Factors Affecting Individual Performance and Participation in games.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Factors Affecting Individual Performance and

Participation in games.

The following factors can have an effect on a person’s participation in games:

School (notes have already been made)
Changing Attitudes
Social Groupings
Leisure Time
Facilities Available (to be covered later)

Task:

Read through the following notes and then answer the questions at the end of each section. Please answer each set of questions on a different sheet using a new heading each time. Please write your answers fully in sentences. Consider how many marks each question is worth as to how much you need to write. The questions should be finished and handed in on Tuesday the 7th November along with your coursework (all sections).

School – Questions.

Explain how your experiences in PE can have both a negative or a positive effect on your participation in sport later in life (2)
Name 5 different roles that a pupil could take within a PE lesson (5)
For key stage three PE explain what areas of activity are covered and the aims of PE at this level (7)
For key stage four PE explain what areas of activity are covered and the aims of PE at this level (4)
Explain what benefits can be sought from extra- curricular PE i. On a representational basis and ii. On a recreational basis (4)
Name one benefit of examination courses for i. The image of PE and ii. Pupils who have an interest in PE.
Explain what benefits links with sports clubs can have and why this is necessary (3)
Explain why cross- curricular links are important for pupils (2).
Name and explain 3 ways that a school could cover the cost of its sporting activities (3).
Explain how curriculum constraints can have a negative effect on how much time is available for PE (2).
Explain how tradition can affect the opportunities pupils may have within PE (2)
Explain how the environment can affect the opportunities that pupils may have within PE (both positive and negative) (2).

Changing Attitudes.

What effects do attitudes of society have on participation in games?

Sport reflects society. As society has changed and evolved in the last 150 years so has attitude towards sport. In the 19th Century organised sport was:

A privilege for the upper classes
Mostly amateur (played by “gentlemen”)
Not available to most of the lower classes due to widespread poverty.

Today:

Provision of facilities in schools and communities is better.
Physical recreation is promoted for a healthy lifestyle.
Amateurism exists mostly at recreational levels.
Professionalism has meant improved competition.
There is an increased participation in all social groups: women, disabled, and elderly.
There are many career opportunities due to the growth of the sport, fitness and leisure industry.

Some of the reasons for this change are that:

There is now a state education for all.
There are better working conditions.
Wealth is now more evenly distributed.
Development of professional sport and elitism.
Recognition of the benefits of physical recreation.
There is better healthcare.
There is a commercial involvement.
There are technological developments in transport and communication.

What is the importance of role models in setting participation trends or shaping attitudes?

Negative:

If there are no or very few role models this will limit the number of people participating in that activity.
If the role model does something negative this will shape attitudes against that activity.
This could be both for young people going into the activity or affect people already in the activity. (Think about the negative effect on young professional footballers if an older player (role model) in their team is acting in a negative manner – Dennis Wise on tour/ Eric Cantana kung fu kick).

Positive:

If there are a number of role models within that activity that may encourage people to begin and raise participation rates.
Role models can also affect people’s attitudes in a positive manner if people can see the role model’s doing positive acts (David Beckham’s charity work).

Role models are needed to encourage people to participate in that activity but they also need to be positive role models so that people’s attitudes towards them are positive.

How has women’s involvement in games changed?

At the ancient Olympic Games, women weren’t even allowed to watch, never mind compete.
Traditional social attitudes have had a great impact on sports participation.
There have been different expectations on boys and girls from birth in relation to physical activity:

Boys expected to be aggressive/ get dirty/ play rough games.
Girls expected to be passive/ keep clean/ play with dolls.

This is known as stereotyping.
These opportunities gave boys greater sporting opportunity.
Girls have been encouraged to marry/ stay at home/ look after children/ do housework which reduces the free time available for sports.

Gradually, these ideas began to be overturned and in some cases are still being changed.

Ways in which women’s involvement in sport has been and can continue to be increased:

Traditional beliefs/attitudes in society need to be addressed.
Better communication of opportunities for women.
Key sports organisations should target women.
Organisations encouraged to provide equal opportunities.
Skill element of sport needs to be emphasised as opposed to the strength element.
Women’s needs have to be addressed e.g. crèche, transport, costs, time of day.
Women encouraged to take up administrative/ management roles in sport.
Media improvement of women’s sport quality and quantity.
Role models to emulate.
More female sports writers/ presenters.
School and media targeted to promote women’s sport and their needs and views.
Sports Council targeting.
Campaigns to heighten awareness.
WOMEN’S OWN ATTITUDES SHOULD BE CHANGED.

Reasons why more women are now participating on sport:

Campaigns.
Better publicity.
More activities available.
Shared home responsibilities.
Encouragement.
Creches.
More free time.
Ambition.
More fashionable.
For social benefits.
Health and fitness.

Ways in which sports organisations can promote the development of sport for elite women:

Good quality coaching.
Promote women’s achievements.
Aid sponsorship.
Equal access to facilities with men.
Adopt women as a target group.
Improve talent identification.
Ensure access to sports science/ sports medicine/ support services.
Establish competition.
Review domestic/ international competition.

Some physical activities where men and ...

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Reasons why more women are now participating on sport:

Campaigns.
Better publicity.
More activities available.
Shared home responsibilities.
Encouragement.
Creches.
More free time.
Ambition.
More fashionable.
For social benefits.
Health and fitness.

Ways in which sports organisations can promote the development of sport for elite women:

Good quality coaching.
Promote women’s achievements.
Aid sponsorship.
Equal access to facilities with men.
Adopt women as a target group.
Improve talent identification.
Ensure access to sports science/ sports medicine/ support services.
Establish competition.
Review domestic/ international competition.

Some physical activities where men and women can compete against each other:

Archery
Bowls
Tennis
Hockey
Car rallying
Golf

Other factors that have affected women’s increased participation:

Equal opportunity act has changed women’s status in society.
Sex discrimination act has emphasised women’s rights.
Increase of women in sport related jobs/ careers. (A vast number of sports development officers are female)
Women have gained sporting qualification awards – so more women can come into the game as a beginner and be coached by a woman whereas they may hve been reluctant to have been coached by a man.
Women have gained officiating qualifications – again encouraging more women to participate.
Women only sessions mean that women can come into a sport without any feelings of self- consciousness.
Sports wear is fashionable as everyday wear, encouraging more women to purchase tracksuits and trainers.
Initiatives aimed at women by organisations such as Sports Council or the Women’s Sports Foundation.

How have attitudes changed towards ethnic minorities in sport?

In our multicultural society, people of all races and ethnic backgrounds take part in sport at all levels, leaving people to assume that they face no problems participating, but this is not true. There is discrimination and disadvantage in sport for ethnic minorities.

Racism means not treating people of different races equally. Racists often hold stereotyped views about people from different ethnic backgrounds. Stereotypes lead to sporting myths about what different people can and cannot do. An example of a racist sporting myth is “Black people can’t swim at top levels”.
Personal racism is where ethnic minority people are made to feel unwelcome by individuals whereas institutional racism is from an organisation, rather than individuals.
Racism is a major problem in spite of the efforts of many people who work to eliminate racial inequality.
According to socio-economic factors (pay/ employment and social class) people from ethnic minority backgrounds in this country are over represented amongst the unemployed and low paid. This means that they often have less money to spend on sport, further limiting their opportunities.
Each culture also has a number of beliefs that should be followed. For example, some women in some cultures are not allowed to show certain parts of their bodies meaning that they cannot wear certain sports clothes. Others are not allowed to participate in mixed sports. Other religions have to ‘fast’ meaning that they have little energy for sports during this period.

How have attitudes changed towards disabled participants?

As well as top disabled sports people there are many ordinary disabled people who can and do benefit form sport. Sport allows everybody to stay healthy and to meet people. However, people with disabilities do face serious obstacles to participation in sport.

It is not always possible for disabled people to get to events. Transport may be difficult or there may not be suitable doors and ramps in facilities.
Plans for facilities, funding and events do not always take into account the needs of competitors and spectators with disabilities.
Planning should include training for the people to work with sports people with disabilities.
Sports centres and clubs do not automatically make provision for people with disabilities. Governing bodies do not usually hold events for disabled people within their able- bodied championship.
People with disabilities may not be aware of organisations catering for their sporting needs.
People with disabilities may have had little opportunity in the past to develop their sporting skills.
People with disabilities may not be able to afford the cost of taking part in sport (at elite level, cost of racing chairs etc is very expensive).
The integration of school pupils with disabilities into PE lessons presents many challenges.

How have attitudes changed towards elderly people in sport?

In general, people become less physically active as they get older although research shows that numbers of people over 60 taking part in physical activities is increasing. Factors that may affect participation by the elderly are:

If older people have not exercised for a long time it’s hard to get their bodies working again.
Some may not have had the opportunity to learn skills when they were younger (Swim)
Others may have had illnesses that means they need to be careful when they exercise.
Older people may have limited financial resources for physical activity, although many sports centres offer special rates, especially at off- peak times.
Older people are less likely to have a car, making transport difficult.

How is the popularity of games changing and what affects this?

Some growth games (you have to know about games as that is the syllabus you follow) include:

Basketball
Ice hockey
Women’s Football

Some of the reasons for these may be:

SKY T.V. with increased coverage of “American” sports. A few years ago it wouldn’t have been easy to watch basketball or ice hockey on T.V. Now it is more popular and as such it is encouraging people to play themselves.
Initiatives within schools to promote some sports, especially basketball and girls’ football. More youngsters are having the opportunity to try these sports whilst they are young.

Some games that are going into decline include:

Snooker
Squash

Some of the reasons for this may be:

Snooker may be seen as a less active sport and people are aware of the need to stay healthy through physical activity.
Squash may stereotypically be thought of as being for businessmen. Limited facilities to participate.
Neither of these activities are really available in schools to youngsters rarely get the opportunity to experience them.
Lack of role models for people to emulate. If there are no role models in an activity this is less likely to encourage people to participate.
Not seen as glamorous activities.

What effects do sports bodies or organisations have on changing attitudes?

Sport England.

Previously known as the Sports Council from 1972 to 1996.
The aims of the ENGLAND (one of 5 sports councils) Sports Council was to:

Increase participation
Increase number and quality of facilities
Develop excellence in sport.

To do this they needed to collect the facts (participation rates, excluded groups and facilities), set goals to improve the situation and take action to achieve these goals.

They did this by writing policies such as in 1988 they wrote a document entitled into the 90’s where they had goals to achieve by 1993.

In 1972 they began a ‘Sport for All’ campaign where their aim was just that. They also had a number of campaigns shown below that were aimed at different groups, with varying success, although they are not used much nowadays.

When the National Lottery was set up by the Government in 1995 to raise extra money for good causes, sport was named as one of the good causes to benefit from Lottery money. Sport England was named as a distributor, and now uses lottery money to help a number of sporting causes. Many people believe this increased funding has helped to develop our international competitors, increasing our medal tallies at the Olympics and World Championship competitions.
Restructuring, means that since 1999 the Sports Council has been re-branded as Sport England:
Its more recent initiatives include Active schools (starting right), Active Sports (getting more from your sport) and Active Communities (sport for all)

Governing Bodies.

The Governing bodies of sport are the bodies that control and direct it. For example, The Football Association.
Many of these employ sports development officers whose job is to create links with schools and get young people interested in sport.
Many governing bodies also run award systems for young people, to encourage them in a sport.
They have development schemes that run from grass roots through to elite level, catering for all abilities.

British Sports Trust

This used to be called The Central Council for Physical Recreation (CCPR).
Its aims are to encourage as many people as possible to participate in sport and physical recreation and to represent and promote the interests of its members.
The CCPR also tackles areas of general concern, such as drug abuse and sport for the disabled.
Runs campaigns against things like the loss of school playing fields.

National Coaching Foundation

Founded in 1983 to:

co-ordinate coaching and coach education
improve skill and knowledge of coaches
provide network of coaching development officers
work closely with sports council, national governing bodies, British Olympic Association, local authorities and education.

Funded through grants from UK Sport and earns income from trading.

Local Authorities

They encourage participation through:

The provision of public facilities
The dual use of school facilities
The organisation of special sessions at sports centres (such as reduced daytime rates for the unemployed, women only and over 50’s sessions.

Changing Attitudes Questions.

Explain how any why attitudes towards participation in sport has changed today as opposed to the 19th Century (6)
Explain how role models can have both a negative or a positive effect on attitudes (2)
Explain how women’s involvement in sport has changed and give some reasons for this (4)
Name 2 GAME activities not already given where women could compete against men and explain why this would be possible (3)
Explain why ethnic minorities may not choose to participate in sport (2)
Explain what practical problems disabled people may face accessing sports participation (3)
Explain what problems the elderly may face in sports participation and name 2 GAMES activities that you feel would be appropriate for them (4)
Explain how the popularity of 1 SPORT has declined and how 1 SPORT has increased and explain why you feel this may be. (4)
Explain the aims of Sport England and describe some of the ways they go about reaching those aims (6)
Explain what effect the National Lottery has had and how (3)
Explain the effect Governing Bodies can have on attitudes towards sport (2)
For 4 chosen SPORTS (ideally the 4 you will be assessed in) name its Governing Body and any award system it runs.
Explain the aims of the British Sports Trust and describe one of its campaigns (3).
Describe the aims of the National Coaching Foundation and explain where its funding comes from (5)
Explain how local authorities aim to change attitudes towards sports participation (3)

Social Groupings.

What effects do different social groupings have on our sports participation?

Peers

(a person of the same rank/age/ability as another e.g. friends/team mates)

A person is likely to be influenced by their peers as to attitudes taken and activities participated in.
A person tends to hold their peers in high regard and are sensitive to their opinions.
Therefore a person may take actions in order to be accepted by their peers.
This could include participating (or not participating as the case may be) in certain sporting activities.
If a person’s friends are interested in sport the person might participate too.
If a person’s friends do not participate in sport they might not participate or drop out.
Sport could clash with social life.
Girl/boyfriends may provide a more interesting alternative to sport.

Family

Family members can influence sport related behaviour.
Parents are the main influencing agent.
Siblings and more distant family members can also play a part.
Family influences can be direct:

Family members playing sport/officiating at sport/ being members of sports clubs/ deliberately introducing children to sport.

Family influences can be indirect:

Active support of a child’s participation.

Family members can act as role models for children
Parents can provide support in terms of transportation and supply of equipment and therefore promote/ ease participation.
Parents may be supportive in recognising the health related benefits of exercise.
The family can influence a child’s sporting behaviour in a negative way:

By not supporting their child’s efforts.
By promoting unacceptable behaviour (e.g. cheating).
By expecting too much form the child.

Parents may discourage a child’s participation due to lack of money/ lack of knowledge/ lack of experience.
Parents may not follow an active lifestyle themselves and thus set a bad example to children.

Gender

Gender is a major socialising factor.
Many sport stereotypes are unacceptable to some girls – too aggressive/ too masculine.
This tends to reinforce other non-sport stereotypes in women e.g. femininity.
This in turn produces negative socialisation towards sport.
These views tend to be upheld in general by the majority of sports agencies and administrators.

Race

Traditional views/ attitudes have been held about racial effects on sport:

The myth of racially superior athletes- scientific research to test the black athletes’ superiority has been inconclusive and controversial.
Sport by a means of escaping deprivation e.g. escaping the ghettos (boxers)

Discrimination:

Lack of black coaches/ selectors.
Lack of black managers/ administrators.
Opposition to black involvement from current directors/ spectators.

Stereotyped attitudes:

Black participation linked to a number of certain sports (athletics/cricket/football)
Restriction in other sports (swimming)
There is further evidence that within sports which black people do participate in they are restricted to certain roles/ positions e.g. sprinting/ fast bowling/ strikers.
It has been suggested that this is because blacks are linked with speed/ power rather than intelligence/ judgement by team selectors/ administrators.

Education:

It has been alleged that in the past schools have helped to promote the black stereotype of sporting success and academic failure.
Blacks were encouraged to develop sporting talent sometimes at the expense of academic studies.
Once set on a sporting career black youngsters had very little to fall back on if they failed.
Today in schools all pupils are encouraged to develop in both sports and academic areas.

Socio- economic.

Sports participation is greater among the more affluent classes.
Due to better access to resources/ more disposable income. More time/ more equipment.
People higher up in the socio- economic scale are more likely to have more positive attitudes towards and its benefits e.g. character building/ health promoting/ socially desirable.
People higher up on the socio- economic scale are more likely to have positively influenced into sport by parents/ school/ peers.
Fewer working class people participate in sport- this is due to lack of money/ time/ opportunity.
Some occupations demand long hours of work allowing less time for sports participation.
Social class can affect the type of sport participated in e.g.:

Middle – Upper class= golf/hunting/field sports/ croquet/polo
Middle class= rugby union/racket sports/hockey
Working class= darts/snooker/rugby league/fishing.

Some sports seem to cross all boundaries e.g. soccer/ cricket.
Private clubs are only available to those who can afford them.

What specific effects does peer pressure have on participation of the individual in games?

Positive

Friends participate therefore you participate.
Gain health benefits
Gain social benefits
Gain active lifestyle
Gain positive outlook

Negative

Friends don’t participate therefore you don’t participate.
Friends participate so you participate even though you don’t enjoy it – this could make you dislike sport or put you off future involvement.
You end up feeling resentful of the activity and them.
Do not gain any positive benefits/ have negative outlook.

Social Groupings – Questions.

Explain how our family can have a positive effect on our participation in games (3)
Explain how our family can have a negative effect on our participation in games (3)
Explain how our gender can have a positive effect on our participation in games (2)
Explain how our gender can have a negative effect on our participation in games (2)
Explain how our race can have a positive effect on our participation in games (2)
Explain how our race can have a negative effect on our participation in games (5)
Explain how our socio- economic class can have a positive effect on our participation in games (2)
Explain how our socio- economic class can have a negative effect on our participation in games (4)
Describe, using examples how peer pressure could have a positive effect on our participation in games (4)
Describe, using examples, how peer pressure could have a negative effect on our participation in games (4)

Leisure Time.

Leisure time can be defined as the time when you are not working at school, at home or at the workplace, where you can choose to do what you want to do and when you want to do it. It is spare time to spend as you please away from work and other commitments. For many people, sporting activity is an essential part of their leisure time, either taking part of watching. Reading a book, and watching T.V. is also classed as leisure.

Leisure time is said to have increased, and some of the reasons are:

At work:

Jobs are becoming less physically demanding.
More flexible working hours.
More part time work.
More people are taking early retirement.

At home:

Labour saving devices are reducing the time spent on domestic chores.
People can work from home saving on travelling time.
Home shopping and banking via the T.V., phone and internet.
Convenience cooking and convenience foods.

Due to the increases in leisure time there has been a resulting need for a growth in the leisure industry.

Providers of leisure facilities fall into three categories:

The private sector:

There are many different types of leisure provider in the private sector, each having the same purpose- to MAKE MONEY. Examples include

Private health clubs
Fitness Centres/ Gyms
Bingo
Cinema’s
Bowling Alley’s
Theme Parks
Hotels (often with health clubs)

Local authorities

Leisure facilities controlled and run by local authorities that are non- profit making. Examples include:

Leisure centres
Parks
Gardens
Museums
Swimming Pools

Local authorities also tend to have concessionary rates for the unemployed and older people during off- peak times. These groups have more leisure time but less disposable income to spend on leisure activities.
Local authorities may also provide facilities such as a crèche (often free) to encourage mothers with small children to use their facilities.

Voluntary Organisations.

These are also non- profit making. Examples include:

Youth Clubs
National Trust

Leisure Time – Questions.

What is leisure (2)
How has leisure time increased (1)
Give some of the reasons for this increase and explain why these effects do actually increase opportunities (5)
Explain the aim of private leisure providers and name three different types of leisure opportunities they provide (4)
Explain the aim of public leisure providers and name three different types of leisure opportunities they provide (4)
Name some of the target groups that public providers make provisions for, explain what provisions they make and why this is useful. (5)