Why did I study a Masters in Sports Science?

A few weeks ago, my business coach who also designed my web page and is a podiatrist  (yes he does wear quite a few professional hats!!!) and I were editing my webpage to make it more precise (easy to use) when it led to an interesting conversation.

The reason for the editing was that I had had some feedback from a new patient who had suggested that I should clearly display my qualifications as well as my membership with the Royal College of Podiatry and my Regulator body on the first page. Although the information was present on the website, it was just, not very obvious.

We rectified this and ended up discussing why I had chosen to do a Masters in Sports Science?

What is so special about studying a Master’s degree? 

It is really to allow a person to gain further knowledge and greater depth into a particular subject, to develop a level of expertise in their chosen field, in my case it was in Sports science

Why Sports Science? 

While I was in my final year during my Podiatry degree, I was quite keen to study further. I think at that age, I was not quite ready to face a working world and wanted to be an eternal student. I did not know what I wanted to study exactly but I knew that I enjoyed researching topics and I had an enquiring mind which meant I wanted to know why a science fact was considered a fact - what was the reasoning behind it and how did one come to such a conclusion 

I have always been and still am very fascinated with Sports - just the actual playing of it, how to play in a team or alone (for instance like in tennis - it feels like a chess game- not that I play chess, but how the players have to think a step or two ahead) - how to excel at it and become the best, what techniques can be used or taught to improve endurance. I have to admit that this summer all the fascination was with watching Raheem Sterling run with his chest puffed up, back arched and arms flapping about like he is holding a handbag during the  Euro 2020- apparently I am not the only one who has  wondered about it - and it comes from his mum's own running style!.  

I had loved science in school. But during my primary years, I schooled in Kenya in a co-ed school and sports was not really an option especially if you are a girl. If you were a girl and had an older sister who was talented at hockey/netball, then you had some chance of playing and were aware of the rules. But what about people like me who had not really tried it, did not know the rules, were never encouraged to play at school? How would we know if we were good or whether we would enjoy it if we were not given any opportunity? The boys played some football but there were very few sporting teams that competed with other schools but that was about it. Kenyan schools especially in my town seemed very focused on academia and it was perfect if you were good at studying but if you struggled, I am afraid you were kind of left on your own to plod through.

Even something like swimming was not in the curriculum. This was only introduced when I was about 12 years old but at that age adolescence had hit our bodies, so we were all a bit body shy!

However, I had a small advantage over my peer group. I have a cousin who is a few months younger than me, and he was very outdoorsy. He would always encourage me to play with him. It never bothered him I was a girl. He only wanted someone to play with. I loved visiting to his house as he would take me fishing and we would play in his treehouse pretending to be Cowboys and Indians. He could also swim since he was a toddler and my mum was slightly influenced by his parents (lucky for me), such that we had a German teacher that came to live in the flat below to teach and explore Kenya.  My mum convinced her to teach me to swim. I was lucky enough to learn from her, at least some basic swimming techniques before she returned. I did feel rather privileged.

The odd thing is that my father was a true sportsman. Unfortuanely it was only after his death that I found out he played Volleyball.  I met one of his team members who described the zest with which my father played and how he had to perfectly roll up his sleeves like that his good luck charm before serving – a bit like Nadal and his rituals of placing his hair behind his ear, pulling his nose and finally, adjusting his shorts. My father also enjoyed playing badminton too. It always bugged me that he never encouraged me to play outside school or coached me. I suppose he was old school and did not think girls played sport! I remember playing badminton with him as a young girl in the front yard, but I always felt awful if he missed the shuttlecock and had to bend down to pick it up. I used to run to his side to pick it up for him as I thought he was old and should not bend down too much!   After a few times of him stopping me from running to his side, he would let me pick it up but later on he told me, he hoped it would tire me out so that he would win. He was also rather cunning and always thinking one step ahead!!!

But from school, PE lessons was not very exciting and neither teachers nor parents gave it any thought nor did little to encourage you. By the time I was in high school I was in London and not having ever played Netball or tennis or lacrosse, I dreaded PE more than normal. It was painful as well as heart breaking during PE sessions as I would never be picked as I had poor sporting skills. One my school friends, who was rather competitive, managed to drop lacrosse ball on my head as I could not catch it in my lacrosse stick in her frustration! I laughed about it then and even though, deep down my heart sank! My sister did try to encourage me and registered me for summer camps to play Tennis. Again, the PE teachers were less than encouraging.  My love for Sports meant I did not play in any teams, but I loved the camaraderie it would create in the changing rooms or uproar in the crowd or even when watching it on TV. I wanted to feel that!

This is when Sports Science came into play. I thought I might be late to be part of a sports team, but maybe with my love of feet, I could be part of the sporting activity from the side-lines.  I also liked the adrenaline rush you get as you are about to go and play. I could be involved with enhancing the players ability to play better and encouraging them to excel and to try and improve their foot function biomechanically. Without realising, from a young age, I had been fascinated with gait, not that I knew I was observing their gait. I called it 'walking style', especially when women suddenly started walking by thrusting their hips and  creating rather excessive amounts of hip movement which seemed rather unnatural and not their normal style. 

I joined Brunel university to study Sports Science. My course was 2.5 years, and it was once a week in the evening. My brain felt extremely saturated once I finished Wednesday evenings.  I had had 6 hours of teaching. I worked part time as a locum podiatrist to practice podiatry and to earn money while I studied 

However, during the second year, due to family commitments, I had to stop my course and travel to Kenya to help. It was a tough decision to make, but, in our culture family comes first. During this time, together with my parents, I helped look after my brother's children as we had tragically lost his wife. I had no experience of losing someone and being in my early twenties, I had suddenly become like this a 'surrogate mum' overnight. I did not know how to raise children, nor did I understand the emotions my brother and his children and my parents were going through. 

Every morning, we seemed to put one foot in front of the other and get the girls into a routine of school.  But one thing I did know is that I needed to make sure they were busy after school. This was the time they would normally spend with their mother. This meant I tried to arrange after school activities every day. Now this was a good few years before I was a child in the same town. I was not sure if they had any after school activities, but I found some and I had them enrolled in tennis, swimming, piano, art lessons and whatever else I could find. It is true what they say, if you do not get an opportunity yourself, you try and live your life through your children's eyes – or in my case, my nieces.  I made them try everything and convinced them they needed to give it time to like it. Some activities went down well, others not so much! I was a little pushy, more because I wanted them to experience everything I hadn't. And there may have been incidents where I could not find any decent sports shorts that I got some stitched by a local tailor who made them look like their school PE shorts - almost like bloomers! I have to admit these 'shorts' were very ugly and may have scarred the young girls for life! I was more determined that they play tennis than worry about being a fashionista! 

During this time, I discovered that my eldest niece was a good runner. She could beat all the boys in her class on more than a few occasions including sports day. I was well impressed! But, there was no running club near us and I could not harness her skill any further just like it was when I was a child like a few years ago - there were not any other sporting activities apart from what I had enrolled them in. The nearest one was in the Rift Valley area but I don't think I could convince her father for this move. Plus, she had just started her primary school. He was not going to part with her. But it led to my thesis for my Masters.

I wanted to make a comparison on whether there were more sporting activities available in school for young girls in Kenya and compare it to the same population in London. I wanted to see if there was more opportunity available in sports in Kenya and whether sports were part of the curriculum and compare it to my time when I was a student there. I set small tasks to the participants, to check for their endurance, strength and focus group questionnaire on how the girls felt. There were a lot of sub questions in this thesis - I wanted to compare the parents' attitude to sport for their young girls in Kenya and  had it changed from my time? Did parents accept that academia was not the only way to excel - did sports have a part to play?

What I did discover was that sports and PE were very much part of the curriculum in Kenya, but not as much as their counter parts in London who had access to other activities such running clubs, ballet or gymnastics. The girls in Kenya enjoyed sports more as they were encouraged further by teachers and parents. However, if you had some western influence then sports were more on the agenda as after school paid activity. The parents' attitude had also changed from my time. They were interested in encouraging their child to play more sports but there was this tendency that academia was just as important if not more important! They were parents like me who wanted their daughters to try everything possible but at the same time, there was this subtle pressure that they were living their lives through their children's eyes and the girls had to excel at it all! This made me look at myself in further depth and at this point, I asked my nieces to only play activities that they did enjoy....However as an eternal dreamer, I do wonder if my niece could have been the fastest marathon runner with Brigid Kosgei (Kenyan Marathon runner who I admire very much and had the pleasure of meeting in 2019, after she won the London Marathon as we both flew down to Nairobi after together - she in Club class and I graced my presence in Cattle class but our luggage still appeared at the same time!

However, what it did create was this lovely bond between my mum and her grandchildren. After I returned to London to complete my Masters, mum would wait for the girls to return from school, keep all the drinks and snacks ready and she would go get dressed in her traditional clothing and accompany the girls to their tennis or swimming activities

She used to be very content watching her girls play and cheer them on!!! I am not sure if she understood the rules, but she would 'whoop' if the girls hit the ball back!

I recently had a patient who stated that grandchildren make the world go round - this was my parents thinking too and it kept them young!  He said If only he could have the grandchildren and bypass his kids, that would be perfect, but nobody knows how to achieve this!!!

And that is the story of how I decided to study sports science for my master’s degree!