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Introduction

In this assignment I'm employed as an assistant to a Sports Development officer within the Local Authority and I have to investigate the ways in which our local authority sports development unit can increase local sports participation levels. Task 1 Sports, is a thing in life that we all will be tempted to introduce to our selves, no matter the problem, no matter the situations, no matter the people, but you will always want to take part in it, this is why The Sports Council, introduced the Sports Development section to the UK Sports. Sports Development will give chance to all kind of people to take part in their sport; no matter their colour, age, race, physical or metal disability, gender, financial level, etc. The Sports Development section introduced a "sport development continuum" so people could gradually increase their own goals in their lives. Sports Development Continuum Foundation: This stage is when a person is introduced to a sport. Here he/she will get the knowledge and the basic skills in the sport. This will take part in schools and clubs. The Sports Development introduced this stage to increase the curriculum time for P.E, to increase the number of children being introduced to sports, to introduce the ethics and values about the specific sport and sports in general and finally to get them going as a thing to do in a regular basis. Participation: This phase of the "sports development continuum" is direct to the persons who are already introduced to a various number of sport and play in a regular basis. The aims of the Sport Council was and is to increase the number of people taking part in a sport, to reduce the quantity of people dropping out and to reduce barrier to participation, such as disabilities, gender, etc. Performance: This part of the four levels in the "sports development continuum" is where competitive games and improvement of the performance stars to occur. ...read more.

Middle

The four target groups that the Sport Development team has worked with in the borough of Charnwood are: * Young people * Disabled people * People aged 50 and over * Economic status Young People: The action Charnwood did to make young people participate in sports was and still is introducing "Active Sports", this is funded by Sport England Lottery Fund, targeting ten sports, such as; athletics, rugby, football, girls football, etc. Their aim is to improve young people to increase their level of participation and get better at their sporting skills, giving schools, communities and World Class programmes. They also have activities during school holidays. Their successes are: * Over 5000 people got involved in Sports Activity over the last 12 months. * Over 700 qualified coaches through Coach Step Programme Disabled People: The Sports Development Officer of Charnwood is a disabled him self, he is played wheelchair basketball in a high level and compete for GB in other sports. Therefore sports development team has a lot of more potential to go on for disabled people, such as getting more coaches to train disabled athletes, make more teams for people to join in, make more events and finally make sure they are treated as athletes. Their successes are: * Increased memberships * Brought more people to disable sports People aged 50 and over: Charnwood also treats people over 50 very well. They include a rehabilitation scheme called Hear Smart, which is mainly for people ho are recovering from heart disease or heart surgeries. It's aim is to enable those people who have had lack of movement for a long period of time, to enable them to "independently" exercise them selves to keep as healthy as possible. Charnwood gives the area for this to happen and a very low rate of fees to be paid. Their successes are: * Increased amount of members * Increase the early age of heart disease problems Economic Status: Charnwood also takes in mind the economic level of each target group and try and solve this by doing projects. ...read more.

Conclusion

In addition we have the over 50's target group this is a group that as time passes they have less and less barriers in the sports centres, but they are still some barriers to participation. For example, some sports centres will not have special sessions for adult people, which might make an aerobic training session very embarrassing for the over 50 people, as they can see they are weaker, and slower than the rest of the people, so for this not to happen, special sessions should be arrange by the sports centre so they can feel comfortable and be motivated. Also transport should be arrange, as old people like in their 60's or 70's will not be able to drive a car and will stop being able to attend to the gym, so special coaches or vans should be put by the leisure centre to go to specific areas and pick up the people. Finally we have the low income target group, this is a target group that its also getting better and better as the times passes. But still have some barriers, for example, money and education problems. By money I mean that for example if a boy likes to play tennis, this will be an expensive sport for him, so spotter should go to this areas to spot good people play in their own courts and maybe give them a chance and get them sponsored to play in indoor courts or enter competitions. And by education I mean that poorer people tend to have more anger in them selves so this makes other schools not to compete against them, so what it could be done, is give them a free or cheaper coach step programme so they become more professional in the sport they are playing and maybe be a role model to younger boys in the community. ?? ?? ?? ?? Sports Development - Part One 1 National Diploma - Year One Group B ...read more.

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