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Introduction

An Introduction to Developing Sport "Discuss what is meant by the term sports development" Sports development is a wide subject and involves lots of different aspects of sport and development. Because sports development is an important and varying subject, there is not one single definition of what sports development involves as a whole. Sports development is not just for people with the ability to play at a certain level, but also for the people that are generally not interested in sport, it gives them the chance to participate and to get involved in sport. It is also about providing communities and sports organisations the opportunity and ability to support their local area. To explore and discuss sports development there are certain areas that need to be analysed. These areas include the individual definitions of sport, development and sports development as a whole. The benefits that playing sport brings to an individual and the role sports development plays in giving people the opportunity to gain the benefits from playing sport. The different sports development models such as the sports development continuum, house of sport and active framework (sport England 1999) will also be considered. As sports development is such a big subject it needs to be dissected to fully identify the aspects it contains. To do this each term needs to be defined separately. As sport is such a general term it is hard to define and may not have a fixed meaning. ...read more.

Middle

Therefore, sports development can be summed up as devising better and more effective ways of generating interest and increasing the levels of participation, or supporting performance within sport. Also to aid and support organisations to better provide people with the opportunity to participate in sport within their organisation and the local community. Sports development is about increasing participation within sport and advertising the benefits that playing sport has on people's lives. Currently, "only 46% of the population participate in sport more than 12 times a year" (Game Plan, 2002) There are many benefits that sport brings to individuals, such as health, economic and social benefits. The benefits of physical activity on health are clear, "30 minutes of moderate activity five times a week can help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, some cancers, strokes and obesity". (Game Plan 2005) Regular participation in sport can help reduce these risks and support healthy growth in young people, and encourage a healthy lifestyle, to take into adulthood. Sport can also help reduce healthcare costs and workplace absence and present a "feelgood factor" to people that take part in sport. When people adopt this "feelgood factor" they are generally happy with the way they are and present a good image within their social community. This can then lead on to reducing youth crime and anti-social behaviour and improving the quality of environments and creating a sense of peace, "some practitioners also report positive results from schemes that use sport to help to reduce crime and social exclusion." ...read more.

Conclusion

The next stage is the performance stage which is aimed at supporting participants within a particular sport, here they learn more about certain skills required and may start to compete against other performers. The last stage is the excellence stage which is aimed at supporting performers by giving them every opportunity to achieve their best. The house of sport continuum (see appendix C) and the active framework continuum (see appendix B) are both related to the sports development continuum, although have a more complex shell which allows greater movement between the stages. However, the active framework continuum has no set stages, therefore a performer could jump from the learning stage straight into the world class stage and would not have to pass through the other stages to reach the goal. Due to these structures there are many benefits towards sports development, these include some of their main aims. Such as increasing the number of participants within a community, helping sports organizations to increase the use of sporting facilities and equipment and to develop pathways to encourage promising young sports people to continue to the top, or the excellence stage. Sports development officers have a vital role in setting up these structures and making sure they work to help develop performer's abilities and skills. Therefore sports development would not happen without these people. Sports development is a very vast subject and includes a variety of areas, although there is one main definition to define and describe the main aim of sports development, "Getting more people to play sport," (Houlihan, B. 2003) ...read more.

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