This September it will have been five years since I moved down to Canterbury in order to embark on my adventure at Christ Church as an eighteen-year-old politics student. Whilst graduating in Politics & Global Governance three years later was undoubtedly a proud personal achievement of mine, whenever asked about my University experience the first things that always immediately come to mind are my sporting memories at Christ Church. I enjoyed the experience so much that funnily enough I’ve even come back here to work as the Activities Coordinator for the Students’ Union. It seems that I just can’t stay away from it all!

Through both the TrySport and PlaySport schemes especially, I’ve had the opportunity to try a variety of sports that I wouldn’t have even considered before coming to University. Among many the list includes:

• Futsal
• Boxing
• Lacrosse
• Climbing
• Walking Football
• Badminton
• Gaelic Football
• Rounders
• Beach Football
• Netball

The more recent experience to have been added to the list was Netball. Last week I was convinced by my fellow Students’ Union colleagues to get involved in the PlaySport Staff Netball sessions that run on a Monday evening at the Sports Centre. Having never played Netball in my life during my primary school, high school or college education, I thought that I would come along to see what all it was all about. The closest sport I had played to Netball in the past was when I used to play Basketball in PE back in high school, and I’ve been mainly involved in Football since, so I went hoping that some of my previous sporting experiences would lend themselves to my Netballing prowess. I was given a rather tight red bib to put on and then we were ready to get things started. Once the game was underway I quickly realised three things:

1. Netball is fast!
2. My experience of playing Football did not transfer to Netball, and it didn’t matter.
3. If you’re not a Goal Shooter you will get shouted at (light-heartedly) if you go in the goal circles

I’m a firm believer in the idea that you can gain more of an insight into a sport by playing it once, than by watching somebody else play it a number of times. My experience of playing Netball in this instance only reinforces this belief. I think it can be easy to think of a new activity as not for you, or that you’ll be no good at it having never played before, but I really enjoyed getting involved in a new activity, and had great fun getting a few things wrong! I would highly recommend that anybody should try a session of Netball to see how their perception of the sport changes. The game has a wide range of qualities that appeal to both male and female participants, and it was great to see a few other guys giving it a go, everyone was welcomed and included. There’s a first time for everything and I’ll certainly be going back to give it another go!

Adam Roche

SU Activities Coordinator