"I could've turned pro..."
We've all heard it at some point. The person that says that they were good enough to have turned pro at a sport but didn't because of <insert excuse here>.
Who knows if this is true. Maybe they were a decent footballer as a kid, and if they'd stuck with it then it might have happened for them. I know I watch Premier League football and think I could do better than some of the over paid fools rolling around like they've just been hit by a car!
Personally, I have no idea if I was good enough to have a crack something like that. I know I was pretty good at football when I was a child, but I made poor decisions when it came to the teams I played for. As fun as it was playing with my mates, if I wanted to progress then joining a better team may have made a difference.
Likewise with athletics. I was a decent sprinter at school, and went to county championships. I even made it onto a team for a National Indoor Athletics Championships. But that's as far as it went. At 14, my family moved to Bedford where there is a proper athletics club (Paula Radcliffe came through the club, so it was pretty decent!). My parents suggested I join, but I was 14...other things were beginning to catch my attention, and competitive sport was very low down on my agenda!
I wish I could go back and tell my teenage self that you can be part of a club while still having a social life. Not that I would probably listen, I was a teenager after all! And I'm not saying that I would have become a world class sprinter. Far from it, I'm sure I wouldn't have! I was faster than average, but nowhere near the level needed for anything truly competitive.
But I may have found a way into a different event. Maybe a jump or throwing event, perhaps a longer distance. A coach might have suggested I try cycling, or boxing, or judo.
My point with this ramble is this: if you have kids that show an interest or talent at something, encourage them as much as you can to stick with it. Do everything you possibly can to help them, because who knows what might happen in the future for them. And at the very least, it's getting them active and away from a screen for an hour or two a week.
And it's never too late to try something new! I've had new PT clients in their forties and fifties, who have never lifted a weight before, ending up loving discovering what their body can do! Go to the gym, join a team or a club, do whatever it is that you want to do. If you don't enjoy it after giving it a good go, then don't go back. Simple.
But then try something else. If you don't try, you'll never know :)
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