Post 14: Getting Creative While Keeping Active

Hi all, I hope you are all keeping safe and well while we #StayAtHome during this uncertain time. If you’re like me, you may be finding it tough to stay active at home at the moment. I’m a bit of a sports freak, and i’m really missing not having any sport to watch or take part in at the moment, but i’m doing my best to keep active and practicing as much as I can.

Being creative doesn’t always mean engaging in arts & crafts, in fact creativity comes in all shapes and sizes! I’ve really enjoyed seeing how people have been getting creative while playing some sports during these times and wanted to share a few ideas as to how you might be able to do the same!

I’m a big golfer, so naturally i’m drawn to all idea’s golf related. I really enjoyed this idea from the Confederation of Golf in Ireland and it even has a nice creative reuse angle 🙂 All you need is an old shoebox, a bit of paper to cover it and your imagination! Simply cut 4 different holes out of the box, each a different size, and allow points for each hole (10 points for the biggest hole, 20 for the second, 30 for the third, and 50 points for the smallest hole). Check it out below.

I’m very lucky to have a little field around the corner from my house, and i’ve been spending some of my exercise time practicing there. I wanted to focus on my chip and pitch shots, so having a bit more space is perfect. I also wanted to give myself a target to aim at, so i had a look around my house for something that might work. Now I like to think i’m pretty good at golf, but i’m not that good!! So I quickly knew that a bucket, box or hat would be too tough for me. Then I had the idea of using an umbrella, which is actually great because the semi circle shape is perfect for keeping the balls inside it.

The key thing here is to start at small distances of 5 or 10 yards. Please only move the umbrella further away if you have a safe space to do so. (I can assure you that no windows were harmed in the making of this blog post.)

This activity can work for a number of sports. Why not try it out if you play Hurling/Camogie, Soccer, Rugby or Gaelic Football. It encourages you to practice your accuracy and is very enjoyable.

Speaking of soccer, I came across this brilliant piece of creativity posted by Sarah-Jayne Tobin on Twitter. Sarah-Jaynes son Nathan is a budding young goalkeeper, and unfortunately had nobody to practice with him. But did that stop him? Not one bit 🙂 Nathan has shown brilliant creativity to bring his goal up close to his back wall, and use the wall to help sharpen his reflexes!

Nathans creativity has seen him become a viral sensation, with professional goalkeepers David De Gea, Peter Schmeichel and Petr Cech all reaching out to him to share their approval, so well done Nathan!

There have also been lots of creative skills “challenges” being shared online, with Dublin GAA star Ciaran Kilkenny leading the charge. Ciaran has been posting Skills Challenges each day which encourage people to get involved and use what they have around them to do so. You can check some of them all out on Ciarans Twitter or Instagram pages, but below is todays challenge.

So that’s all from me for today, it’s great to see so many people embracing their own creative side at the moment, I could add lots more to this post, but will save some for another day. I hope you’ve found this post useful and maybe it will help you get creative with your own sports and hobbies whatever they may be. We’d love for you to send us some of your creative skill games or just fun games you come up with while staying at home. We’re currently sharing peoples Stay Home Creations of all kinds on our Digital Exhibition page, check it out!

Stay well folks, and I hope you can continue to combine your creativity with being active also!

Kevin 🙂