Get Sorted: Playing like there's no tomorrow

Entire communities have sprung up around sport at the masters level. Photo / Thinkstock

Activities like masters-level sport increase our quality of life as we get older.

Entire communities have sprung up around sport at the masters level, and they're not just out there to kick a ball. There's a palpable sense of urgency on the pitch.

Especially in a masters tournament, as they go for gold, they really are playing like there's no tomorrow. And as we're living longer these days, this is the sort of thing that increases our quality of life in the long run.

"There are people who stay fit just for the sake of staying fit, but at the next level it's really competitive," explains Pale Sauni, who has thrived in the super-fast world of masters touch rugby at international level. "When I get out there, I need that gold medal, and I need it now, because I don't know if I'll be around next year."

He discovered the game only in his 30s, having played tackle in school and senior rugby. His first World Masters was in 1995 in Hawaii where, after training for nine months to prepare, he earned most valuable player honours.

Sauni typically plays on both men's and mixed teams at all age groups down to the over-40 level. "Playing ten games at speed, you need to be fit," he says. "You don't get away with it just because you're older."

Pale Sauni pictured in 2011. Photo / CCN

Experience certainly helps. "Old and young in the same team, that's what really works," he says, adding that he enjoys playing on much younger teams. The newer players are typically stronger, fitter and quicker, but they lack the experience in defence. What older players bring is strategy to utilise that strength, Sauni explains, opening opportunities for the younger players to capitalise on. The result is a much stronger team overall.

Sounds ostensibly like a model for the future workforce. This thought-provoking report on positive aging, for example, shows how over the next 15 years the number of us working past the age of 65 will jump to 31 per cent, either because we have to financially or because we want to stay in the game.

"I'll hopefully play even up to 75," Sauni says. "The Australians have got some 70 year olds playing for the over-60 teams and they play quite well.

"So I have something to aim for."

Get Sorted is written by Sorted's resident blogger, Tom Hartmann. Check out the guides and calculators at Sorted - brought to you by the Commission for Financial Capability - at sorted.org.nz.