nib Newcastle Knights players Mitchell Pearce, Josh King and Connor Watson took a break from training to chat online with 105 students and staff from the Newcastle, Hunter and North West NSW Clontarf Academies.
The students asked some fantastic questions on topics such as setting goals, making sacrifices to be successful, diet, exercise, staying motivated during lockdown and life after football.
Having not being able to to go to school and sport due to lockdown, the students have missed their friends, so the online catch up was a great way for Mitch, Josh and Connor to put a smile on the student’s faces.
The boys jumped on a zoom call and answered a few of their questions:
Q: Can you tell us some of the sacrifices you have made along the way to be successful in rugby league?
Pearce: I think the biggest thing for whatever you choose to do in life is cutting out external things and putting all your energy into what you love. For me, I had a discipline to train and practice my skills day in, day out. Somedays you feel like you don't want to, but you keeping doing it. Find what you're passionate about and put all your energy into it.
Q: Can you tell us some information about your diet and how it effects your performance and wellbeing?
Watson: It helps with less inflammation of the joints and keeps the body in shape. With training everyday, we need to make sure we're putting the right fuel in. We try to eat the right carbohydatres, proteins and get some veggies in. On a typical night here in the bubble we might have steaks, chicken and personally my choice is sweet potatoes as a source of carbohydrates.
Q: Where you good at rugby league in high school, some are better than others and some have got to work harder?
King: I started playing rugby league when I was 13 so I played soccer up until year 7. For a long time I was just learning and still to this day, I would say my game isn't based around a lot of talent, I've always just tried to work really hard. The things I am good at, I just try and perfect and a lot of my game is around effort. One of the things I've always lived by is hard work beats talent.
