Barriers

Different barriers:


Social - This is a barrier that applies to a number of people, this is more common in younger people. It is basically when someone does not have the social skills to allow them to just participate in sport or join a new sports team. If someone does not feel comfortable with mixing with others they will struggle to participate in sport. Making friends is a vital part of joining a sports team so this will restrict a person with this issue when they decide to try and get involved. Another thing that contributes to this is what others in your peer group do, if they don't like what you want to do they may peer pressure you into not doing it. A social barrier for young people at the foundation stage would be if they have low self esteem, lack of confidence or possibly getting bullied, the other two factors may arise due to a young person being bullied so they link together, this would damage their confidence thus hindering their desire to play sports. Black and ethnic groups may also feel a social barrier as there are obviously some communities that so not accept other ethnic groups which could prove to be an issue when trying to get involved at a foundation level, racism is a big issue in sport as it can leave the victims feeling intimidated and reluctant to start playing a sport at basic levels thus restricting their desire to get involved at a later age.  A side product of this would be that they may have bad social skills which would restrict them from actually joining a new sports team at participation level as they do not have the capacity to make new friends as a result of the tough time they get from other kids. A disability can be a huge influence on an individual's social skills and willingness to involve themselves with others and get active, they may feel self conscious about their body and feel as if they are not as good as the people they are competing with if they are able-bodied.
One idea to overcome this barrier would be to improve sport facilities in schools to the extent that the kids would be able to take part in sport and have a good quality session, if the kids learn to play together and enjoy sport at this young age it will not only improve confidence but it will also encourage healthy relationships amongst everyone. This would obviously need funding which could be acquired from the council but this would be the only problem which would be faced as im sure schools would be happy to have high quality sport facilities. Another way of overcoming social barriers would be to install sports facilities for disabled sports which is accessible for people locally, it would allow disabled people to stay active but would need funding from the council. It is for a very good cause and it is vital that disabled people are not deprived of the opportunity to engage in physical activity. Another way of overcoming social barriers could be to simply allow the participants to get to know each other or even just play fun games to start with to get everyone in the session friendly with each other and break the ice with everyone, it will help the more socially awkward people in the group feel more at ease and it will not cost any extra money so it will not be a problem.




Cultural - In a multi race country such as England there will obviously be different sports that are popular within different cultures throughout the country. For example, korfball is a sport that originated in the Netherlands, however it is not a very well known sport at all in England and this as well as other sports that seem obscure to us may not be nationally recognised, there is a very limited amount of exposure to young peoplewithin this sport which creates a small amount of participants throughout the nation. Because of this there may not be any opportunities to play the sport as there are not many other players as well as the fact that there will probably not be any coaches and clubs available. People of other ethnics that are a part of a community which makes them a minority may have a sport that they have a passion for but is not a sport that the community that is not partaken in by others within it, this obviously restricts the opportunity to actually play this sport, especially if this person has grown up playing a particular sport in another country that they have grown up in and then moved away it will be more frustrating, there needs to be initiatives in place for young people to do sports in general that are just a bit different, this will encourage more a cultural acceptance throughout the country if young people of mixing with kids of other ethnic backgrounds which will result in multicultural acceptance. Women may also face this barrier as in some cultures it is frowned upon for women to play and compete in certain sports, of course this will restrict them to very little time where they can actually get involved in this sport. Older people would also struggle with this barrier as they are sometimes not given the opportunity to play certain sports within some cultures as they are seen to just be people who sit around all day, this restricts the amount of exposure and pooprtunities that they are given. This may leave them to doubt their own ability leading to them not staying active. A way of overcoming this is to introduce sessions of sports that come from different cultures within local communities as it will allow people to give different sports a chance and this may lead to wider participation in other sports of different cultures thus giving people who actually want to play it the opportunity to do so. It would need some but not a lot of funding so it should not be too much of a problem to make something like this happen.

Economic - This entails issues based around money, there will be a lot of areas of the country that have to face this issue as its biggest obstacle when it comes to promoting sport and actually getting people involved in sport in order to create a healthy lifestyle within the small community. Individuals may also face this issue, a low income is just one of the examples of ways people are affected in this way; they may not be able to afford the correct equipment to play the sport e.g. shin pads and boots for football. If they play for a school team and need to pay for the bus fare for away games and cannot pay this will obviously cause a barrier for them as it will limit the amount they can play. Older people may face this problem as a lot of them to don't actually work leaving them having to watch how they spend their money, if they have to pay to use local sport facilities they must prioritise where they put their money leaving them to not get involved in sport, having to mange money especially when they are already with a limited budget adding a certain amount onto how much they spend each week just on sport is sometimes not sustainable on top of buying  all the equipment. It is  for this reason that deals and discounts need to be in place of older people to take advantage of. Young people who come from unprivileged backgrounds will not be able to afford proper equipment in some cases like shinpads or even kit which is a big issue and discourages them to get involved in sport which may follow them into adult life, of course it is vital for participants to be able to acquire this type of equipment simply for safety reasons, it is not safe to participate in certain sports without the required equipment such as shinpads in football.. Disabled people face similar issues as if their disability does not allow them to work then, obviously, their income will be at a minimum and some equipment that is required in some disability sports may cost a bit extra than it normally would meaning sport for some is not an option, disability sports are in a minority already without the economic barrier, overcoming this is so important as we need to restrict the barriers that are presented to disabled people in order to minimalist the amount of disabled people who want to get into sport but just cannot do so because of the barriers that face them. Introducing free-to-use facilities would obviously be one of the better ways to go about overcoming this barrier. Something like a little caged football area or something along those lines allows people with not that much money to still be able to go out and engage in physical activity, it would cost a bit of money to build but it is worth it as small communities do need something like this in order stay active especially in areas that are known to have a lot of people with not a lot of money as without one of these it is the whole community that will miss out. Another way of doing this would be to focus on young people, in particular ones that play in school teams as for away games normally a small fee is required for the bus but some kids wont actually be able to pay for that so introducing a system where it is possible for kids to have free transport to away games. It could be something as simple as the school paying the child's fee or to just let the kid on without having to pay. Something along these lines is vital in order to keep the number of young people playing sports at a maximum.

Historical - There is a historical element to sport in this country and how it is played. Traditionally, a lot of sports are male-dominated especially contact sports which limits women nowadays to how regularly they can take part in sport, because of this and the way kids are brought up to think that some sports are just for males it creates a sense of not fiiting in for women who want to get involved with a certain sport, initiatives specifically for girls must be introduced in order to overcome this barrier.. Because of the fact that, historically, women have often been somewhat excluded from contact sports such as rugby which now limits the amount of women actually play now that it is more acceptable for women to play sports like this. This means that when there is a woman that actually wants to get involved in rugby they will struggle to do so because of either lack of other women whom are local to this specific person or just plainly due to the fact that there are no local women's rugby clubs available for them to join. Women, up until recently, have been massively hindered when it comes to sport, to say even rights for women were not a thing up until recently it shows how new the idea of women being equally seen in sports at the moment is in the process, we need to carry on improving the ways availabe to get women involved in sport to get to the point where sometime in the fute women may be seen equally. In the past they haven't been able to participate in sport, and still it is considered that women sport is still rather unpopular when compared to men, this means that there is not as much advertisement for the game for women resulting in there still only being a minority of women that play sports. Older people, throughout time, have been pushed out of sport as it is mainly targeted at younger people, because of this older people may feel inadequate, however more exposure to sport and tafgetting older people for sport sessions will encourage a more active lifestyle among more elderly people.. This results in a lack of clubs that facilitate older people, or at least encourages them to get involved, resulting in them feeling that physical activity is not for them. Many disabled people are also faced with such issues, historically disabled sport has been in a minority as it has never been advertised well and it is portrayed through the media that sport is for able-bodied people which does not encourage disabled people to start sport from a young age.

Educational - A lot of young people are first introduced to sport at school through PE, because of this PE is also where they first encounter their weaknesses and this shapes their self-consciousness, if they start to feel bad about their shape and size at a young age because of PE this will follow them throughout their childhood and school life and possibly even into their adult life, it is down to the teacher to encourage the kids and try and make them feel better about themselves but at the end of the day this is a very difficult task to do to a whole class of kids, which shows how young people face this barrier. More factors of the educational barrier are lack of facilities which will not spur young people on to get involved in sport outside of school, facilities and leisure centres must be made more accessible for young people if they are to pursue sports competitively as accessible facilities are the first step into creating young athletes. Disabled children are often just allowed to sit out of PE rather than being encouraged to join in which portrays the idea that they are not supposed to get involved which is not the case, however this follows them throughout life and their mindset just never changes, teachers must adapt sessions in order to overcome this barrier in a way that can get the disabled person involved in the session, this could be something as simple as making the session easier with the skills that are going to be practiced.. Women also face this to some extent, they are not taught how to play sports like rugby is PE unlike the boys are which, from an early age, almost brainwashes them into thinking there are some sports that they are not supposed to get involved in thus restricting them from doing so later on as they enter adult life. Specialty sessions for girls in sports such as rugby should be encouraged in order to make girls realise how they can in fact get involved in these types of sport, keeping them away from these sports will only discourage them which will not do anything towards making this barrier any easier to overcome. 

Sport Development

Unit 6 Sports Development




p1, p2, m1, m2, d1


http://teaching.shu.ac.uk/hwb/sport/techandinnov/showcase0809/paula_price/sportdevelopment_lecture1.pdf


Sport development is the act of promoting sport in local communities, for this to be able to happen there must be strong connections and partnerships between local community groups, service providers, facility operators, national governing bodies, local authorities and voluntary groups.
The aims of Sport Development is to develop and promote the opportunities already available to local people from foundation level to excellence and also to introduce new opportunities, this has been happening since the movement started in 1980's. The type of people that are involved in the movement are teachers, PE staff, coaches, youth workers etc.


There are certain priority groups that the movement focuses on, these include: community groups, older people, young people, ethnic groups etc. Sport Development requires funding in order for it to function, a lot of the funding is from Sport England as well as there being funding from other organisations like the national lottery. They get around £1.6 million per week in funding. The FA work with sport development and does have schemes designed to get people involved in football, it's named 'Just Play' which aims to enhance the involvement and quality in football at grass roots level. The LCB who are the governing body of cricket in Lancashire also have an affiliation scheme which helps to promote the game in that area.




5 examples of sport development groups:
Leisure leagues - Football, 5 a side football scheme. Aims to get people involved through arranging small sided teams to get compete as either a starter to competitive football or a way of allowing more experienced players to have fun whilst also enjoying the competition.
Back to hockey - Hockey, targets ex players. Encourages people who have been out of the game who have previously been involved in it, mainly older women (possibly 40's) who have stopped playing, to start playing again with people of a similar age.
Back to Netball - Netball, This is very similar to the hockey scheme apart from this one obviously targeting ex netball players instead.
Chance to shine - cricket, targets younger kids who have not yet been exposed to the game. It allows them to acquire the basic skills required to play and will encourage them to progress their skills in order for them to play more competitively and to join cricket clubs.
Sportivate - Sport in general, targets young disabled people. Although it will be difficult for them to get involved in sport with their disabilities they are offered an alternative through sportitave which gives young disabled people the opportunity to be active with people in similar situations as them who may also struggle to get involved without this initiative.






The sport development continuum shows the different stages and levels there are in sport starting with grass roots level before progressing the top level which is excellence. The layout of the continuum portrays the idea of how the number of participants gets lower as the stages progress through the pyramid shape, it shows clearly the decline in numbers as there are not as many people good enough to compete at that level. The first level is the foundation level, it is at the base of the pyramid as can be seen on it this is where the most number of participants are. The reason for this is that it is a starting point where you can learn the basics and gain experience, primary PE lessons and multi sports sessions are examples of the type of activities that are taken part in at this level. This level would normally be targeted at young kids in order to get them interested and give them experience in sport before they make a step up and begin the next level of the continuum. When they decide to move on to the next level of the sport continuum this is where they would begin to participate in sport more frequently. Some coaching of the participant may begin to take place, things like school festivals are where a participant would practice their skills. This level is to introduce some form of competitiveness but still at a basic level. The next section of the pyramid is performance, a player would join a sports club at this level and begin to focus on a particular sport like joining a football club where competitive games are played, the pyramid is much, much smaller than the base of the pyramid here as this is where participants with some talent and the willingness to commit to one sport are filtered through. They would try to develop themselves further through the competitive nature and more regular training on this specific sport and would receive a higher quality of coaching in order to progress their level of skill. However, as well as there being this competitive edge to the way they would play the sport, this level would still mainly be for enjoyment. The pyramid is even smaller at the next stage as it is where we find the peak of the pyramid, governing bodies are responsible for sport at this level e.g. the FA being in charge of football at this level. Player would pass from regional to national squads as this is where the best and most talented players are filtered to, at the peak of the pyramid is where they would achieve success in this sport, like if a football player earns a contract at a professional club and be able to do this for a living.






Football - Starting at a foundation level would be where we would find people of a very young age would be found, this would be them taking part in soccer schools in holidays or playing at school in PE. Just Play is a scheme to get people at this level involved. The sport is very popular with young people as, although they may not be the best player, they can still enjoy participating as it is a well advertised sport. For this reason as well as others there are loads of people at this foundation level. The next step they would make is joining a Sunday league club, it would still be a basic skill level but they would be able to gain more training and coaching thus improving themselves as a player, they can focus on improving their basic skills in order to progress on to playing at a higher level. Joining a club at this level is vital as it provides a pathway to the next step, without playing at a basic club there is no chance of playing for a better team at a higher level. The next level is performance and entails playing for counties and academies, this would still be for enjoyment but there is more of a competitive edge to the game and there is higher quality of coaching which allows players to develop their game even more and the coaches attempt to develop players to a standard that would allow them to play at the very top, although it does not work out for many players. The pyramid is smaller here as there are not as many players that have the talent to play at this level, the better players are filtered through to here as they actually have to be noticed before they can progress to this stage making it difficult for many players to get to this level. Once at an academy or county club players get to a certain age where they either make the step up or drop out completely, again it is not entirely the player's choice as to whether they can progress as they must be deemed good enough by coaches to do it. This is why this section, excellence, is much smaller as only the best are filtered through to here. Players would be moving from county to national squads and would begin to earn professional contracts and success from this sport. An advantage of this is that the initiatives get so many young people involved which improves the chances of exceptional players making it to the elite stage of the game. As well as this it also encourages a helthy lifetyle amongst young people which is very important at such a young age as this alone provides the foundation for development. A disadvantage of such a big focus going into football is that it makes it so very diffciult for anyone to ever make itto the elite stage in football as only a very, very small percentage of young football players get to make it to this stage.






Swimming - This sport differs greatly from football in terms of how the levels of the sport work, however there are some similarities. The base of the pyramid is the same with primarily young children taking part at this stage as they are first introduced to the sport, it is up to parents and swimming clubs themselves to get young people into siwmming competitiev as a difference at this level is that there is no nationally recognised scheme in swimming unlike the Just Play scheme in football. With this in mind it is clear to see why swimming may be seen as slightly less popular than sports like football and rugny and there is not as many pathways into the introduction of swimming unlike with other sports. There is a much samller parycipation aespecially at these foundation levels with a large part of this being down to kids simply not having the exposure to competetive swimming, this is bound to be an issue when the attention to young swimmers just simply isnt there. Better swimmers will progress into clubs where they compete against other better swimmers which is similar to football, small clubs can be joined where swimmers can race against each other. This is where the real development must occur as it is vital that once at a club the swimmers physical attributed develop as well as their skills as being a competetive swimmer is physically very demanding. After this more competitive clubs can be joined where there is more of a serious edge to it, however there is no semi professional clubs like there is in football so there is a bigger jump between the different stages unlike with football, at this stage the main development will have needed to have already been made simply because most others will be at a stage where their body is ready to be pushed to the limit, there will still be room to develop but they must have made big developments to compete with other swimmers who have the same competetive edge. The stage after joining more competitive clubs would be to compete for a place in the Olympics, this is the peak of this sport which is different to football as there are not many professional swimming clubs that are well recognised, here the swimmer must be in peak condition as this is the elite stage of the sport where only the best can make this step up where only a small percetnage can make it. Advantages to the way the continuum works in this sport is that a smaller amount of competitors at doundation levels mean that it gives the people who do chose to persue swimming more of a chance to be successful. However, the obvious disadvantage is that it is difficult as a nation to be successful when the exposure to young people is at a minimal.






Rugby - The foundation level is similar to football as it is where young people are introduced to the sport, many players progress to the next stage like in football but still it is not very competitive, players are not expected to be a high quality, this is just a stage where players can practice the fundamental skills and make these as good as possible so that they canprepare themselves for more challenging skills that are needed to progress to the next stage. The better players are filtered to the performance stage where they can play for semi professional clubs and counties like in football which shows a big similarity, it is important that players are prepared to develop themsleves physically as rugby is a sport that requires a lot of strength. Even the most skilful player in the world would struggle to play at a good level without that physicalpresence, it can be quite dangerous without a physical strength so players must be able to do this. The level of the play improves and players must be able to make that step up otherwise it could be dangerous for them if they are not actually good enough. Even better players will progress to professional clubs and national squads, this shows that this is much more similar to football than swimming, the peak of the pyramid would be representing a premiership club and representing your country which, again  shows similarity to football. Once a player makes it to this stage their skills and physicality must be in peak condition in order to be able to compete with other players who have got themselves in peak condition. The advantages and disadvantages are similar to that of football, of course unlike swimming there are initiatives in place to introduce young people to the sport, which allows the likeliness of more success coming as a nation, the more people who get involved the higher the chances of very good players being produced as youth development is vital in sport. A disadvatage, like football is that it is so diffciult to get anywhere in rugby with the competition being so high. Another disadvantage is that the physical development needs to take a very large step up which can make a lot of people to be deemed not good enough, because of this it makes it very difficult for players to make a career for themselves in the sport, professionally.






Purpose - most sports development schemes help people improve their basic skills with training. these programmes show progression and allow players to progress through the continuum but to also provide social outlets and build confidence within players. Players will be given a good chance to progress through the continuum.






Appropriateness - they target groups that they need to like youngsters and allow them to gain basic skills and also get them active at the same time.  They also work to create relationships within communities. Not only does this encourage a healthy lifestyle but it will also encourage tolerance and more of a friendly relationship between people within a community which allows young people to not have a healthy view on people of other ethnic groups.






pro health - promoting healthy lifestyle. From a young age it is vital that people are encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle which includes having a balanced diet whilst also engaging in regular physical activity. Getting young people to chose a healthy lifestyle will increase the likelihood of them carrying this lifestyle on into their adult hood.




pro education - encourage young people to learn discipline and understand fair play, working in multicultural teams. Of course education is a very important thing as it will set a young person up well for life as education allows people to get a job when they are older and although this is not much to do with health it is just as important.




anti drug - outlines the dangers of drug taking, tries to steer participants away from this route. In order to maintain a healthy lifestyle young people must stay clear of the path that leads to drugs as turning to drugs completely contradicts the idea of being healthy both physically and mentally.




anti crime- encourages young people to respect others and avoid criminal activity, so helps with life skills and works wit them on that. Staying the right side of the law is so important for someone who is growing up as avoiding getting involved in crime is a big part of having a better quality of life in adulthood as things like getting a job will prove to be much easier.




regeneration - allows areas to be improved in order for sport to take place there, for example, areas of east London are were going under regeneration in order for the London Olympics to take place. This is one of the most important things as building areas into being a place where people can feel safe whilst also having the facilities like sports pitches to keep active which is a massive part of developing into having a very healthy lifestyle.