A Day In the Life – in athlete lockdown with table tennis player Charlotte Bardsley

Name: Charlotte Bardsley

Studying: A-Levels

Sport: Table Tennis

8am Each morning I try to get up at the same time.

8:30am I do physical training first thing, with the aim of improving my general fitness so that I can perform well when things (hopefully) return to normal and to keep on track with my S&C goals. The programme has obviously been adapted somewhat because of limited equipment at home. Nevertheless, due to the support of TASS, especially the S&C at the University of Birmingham, they have modified my programme, so I am able to do a lot still at home. I find it enjoyable to plan different workouts as it keeps me motivated when I am doing new or interesting exercises.

9:30am Fortunately, I have access to a Table Tennis table, so I am taking advantage of the time in lockdown to practice my serve, an area of my game that I would like to improve. Table Tennis requires a training partner, but I don’t have access to anyone, so I am making the most of my situation by doing shadow play and taking shots against a table tennis robot.

11:00am With school over, I am using the additional time to prepare for future university study by reading around my subjects, particularly History and Politics, supplementing this by watching online lectures to keep mentally active. I do this for a couple of hours each day, which is similar to the schedule of a school day.

1:00pm Lunch and catch up with family who have been working from home.

2:00pm I continue studying.

5:00pm onwards Go for a walk and get some fresh air. Of course, social media is a great way to stay in touch with friends and teammates and I spend some time in the early evening online.

7pm Normally, I arrive home late from training and my Mum cooks but now this is an opportunity to develop new life skills which means I am learning to cook so that when I train abroad I can look after myself. I also try and help around the home, after all, my parents have given up a lot of their time to support me.

8pm TV catch up and watching Box Sets.

My Advice: I think it is important to maintain some form of routine as I find this keeps me focussed and ensures that I am getting the most out of the day. Each night I write a check list of things I want to achieve the next day and I have found this to be really beneficial because it helps me to stay on track.