Foundation is the early development of sporting components and skills upon which all later forms of sports developments are based, e.g. throwing, catching, hand eye coordination. This typically refers to school sport. Participation refers to sport undertaken primarily for fun, enjoyment, and often at performing at basic levels of competition. They get involved in sport for the sake of it. Performance signifies a move from basic competence into a more structured form of competitive sport at club or country level. Excellence is about reaching the top and applies to performers at the highest level. The theory of Development Continuum is “get more people involved in the F and P stages of the continuum, then you get more at the E level.
The first one of three I’m going to talk about is Testway 7’s for participation. Testway 7’s started off as a one off rugby tournament to encourage young people to participate in sport, last year 2,457 youngsters took part in the seven sports. It and all other Active Communities Schemes are funded by Sport England, it helps develop deprived communities through sport. The local authorities (sport coordinators) run the schemes in areas that need to be rejuvenated. In the last few years it has become very successful.
For Performance County Selection Schemes is an initiative that operates at this level, for example Hampshire Cricket academy trials. Scouts operate around the country to select players for trials, from county level it is then possible for athletes to progress. This initiative is funded by the National Lottery, it is successful because it helps people to reach a higher level within there sport.
Finally The World Class performance programme is the initiative for excellence; it is funded by the lottery and is administered in UK sport. It is used to support the UK’s top athletes in the Olympics Games. It is very successful as many of the United Kingdoms athletes have been raised and trained by this initiative.