There’s not many sports that where you can go in a competition and then watch your mum and your nanna compete on the same day!  But that’s what’s so special about physie – it’s a family affair. Sisters, cousins, mums and daughters, aunties, grandmas and even sometimes great-grandmas are still involved.

“With most of the ladies in my class, I’ve taught their daughters, sometimes their whole families!” says one BJP teacher who started teaching 43 years ago. “It’s a really special bond that forms when a girl’s mum and nanna all share a love of a sport they can participate in together.”

The fact that physie is multi-generational shows the longevity of the sport, like Jeannie who started physie as a beginner lady 31 years ago and has been in a ladies team every year, ever since.  Her daughter Lisa, who started physie at 5 is now in the ladies class, and her grand-daughter Emma joined the 4 year class this year (and is busting to get in the 5 year class!). “Girls see their nanna in a different light when she’s out there doing physie and being active” says her teacher. “Suddenly nanna doesn’t seem so old. It shows young girls what a woman can do, no matter what her age – and that’s fantastic.”

Postscript:  Emma recently decided it wasn’t fair that the ladies didn’t get a sticker at the end of their class like the 4 and 5 year olds.  So now she takes stickers to class and hands them out to the ladies…