Going against my better judgement, I decided last month that I'd take up hockey again, despite not playing since I was 16. Although I started off rusty, forgotten skills slowly started to come back to me and my confidence grew. Then, about 10 minutes from the end I went in for a tackle.

It didn’t quite go to plan. My lower leg darted to the right whilst the rest of my body swung left causing a twist and a loud cracking noise from my knee. Aarhh!

It just goes to show that whilst you can be fit at one sport like running, doing something completely different with lots of lateral movements, can be disasterous. So next time you think about going skiing, playing football or doing a sport that you wouldn't normally do, think again and try to prepare for it as much as possible in advance.

Although I'm back on my feet again now, it’s I've certainly learnt my lesson. Basically, unless you’re It just goes to show that whilst you can be relatively fit at one sport like running, doing something completely different can have quite disastrous consequences. This time of year you see so many people hobbling around on crutches coming back from ski holidays. As you get older this becomes more and more important.

My body just wasn’t

So the next time you’re thinking about skiing, taking up a new sport like hockey or football, or just doing an activity that you don’t normally do, start off gradually, and try to prepare for it in advance as much as possible. Doing exercises that simulate the moves you’ll be making is a good idea.