Teaming up with the family

Sport doesn't have to come to a halt just because we become parents. Combine parenting with exercise for a healthy balance, writes SHEILA WAYMAN

RUGBY WAS Steven Cautley’s main sporting passion in his youth, playing for Blackrock College as a schoolboy and then at senior club level. But he was also a keen water skier from the age of eight and continued recreational swimming and running into adulthood.

All that changed when he and his wife Lucy started a family 12 years ago, “I backed off all my sports”. It took what a friend jokingly referred to as his mid-life crisis – at the age of 35 – to get him back on track.

He had been working in the print industry in Santry, north Dublin, spending up to three-and-a-half hours a day commuting from their home in Killiney, Co Dublin. “I was getting heavier and heavier; I was up to 16-and-a-half stone.”

In 2004, Cautley set up a print consultancy business working from home and took those three-and-a-half hours back – using them to get fit again. He started joining Lucy, a keen swimmer, former national waterskiing champion and ballerina, in going to the Fitzpatrick Castle Fitness Centre in Killiney.

It was an affirmation of the importance of a healthy balance of mind and fitness which they both believe in for themselves and their three children.

Cautley is an example of how early parenthood can derail participation in sport. After muddling through the baby years, we re-emerge on the sports field as mere spectators, shouting on the under-fives team and chauffeuring them to and from matches.

There never seems to be enough time to take ourselves off to the swimming pool, tennis club or golf course – when we’re not at work, we feel we should be with the children or catching up with chores.

But it does not have to be a question of either exercise or family time if you can find an activity that combines both. Playing sport together brings huge benefits to a family in terms of health and bonding, as well as time management.

For a start, parents are helping to set their children up for a life of good health, says David Egan, a physiologist and founder of RedBranch, an organisation that promotes healthy lifestyle choices for children. “We know when parents are active, their children are more likely to be active in turn.”

There are a lot of health benefits for the middle-aged parents too. We have high rates of heart disease and certain cancers in this country that don’t happen by accident, he says, but often result from a lifetime of bad habits.

We don’t have to allow our lives to become more sedentary with every passing year. “Very often as adults, we write ourselves out of these activities: ‘In my 40s I can’t do this, I can’t do that’. It is all rubbish,” he stresses.

“Most parents would surprise themselves if they did get involved and allowed themselves to have fun. They would feel so much better for it and have more energy.”

Exercising together is also a bonding experience. “If you have frustrations, doing something physical together is often very beneficial,” says Egan.

As a parent of four children ranging in age from 15 to seven, he is a great believer in good-humoured competition within the family. “It is great to see a child doing better than you. If you are going to be beaten by anybody, be beaten by your kids. You can be proud of them and happy that they are doing it.”

Steven and Lucy Cautley are already well outpaced in the pool by the oldest of their three children, Jasmine (12). Zofja (10) and eight-year-old Naoise also swim with Trojan swimming club in Blackrock, Co Dublin. To call them a “sporty family” hardly does justice to the amount of activity they pack into their lives.

There are 5am wake-up calls for the girls for swim training before school two or three times a week, as well as a couple of evening sessions. Jasmine also trains on Saturday mornings with the Leinster high performance squad in the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown and clocks up about 13 hours swimming a week,

Zofja, in addition to nine hours swimming a week, does eight hours of gymnastics with the Trojan academy in Ballyogan, south Dublin. She also plays football, hockey and basketball with Glenageary and Killiney National School, while Jasmine plays hockey at Loreto Dalkey, where she is also on the cross-country running team.

Naoise plays football and hockey with the national school, swims with Trojans three or four hours a week, plays rugby for Seapoint on Sundays and, like his sisters, runs with the Dalkey Dashers in the summer.

The children “absolutely love” their sports, says their dad, and there is no question of them being “pushy parents”. “You do get pushy parents in swimming, but kids don’t last. If they are doing it reluctantly because their parents want to do it, they just won’t compete at a high level because the drive has to come from them.”

To reduce the pressure on Zofja, they are trying to get her to choose between gymnastics and swimming. “She is at a level now where she can’t do both on a competitive level.”

In between “trucking around” the children, mum and dad have found time to train for and compete in triathlons, marathons and long-distance cycle events.

Demanding schedules and progression to different levels means they do not all swim or cycle together as much as they did when the children were younger. But water skiing is the one sport they continue to do together as a family, on summer Sunday afternoons in Ballymore Eustace, Co Wicklow – bringing Cautley back to his childhood.

SPORTING CHANCE: WHERE TO GO TO GET YOUR FAMILY GOING

COST AND enjoyment are the biggest considerations for families choosing physical activities, says Giles Warrington, sport and exercise physiologist at DCU. "The main thing is to have fun, variety and social interaction."

Walking forest trails, cycling at the weekend when roads are quieter and orienteering are low-cost activities. He also suggests bringing a ball and cones to a park, where you can make up your own games.

And it is worth remembering that free play outdoors is much more beneficial for younger children than any organised sport.

What activities might work best for you as a family will depend on ages, likes and dislikes but, broadly, low-impact sports that do not involve body contact are ideal for all ages together. Here are some ideas:

WALKING

This is undoubtedly the easiest and most cost-efficient physical activity for all the family, whether it is simply to get somewhere, or to enjoy a park, beach, forest or mountain. But children's stamina and boredom threshold are lower than adults', so keep it short and sweet if you don't want a mutiny on your hands.

A family day out walking is "great in theory but not in practice", says Anne Morrissey of the Walkers Association of Ireland.

Two to three hours is the maximum, she suggests. Although organised hillwalking is generally an adult affair, some clubs have family sections and hold shorter walks.

See walkersassociation.ie

SWIMMING

Children are never too young to start and there has been a big growth in "parent and baby" classes. If you go to a pool as a family, parents can take turns at minding the little ones and at exerting themselves by swimming lengths.

"Learning to swim is a fundamental life skill that can be achieved and developed at any age, making swimming a sport for all and a sport for life," says Saleena Shaw of Swim Ireland, which has developed teaching programmes that are used at pools around the country, for anybody from babies to grandparents.

See swimireland.ie

WATER SPORTS

Family holidays are a great time to try water sports and see if the bug bites enough to make them a habit.

We may be an island nation but traditionally "we don't look to the sea for recreation, which is very strange", says the editor of Afloatmagazine, David O'Brien. Sailing is a sport for life, he points out, and cites cases of three generations of the same family competing together.

Children need to be able to swim before taking up water sports, so they usually begin surfing and sailing lessons from about the age of eight, while 12 upwards is recommended for kayaking.

Surfing is one of the fastest growing water sports here, along with coastal kayaking.

Cliodhna Fawl, chairwoman of the West Coast Surf Club in Lahinch, Co Clare, says the generation who took part in the Irish surfing boom of the 1990s are now bringing their children to the sport.

See isasurf.ie and sailing.ie

HORSE-RIDING

This is another activity which families often sample on holiday. All ages and abilities can be facilitated with appropriate mounts at riding schools and trekking centres – look for places approved by the Association of Irish Riding Establishments. Helmets and back protectors are provided.

See aire.ie

MOUNTAIN BIKING

The beauty of mountain biking for families is that there are no cars to worry about, whether it is a ride in the countryside or racing which appeals. The coillteoutdoors.ie website lists forest bike trails and offroadcyclingireland.ie includes a directory of clubs, many of which run introductory sessions to the sport.

Age categories in cross-country racing range from the under eights to over 50s, while the more daring downhill races would be for under 14s and upwards.

Race entries were up 20 per cent in 2010 on the previous year, according to the secretary of the Cycling Ireland Offroad Commission, Fergal Kilkenny, indicating the boom the sport is enjoying.

If you want to try it without buying any equipment, you can hire bikes at Ballinastoe Mountain Bike Park near Roundwood, Co Wicklow, for use on 14km of purpose-built bike trails. But the bikes do need to be booked in advance with biking.ie (tel 083-4346992), which will also deliver them to other trails.

See coillteoutdoors.ie and offroadcyclingireland.ie

ORIENTEERING

It may be a marginal sport in this country but orienteering, which combines running and map-reading, is ideal for families, being like a treasure hunt to the children.

Some events cater for children as young as three and four, who follow strings to find images of some of their favourite characters, such as Postman Pat and Barney, explains Lindie Naughton of the Three Rock Orienteering Club in Dublin.

The best way to try the sport is to turn up to an event or contact a club listed on the Irish Orienteering Association's Website.

See orienteering.ie

TENNIS

Every summer, for a few weeks during and after Wimbledon, there is a flurry of activity on public tennis courts, but for the rest of the year they are often under-used. They are cheap to hire and some provide rackets and balls as well.

The best quality courts open to the public, both indoor and outdoor, are at the National Tennis Centre in Albert College Park in Glasnevin, Dublin (tel: 01-7007407) and are available at selected times, with prices starting at €10 per hour for an outdoor court.

Outside Dublin, public courts are more scarce. The parks tennis coaching programme is a great introduction to the sport for children and its website indicates where your nearest public courts might be.

Families should try parks tennis first and see if they want to progress to club membership, advises Aileen Rogan of Tennis Ireland, which has a directory of clubs on its website.

See tennisireland.ie and parkstennis.com

GOLF

For some parents, the golf course is probably valued as somewhere to escape the family – not a place to bring them. But in the current economic climate, clubs, particularly rural ones, are becoming more flexible and encouraging families, says Anne Marie Hughes, director of development at Junior Golf Ireland, who recommends it as a sport for children aged eight upwards. With the provision of junior and senior tees on holes, families can play short rounds together.

Outside the expensive and often exclusive club structure, a local driving range is the best place to start.

Most ranges will have their own PGA professional with whom introductory lessons can be booked. At Gorey Driving Range in Co Wexford, for example, a basket of 100 balls costs €10 and can be shared; golf clubs are provided free if necessary.

ARCHERY

This is one for budding Robin Hoods – particularly field archery, which is a bit like a hunter's version of golf.

It involves small groups walking around a course shooting at paper pictures or 3D models of animals and accumulating scores.

Shooting distances, as in static target archery, are staggered to accommodate different ages and abilities.

The best way to get started is to find a club near you and sign up the family for a beginner's course, for which all equipment will be provided.

See archery.ie or irishfieldarchery.com