Rob Mitchell came to visit

And who is this Rob Mitchell you may ask. Well he is a School Sports star who goes out to visit schools to organise a fitness event that helps to raise the school some money. And the team that do it are very good.

I took oooodles of photos today - of course for the sake of data protection and other various protocals I can't use any as there were loads of children having an amazingly brilliant afternoon.

Rob Mitchell (born 14 September 1980) is a Welsh athlete competing in high jump.

He finished seventh at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with a jump of 2.15 metres. His personal best outdoor jump is 2.25 metres, achieved in July 2001 in Bedford.?His personal best indoor jump is 2.24 metres, achieved in January 2009 in Cardiff.

The gentleman has springs in his feet !! After nearly killing most of the children off with a 4 minute exercise round robin thingy, spotty dogs, press ups, star jumps and something else which I can't remember the name of, but equally as painful, they all sat down for a question and answer session. They were beautifully quiet .. probably so knackered they couldn't move. I did tell the team that came along that they seemed to enjoy the cruelty.

One of the questions the children were asked was how long do they spend each day n their computers/games, there were quite a few staff looking shifty in their seats at this point. It is a sad fact of life that the major part of our lives seem to be sat down. Frightening when some children said they spent possibly 2 hours a day on some device or another, and would stay up late even through the week to finish a game. As adults we are doing exactly the same thing ???? but we call it work :(

Sleep, exercise and water he reminded us are essential for well being. Then went on to enquire about what they had had in their packed lunches :/ Well I squirmed at this point, it was Friday so I had brought in a peanut bar today, of course I needed to nibble through the chocolate to get to the peanuts, and in my defence I did also have an orange.

I did realise though that after this event and the aerobics I had just had to do to take the few hundred pictures (some of them in focus too) added to the 'healthy' talk, I am not ... healthy .. at all. So I am not going to do any star jumps anytime soon, there is a ripple effect that I don't wish myself to go through at this point. But I am going to get out there for some much needed walking, blipping and healthier eating (all in moderation)

It was so good for the kids to have a fantastic role model coming in to see them. It's a shame that more can't be organised for more athletes to be available to come into schools on a more regular basis to be that person the children aspire to. Especially in areas like ours which seem so remote from everything.

When Rob was at school Roger Black visited, and he was inspired by him to become a top athlete himself. Today I wonder if any of our children will be the next generation of athletes, inspired by the day they have experienced today with Rob.