According to local authority of Macclesfield, 29.3% of its habitants do participate in sport. Whereas in Manchester only 20.8% of its habitants do participate in sport. The reasons behind this distinction is that Macclesfield is an affluent area with middle class occupying it, thus the element of finance, time, and transport is not an obstacle for these class of people to participate in sport. However in Manchester there is a considerable amount of unemployment, disaffected young people and single parents who do not participate in sport. For instance single parents would find it difficult to participate due to parenting commitments, responsibilities and lack of time.
Access and opportunities
There are number of problems with rural areas and ethnic communities regarding an access to sporting facilities. Rural areas tend to lack private or public sporting facilities due to the small number of its population and location. Whereas for ethnic minorities groups the problem is identified with lack of traditional access to facilities and mental flexibility to engage and participate in public or private facilities. However urban areas tend to have more access and opportunities to local or private facilities however in some cases people still need modes of transportation to reach these sporting facilities.
Ethnic background
Local authorities have a major concern about attracting people from ethnic minorities to participate in sport. The reasons behind the resistance of ethnic minorities from participating in sport is mainly attributed to religious constrictions and lack of understanding the British culture, and role models. However recently Asian communities are gradually starting to engage and integrate in British sport due to strategic policies and incentives that are implemented by the government to reduce and discourage the isolation of the ethnic minorities within British society.
Social Class
Social class is an eighteenth century term that is created to distinguish between people. Social status is consisted of three types of class: (working class, middle class, and upper class). The nature of these categories does determine what type of sport a category should participated in. For instance upper class people tend to participate in polo, yachting, and fencing, whereas middle class people tend to invest their leisure time in playing tennis, golf, and walking. However working class people tend to engage in football, basketball, and running.
It would seem to me that choices of sport participated in, is predicated on expressing prestige, importance, power, and wealth in very tactful harmless way. Nevertheless I think social status and sport participated in has nothing to do with aesthetics but with access, wealth, and the desire for exclusivity. Thereafter these barriers are social and not biological therefore we can suggest strategies to overcome wealth and access such as providing these elitist sports in local leisure centres with reasonable premium in order to represent opportunities to a common citizen to experience these sports and perhaps enjoy them. Sport should be about maximising opportunities and minimising social barriers such as finance.
Stereotyping
Stereotyping is a general based understanding of the nature of a subject without requiring personal mental research. It seems to me that people have pre-schemas that are form of definitions of the objects and subjects within our universe. However it is proven that stereotyping is a tool that is used to by uninformed and ignorant people to make sense of the external world without having to invest their lazy, deluded, and corrupted brain cells to investigate the origin of their pre-schemas. An example to illustrate this phenomenon I would utilise ethnic minorities particularly Asian community, it is widely perceived that Asian people do not participate in football as much as other sports such Cricket. This distinction is attributed to the lack of Asian role models in football therefore it is important for governing bodies in sport to strategise new approaches to engage ethnic minorities in football and popular sports and therefore minimise the lacuna between sub-communities and enhance social cohesion. This aim could be achieved through promoting Asian football players despite their calibre to motivate young Asian kids to participate in football and break the historical trend or relationship between Asians and football.
The Reasons of participation & non-participation in sport
Time
Time is a serious social factor that influences participation in sport. People tend to have work commitments, family duties, and lack of leisure time. However men statistically have more time as opposed to women to participate in sport. This indicates that women have more domestic roles in society which influence their participation in sport.
Resources
Resources can be a big issue for people who live in rural areas. It is proven that people in rural areas do not participate in sport as an urban person does. This is because of lack of facilities; equipments and transport in rural areas that affect the percentage of participation. However the government are instituting new policies to provide funds and different form of resources to reduce the barriers to participate in sport in rural areas.
Fitness and ability
Fitness and ability can discourage people from participating in sport. For instance over weight people would find it difficult to take part in group teams’ activities due to their low level of fitness. In some cases people would be demotivated to participate in sport in fear of making themselves look inadequate and hopeless due to the quality of their abilities.
Lifestyle influences
Lifestyle influences can be determined by what sport you participate in, how much time you spend in leisure, where you live, and your income and age. Teenagers tend to have less duties and commitments and more leisure time to participate in sport. However employed people tend to have less leisure time and yet vast options to what sport they want to participated in due to financial adequacy. Nevertheless people over55 years old tend to be retired and have more time to take care of themselves by exercising three times a week. This is because retired people have less commitments and stabilised income therefore they do have a massive amount of time and money to spend.
Medical conditions
Medical conditions are an important factor in introducing people to sport. GP referrals schemes are commonly used to help people lose weight, to prevent and control cardiac problems, and mainly used to reduce stress. However medical condition could be used as a response to dietary problem to modify and resolve via prescribe a fitness program.
Elite athletes
Elite athletes tend to have issues with lack of access to quality facilities and funding schemes. Elite athletes need good facilities to practice for length period of time without having to worry about recreational people waiting to use the same facilities. Transportation is common issue for athletes to mobilised themselves to desired training locations. Elite athletes need sufficient funding to facilitate their needs in order to progress, prepare, and excel in their chosen sport.
Disability
Disability is a major concern for the government. Disable people do have difficulties in accessing sport activities so it is important to ensure that leisure centres are well equipped in order to encourage and provide enjoyable environment for disable people. Transport must be rearranged for the disable people to make sure they are safe and well looked after.
The barriers of participation in sport
Single parents’ category:
- Lack of financial resources
- Responsibilities/ commitments
- Lack of transportation
- Fitness level
- Lack of leisure time
Rural areas:
- Lack of facilities
- Lack of options
- Lack of mode of transportation
- Absence of facilities in evening working hours
Disability:
- Lack of transportation
- Lack of disable catering facilities
- Limitation of activities provided for disable people
- Lack of support staff for disable people
Single parents have number of responsibilities from paying the bills to taking care of a child. This requires a substantial amount of finance and physical effort in order to be met. These factors represent a challenge and obstacle to single parents to find free time to participate in sport. I think we can suggest or introduce different strategies or policies to encourage single parents to participate in their favourite sport. First I would recommend that leisure centres should consider extending their evening open hours to 10 Pm, because most single parents do work standardised hours therefore they finish work at 5pm and they would have to go and collect their children from the nursery or school. This task extends even at home where the parents do need to make sure the children are fed and their homework is done. Then send children to bed. This daily routine process requires 4/5 hours after finishing day job work.
Secondly I would suggest leisure centres to reduce the standard fee for single parents to help and encourage them to participate in sport. Because single parents do have responsibilities and commitments to look after, therefore every pence saved will go to resolve a great cause.
Rural areas tend to suffer from lack of quality facilities and options. Therefore I would recommend to the local authorities to renovate and improve leisure centres to vitalise the area and people. Rural areas tend to be habituate by retired and affluent people thus one way of encouraging this class of people to participate in sport is to combine leisure centres into social gathering and sporting activities. I think senior people tend to be socially isolated therefore we can use this factor positively and incorporate it in leisure centres by introducing social activities for senior people in order to encourage them to exercise and maintain a good mental and social life. Also providing organised transportation is an enticing strategy to increase the figures of senior or rural people participating in sport.
Disabled people can experience difficulties in accessing sport environment or facilities, so it is ethically correct to make sure that disable people or people with physical difficulties are well catered and pleased within the range of acceptability. The classical concern from disable is lack of transportation and the flexibility of time. I predicate on this concern my recommendations in order to increase the number of disable people in sport. First I would suggest that the local authorities should sign contract with private transport company or provide certain centres with vehicles to transport and enable disable people to participate in sport. A second suggestion is ethically humanistically and morally supported. I think personally that people with physical difficulties should be treated with respect and honour due to their courage and spirit to seek to participate in sport given the nature of being physically disadvantaged. Leisure centres should make sure their facilities are well equipped and provide extra assistance for disable people in order to encourage and increase the number of disable people in sport and hopefully one of them will present the country and make it proud.
Drugs
Drugs are substances that assist athletes physically and mentally in hope to excel at certain sport or develop certain components of the body. For instance Beta blockers- can enhance steady nerve and decrease heart rate and blood pressure, this particular drug would be very useful for archery, snooker, diving, and shooting.
However there is an argument that suggests taking drugs is morally incorrect. This moral vista is mainly concerned about morality itself, if drugs were to be immuned from ethics and morality would profoundly compromise the moral anatomy of society. Therefore the concept of virtue would be irrelevant and immaterial. Drugs are historically associated with juveniles and criminals, thus the moral invitation to drugs in sport would radically violate the concept of sport which is predicated on fair competition and pure entertainment. As universal understanding of sport, people tend to incline to participate in sports that are not controversially implicated with illegal substances. To illustrate I would provide tour de France as an archetypal to demonstrate the impact of drugs on particular sport. It is reportedly confirmed that spectators and participants of this sport has dramatically and gradually decreasing by 6.5% per year due to the negative reputation that is manufactured by drugs cyclists takers.
The benefit of sport
The benefits of sport are diverse and instrumental in society. Sport activities can help people to exercise and maintain a good health, therefore people will be physically inclined to work, and this will assist in promoting British economy. Sport courses are nowadays introduced to the national curriculum in order to engage young people in sport. This strategy has received a positive response due to its active part in involving young people in education and sport through encompassing sport qualifications and career opportunities.
Sport can indirectly tackle crime and reduce it to certain extent by introducing sport into urban areas. This strategy of anti-crime and health initiative is actively producing good results in spreading the importance of a good health and better alternatives to exercising crime. These movements have managed to distract young people from taking part in illegal activities and alternatively provide young people an access to sporting facilities where they invest their leisure time in a healthy and amusing way. Achieving a healthy and active nation will subsequently decrease the large amount of money that the British government dedicate to NHS budget (£12 Billion) and alternatively invest the reduction in education and public facilities. Sport can well provide opportunities to escalate the social status or class by excelling at sport, thus sport can be a mean to experience different type of class. Engaging the nation in sport will also increase the odds to have quality sportsmen and therefore the country is more likely to perform well and potentially win global competitions and promote the image of England world wide.