Reported by Fifi Tsui, Edited by Sammi Chan
BAMP! With one kick! The ball is inside the football net. The whistle sound marked the goal of the match. “Time to go home! We have school tomorrow,”a student shouted to the football players who were celebrating the victory.
The noise of grumble were all around the corner. However, the students still ended their match and packed their jersey into the bag and leave the sport ground. “It is all about balance,” said Lo Jun-yan, a student football team member from Hong Kong Baptist University.
Lo is a year 2 student who has a great passion on football, he played football since he was in secondary school . Not only does he go for training for a few times per week, but also use his leisure time to practise techniques. Despite the fact that he is trained frequently, he still got good grades at university.
“Sport actually motivates me instead of dragging me down. I have a better time management because football is one of the interests that I can never miss. Indeed, I understand the importance of studying towards my future career.” Lo said.
Hoping to become a PE teacher in the future, Lo explained that achieving an excellent result in the university is a must. He rearranged his schedule so he can have sufficient of time to play football, whenever there is homework or exam, he still spares some time for playing football, it is his motivation to study.
‘If I got bad grades in the assignment or exam, I would punish myself not to play football for a week. This harsh punishment not only motivates myself to study, but also makes me focus on my work.’ Lo explained.
Dr Louie Hung-tak , an associate professor from the department of sport and physical education at HKBU said, “Sport can either have positive or no effect on students,”.
According to a research done by South Dakota State University in the U.S., 54% of the students have the same grade even if they become student-athletes, while 30% of the students agree that their grades become better. It is proven that sport can either have positive or no effect on the academic result of the student-athletes.
“While the students are doing sports activities, their metabolism rate increases, it strengths their immune system so they can fight against the bacteria and make them have a better internal control especially their hormones. Students can benefit from physical activities more than personal growth because all the benefits are interdependent.” Dr. Louie added.
The benefits can be classified into three domains which includes psychomotor, cognitive and affective. Indeed, the physical activities can reduce students’ stress level. These are some of the benefits that the people who play sports regularly could get.
However, most of the students in Hong Kong are reluctant to or even lack of exercise. “Only 8% of the Hong Kong university students are able to do exercise 60 minutes daily, which does not meet the World Health Organisation’s standard. This phenomenon might be attributed to the Hong Kong Education System that cause the students to have such a concept in their mind.”Dr Louie said.
Lam Hiu-fung, the coach of university football team in Hong Kong Baptist University, also believes that students don’t value sport as important as study. “When it is near the end of the semester, most of the students will choose to skip their training in order to complete their homework. This illustrates that the Hong Kong education system forces the students weigh much on their academic result and vanish the idea of “regular exercise”.
Yet, some other students chose to have a “study-sport balance” lifestyle. Some tips are suggested by the captain of the Canadian Women’s national Soccer team, Christine Sinclair so as to help us to manage our time better.
First of all, prioritize our task is very important. The academic result should be at the highest priority, even though you are good at the sport, education is the key to prepare you to the success of our life.
On the other hand, Christine Sinclair also mentioned that we need to be very organized and plan before we do, it can help us to map out our schedule. Moreover, we should avoid putting ourselves under stress. The use of planning can reduce our stress level by making us feeling that everything is under our control.
Indeed, it can also alert us the proportion of our time we spend on. If we find difficulties to resolve the problem, we can ask for help from teacher or parent. They may give us some advice to help us. The personal tips from the captain of the Canadian Women’s national Soccer team may help us to balance school and sport in a better way.
Interests and preferences may not be our first priority as we grow up. Instead, responsibility on working and family might normally replace it and become the only thing we pay attention to. However, there are always people who hope to pursue their dream unconditionally, just like Jerry.
“The love and perseverance of football continuously give life meaning to me in spite of little time devoted for work. Guys! Let’s take a rest from working and pick up one physical activity that we are interested in to relax ourselves!” Lo said.
#football#university#balance#study
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