Although it ended in defeat, the England football team’s valiant run to the Euro 2020 final has reminded the whole country of sport’s stirring potential. The same can be said of Emma Raducanu’s efforts in reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon. Ivy Education are big believers in sport’s power to boost young people’s prospects in other areas of their life as are we at JRN – so we have teamed up with Ivy Education to explore how we can help students make their way to the top tier of academia in tandem with sport.
To do that, we’ll look at how sport benefits learning (and vice versa), how Ivy can help with the education of top athletes and how they can help young athletes apply for sports scholarships in the USA.
Mind and Body: how sports and education are mutually beneficial
There is a myriad of ways in which seeking high achievement in both sport and schoolwork are mutually beneficial.
First of all (and at a basic level), exercise is known to improve mental health, and incorporating regular physical activity into education leads to better learning outcomes. Students who exercise regularly are less likely to suffer from depression and frequently find it easier to apply sustained focus to their lessons. The evidence suggests, therefore, that making sport part of your life as a student should bring benefits to your study.
For students playing sport at a high level, the discipline and habits for cultivating success – discipline, routine, motivation, ambition – are all equally applicable to academic learning. The same, of course, is true the other way around. Success breeds success, the old cliché goes, and attaining excellence in sport or academia can fuel desire to excel in the other field.
There’s no better recent example of this than Emma Raducanu, the tennis player who reached the fourth round of Wimbledon while sitting her A-level exams (in which she is expected to get As and A*s). Prominent footballers and football managers, including Marcus Rashford and Frank Lampard, have also been forthright on the importance of education for young footballers.
Where tuition comes in
It is true, however, that trying to excel at both sport and education can be a challenge. Both endeavours are huge commitments on a young person’s time and require persistence and dedication. Private tutoring, however, can help young athletes stay on top of their learning and maximise their study time.
Private tutoring for athletes is especially beneficial when under the direction of a company such as Ivy. Two of their core values are to prioritise cogent and comprehensive learning plans for students, whilst using academic consultations to direct learning. These two values are especially important for athletes: given the demands of training, competitions and fixtures on an athlete’s time, they need to make sure that any time spent on education is laser-focused on precisely their needs. Ivy Education works with their students and tutors to ensure exactly this.
Aside from the specific benefits Ivy brings to the table, the format of one-to-one tuition is also uniquely suited to helping young athletes maintain academic excellence. Firstly, private tuition is flexible around the needs of the student: lessons can be arranged around a student’s sports training and fixture calendar as required. Ivy’s tutors, meanwhile, target lessons to cover the material the student needs and ensure that time is spent efficiently. The one-to-one format, finally, ensures that tutors can cover more content in a single lesson, while covering specific areas of weakness. It’s not dissimilar to an athlete’s relationship with a coach, where they look to improve individual aspects of technique and mentality.
Sports scholarship to US universities
Taking this mutually beneficial relationship further, many US universities offer sports scholarships, where students can continue to both play sports and study at high levels, whilst potentially saving money on college fees to boot.
Ivy Education has written many Insights which detail the wealth of experience our consultants have on US university entrance (visit their site for a full list Ivy Education’s insights), and sports scholarships are no exception.
US sports scholarships offer students the opportunity to play competitive, college-level sport whilst simultaneously studying for a degree, with money provided towards tuition, accommodation, and living expenses. Pretty much any sport you can think of is offered somewhere, including team sports such as football (and its American equivalent) or hockey, and more individual sports like golf or tennis.
These are highly sought-after opportunities, however, which demand that the applicants not only reach very high attainment in their chosen sport, but also maintain academic excellence at the same time. At the same time, the process of applying to university (college) in the US often appears complicated to international students. Overall, it’s a lot for a student to get their head around. This is where Ivy can come in, and offer not only direction on the college application and how to go about it, but also devise a schedule of work and training which will cater for both your academic and sporting needs.
Conclusion
Overall, for students interested in following a sporty pathway to top-tier academic success, private tuition and consultancy can be a vital cog in the machine. Study and sport, moreover, can work together beautifully to encourage ambition and success.
If you would like to discuss any of the ideas raised in this Insight further, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Ivy Education today.
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