Committee Members from University of Bristol’s Ladies Lacrosse share what their sport means to them:
Playing Lacrosse for the last nine years has taught me a lot about resilience, patience, teamwork, and gratitude. I’ve come to understand more about what it really means to be part of a team both on and off the pitch, and this is an invaluable skill I have carried forward into my own social and professional life. I have learned that hard work truly reaps reward, but also that there is no shame in stepping down and letting others take the lead. Dragging myself to late-night, icy training sessions, strength and conditioning workouts and nutrition talks has often felt impossible, but I have always left the pitch feeling better and stronger than when I came on. The knowledge that my team-mates were also dragging themselves to these same sessions always gave me the strength to keep pushing together, and I cannot measure the value of the resilience this has given me. But all this aside, the greatest joy of playing Lacrosse has been the countless wonderful, strong people I have been able to meet and work together with. Experiencing the exciting wins, disappointing losses and gruelling training sessions with all my team-mates has given me such a sense of community and belonging throughout the years and if I ever stop playing in the future, I will miss it greatly and remember it fondly! – Kitty Daniels
As someone who has spent most of my life in an all-girls school, I think I took for granted the enjoyment I found in playing sports with a group of women. After taking a break from lacrosse in my first year to focus on my new hobby of getting hangovers, I joined the Ladies Lacrosse team in second year in order to regain some structure and fitness. It was really interesting to me how even if I left for training cold, wet and/or miserable, and it rained the whole time, I always came back home feeling full of energy and ready to take on the challenges that seemed impossible two hours earlier. The exercise endorphins play a large part in this but I’ve also realised how cathartic I find it to play a woman’s sport. It’s fun to get angry and competitive and not care who’s watching. It’s fun to win together and celebrate ourselves. For me personally, growing up in a girl’s only environment led me to associate women with a safe space. Obviously, this thinking has its pros and cons, and I’ve definitely grown up and come out of my shell since school, but I think joining the club has reminded me of all the best bits of growing up with girls. The camaraderie and the friendships that develop in a space that’s exclusively female have always been important to me and I’m glad the club gave me the opportunity to re-capture this feeling. – Lucy Cooper
Sport has been at the forefront of my life since I was 3 years old. Until the age of 13, I was an elite gymnast and, although I was in a female dominated environment, my awareness of the struggles women were confronting as athletes was small. The strong, resilient gymnasts and coaches around me built the foundations of my passion for succeeding. When I made the transition into lacrosse at school, for me, sport created a route towards celebrating women in the game. I have been equipped with the skillsets I have today thanks to sport. Not only have I learnt more about who I am as a person, a very competitive one it turns out, but I recognised that being a part of a female sporting community gives you the power to encourage women of all ages to get involved in celebrating other strong women. Barriers are broken down in sport in a way unlike any other environment. No matter what language you speak, your background, your ethnicity or age, you are able to communicate with other like-minded people who share a passion for striving for success. In fact, if I have been enthused by anything this lockdown, it has been seeing the other Women’s Lacrosse players continue their sporting journey during these bleak months. Despite some ups and downs, I have loved every second of being an athlete. The experiences and friendships that I have gained over the past 17 years are invaluable to me! – Inarah Manji
This article is part of a themed content week celebrating Women in Sport. Thanks to all the teams and societies who have helped make this possible!