Monday, January 27, 2014

The power of sport

There have been in depth discussions on our economical state at the start of this new year, the usual topics of unemployment have been top of the debates. I know there's a far wider problem but I'm delighted to see the impact of sport on some local young job seekers. Last November I became an athlete mentor for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust working on the "Get on Track" Plymouth programme, with the aim of helping young unemployed people find work using sport. The impact of sport can be seen everyday, it was specifically the values such as teamwork and problem solving that brought out confidence in these young people. A couple of months after the completion of the six week programme there was a celebration event where I had the chance to get an update on the participants progress, the most obvious change was in their self confidence, even for those who are still searching for that elusive job. It just proves how powerful sport can be.

I'm at last getting back into running, it seems that my stress fracture has healed so I can start to up the miles. I'm someone who always needs a target so I'm working out what a realistic goal could be for this year. For those of you a bit further ahead in your run training there's the perfect opportunity on your doorstep, Tavistock has it's very own half marathon. The thirteen mile event is still a few months away so there's time to focus your training and get those entries in; just the motivation you might be seeking right now.