The state of play for women's sport

It was fascinating to hear Sue Tibballs from the Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation on Radio 5 this morning raising profile for the shocking statistics in the UK around women and physical activity. Only 3% of women play competitive sport and by the time girls leave school they are half as active as boys.

We enjoy watching sport on TV at home, but three young daughters I am so aware that it's generally all male role models they see whether it's rugby, motor racing or the Tour De France. Hardly surprising when you hear that only 5% of sports media coverage is devoted to women. We rarely get to watch women competing except for events like the Olympics or athletics World Championships.

Whilst I applaud the great work that is being done by the like of the WSSF and the FIA to attract young women into physical activity with more dance and gym based programmes, let's not forget the amazing power of sport itself - and in particular team sports.

Like many people, I struggle to regularly fit exercise into my day, but the one thing that I will always commit to (whatever the weather) is playing netball with my friends in Maidenhead on a Monday night. There's something amazing about playing within a team and all the positive social benefits that brings in addition to the physical activity.

In the fitness industry there's much talk about how people can maintain their levels of motivation. Commitment to a team or another person is undoubtedly a massive motivator - there's a reason that we've played in the same netball team for almost 10 years.