BTF

Sports equipment supplied by schools is often limited, as it has to last a while among many students. Special equipment is normally left for the sports teams, but for parents of pupils really serious about their sport, there can be no alternative but to provide the necessary sporting equipment for their child—especially if their child’s interest stretches beyond the realms of the after-school sports teams to a local youth team.

The availability of sporting equipment to suit all budgets and levels of interest also means that children can participate in various sports at school, determine which they are most interested in, if any, without setting their parents back in terms of unnecessarily expensive sports equipment.

Of course, taking an interest in a sport is one thing: sticking with it is quite another. Perhaps one of the best ways for a child to stay enthusiastic about sport is if their parents support them—and as there is a readily available supply of sporting equipment for adults, just a little involvement off the pitch could go a long way. And it’s not about securing sponsorship deals or pushing your child to excel: the fact is, active children grow into healthier adults, and establishing a routine of sport and exercise early on is one of the best things a parent can do for their child.

Physical fitness is one of the key aspects of living a long, healthy life, along with healthy eating and careful living. With our busy lifestyles, it can be difficult to fit in the time for some proper exercise, and some people end up becoming unhealthy due to a lack of exercise. However, it is possible for anyone to do a little exercise a day no matter how busy their lifestyle, as it does not have to be expensive or time consuming to get the right amount a day.

Even the simplest activities can be effective on boosting your fitness levels. If for example you need to take a bus to work and back, getting off a few stops earlier and walking the rest of the way can be a good way to get more exercise during the day. It will only be a small amount, but over time the results will become more obvious. Walking is a very easy way to fit exercise into your day, as it is a good way to get around, does not require any equipment, and is not too strenuous.

There are other easy ways to boost your fitness levels, and they do not have to include any expensive equipment, and a lot of them can be done easily in your own home. Walking up and down stairs may seem like an odd way to get in some exercise, but it can be very effective, as it works on an aerobic level as well as testing stamina.

There are lots of things that influence your health, and it is important to get a balance between those that are bad for you and those that are good, as otherwise emphasising the bad will have a detrimental effect on your health. Some people argue that there is no such thing as being too healthy, but you can cause damage if certain aspects of healthiness are over-emphasised.

Exercise is a great way to stay healthy, and it does not have to be difficult or expensive to implement. Simply going for more walks, going swimming twice a week and trying out the gym on occasion can provide a huge boost to your health and fitness levels. Over-exercising or not preparing your body properly before exercise can be very harmful though, so you should think about what your limits might be when it comes to exercise, and try not to over-exert yourself.

Another good way to keep yourself in good health is to eat the right foods often. Simply adding a few pieces of fruit to your lunch at work, or taking time to cook meals from scratch instead of relying on ready meals can make a lot of difference, though there is nothing wrong with indulging sometimes. We all need fat, salt and carbohydrates in order to survive, so although there is nothing wrong with reducing your intake of these things, you should not cut them out of your diet. Living healthily can be easy, inexpensive and rewarding as long as you do it right.

Sport is incredibly important to people in the UK. From the anguish of watching the England football team crash out in international tournaments every two years to the annual races for national clubs to win league titles and championship cups, it is fair to say that football is perhaps the most popular sport in the UK. And it’s easy to see why. While the game might have international appeal and have been played all over the world for decades, it is one of the many sports codified by the British, and a sense of ownership over the sport seems to permeate over the British public.

Of course, football is not the only sport codified by the British. Cricket, a hugely popular sport in Africa, Indonesia, Australasia and (of course) Britain is another one codified by the British and transported around the world. Rugby, too, played all over the world and rumoured to have begun at a school in Rugby is another British codified sport. And the embodiment of tennis is, arguably, found in the annual Wimbledon tournament.

Fortunately, seeing as the Brits seem to be good at codifying sports and not at playing them, there are a host of other sports from around the world that are rising in popularity at UK schools and universities. From contact sports like American football and lacrosse to the more elegant sports like baseball and basketball, the rising popularity of such sports among young people could hopefully be an indicator of a move away from British pride and appalling performance in British sports, and a general embracing of sport in general. If we can’t win at our national game, perhaps someday we’ll win at somebody else’s?

Tennis, as a game, is changing. After the astonishing Isner-Mahut game at Wimbledon 2010, lasting 11 hours and five minutes and stretching 183 games, and was twice interrupted by darkness. Long games are nothing new to tennis—the longest game in a single day was the six-hour 31 minute slog in Richmond, Virginia between Vicki Nelson and Jean Harper in 1984, a game that also includes the longest rally in professional tennis history at 29 minutes, involving a

staggering 643 shots. While it can be something to aim for in professional tennis to break these records, the introduction of the tie-break rule in 1973 has made it more difficult. Although it is interesting to note that of all the Grand Slam tournaments, only the US Open applies the tie-break rule to the fifth

set, with the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon all using the Advantage rule in the final set, allowing for what is arguably a more gripping final set, if one that has the potential to last as long as the Isner-Mahut match did. So is this the future of tennis? While the sheer slogging match between the two drew admiring comments from such esteemed players as Nadal, Roddick, Henman, Federer and McEnroe, it is still speculated that we’ll not see the like of

this again. But the Grand Slam records after the tie-break introduction are all set recently—could it be time to think about the US Open option of a fifth set tie-break? Perhaps the next few years will show us how the longevity of a single match will look in the future.