Shift: Shift: Sports

Sports and physical health

Close up picture of a football by Elvert Barnes

Mad About Football

Playing football not only improves your physical health, it can also boost your self-esteem, help you build strong relationships with others and ultimately have a positive impact on your mental health. We also know that the huge reach of football means that the sport can be used to help break down some of the stigma and discrimination directed towards people with experience of mental health problems. What's more, an understanding of mental health can help you play better, making sure you treat other players and officials with respect and direct all your attention to the game.

Shift, the Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association organises an annual five-a-side tournament and conference looking at mental health and football. The first Mad About Football event took place in Manchester in October 2008.

Find out more about Mad About Football.

About the Shift Sports Network

We know that there are a number of great sports projects and initiatives around the country that are designed to improve mental as well as physical health. The Shift Sports Network has been designed to help share knowledge, ideas and advice between people who are active in this work.

For example, you might want to get tips and advice from people in other parts of the country who are working on a similar project to you. Or you might have some great ideas and suggestions that you want to share with others. You could also use the network to arrange fixtures and competitions between people and teams in your area. How you use the network is up to you.

The Shift Sports Network is powered by the Knowledge Community website. The Knowledge Community - or KC for short - is a website set up and run by the Care Services Improvement Partnership that allows people to work together and share information easily.

Find out more about the Shift Sports Network and how it works.
Find out more about other Shift Networks.

How you can get involved

Joining the Shift Sports Network is easy and free.

Once you are a member, you will be able to take part in discussions with other members, upload documents, post information about future events and take advantage of all the other features of the Knowledge Community.

Visit the Shift Sports Network to find out how to become a member.

Masthead photo by Elvert Barnes from Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons licence.