Late in the game: why it's not as easy as “Giving it a Go” with sports at university

I've never joined a team sports club in my four years at university. Apart from the usual, and valid, anxieties around meeting new people and fitting in, another reason was that I simply hadn't played sports since before doing my GCSEs. And then, of course, COVID hit, so my A-level years were spent similarly sport-less. So when it came to uni, simply ‘giving it a go’ didn't really seem like an option - how could I sign up to a team with the sport skills of a 14 year old?

This is not a unique experience. When school starts to get serious (or as serious as it feels at the time) the first thing to drop off is extracurriculars, especially for girls. When I was younger, I played football, I did athletics, I got my black belt in karate. But it all stopped when I got to 16 years old, and suddenly it didn't seem ‘cool’ anymore, or I wanted to spend my time doing other things. Whilst most the boys I knew at school continued with their football teams or whatever, me and many other girls slowly dropped off from the teams we were part of.

Looking back, I do wish I had continued to play sports as a teenager, but at university I don’t necessarily regret my lack of involvement in the sports department. I still exercise: I run, I swim, I even surf occasionally, but I don’t feel the need to be a part of a club to make that a part of my lifestyle. Whilst sports clubs do provide a certain amount of connection on campus, I still find time to be active separate from that.

After all, sports are not the only way to feel connected on campus. We are lucky enough that Newcastle University has a wide array of different clubs and societies. If sports doesn’t feel like something you can just ‘give a go’, there are so many other options to join that offer different opportunities. Extracurriculars are a great part of the uni experience, but remember: sports are not the only way to achieve that community feeling.