Collection of case studies of school students who succeeded in balancing school career with the passion for sport.
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STUDENT INFORMATION

Name of the student:
Kasper Kotkansalo

Country:
Finland

Sport:
Hockey
SCHOOL INFORMATION

Name of the School:
Haukilahti High School

School Typology:
High School

Address:
Koulutanhua 3, 01270 Espoo

Tel:
+ 358 9 816 35548

Web site:
www.haukilahdenlukio.fi

E-mail:
[email protected]
CASE STUDY

The Context:
I started to play icehockey when I was five years old. I wentt then on my first practices and fell in love with the icehoceky right away.
My parents supported me by taking me to the practices and in evreything else, too. They still some to watch my games often. The icehockey clubs (EPS and Blues) have always provided high quality coaching.
Being part of a team has certainly made me more social and open-minded.
At school wa have a gym, but I never go there, because I have my hockey and other practices at the icehockey hall, which is situated very close to my school. The physical education at school is fun, because there you are able to try also other sports than icehockey.
I think that there s a lot of support for the youth sports in Finland, but there are no resources for improving the sports on a high level. For example they do a lot for it in Germany.

Balancing Sport and Education:
When you really practice sports, you have to live 24 / 7 as an athlete; this means nutrition, rest and practices. I practice about 3,5 hours every day, which means about 25 hours weekly for practices. I study about 5 hours oer day at school. I do my homework about two times a week.
My successes in my sport activity: Finnish championship in C-juniors.
I think that I have taken good care of my studies at school, my school grades are around 8 (out of 10).
I am often tired after the practices and I forget to do my homework. I also have to be often absent from the lessons because of the hockey games. However, icehockey has taught me work ethic and I know that I am able to achieve very good results at school, too.
I cannot imagine myself without sports. It is difficult to say if I could study as well if I did not play hockey.
It has always been natural to go to school in addition to play hockey. If my school had an own icehockey team, it would help balancing sports and studies.

Future Perspectives:
I will go to the university for playing icehockey and after that I will play icehockey in NHL and get my living from it.