I can’t encourage you to enough to go out and play that sport.
Play it. Learn it. Practice it. Get better at it. Be fitter for it!
And if you currently do maintain an active role in playing regularly then full respect to you and keep inspiring for as long as physically possible.
I certainly intend to keep on playing sport and to install this as a regular fixture in my daily week; not allowing myself to neglect this passion again.
And I can’t wait to pass on my new found techniques to my children if they wish to learn and develop their own game.
Returning to playing a sport regularly, has also enthused me to rediscover my old passions for football, surfing and snooker again.
That’ll all come in due time as I strike a better work:life balance and our children get older, resulting in free time becoming more readily available.
For now, the important thing is I’m playing sport again and I shall continue to do so going into the New Year.
If this resonates and you don’t already, why not set a New Year goal yourself and get playing a sport!
Go get fitter, get active and go lead by example.
For the love of the game, yourself and your family!
BY Shane @ DMT
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#KeepInspiring
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