What are your sporty kids doing at uni/for work

[Morsien]

DD is 15 and in Y11. She’s a smart kid predicted mostly 7-9, 6 for history. She’s very sporty, she does about 10 hours of tennis a week and 4 hours athletics (100m/200m and long jump when the club asks her to).
She’s really struggling to figure out what A-levels to do or what to study at uni after that. Obviously we will try and keep her options open as much as possible. Her best subjects are Maths, PE and French, science is up there too as is English. History is her worst enemy.
She’s considered sports science or physio therapy but isn’t sold.
She’s also considered something finance based.
She doesn’t want to be a coach or at least not right now, maybe a side job but she isn’t in love with the idea.

So what are your ex sporty kids doing now? Any ideas DD could consider as she’s really struggling.

Totally @MrsAvocet I didn’t think you were saying Loughborough was not a good uni for a moment! But it's a very specific offer – biiiiig campus dominating a smallish town. Plenty of DC will be looking for what's available in a big city and that's fine. Lboro is not the only uni with good sports facilities :) (even tho it always wins BUCS). When I went to uni back in the dark ages I was mainly interested in going to a big city far from home haha.

That's why I also said to the OP's DD to look at what she wanted to do rather than being fixated on one uni. If the Luffers course is one she likes and can make the offer for then happy days. But for sure look elsewhere too.

(editted to remove many repetitions of 'offer')

Could you tell us a little more of what it is she does? Why Cardiff and what other unis she looked at? Did she do anything extra at uni to go down the sports path?

Have a look at Lancaster. It’s very sporty. They have an annual “War of the Roses” where they compete with York in every sport you can think of. It’s a really big deal. Lancaster is also collegiate so there is lots and lots of intercollege sport alongside all the departmental teams etc. lots of opportunity for sport.

Sporty DD read Biosciences at Oxford (lots of sport opportunities). Two years after graduating she is an assistant consultant for an engineering consultancy in London.

Sporty DS played Uni and college level tennis at Cambridge. A year after graduating he is an economist at a bank in London that has very good sports facilities.

My very sporty DD is actually reading History (as she loves it) but chose to go to Nottingham. There were a few reasons for choosing it but the sports facilities there are excellent and they offer a number of scholarships and also have a high performance programme for people who are doing well even if they are not scholars - she got on it despite not being a scholar or in a sport for BUCS and ended up doing her weights alongside Emily Campbell (not the same weights obviously ). It is a very sporty uni with a massive tennis centre.

Non-sporty, academic DD went to a London university and became very sporty at uni joining the swimming and athletics club then going on to run half and full marathons, competing in triathlons and then a half ironman. She went in the Royal Navy as an officer. The thought of sitting at a desk in London would be her idea of hell.

The impression I get from the OP is that her DD is a serious tennis player and wants to be able to pursue that at university rather than liking all sport,and wanting to play loads at intercollegiate level. In which case Lancaster (while a great university in many ways) won't fit the bill @Morsien even Oxford and Cambridge don't play in the top league though short terms and heavy workload partially account for this.

Also, loads of universities have so-called Varsity Days when they play their local rivals across a.whole range of sports. It is a thing and by no means unique to York and Lancaster.

My DS studies Economics and joined his university American Foorball team.

Oooh what uni? DS2's sport

DS was all set to study Business Management but after a gap year he chose his insurance offer to study Sport Performance Analysis. I think what swung it was at the holders day the head of dept told them that one of their recent graduates had land a job with the All Blacks.
He is currently bored though, much of the first term has been about study methods and writing essays, he does d psychology at A level and they covered this in depth.
Hopefully after Christmas they will ramp it up. Fortunately one of his flatmates is a second yr so he can see what is in store.
He has always been a bit of a stato and has an incredible edible knowledge of players both home and international in Rugby, football and cricket.
He basically is watching rugby for 3 yrs in his mind. He had a bit of a wobble, I think they all do, but as the course ramps up I hope he will get into it.
The analysts are becoming a vital part of all professional sport so although it’s a niche course it’s a growing industry.
His course is predominantly male but there are a small number of girls. They can combine it with performance if they are looking to have a professional career.
There are only 3-4 undergraduate courses in the Uk but most sports schools such as Loughborough offer it at masters level post sports performance degree.
There is a great deal of performance included but the course is very practical and they join the uni teams as analysts in their second year. They also do placements further afield. They learn how to use recording equipment, drone cameras and the AI software you see used on TV by pundits.

My DS studies Economics and joined his university American Foorball team.
Oooh what uni? DS2's sport

University of Kent, it was brilliant for him as it was very social. Plus he had to commit to going to the gym a couple of times each week too so kept him busy and he got to travel around the country to play games.

Yy agree re social aspect. Ds has also held positions on the committee which has to be a good thing. Sadly never played Kent as Lboro counts as north

the question was about sporty kids in general. Obviously if it’s tennis she’s focussed on then she should look at Nottingham simply due to proximity to facilities (literally across the road)

Plus I understand that other universities have varsity matches. Roses is massive though. It lasts for over a week and covers almost every competition you can imagine. Practically the whole university turns out for it and parents attend etc.

My sporty DS did maths and chemistry A levels and an MEng degree. His didn’t compete for the uni but has competed internationally since, and works in engineering - his employers have been great with time off etc. He’s found that doing sport at a high level is great for a CV (time management, team work, coaching / mentoring etc) and he said it’s a great talking point at interviews.

@Morsien

I'll try my best to answer your questions.
For uni DD applied to Cardiff, Nottingham, Exeter, Durham and Lancaster. Lancaster was her insurance choice as it was our local uni at the time and asked for AAB. She decided against Nottingham pretty early on as she felt it was too good for tennis and she'd end up on the 3rd/4th team. Exeter she decided against because she didn't really like the city. Left with Cardiff and Durham, she got an offer from both but decided she felt Cardiff was a better fit for her.
We went to open days at Cambridge, UCL and Oxford but she felt Oxbridge wouldn't be a good fit for her and she didn't want to live in London as a student (tennis wasn't great at UCL either).
She did a vacation scheme at a magic circle firm (Freshfields) and decided after that she didn't want to work there, then did a vacation scheme with a firm who specialises in sports law and they offered a training contract interview off the back of it.
If I'm honest I don't really know what she does now. I know that the football transfer windows is when she is busiest and during her training contract she did a secondment at Nike where she was working on sponsorships and brand deals, other than that no idea!

I'm not clear exactly how good OP's DD is at tennis? DS easily plays 10 hours per week in the summer (mens doubles, mixed doubles, social tennis, squad) but he plays in a decent league not county representative. He is sporty having also played county level hockey up to 18.

DS is at Durham which has (I believe) the highest level of student body participation in sport. For college he captains tennis, vice-captains hockey, plays lacrosse and was on novice rowing last year. He does not represent the University because most of those players are national level and he is not that skilled! But he has a lot of fun and manages to fit in a little studying.

DS is studying biological sciences and doesn't have a specific career in mind so is currently applying for generic graduate schemes. He has worked as a sports coach for many years and as a lifeguard and doesn't see them as longterm options.

Sorry I should have been clearer. She plays county level tennis. The 10 hours is not inclusive of any social tennis or competing that’s just average training in a week which is consistent year round.
She is unlikely to go pro but wants to continue competing at the highest level she is able.

In that case I think she should have a serious look at Nottingham as the tennis facilities are amazing and just across the road from campus and right by the tram stop https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sport/performance-sport/focus-sports/performance-tennis.aspx

If she does want to compete more seriously I would look at US uni’s.

neighbours dd has friends who’ve stayed in the uk- those on “good” or academic courses have dropped out as they can’t train and keep up with uni, or switched to a less demanding course. Even then they are struggling as they often have to miss lectures for training, or vice versa.

if your uni course is 9-5 then you can’t train with the top adult players because they train in those hours. You can’t join in with the top juniors because they tend to train straight after school at 3/4.

in the US the student athletes are treated so well. Apparently they get early access to classes, and then their academic timetable is drawn up around their training.

i don’t know how tennis works but would her current training timetable fit around the uni degree she wants to do?

Agree with @Whatamitodonow about US colleges. Two young people from DS's club have gone stateside. Both given a steer by LTA.

I thought 10 hours of training all year round plus competitions made your DD sound like a serious tennis player OP. So please see my earlier posts, and note that York and Lancaster, for all their other virtues, are not competing at particularly high levels, either in tennis or generally in sport.

To answer @Whatamitodonow 's question, both my two who went to (different) English universities had tennis training early in the morning before classes (twice a week) or later in the evening (twice a week). A bigger issue was that the higher level you play at, the less regionalised it is, so the travel can become an issue - wednesday afternoons are mostly set aside for sport, but if youre at, say, Nottingham or Loughborough and you're playing away to Stirling, that will probably necessitate an overnight stay either before or after, and that could potentially clash with classes. Everyone understands that not all players are going to be available for every match and at least with tennis you only need 4 players!

They run daily, play tennis, and have well paying jobs in the econ/ finance area.

Thing with the US as well is they are treated brilliantly.

neighbours dd was at the point of giving up because team GB were so negative, and actually told her if she wasn’t available to them at all times she was off the team. Her MH was through the floor, on antidepressants etc, and no one would help. She’s been in the Us over a year now and is doing so well, breaking records and everything. GB do not want to know.

my neighbour offloads on me quite a bit 😂

DD studied PPE at Oxford and is now studying a masters at York. She seems to play at a similar level to your DD.