Hartford College embraces Sport for Life – a longer-term view of active wellness than that adopted by the vast majority of schools.  Sport for Life taps into each individual boy’s innate desire for active skills. Why does it matter? How does Hartford College enable Sport for Life for young men?

What is Sport for Life?

Sport, physical activity and recreation are essential to the health and wellbeing of children. And adults! That’s why maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle is a habit that needs to be formed when young and maintained over the course of a lifetime.

Hartford College aims to untap a passion for sport in each student. For some, this will be team sports on the weekend, for others it will be individual sports that require dedicated skill and a significant investment in time as they grow. Our philosophy is to develop skills that will last the lifetime of the boy.

Why is Sport for Life important?

Sport and physical activity are a lot more fun when we’re aware of the associated benefits and provided with the guidance to realise those benefits. That’s where Hartford College’s Sport for Life program comes in – if we want children to be active for life, ideally they will need to develop an affinity with sport and physical health at a young age.

Sport for Life at Hartford is about imparting the motivation, confidence and understanding for young men to take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.

How does Hartford enable Sport for Life?

We place an emphasis on sports that are accessible and culturally suited to the geography of the school. This means a diverse offering including tennis, mountain biking, surfing, golf, fencing, shooting, horse riding, skiing, bushwalking and water polo. All easily accessible from Hartford.

Boys will be encouraged to try their hand at a range of sports but also to develop a sustained interest in the activities that they enjoy the most. The goal is to learn perseverance and to nourish the desire to master pursuits that will sustain their interest not just at the age of 16 but also at 56. We focus on the following:

Motivation and Confidence – a boy’s enthusiasm for, enjoyment of, and self-assurance in adopting physical activity as an integral part of life.

Physical Capability – a boy’s ability to develop skills and to experience a variety of active intensities and durations. Enhanced physical capability allows for the exploration of a greater range of physical activities and settings.

Engagement – refers to taking personal responsibility by choosing to be active regularly. Hartford encourages the sustained involvement in a range of meaningful and personally challenging activities and sports, as an essential part of one’s life – at school and beyond.