Getting physical gives great gains, says Luke

LUKE Bradley has devoted his life to physical activity playing sport, studying it, and acting as a sports agent.

Now as a Tūranga Health kaiāwhina he gets to share those same opportunities with young people.

“My role is life skills coach which means I get to spend time with rangatahi at kōhunga and kura and help them develop things like fine motor skills and confidence around physical activity,” he says.

“It's a really great opportunity to help the young ones with skills they can take forward into their lives.”

Luke comes to Tūranga Health after a decade in Japan where, as well as teaching English, he ran a sports agency, helping New Zealand rugby players succeed in a foreign environment.

It was in Japan that his interest in physical activity for young people back home started to grow.

“I was looking at studies about how sport tended to drop off in young people after they left school and that's what really got me interested,” he says.

“There’s so much benefit to be gained in everything from physical fitness to developing leadership skills so supporting that is really rewarding work.”

On any given day Luke (Ngāti Porou/Ngāi Tahu) can be doing anything from working with pre-schoolers to organising the popular 4x4 Basketball League. And he still runs the sports agency.

​“Being home means that as well as sharing some of the things I learned in Japan, I can get back in touch with my own culture, language, and people.”

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