Sport > Case Studies

Sport

Whether outdoor or indoor, team or individual, students at Sussex benefit from being able to get involved in a wide range of competitive and leisure activities provided by the Union and the University.

Sport at Sussex is broad and diverse with something for everyone, regardless of experience so whether you're into running, catching, climbing, skiing or hitting things with sticks why not take a look at what's on offer?

You can take a look at our list of sports clubs, find out about membership and other sports opportunities including sports facilities, gym and classes. We also have information for sports club committee members.

► Case Studies

Has sport made your time at Sussex better?

Joining a sports team allowed me to play the sport I love, keep fit and best of all meet hundreds of new people! The sport teams also give you a chance to help run the club and having been on the committee for women’s football for three years as social secretary, 1st team captain and club captain, it helped me to build my confidence, organisational skills and leadership skills. Joining a sports team was probably the best decision I made when I joined university.

Has being involved in Students’ Union Sport improved your fitness/performance?

I was very experienced at playing a lot of sports when I joined university so I had been used to playing at fairly high standards, although lots of my team-mates were not. We have two teams so the beginners could work on basic skills and the more experienced players worked on more advanced skills so everyone was able to improve their performance. Training sessions were rarely dominated by fitness work but three hours of training a week plus a match as well as encouragement to go to the gym really helps to keep you fit even if you do decide to live off junk food!

Did Students’ Union Sport help you to socialise and make friends?

You end up spending vast amounts of time with your teammates and not just at training and matches. Most sport teams have weekly socials, sometimes even daily socials! Some of the things I’ve done with my team include; going on the sports tour to Spain or Italy four times, going for meals, bowling, paintball, the beach, Festivals, trips to Newquay, trips to theme parks, football matches, poker nights, movie nights, cocktail nights and regularly going to a pub or club. You’re likely to make your very best friends from the sports teams! Many people even end up living with their teammates! Not only do you make friends within your team but also many teams have weekly socials together and you make many friends through other teams. I even ended up joining additional sport teams because of the friends I made through football.

What were your personal achievements and highlights?

Every year there are highlights such as the Sports’ Tour, Quad-nations (where football, netball, rugby and hockey play each other at each others’ sports), Varsity (each Sussex team plays each Brighton team at their sports) and the Sports Ball. Some of my most memorable times at Sussex include leading my team to promotion to the 1st division, playing in a national cup quarter final and winning an award at the sports ball for my participation for my club. As well as easily winning Quad-nations for our first time in my final year! I think one of my biggest achievements was fighting for our club to go from a 1 team club to a 2 team club and winning during my 2nd year and since helping to vastly increase the size of our club from about 20 members to over 40!

Anna Cornish - Women’s Football 1st Team Captain

Sport at Sussex was great - it made my time at Uni! From getting into sports, and general fitness, making friends and sorting work out for afterwards - the lot. I got involved in sailing there and ended up on a yacht for 18 months. After that, having been involved in the running of sports clubs definitely helped with getting job offers for 4 or 5 graduate placements: From finance, to engineering to geophysics. Now I'm getting back into canoeing, still sailing and have 2 seasons of (very slow) triathlons under my belt. None of which I'd be doing if I hadn't got the bug for sports and more importantly sports clubs, whilst at Sussex. I almost wish I did more!

Kathy Klaka – Canoe & Sailing

From initially joining the rugby team as a fresher, which I always intended to do, I was immediately able to gain a huge circle of friends of varying ages, backgrounds and experiences in life and at university. This was invaluable as a fresher as I could always ask people questions, however mundane about university life, academia or just where was good to get an enormous breakfast at 4am in Brighton. Sports clubs are also unique in that they draw lots of different people with different interests etc but with a common link in the sport they play, which is different to the way you usually make friends.

As I progressed through uni, I took up firstly the secretary role of the club in the 2nd year, and 1st XV captain in my third year. this gave me a lot of responsibility, and has frankly been the most important and talked about element of my CV post uni. I cant stress enough how much employers look favourably on that kind of extra curricular activity, and it can really make up for some other lapses in grades or whatever. This is especially important when you see the numbers of people graduating now with a 2:1.

Nick Allen-Perry – Men’s Rugby

I had some really tough times at Uni and being part of the hockey team helped get me through it and keep me at Sussex. I made lots of really great friends that I still see regularly now and made my time at university what it was. I hadn't played hockey much at all before so I got to learn a new skill which I still enjoy playing now. It kept me fit and happy during my three years at uni.

Lauryn Davies – Women's Hockey

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