Lab 1 - The Value of Sport
Honours Lab 1 – The Value of Sport
The world of sports in constantly changing and is linked to developments in our society. As an honours student we are supposed to explore the value of sport in this society and how we can contribute to that value. One of the first things we were supposed to do, is to determine what our own passion is and what we are really curious about.
Determining my passion and finding out what I really want is something that I struggled with and which I saw as a big obstacle. In the first weeks of the honours program I really thought of that a lot because I was insecure of which route to choose for the honours program, and together with Tynke we came to the conclusion that I don’t have one specific plan yet, but that I will focus on the things that I like (connected to sports) for this lab. One of the reasons for this is that I don’t know what I want and that I would like to focus on multiple things, to find out what I really like and get some experiences in different kind of working areas. This was also one of the reasons that I wanted to start with the honours program. For the first honours lab, I created some goals which I wanted to start on working during this period of six months. The goals can be described as:
- Let my network grow, connect with people from different working areas
- Enhance myself with knowledge outside of school
- Give more attention to what I like to improve
- Learn how to make decisions
- Find out what I really want?!
In the text below, the most important goals for myself will be described together with the results. With this, a connection will be made with the Learning Outcomes.
Let my network grow
One of the things I wanted to reach during the first honours lab, was letting my network grow. I really like to connect with people, also from different cultures or backgrounds. In my opinion is a good network in the sports field, a good start for following my dreams. I want to do my final internship at a larger organization or company, and in order to get there and follow my dreams, a network is necessary. Letting my network grow, started already in the first weeks of the honours program, and reflection on the past six months I can say that my network grew a lot. Let me explain a few examples of where my network grew:
Internship Topsport NOORD: in October 2021, I started my second years internship at the organization Topsport NOORD. By starting this internship, my network grew immense. I got to talk to all of the employees, but also to some trainers and coaches of speedskating teams. I tried to make as much as LinkedIn connections as possible and by showing the best version of myself, they gave me positive feedback with can be of influence for my further (sports)career.
Final meeting Erasmus+ EnRoute project: in the beginning of the first period of the second year we started with some new courses. One of the courses was Sport Entrepreneurship and Innovation, given by Gerco van Dalfsen and Ben Hattink. During this course, they challenged my class to participate in the online EnRoute environment, and the person who reached the highest percentage was asked to join Ben and Gerco for the finale EnRoute meeting in Italy, Padova. I saw this as a huge opportunity to let my network grow and to put myself in a new environment where I could learn a lot, so I directly started working in the online environment and I won the price. In December 2021, I joined Gerco, Ben and Tamar for a trip to Italy. Stepping into this environment, with people from different international universities, was really interesting and showed me some insights in the other side of sports. I got to talk to some of the people and showed my skills by giving a presentation with only one slide and by improvising, while all the other universities used more than 30 slides and talked exactly what was on the PowerPoint. We got some compliments for that.
Of course there where other situations where I was able to let my network grow, but the examples above where situations where I had to step out of my comfort zone and show that my presentation skills improved during the first year of Sport Studies, as well as my English level. This goal can mainly be connected to learning outcomes 1 and 2, the student shows authentic behaviour and the student is enterprising.
Enhance myself with knowledge outside of school / Sport Studies
When you go to school, you learn the things that you are supposed to learn and you develop yourself in the areas that you are working on. But what I really like is to develop myself in more than one topic or direction. Because I am quite busy, I don’t have that much time left to follow some extra courses, but I do have time to read books, listen to podcasts or watch documentaries. I think that the books that I read and the documentaries that I watch, will also help me to become the best possible sports professional and will help me to find my way to what I will become. At the beginning of this college year, I started with making a list of books that I want to read and why. This can be books related to sports but also books about Spanish or other books. As can be seen in my roadmap (see ‘Find out what I really want’), I also wanted to start working on my Spanish level because Spanish is one of the world languages and in the future I want to work in Spain or do my final internship in there. For honours, I can see this as a bonus because every time that I work on my Spanish is more than nothing. When going on a excursion to Barcelona for European Vital Cities, I tried to talk as much Spanish as I could. I know that it’s not perfect yet, but I learned that I just have to practice it in real life because otherwise you won’t go further in your learning process.
One of the books that was on the list and that I read in the last period, learned me a lot about how your mindset can influence your life and daily routine. This is the book of Mark Tuitert ‘Drive’. By looking different towards certain situations, I gained a lot of self-knowledge and knowledge that I can use to also help others look different towards those situations.
By reading books, listen to multiple podcasts or by watching documentaries this goal can be connected with learning outcomes 2 and 3. The student is enterprising and the student makes learning behaviour visible.
Give more attention to what I like to improve
Here the main part of my attention for the first lab of honours comes to light. I am a really busy person, and in my daily life most of my attention goes to the things that are scheduled or things that I already do and which I really like. But my busy schedule leads to the fact that I don’t make time for new things or things that I like and also want to improve. One of these things is sports photography. In 2019 I ruptured my ACL in my left knee and needed a surgery in order to play sports again. This meant a revalidation period of more then a year, a year that I wasn’t able to play any matches. In this period, I found out that I hate to watch the matches of my own team and that I wanted to do something during those matches. I knew that I liked making pictures, so at the second match that I had to watch I took my camera with me and made pictures and shared them with my teammates afterwards. They were really happy with the pictures and asked me to make more, so every match I made pictures during the period that I was injured. My pictures where used for the Instagram accounts and other social media canals of the team and of the club.
But in 2020 I was able to play matches again, and with that I had no time anymore to make pictures. There were moments that I took pictures of other matches from other teams, but not as much as I wanted. For this honours lab I wanted to put some effort in this working area and make some time for myself to focus on this. The final goal is that I want to make pictures during matches and events of people close to me and share my pictures on different levels such as social media.
In order to improve myself, I bought different folders and books about photography to gain some knowledge of different situations when making photos. It was all about light, background, filters, editing etc. One of the glossies that helped me a lot is Zoom. Zoom is a glossy with tips for photographers, but they also have a Instagram account where they daily share tips and tricks. This helped me a lot.
I found time to make pictures, combining it with my other jobs. As a manager of GHBS JB1, I made pictures during the matches which they could use for their social media canals, and as head trainer of the Youngest Youth of HC de Hondsrug I could make pictures during the practices while also helping the trainers giving the practices. One of the problems I faced while doing this, are the privacy rules and restrictions that clubs need to follow and that I needed to ask all the parents if they were okay with me making pictures. This is one of the things that I find the most difficult and also gives me less joy, but the reactions afterwards are a good equalizer.
For the future: I already planned to make my own Instagram account for photography, named Staats Sportivity and Pictures, but I also want to share the pictures on my own website. The main goal for the future is to keep improving myself in this area, with one of the thins on the planning is to make the pictures during the event that Marko will host for his honours project.
This goal can be connected to all of the four learning outcomes, because it is the main part of my project for the first lab.
Learn how to make decisions
Since I am young, I have troubles with decision making. I always doubt about the choices that I make and consider if there are better options or if the choices are wrong. This was one of the things I discussed with Tynke, and together we came to the idea that I can start with working on this by reading some literature. As advice, she recommended the book ‘Thinking fast and thinking slow’ by Daniel Kahneman. This is a book about decision-making and our underlaying reasons for making certain decisions. As a goal for this lab, I wanted to start reading the book and see if I could learn something from this kind of high-level literature. This can be connected to learning outcome 3, the student makes learning behaviour visible.
Find out what I really want?!
Before I had my conversation with Tynke, this was my main goal for the first lab of honours, because I was really insecure about the fact that I didn’t knew what I wanted to work on. This also can be connected to the fact that I like to do a lot of things, that I have to find out what makes me the happiest and this can’t be achieved in one day. During my conversation with Tynke, but also with my study coach, family and other students, I came to the conclusion that I will give this goal more time and set some sub-goals. As Tynke said, it is great that I have a broad set of interests and that I just need to try out different things and find out what gives me energy. During this period, I learned that there are so many roads you can take that there is not one correct way. You can make a route for yourself as a ‘guide’, but it is oke to take a short cut or a different route in the end. It’s all about being happy. The book of Mark Tuitert (Drive) really helped me in creating this mindset, and I will use the assignments of his book to help myself visualize what makes me happy and to set goals for the upcoming period. Also the roadmap I made for year 2 of Sport Studies and the conversations I have with Ans Kremer helps me in following and creating my own road. This goal can be connected to learning outcome 4, the student dares to experiment. Also learning outcome 1 is visible in this goal, the student shows authentic behaviour.
Reflection
The first lab resulted In multiple roads going different ways, but in the end coming together. All with the connector of learning, sports and improving myself. I started with working on all the goals and made a good process during the first lab. I liked the environment around honours, really open and being surrounded by people with the same interests but doing different things inspires me. It’s sad that the group of honours became so small in a short time of period because in my opinion we can learn a lot from each other and help each other develop. I noticed that I was doing a lot of stuff at the same time, so I was looking for a structured way to approach things because it became a bit of a chaos. Normally I am structured and chaos is something that is out of my dictionary, but it was good to experience it in this kind of setting. Chaos can be a negative thing, but it can also help you to figure out some things and help to see the bigger picture. Because this first lab was really individual, I hope to work with my honours colleagues more often in the next lab. It’s not that I don’t it to work on my own, but working together with someone or in a group inspires me and I hope that this will happen in the next period.
Looking back on my goals and the honours meetings from the first lab, I can say that I grew in an individual way. I don’t stress to much anymore, which felt really weird the first time that I had to hand in an assignment. I learned how to let things go more and more but still have the same focus. I hope that I can help other people with that in the upcoming period. Finding out what I want is still a ‘problem’ but also by following the next honours lab I hope to find out what makes me happy so that I can focus on those things.