Sport Development in Communities - Term Paper Example

SPORT DEVELOPMENT IN COMMUNITIES BY REG NO COLLEGE According to Dish-man (1994), adapted physical activity refers to adaptation to various individual, social and environmental systems. Adapted physical activity is therefore a physical activity modified to suite all people interested in engaging in any form of physical activity such as the pre and post natal, disabled, elderly, youth and ordinary people. Communities embrace physical activities or sports as it addresses all aspects of life in the community since it aims at improving the quality of life in terms of health and fitness of a group of people. Physical activities keeps the members of the community busy thus promotes’ the safety of the community and reducing crime rates in the community. In addition, physical activities help to encourage the youth and the disabled to attend school as it gives them something to look up to thus, increase the rate of school attendance in the community (Smith and Waddington 2004). The disabled, elderly, pre and postnatal are the greatest beneficiary of physical activities as physical activities enhances their social life, technical skills and communication skills thus, help to keep these group of people in line with the community. Hence, physical activities directly affect the community, as it is the main form of ensuring the continuity of the community, society development and regeneration (Stormann 1996). Physical activity is a branch of physical education since it has trainers and professional instructors who teach and offer instructions as a formal education. Physical activity is for people who need adaptation to participate in physical activities. Adaptation is research and practices that serve people of all ages who do not get good services offered by sport sciences and are disadvantaged in accessing opportunities provided by physical activities (Stormann 1996). It extends’ beyond disabled people and includes the aged, young and obese individuals, among other categories. Adaptation is provided in terms of appropriately modified and designed sport equipment( for example prosthesis and wheelchairs), using a different skill of instructions, modified task criteria , nonverbal instructions and increasing or decreasing court dimensions (Vail 1992). It is all about matching personal interests and strengths with the appropriate activities, to promote participation in physical activities. This is regardless of the population engaged in the physical activity. Leisure World Colchester is a physical activity centre, which serves the local community, students and members of staff of the center. The facility is fairly well equipped. It offers an array of services for sports, games, fitness facilities and other physical and social facilities. Various groups of people visit the facility who require specialist provision, among the groups include the disabled youth and the elderly. A person with disability refers to someone with mental or physical impairment such as Aspergers syndrome, which limits their ability to participate in one or two activities (Smith and Waddington 2004). Physical activities provided to these groups of people promote the mental and physical wellbeing, improves general mood and physical fitness in addition to improvement in social awareness and self confidence/ esteem (Roberts and Brodie 1992). The number of organizations committed to serving people with disability has increased. The centre has a “living well with disability initiative” that gives disabled people an opportunity to be independent. Leisure World Colchester has a strict schedule for it members. All members of the center are provided with manual that is equally balanced with all sporting activities that suites all the people including the disabled, elderly, youth, pre and postnatal. For instance, Monday is for swimming to people with disability. There is a parking space for wheelchair users as is this is to enable use the facility effectively. The tables and chairs in the facilities rooms are movable to facilitate maneuvering around. The benches in the sauna are removable and adjustable to enable disabled people approach them on parallel. That facility has ramps that offer accessible routes to the seating areas where the sports facilities are located. In addition, the facility has hoist systems to help people get in and out of the pool, thus accommodate all people regardless of their status. The centers’ department for people with disabilities is non-profit making. The training center provides training fees and training equipment for people with disabilities as the funds come from Colchester Borough Council. Leisure World Colchester has adopted a sport development model called the Long Term Athlete development sport model (LTAD). This models’ main objective is to produce a huge a number of athletes who can perform and make great achievements at the highest stage and enable coaches and trainers to maximize their potential as coaches and trainers and keep them involved in physical activities as well (Coalter and Fred 1993). This model is based on a series of steps that the trainees go through in a given time frame as the phases of physical activity is entirely determined by the type of physical activity. This model constitutes of two distinct factors that determines its effectiveness, that is late and early specialization of an activity or sport. Roberts and Brodie (1992) recognizes that early specialization involves those physical activities that require people to begin serious training at an early stage. Such activities may include diving, gymnastics and figure staking. On the other hand, late specialization involves training at an older age and the sporting activities include all other sports that is learnable such as swimming, weight lifting. The table below shows the phases and progression of early and late specialization in the LTAD. Early Specialisation Late Specialisation FUNdamental FUNdamental Training to Train Learning to Train Training to Compete Training to Train Training to Win Training to Compete Retaining Training to Win Retaining Table1. From this table phase, one is the fundamental phase. This phase is suitable for young people of ages 6-9. This phase serves to develop the athletes’ physical capabilities and fundamental movement skills. Phase 2 is the learning to train. This phase is suitable for young people of ages 9-12. This phase serves to enable the athlete learn all basic skills of sports. Phase 3 is the train to train. This phase is suitable for young people of ages 12-16. This phase serves to develop the athletes’ physical capabilities such as weight lifting, aerobics with the aim of improving fundamental movement, masculinity and skills. Phase 4 is the train to compete. It is suitable for people ages 16-19. This phase serves to optimize fitness especially on specific sports or activities. Phase 5 is the training to win. This phase is suitable for people above the ages of 18. This phase serves to maximize on performance and enhance abilities. Finally, from the table the last phase is the retirement and retain phase. This phase is suitable for all the people who have given up on sporting or physical activities. This phase serves to retain all the athletes and train them to be coaches for future. This model takes care all people in the community, thus enables all who want to engage in any form physical activity retain their interest in physical activities thus, ensure a healthy and prosperous community (Coalter and Fred 1993). Persons with disabilities face a number of challenges or barriers when they choose to enroll or participate in sporting facilities such as Limited access to information. This factor prevents them from understanding their physical nature or disability, which makes them feel inferior. In addition, they are unable to understand the right physical activities to engage in thus, limits their abilities to grow both mentally and physically World health Assembly (2002). Subsequently, another factor is Inadequate and inaccessible facilities for example buildings and gymnasiums. Many training facilities fail to consider the disabled and only focus on ordinary people. Furthermore, they lack services’ that supports the disabled such as wheelchair space, fixed and immovable equipment that’s’ impossible to use by the disabled people. This poor services kills the morality for the disabled people to train or engage in any physical activities as they only opt to remain unfit which is dangerous to their health (Stormann 1996). Consequently, many training facilities have limited number of programs that encourage training and competition for persons with disabilities as they a neglected in the society this stigma by the society translates in all aspect of their life. Most persons with disabilities lack experiences in sports, which vary in degree depending on whether the disability is one gotten from accident or injuries later on in life or is from childhood that is they are born with it. This lack of experience and skills prevents them for participating fully in any physical activity. Well trained Coaches and trainer have good knowledge of what disability is and the various facilities and equipment that are suitable for person with disability and the type of training required, depending on the degree of the disability. The coaches usually are in a good position to liaise with doctors, families and psychologists a factor enabling them to administer training effectively to the disabled person as they can understand the degree of the disability, its origin and how to prevent further damage during the training period (Vail 1992). The relationship between the coach and the medics of the disabled people is very important in the training of the mind, body and soul at the sports facility as it helps to develop the trust between the trainee and the coach as they both have an understanding. In order to promote the development of sports among the people in the community especially the youth, elderly, disabled, pre and postnatal for leisure or otherwise, the following factors need to be considered ;culture, existing opportunities and services, level of interest and the current state of affairs for persons. In order to overcome barriers to sport development there has to be community support, multidisciplinary collaboration and high levels of investment. In our case study of Leisure World Colchester the facility caters for people with disability by providing facilities that offer inclusive opportunities for them and awareness creation among the staff about people with disability. The category of people with disability includes those who are undergoing physical therapies because of sickness or accidents and have chances of recovery, and those who are disabled completely ( Auxtel et al, 2010). The main areas of development for people with disability include, encouraging disabled people to engage in mainstream physical activities, supporting awareness, creation of a department for the staff coaches and leaders on disability, supporting existing and help in the creation of sports disability clubs, providing grants to coaches and disabled performers. Finally supporting some disability sports projects within the community and the city. The elderly are another group of people considered for adapted physical activity. Participating in physical activities makes elderly people autonomous as they become less dependable on other people since Physical activities enhances their movement (Auxter, Pyfer, Zittel and Roth 2010). Physical activities is also therapeutic to the elderly as it also improves their cardiovascular and metabolic functions especially those inflicted with diabetes or hypertension ( Dishman, 1994). Most of the sports programs in the sports club are mainly for the ordinary people. This factor discriminates many including the elderly who might require special attention. Nevertheless, Coaches understand that the safety margin for an exercise does declines with age as elderly people worn out quickly due to their health and diseases such as diabetes or old age diseases. In addition, they are more prone to acute injuries caused by taking part in sport activities which require high coordination, balance capabilities and reaction time for example ball games and gymnastics, World Health Assembly (2002). Elderly people face a myriad of challenges to why they do not exercise, which include negative attitude towards exercise. They feel they are too old to engage in any activity that is very involving, as they believe they performed many physical activities during their youth. To eliminate this, the exercise process should be an enjoyable activity to attract the elderly, as this will make them feel wanted and appreciated (Antonovsky 1987). The elderly suffer from discomfort caused by wear and tear of muscles and tissues, due to the aging factor. This discomfort can be managed through varying the range of exercise and not overdoing the exercise intensity as varying the exercise ensures that the whole feels the pressure thus, minimizing the pain involved in exercising. Subsequently, many elderly people suffer from diseases such as arthritis, which sometime lead to disabilities. Such disease is very discouraging and traumatizing leading to the elderly avoiding strenuous activities (Schutzer 2004). To solve this problem, it is important the elderly to get a personal trainer and never exercise without the supervision or advice of a professional. In addition, the elderly Fear injury as they understand that they are more vulnerable to injuries and that the healing process of such injuries takes a long time to heal as their body repair tissue are slow to generate. This can be prevented by wearing the correct clothing and using the appropriate equipment under professional supervision (Schutzer 2004). Consequently, old people usually develop routines that become a habit to them. That is they cannot function well without this routines. This routine becomes part of their lives and cannot be easily broken. However, with slow introduction and incorporation of the exercise or physical activities in their routines, it will help break these routine and help them to create a new path of exercise and physical activities, which is good for their health. For the elderly to live long, healthy, free from injuries and diseases, it is imperative for them to understand the importance of physical activities in their lives. They should equip themselves with technical skills, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular fitness and good agility that are vital to shield them from injuries ( Zittel, 2010). Their training program should include the use of familiar and safe equipment and as well as good pools that have warming and cooling systems that will enable them manage their body temperatures during swimming activities. REFERENCES Schutzer KA, et al, .2004.Barriers and motivations to exercise .Florida: NCBI. Dishman , R. K., 1994. Human Kinetics. Illinois: Champaign. Zittel , L ,. 2010. Principles and Methods of Adapted Physical Education and Recreation. New York: McGraw-Hill. Auxter,D, Pyfer, J, Zittel, L,& Roth ,K.(Ed.).(2010).Principles and Methods of Adapted Physical Education and Recreation. New York: McGraw –Hill. Antonovsky A ,.1987. Unraveling the Mystery of Health. San Francisco: Josse-Bass. World Health Assembly (2002). Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly, Agenda Item 13.11 from the Ninth Plenary Meeting, Geneva: World Health Organization. Vail, S.E. (1992). Toward improving sport delivery: A community perspective. Journal of Applied Recreation Research, 17, 217-233. Stormann, W.F. (1996). Recreation’s role in community development: Community re-creation. Journal of Applied Recreation Research, 21, 143-164. Smith, A., & Waddington, I. (2004). Using “sport in the community schemes” to tackle crime and drug use among young people: some policy issues and problems. European Physical Education Review, 10, 279-298. Coalter, Fred (1993) ‘Sports participation: price or priorities?’ Leisure Studies, 12 (3), pp 171-182. Roberts, K and Brodie, D A (1992) Inner-city sport: who plays, and what are the benefits? Culembourg: Giordano Bruno. Read More