Developing school students' identity and engagement through lifestyle sports: a case study of unicycling

This article emerges from a background of UK policy concerns about young people's participation in physical activity. It rehearses the arguments for lifestyle sports as a rich ground for enhancing students' engagement with physical education (PE). A review of the still limited literature suggests that lifestyle sports may have an under-exploited potential to develop skills, confidence and personal identity in learners that transfer to other areas of learning and life. To illustrate the argument, the article takes unicycling as an instructive case of lifestyle sport, and draws on survey data from a study of unicyclists carried out in several countries. A discussion of these data explores the beneficial characteristics of this unusual sport as participants in the study perceive them. A conclusion suggests a need for greater flexibility in PE curricula which might mainstream' lifestyle sports for both inherent achievement and exponential personal development of students.