20x20 is an Irish campaign that aims to increase media coverage, attendance and involvement in female sports and physical activity by 20% by the year end 2020. The initiative was produced by the Federation of Irish Sport and supported by Healthy Ireland. This campaign has female sporting ambassadors from sponsors Lidl, AIG, Investec, Three and KPMG. These companies have to date been leading supporters of women’s sport in Ireland and wish to continue providing opportunities to young Irish girls through this campaign. 20x20 wants to change the way our society views women in sport and encourage participation and support from the entire community. The campaign hopes to be portrayed as a ‘society for society’ project and not just ‘women for women’. Everyone can do their bit by pledging to attend more women’s sports, promoting female sports coverage, or encouraging young girls to take part in sports or physical activity.
It is often the little things in life we take for granted. However, without sounding cringy (if that is possible), these simple moments that happen around us can bring so much comfort and happiness to oneself. It is regular that when these moments occur we smile, take a bow, fist pump or perhaps breathe a sigh of relief (maybe just in our head but you know what I mean) …. then 30 seconds later…. It is forgotten about…. Until maybe, it happens again… and again…. and again. BUT what if it didn’t happen again… and again… and again, would we have more appreciation for these moments? Before going onto looking at these moments and how relatable they are to you, I believe that as a society sometimes we get caught up in the so-called “big things” and “big moments”, we forget or are too distracted to appreciate the simple things and share them with others. Thus, I’m going to share 10 simple things/ moments which had my back over the years and that I should give some recognition. Soooo while reading through snippets of these moments just keep this in mind: “It’s the little details that are vital. Ever have a driving experience where maybe you’ve been stuck behind a vehicle for ages and you just end up hating their guts even though you know absolutely nothing about them? Yep, I have on numerous occasions in fact. Today’s blog includes the top 10 road experiences I’ve had where someone made my blood boil by something small, rude or just outrageous. So here we go, the countdown from 10 is on.
“A load of crap” were the words Declan Rice chose when addressing speculation surrounding his International future following his Man of the Match performance in Irelands 2-1 win vs USA in June. His second Man of the Match performance in just his third senior International. In the same interview, he stated his excitement to make his competitive debut in the newly formed Nations League, with matches against Wales and Denmark scheduled for September. Fast forward three months, Martin O’Neill revealing Rice had requested to be left out of the two International games as he considered switching allegiances to England. Rice’s previous three caps had all come in International friendlies, as the Nations League games are under FIFA rules they are deemed competitive games meaning if he played he would forfeit his ability to switch allegiances, hence, his absence. There seems to be a consensus amongst Irish supporters that Rice is a traitor and should never be considered for Ireland again, even on the off chance he decides not to declare for England, but is this fair?
Close your eyes, take a moment to look back on your childhood memories. Going to bed early, being good because ‘Santa’s’ watching, almost pulling your loose tooth out to get a fiver off the tooth fairy (and yes, a fiver as a child was as good as winning the Lotto). Being so innocent in believing EVERYTHING. The innocence of childhood led us to believe anything, even if it was just made up or never going to happen.
Scrap them, the majority are lies!! All I will say is, if you’re the type of person who is still trying to keep some of your childhood alive, you will snap out of it after reading my top childhood lies told by my family. Trials can be a stressful time for athletes who are looking to take the next step in their sporting career. Commonly at trials, the better players go under the radar and don’t grab the coaches attention enough. They leave feeling bewildered and frustrated that they have blown another opportunity when they know that they are good enough to have gotten through. Here are the do’s and don’ts of having a successful trial. The Do'sBe prepared for your trial
Step 1 and by far the most important regarding going for a trial and hoping to be successful is to be prepared both mentally and physically. Ever hear of the saying ‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.’ Trialists should approach the trial with the right mindset and be in peak physical condition. Onlooking coaches, managers and scouts can see an athlete straight away who is in prime condition. Train for your trial, put in the time and graft doing drills on the pitch addressing your weaknesses or hours in the gym getting yourself right. Nutrition is key. Fuel your body with the right foods lay off the takeaways for a few weeks and drink plenty of water. If you are carrying a niggly injury go get it sorted. It is not a good first impression if you are walking into a trial injured. After all first impressions matter. So first off to start what is functional movements. Why do we need to look at these movements? Functional training is defined as movements and exercise that improves a person’s ability to complete daily activities or goals. So to start off before we describe what movements we will use, firstly we can perform a test to see what faults we may have acquired over the years from work, sports or from our everyday life’s. That’s where functional screening comes into play. Following on from this a look into what other professionals prescribe as important movements.
After all this, a layout of movements has been put together along with why their important and what they represent in our daily life. Next, we will take a quick look into who’s trending around social media in terms of Instagram as an example to help whoever reads this with the knowledge to add advanced movements to match these 7 functional movements and add variety to basic movements. Finishing with the benefits that can be achieved by using functional movements as a way of training our body's to suit everyday tasks. A few years ago, if I or someone told you that playing video games was a type of sport, you probably would laugh at it and you should deserve that laugh. The reason makes you laugh is there is no any relation between playing video games and playing sports. playing sports is meaning “doing an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” and playing video games is just playing video games or more likely watching television, sitting front screen and controlling handle or keyboard to play games. Doing sports and playing video games were totally two different things in last ten years ago and you may never think of one-day playing video games can be considered a truly sport after 10 years late and it calls eSports.
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” Barack Obama Why do people volunteer and give up their time? Here are my reasons… Have you ever wondered why friends or family members volunteer or have been telling others about their experiences? It is because of the impact you can have on benefiting someone else’s life.
Why am I encouraging this, you may ask? Growing up, volunteering and being part of the community was a big part of my families’ life, as my parents helped with the local clubs my sister and I were a part of, as well as the local community games. As I got older, this didn’t change as I gained some of my own experiences of volunteering in many ways over the years, which varied from helping with my local soccer club, swimming club, helping with numerous events within the Community Games to volunteering with Barretstown and Campabilities. All these volunteering experiences have helped me gain some valuable life skills which I could then use in a college and work-related settings. Some of the best volunteering experiences I had over the past year were working with Barretstown and Campabilities. For Those of you reading this, who may have never thought of volunteering, or believed you could help your community, rest assured that both local clubs and organisations are always looking for volunteers. The range of volunteer positions is endless and the best place to find this information is on Sport Ireland Website for volunteers. My experiences of working with Barretstown and Campabilities were amazing and what I gained from the camps was endless. Some of you may have never heard of these volunteers based camps and neither would I had they not been recommended to me by a friend and college lecturer. Barretstown is a camp with the objective of rebuilding the lives of seriously ill children and their families, through therapeutic recreation. Barretstown was only a weekend camp but it was a fantastic experience as it opened my eyes to the many simple ways of making people incredibly happy. They also run camps during the week throughout the summer months and run many different camps throughout the year. If you want to find more information just look up Barretstown.com. “When he’s in Barretstown, he has this feeling of freedom. And that gives him confidence. When he leaves he takes that with him” shows a mother’s perspective of what Barretstown did for her son. Without the volunteers in Barretstown, this would not have happened as it is well known and clear to see that volunteers are the heart and soul of the camp and its activities. It’s not every day you see two sports joined together to get one sport. For those of you who do not know what international rules is it’s a team sport involving a cross between Australian Football and Gaelic Football that takes place between Ireland and Australia which alternates countries each year. The first series took place in 1984 in Ireland under a three game series and since then at its peak has gone on to attract crowds of over 80000 people. International rules has divided opinion amongst fans, former players and journalists ever since the controversial series in 2006 which was dominated by violence and dangerous tackles causing injury to players. Over the last two weeks the 20th International rules series took place in Australia which was overall seen as a success however the debate has started again as to whether or not the series should continue with former players such as Marc O Se wanting the International rules series to come to an end while players like Conor McManus wants to see the series continue. Having watched and enjoyed both games here are four reasons why I believe the International rules series should not be scrapped.
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