Section 1.1: Healthy, active lifestyle

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5: Opportunities for getting involved in sport

Most activities offer opportunities to participate in a variety of roles, including teaching or coaching, offi ciating, and volunteering. Training opportunities are available through most sports’ governing bodies. For example, the Badminton Association of England has a coaching programme endorsed by the United Kingdom Coaching Certifi cate (UKCC), which offers training in a variety of roles to encourage young people to stay involved. Participants can start with their 1st4Sport Level 1 Certifi cate in Coaching Badminton and progress through the levels. The programme is designed to encourage long-term involvement in sport: participants may begin as performers and continue to be involved as coaches or offi cials.

Many sports depend on volunteers. Even the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will rely on voluntary effort.

Participant: Most participants in sport would recognise what attributes are needed to succeed. Natural ability in the sport is fundamental to success as a player but, in most sports, success will not come unless the player is motivated and determined to succeed. You must have a sound knowledge of the rules, the skills and tactics, but unless you have the opportunity to play you never will do so.

Leadership: Leadership may cover a variety of roles and needs a lot of skills. Just being enthusiastic and motivational may not be enough, although these skills are needed. The coach/leader also needs to be well organised and have a sound knowledge of the sport, so they are able to analyse the performance of the players and the team. They also need patience and they need to be a good communicator in order to get their ideas over to the players.

Offi cial: Offi cials need many of the attributes of the other roles but a sound knowledge of the rules is fundamental. Like the players, they need to be fi t and, like the coach, they need to have patience and be a good communicator, but an offi cial also needs to be confi dent to carry out this role and clearly they need to apply the rules fairly.

The London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will create opportunities for many people to get involved in sport in completely different roles: athletes will take part; offi cials will be needed to ensure the rules are not broken and the events are safe; and volunteers will be required to prepare and help the day-to-day running of the games.

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

Describe an initiative and the common purposes of initiatives to develop and provide opportunities for becoming or remaining involved in sport and physical activity.

Explain how to increase participation in sport, to improve health, with a focus on priority groups, and to retain people in sport through an effective network of clubs, sports facilities, coaches, volunteers and competition, and to create opportunities for talented performers to achieve success.

Explain the contribution of initiatives to the development of healthy lifestyles.

Identify agencies involved in the provision of opportunities for becoming, or remaining, involved in physical activity, including: Sport England, Youth Sport Trust, national governing bodies.

Topic 1.1.2: Infl uences on your healthy, active lifestyle

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Volunteer: Volunteers do not always need an in depth knowledge of the event but it usually helps. They do need to be a good communicator, patient, well organised and enthusiastic, and willing to take on a variety of tasks in their spare time. The London Marathon uses volunteers at the start, on the course and on the fi nish line.

Park runs take place throughout the country every Saturday of the year but could not take place without the army of volunteers who make it happen. Read about park runs and the volunteers at http://www.parkrun.com/about/volunteers. Click on volunteers to read about the volunteers.

What is an initiative?

The ability to think of and follow through an idea or plan of action: in the case of sport it could be a local or national initiative which would be applied to a specifi c area, e.g. to improve the health of the nation or focus on priority groups of people. This could be to:

1. get more young people involved in sport

2. get more women involved in sport

3. get more disabled people involved in sport

4. get more people from deprived areas involved in sport

5. develop healthier lifestyles

6. create opportunities for talented performers to achieve success at the highest level, e.g. Jessica Ennis, Tom Daley.

To get people involved and then keep them involved takes a network of clubs and facilities developed throughout the country, and people may be involved in these initiatives and sports in a variety of roles, e.g. Participant, Offi cial, Leader, Volunteer.

This also provides a pathway for everyone to keep a lifelong involvement in their sport and to be able to contribute. They can be a lifelong participant, though not at the same standard, and they can become an offi cial or a coach/leader, or take up voluntary roles such as club secretary or team manager. Many club events depend heavily on volunteers to act as stewards at competitions or fun runs, for example.

Role models are also important, especially in national initiatives, and could be involved to inspire the target group, e.g. David Beckham in football, Becky Addlington in swimming, Jessica Ennis in athletics and Amir Khan in boxing.

There are many agencies which can be involved in initiatives, for example:Sport England http://www.sportengland.org/about_us.aspxThe Youth Sports Trust http://www.youthsporttrust.org/page/home-welcome/index.htmlNational governing bodies, such as Badminton Englandhttp://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/landing.asp?section=000100010003Go to the Badminton England website and fi nd a badminton club near you.

examzone

Some of the points in this topic may have had an infl uence on you taking part in sport and even in the actual sports you play. The terms infl uences, involvement and opportunities are the key words in this topic.

You should know… ■ Identify the key infl uences and opportunities

that affect involvement in physical activity. These include:

people: family, peers, role models

image: fashion, media coverage

cultural factors: disability, age, gender, race, religion

resources: availability, location, access, time

health and wellbeing: illness and health problems

socio-economic: cost, status.

■ Explain how the range of roles available in physical activity should provide suffi cient opportunity for all to become or remain involved in sport/physical activity.

In your answer you may consider:

The range of roles available to become or remain involved in physical activity.

The personal qualities needed to fulfi l the range of roles available in physical activity.

How the range of roles provides opportunity for all to stay or become involved in physical activity.

■ Be able to explain the sports participation pyramid with regard to the foundation, participation, performance and elite stages.

Make sure you remember IIO:

I = infl uences I = involvement O = opportunities

If you are involved how have any of these factors affected you? If you are not involved in sport in that position, are there any sports stars or role models who have made the top in their sport and can you apply this to them?

In the introduction to your PEP explain your involvement in your sport. How were you introduced to it? How are you affected by access, availability, opening times, travel, cost, etc? What are the opportunities in your sport? You could use the sports participation pyramid: applying it will help you to remember it.

Think about your infl uences. For example, if you play football for a club outside school, why did you fi rst start? Did a friend (peer), mother (family), one of your neighbours (people) or your ‘big brother’ (family or could be your role model) take you there fi rst?

Sports participation pyramidYouth Sports Trust

Participant Offi cial Leader Volunteer

Infl uencesInvolvementStay involved in sportRange of roles:

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Maximise your marks

Question: Tom and Jack are taking GCSE Physical Education because they enjoy all the activities. Since they were

very young they have been infl uenced in the sports they like by others. Give three ways that they could be infl uenced

by people into taking part in sport. (3 marks)

Students’ answerFamily = their father or mother takes

part in the sport e.g. father plays

rugby or mother is a good swimmer.

Examiners’ comments This is correct. The student identifi ed

that family may have infl uenced them and

gave an example.

Build Better Answers

Brother = they started because their

brother played. This is wrong. The student has already

identifi ed that family (brother) can be an

infl uence, losing them a mark.

Explaining that a friend might

have infl uenced them would

have given them a mark. A

friend might have encouraged

them to join a local team.

Role model = they are infl uenced by

a star performer and want to copy

that person.

This is correct. Some role models

stand out over a long period of time

even when their careers are over. David

Beckham would be an example of this.

A role model could also be

a family member, or even a

teacher!

Remember under the ‘people’ heading comes family, friends and role models. Use these headings to think of how they

can infl uence the boys.

If you remember the people heading and the three infl uences included in it, you should be able to build your answer

around each one. Also think of how you and or your friends became involved in sport.

Remember the other infl uence headings, such as Image: fashion, media coverage – as the infl uence question may be on

that heading.

1 Place the number for each heading against the correct row of key infl uences that can impact on taking part in physical activity. 1 Cultural; 2 Health and wellbeing; 3 People; 4 Image (4)

A family, peers, role models_____

C fashion, media coverage_____

B illness and health problems_____

D age, disability, gender, race_____

2 Explain what is meant by the ‘sports participation pyramid’. (1)

3 Which of the following is the correct order for the sports participation pyramid?

A Foundation, participation, performance, elite B Foundation, performance, elite, participation

C Foundation, performance, participation, elite D Elite, performance, participation, foundation

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