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“Sports from an avidly active person’s perspective”

In this article, I would like to include my experiences with sport, a little bit of my biography, to paint you a better picture of the place I am coming from, everything that an active lifestyle brought to my life, where it made me head to and what positions it has put me in. Other than that, I want to present in general my subjective opinion about topics related to sport and my overwiev about an active and healthy lifestyle.

To start from the beginning, I was born in Lubin, a not so small, but definitely not big city in the south- -west of Poland to parents who also come from there. Both of them were fairly active and conscious about their health throughout their whole life and they have stayed like that to this day. Naturally, they were very eager for me to follow in their footsteps, so ever since I learned to walk, they were taking me on increasingly longer walks in the nearby parks, fields and forests. Not long later, proper sports like football and riding - then a 4-wheel bike - came into the picture. I learned to swim pretty young, when I was only a couple years old. I remember swimming far into deep waters of Silesian lakes with my father at an early age. I was really scared back then, but with practice comes the confidence, and now I comfortably swim far away from the shore in the Mediterranean Sea in Kalamata, having in mind that even if I get a cramp, I will be able to stay calm and stretch it out while floating in the water. For a while, at the beginning of primary school, I got obsessed with basketball. The sport just seemed so elegant and demanding of precision to me. I was practising three-point shots everyday. At about 10 years old I started to train handball in a school sports program. For the last three years of my primary school I attended ten 45-minute sessions per week. I really started to take sport seriously then, as we had good coaches, who taught us about the importance of all aspects of sports: physical, technical, tactical, mental,

recovery, nutrition, etc. We were training in a sports hall near our school, in which the professional handball team from our city - Zagłębie Lubin – was training and playing games, so we had very good conditions. I was part of the youth section of the team, we were representing the town on a State level in the same jerseys as our idols from the adult team, and it made me realise for the first time that sports may be a viable career for me, which would also keep me healthy and in good shape.

(...) we had good coaches, “ who taught us about the importance of all aspects of sports (...) ”

The only option to continue playing handball was joining a sports middle school, which I did not do, because another one was closer to my house and had higher level of education. Coaches were trying to convince me, but I did not find the sport as enjoyable anymore and did not think I had that much future in it, which I regret a little bit now, because no one can tell how far I could have gotten. As an energetic kid, I had to fill the gap with something. I already played football a lot after school in primary school. The first year of middle school I played almost every day. I would practice my shots in winter for hours all alone on a field covered in snow. After a few months, I realised I was easily good enough to join a youth football team, so I did it. By training and playing games with a group of teammates, who became my really good friends, the next few years flew by very quickly. I was always busy, in good health, shape and really happy with the

(...) sports helped me ma “ ture well and limited the weird moods that teenagers go through (...) ”

path I had chosen. I think sports helped me mature well and limited the weird moods that teenagers go through - especially those who are self-conscious like me - in this period. Then, about halfway through my highschool journey, the team got discontinued. I decided not to join another team, as once again I did not have enough courage that I may actually achieve something significant as a professional. From that point onward I focused more on individual sports, practising team ones from time to time for fun. I got serious about fitness and bodybuilding, and it was the thing that showed me how much dedication and self-control sports really demand to gain significant achievements. You can not accurately measure football skill, as opposed to the size of your arms or your 100 meter dash. Sports, when you are playing a game, are enjoyable, and surely get you in better shape, but if you want your body to function on a higher level than most of the population and are willing to push it beyond boundaries

that you have brought it to before, you have to train like the top athletes, who across all types of sports use strength and conditioning training to help them perform to the best of their abilities. I was constantly disappointed in the beginning of my bodybuilding journey, because, like a lot of us, I have been influenced by unreal standards and miracle shortcuts to long-term goals. It took a lot of time, in which I practised different workout regiments, nutrition mannerisms and - most importantly - I learned a lot about fitness, my own body and what is best specifically for it, to get to the goals I thought could be achieved much sooner. It’s a matter of trial and error and the lessons you learn are what’s most valuable. Thanks to sport you gain a lot in the fields of persistence, ability to take a loss well, you learn the importance of nutrition, recovery, rest. It’s as good of a physical exercise as it is mental. It makes you appreciate life more and follow a healthy path intuitively, as it grounds you and reminds your body of its origins – hunter-gatherer way of life – in the age of a sedentary lifestyle.

Sports (...) makes you “ appreciate life more and follow a healthy path intuitively, as it grounds you and reminds your body of its origins (...) ”

All in all, I learned and gained an awful lot living a sport-filled life and all I regret is not being more active at times. It had a big impact on every aspect of my existence. I recognize its impact on the shape I am in and my health, but I don’t pay much attention to it, as I have always been athletic and got sick once in a blue moon. What’s more important for me is what sport brought to my life in terms of mental and spiritual development. I would have never discovered amazing philosophies of such people as Rickson Gracie, Bruce Lee or Wim Hof, if it wasn’t for my interest in sports. Nowadays, I believe in a balanced way of living and training, in which I include calisthenics – strength training with your own bodyweight, cardio – mainly cycling, a little bit of running and swimming, stretching and playing football from time to time. I also pay attention to my nutrition and recovery as it can’t be overlooked, especially when you are active more than the average. I recommend doing the same to all people, it will surely improve your mood, health, life expectancy and motor skills. Although individual people will benefit the most from a training plan specific to their needs - and it’s in their interest to find out what it should be - nonetheless everyone would profit

from a little bit of sport.

What’s more important for “ me is what sports brought to my life in terms in terms of mental and spiritual development ”