“My relationship with sport had a rocky start to say the least; the day after I learned to run, I fell and broke my toe- somewhat foreshadowing later events. I started off with minis rugby at age 6, and also had been doing casual swimming lessons.
Unfortunately when I was younger; I was more interested in other things than sport, and quit rugby when I was 10, but kept on with the swimming, which I am very glad my parents forced me to do! As I matured both physically and mentally, my swimming grew with it; I started winning our club galas, and my times were getting fairly impressive for a 16 year old, which took me up to county level, and even some podiums. But injury struck me again. Whilst climbing over a fence to fetch a rugby ball, I tore my ACL, which took me a good year to recover from fully. I could still swim, but my times and stamina both took a nosedive in quality. And by the time I recovered, my A levels were just around the corner, so the 5 training sessions a week were no longer possible, so this is when I decided to rejoin my local rugby club.
This time, I truly fell in love with the game, especially the social aspect, which then translated into my university life. Joining the rugby club at university was incredible, I got to know so many people, exercised a lot, and got heavily involved not just by captaining a team for a year, but also further up in sport at university. Here, I was voted into the executive committee two years running, and this really grew my passion for sport, and how it’s more than just exercise, but a release of stress and also the ability to socialise.
Now, I continue to play rugby at home, alongside the odd swimming session. Unfortunately, I seem to have recently aggravated my old ACL injury but once again, the rehab is giving me something to aim for by the time we are released!”
Thank you from the Humans of HIIT community for sharing your story!
