The Student Room Group

Sport Lived Gap Year

Hello, there's a company called Sport Lived that do gap years abroad, to places like Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka etc, for a range of different sports :smile:
you can go for any length of time between four and twenty five weeks!

i was wondering whether anyone was thinking of doing it?

or anyone that has done it, was it worth it?!

thanks,

hannah
Reply 3
Hi Hannah, I am seriously considering doing it, but I wouldn't be able to do it for a while because I would have to get a job and seriously save up haha!
Original post by shaniieexo
Hi Hannah, I am seriously considering doing it, but I wouldn't be able to do it for a while because I would have to get a job and seriously save up haha!


Finally someone! Hahah :smile:

I really want to go to Australia to do swimming. What would you want to do?
It would cost £10,000 though for six months there! :s-smilie:

If I went on a gap year it would be the school year beginning September 2014, I'm in year 12 at the moment :smile:



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(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by HannahBanana1995
Finally someone! Hahah :smile:

I really want to go to Australia to do swimming. What would you want to do?
It would cost £10,000 thought for six months there! :s-smilie:

If I went on a gap year it would be the school year beginning September 2014, I'm in year 12 at the moment :smile:



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10.000 seems an awful lot, I've been looking into going to NZ for a year and although I'm not going with a package I have looked at them and they roughly seem to be about 2500US, so that seems a bit pricey. Try Yummyjobs.com, I used them when I went to Disney and I know they have an AUS and NZ gap year programme, but it's a hospitality one.
Original post by lyrical_lie
10.000 seems an awful lot, I've been looking into going to NZ for a year and although I'm not going with a package I have looked at them and they roughly seem to be about 2500US, so that seems a bit pricey. Try Yummyjobs.com, I used them when I went to Disney and I know they have an AUS and NZ gap year programme, but it's a hospitality one.


Ooooh thank you, I'll take a look now! :smile:


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Original post by lyrical_lie
10.000 seems an awful lot, I've been looking into going to NZ for a year and although I'm not going with a package I have looked at them and they roughly seem to be about 2500US, so that seems a bit pricey. Try Yummyjobs.com, I used them when I went to Disney and I know they have an AUS and NZ gap year programme, but it's a hospitality one.


The websites down ATM :frown: but it looks good!


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Reply 8
Hi Hannah,

Sorry about the late reply!

I used Sport Lived back in 2010, and it was an absolutely brilliant experience, and one which I would never forget. I'd definitely recommend a sporting gap year to anyone!
Original post by Jonny_H
Hi Hannah,

Sorry about the late reply!

I used Sport Lived back in 2010, and it was an absolutely brilliant experience, and one which I would never forget. I'd definitely recommend a sporting gap year to anyone!


Aw not to worry, thanks!

I still think it looks amazing, but I'm not going to take a gap year anymore :frown:

It was a little bit too expensive! Haha, but maybe I'll be able to go another time :smile:


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This is the email that I felt I had to send after completing the sport lived programme in Melbourne.

:Firstly I would like to say that I have made some of the greatest friendships on this programme and secondly that Melbourne was the ideal city in which to hold it. However I am writing this email as a participant because I feel that the company would benefit from direct feedback about the real programme that was taken place there.

Primarily, I think that what needs to be addressed in order for this great gap year concept to be fulfilled is the people in Melbourne that are in charge of coordination. Mainly **, who I was told was In charge of looking after us whilst we were here. The first day I arrived I turned up expecting to be met by say a 30-40 year old man, who participated in sport and was a bubbly fun personality. How can you provide a sports programme when the main man in charge is not the image of what the company should be trying to represent? Not only this but every single time I asked for help on either getting work or playing for a club in hockey he did not help me out. My emails were ignored and he told me that what I wanted was not possible. So I took it on myself to email clubs and managed to find coaching in a day of me emailing. The so called 24/7 support turned into me seeing Rod once on my first day and then once before I left for home. My associate on the course also was told that her rowing club was a "stones throw away" but In fact took her 1 hour to walk there and back with no public transport. ** claims he had "contacts" in all areas and yet this was not seen at all in any of the programmes put on for girls. It is simply unacceptable to come to Melbourne thinking that we would be playing sport once a day and realising that in fact I played tennis once a week with no matches and then ** did nothing to change this. When asking ** what I should do to fill my day he simply replied "go and explore Melbourne" of which I could of done for free and without paying a huge amount for the course. When parents phoned him up and complained about the course he replied that they were the only parents to complain. When in actual fact that is a complete lie as I know for a fact most of the female parents made a complaint at some point of the course. This is a huge issue, i feel that if you had a proper mentor out in Melbourne that was able to assist with sports and organisation and was fun and bubbly and actually was there for 24-7 support then the overall feedback would of been greatly improved.

** was the only immensely impressive social mentor whilst I was out here. Without here I would not of had any help. She went above and beyond her job title and drove boys to their training when she had free time, came to matches and made sure we all had a good time. This cannot be said for **. The one time he went to watch a cricket match one of the boys on the team tore his knee and instead of offering to drive him back to the city. Made him walk back and get the tram.
I feel that this seems to only be a problem in Melbourne as my sister partook in the hockey programme in Argentina a couple of years ago and the mentor was superb. I also know of some past Brisbane consumers who also had a great season.

Secondly, my other main area of feedback would be that of accommodation. The ** hostel is not up to par at all with the expectations of standard accommodation. The cookers do not work. The rooms have no windows and the building is dirty and dark. If this truth was advertised on your website then I would highly doubt many people would opt for your programme. The amount of money that I spent on the course rose to 2,500 for one month. Therefore without the 50 dollars spent on a tennis membership and some on socials (which I was told would be every weekend but in fact were once every three) I guarantee that enough profit would of been made to put us each in nicer accommodation. Whether it be apartments in the city or a nicer hostel of which I have found for cheap online. It got to the stage where the price of sport lived was so high that on my last month I decided to not pay for the programme and still stay in the hostel and pay for a membership and it cost me 637 pounds exactly. Which as you can see is a lot less than the 2,500 pounds exactly purchased by your company and I did the exact same amount as when I was part of sport lived. If the rooms and living had been nicer and in a more social environment then you would not of had people leaving the programme earlier than they were meant to once the cricket had finished.

Overall, I have written this email as a participant of the programme who has experienced the real sport lived. The fact that the webpage is so vague is a very clever way for your company to hide these things I have mentioned under the surface. I truly believe that this is a great gap year concept but the situation such as the mentor and the lack of help, as well as the price of it for what it In fact was does not live up to expectations and it is only once you get to Melbourne that you realise all this when it is too late. Again this is no way acceptable to the consumer."

I did gain a response however it was detailing an exchange rate of 5 years ago... and an apology which just shows my email was true. They claim to be heading to Melbourne to see whats happening however I feel this an excuse and escape goat as that is easy to say. Not only this but the mentor can hide what he has been doing easily. They also tried to compensate by offering different people different prices for the same things which again is totally unprofessional. THIS IS MAINLY DETAILING MELBOURNE AND NO WHERE ELSE AS I HEAR GOOD THINGS ABOUT OTHER PLACES BUT I WOULD NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY. THEY PHONE YOU CONSTANTLY BEFORE YOU PAY FOR THE PROGRAMME AND THEN YOU DO NOT HEAR A WORD AFTER THAT. THEY HAVE LITTLE ACCOUNTABILITY.

Its a huge shame as I made great friends and loved Melbourne. If you are looking to make a group of friends and have a constant and aren't too bothered about the sport then it would suit. however I think for this alone its a rip off in itself.
Reply 11
I have just arrived from the sport lived programmed in Melbourne this year. Things have changed since this review was posted, the mentor now is younger very enthusiastic and helps all the people in the programme, there plenty of job opportunities and if you want some more you can easily get them by the contacts you gain and the contacts first given by the social mentor. The accomdation has now moved to a much nicer hostel from previous years where it is located in the centre of Melbourne and staff the accomdation are very friendly and it is an enjoyable place to stay. This review is out of date and isn't a true reflection of how sport lived is. I would encourage any one wanting to do it to go for it as it has been one of the best experiences i have ever had.
It's a great programme with plenty of opportunities to both work and play in your chosen sport. Jessie and Kathy are easy to get hold of and theres plenty of social events with all of the different programme members.
I'm currently on the sport lived programme in Christchurch New Zealand, and quite frankly I can say that it's just not worth the money. I paid just over £6000 to go on sport lived, and me and the other lads here have all worked out individually how much sport lived have taken in profit from us and from me personally they've taken roughly £3200 in profit and that's being generous. The hostel room we've been crammed in to is a 6 bed room which has one set of chest of drawers for 6 people so we each get 2 drawers each which are each about 5 inches deep so doesn't even fit our clothes in (some of mine are still in my suitcase which I have to pull out from under the bed to get stuff out of. It takes about 5 seconds for the room to get dirty as there's no where to put your dirty clothes and sports kit. A few of us have been in the Academy at the Crusaders rugby team which runs Monday to Friday 9-3 then on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have club training in the evening that runs from 6-8. As the hostel is pretty packed, when we get home, as it's dinner time for everyone and there's 7 hobs between, what we think, is about 200+ guests, we can't cook, and even when we can, we can't eat with the lads we live with as there aren't enough hobs so we usually don't get to eat until about 9-9:30 pm. Especially when you've done a full day of training at the academy, then club training and you come home hungry and tired, having to wait another hour and a half to eat is disappointing to say the least. When we spoke to sport lived about this, the response we got was "we are exploring different options" which, to be honest, just isn't good enough. We also spoke over the phone with the lady who runs sport lived in the UK about the fact that the photos of the accommodation on the sport lived website are completely misleading, she said that it would cost us more for them to update their own website. In fairness, the coordinator out here did look for new accommodation for us and when she found a suitable option, organised for us to go and see it. However, we told that in order to move there, we either needed to pay even more for this, or reduce our sport lived programme, which would involve changing flights as well. We were then initially given just over week to make a decision. For myself and two others, we can't even thank sport lived for setting us up with the local club, because the club we were initially set up with, wasn't welcoming in any shape or form and didn't give us an opportunity to play and put all of us in the reserves. Bearing in mind, one of us was in the London Wasps Academy and the other plays in Nat 2 in the UK, playing in a reserves squad with players that don't know how to play is a testament to the fact that they didn't even give us a chance to play in their prem squad. We didn't feel welcome or wanted at said team so, with no thanks going to sport lived, we changed clubs, going to one which one of our friends in the Academy played for, with help from our coach at the academy. At this club we feel much more comfortable and have been playing there now for 6 weeks. I personally had to pay extra for the crusaders academy as I didn't even know it was an option, so I've paid roughly £9-10,000 in total. The Academy is an incredible experience and I couldn't recommend it enough, however again, sport lived had nothing to do with this. From the lads that have come out here and not been in the academy, they find Christchurch boring as it's very small and there's nothing to do here. However, in an attempt to make their programmes look fun and show that we enjoy it here, they use our photos of trips that we've organised by ourselves, and upload them to their own social media pages as propaganda The lady that looks after us in Christchurch is so nice and I have nothing bad to say about her, however we were all promised full time staff and that's not true either.

Overall, I can say that I would 100% not recommend sport lived to anyone. Unfortunately, most of the boys who aren't here for 6 months like I am are actually looking forward to going home because they don't like it here. I looked at changing my flights and going home early and demanding a refund, however I can't, as it turns out, so will be here until August 12th (it's June 2nd now and I've been here since February 24th.) A lot of us worked incredibly hard to come out here (I worked a 9-5 during the day and worked for deliveroo in the evening, working 7 days a week to pay for this) and partially feel that I've thrown my money away, and all the lads here feel the same. The only thing I loved about being out here was the Academy, which I have now finished, and meeting the lads I live with. I've enjoyed myself in New Zealand and have made some incredible memories, none of which I could give credit to sport lived as I could've booked this all by myself for a much cheaper price tag. If you're looking to go on a sport lived programme, don't. You can book accommodation and even the academy by yourself online and you'll save about £2000 or more.
completely agree with all the reviews. AVOID THIS COMPANY!!!

- Overpriced
- team in the uk completely ignores you and your emails once you are abroad
- do not expect to play sport as much as you hope
- very rude staff

AVOIDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

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