Traditional Sports Development Continuum - Essay Example

Sports Development Name: Subject: Prof: Date: Part 1- Traditional Sports Development Continuum Sports is considered as crucial for our physical, mental, and social well-being, and every type of sport need to attract and develop participants for future development. This is the reason why numerous governing bodies in sport have development schemes and strategies for their individual sports development. Sports club and other similar organization apply the principles of sports development in their respective area to help generate interest in their activities. The purpose of sport development is to encourage individual to take part in sport, for leisure or performance enhancement at whatever level they desire. Generally, sport development is all about improving performance, sports administration, introduction of new skills, development of personal and social skills, and improving involvement within a community, identifying and developing younger players, and improving fitness for all. Since the 1980’s, sports development has been part of numerous sports council and local authority sports campaigns. The current philosophy of sports development is equal opportunity for all who want to take or enhance their sporting skills. More importantly, to motivate and encourage people to progress at all levels. The need to accomplish this philosophy has led to the creation of a Sports Development Continuum model. The Sports Development Continuum’s four main stages of development start with the Foundation stage, which is where inexperienced player’s basic interest and skills are motivated and develop. This is following the principle that young people without a sound foundation are unlikely to acknowledge the significant contribution of sport in their health through life, and therefore would not take part in sports longer (English Sports Council 1997, p.5). Consequently, they would not experience the inherent and beneficial merit of sports and without a strong foundation, pool of potential talents will be smaller and chances of developing future sporting stars will be less. Participation on the other hand accommodates all those participating at fundamental levels of skills, and people who already possesses advanced competency. Involvement at this stage can be simply for fun and recreation or for health and fitness (English Sports Council 1997, p.5). Effectively retention of those introduced and oriented at the foundation stage is critical to the success of the entire sports development philosophy since the more participants it can retain, the larger the chances of developing a healthy and progressive community. The Performance stage encourages a higher degree of competition than the previous stage. It promotes goal setting and encourages higher achievement, a more focus and concentrated participation in sports activities in preparation to the next stage. Excellence is the highest stage of the Sports Development Continuum where participation and performance are in its peak. It encompasses players trying and eager to attain the highest status of their chosen sport. The success of each stage logically depends on the number of participants and effectiveness of implementation predominantly in the first two stages. Subsequently, substantial reduction is detrimental and should be address with appropriate supports to ensure wider participation, and intensified drive for excellence. Sports development role in the stages of the continuum is apparently more significant in the broadening of the foundation, since the concentration of the work are mostly in collecting and retaining participants. Notwithstanding the pyramid structure of the sports development continuum, it is generally flexible and people have the liberty to move from one point to another (English Sports Council 1997, p.5). In addition, the dynamic design allows the free movement of participants within and between components. On the other hand, some sports developments programme tend to disregard some participants that are already keen and determined to participate regularly, since they do not need much attention like the others. Unaware of the fact, that this group can influence and help maintain the number of participants in different stages of the development continuum. Furthermore, their ability and enthusiasm is a factor of great importance that can boost progression in all stage. The apparent lack opportunities for this special group in some sports development is a substantial mishandling of talent. It is therefore necessary to be sensitive when handling these types of circumstances to avoid mistreatment of participants. Youth involved in individual or flexible style activities like swimming in the first stage of the sports development continuum, will significantly benefit from the strategic goals of the 1997 England: The Sporting Nation Strategy. Swimming as an individual sport that can start early in life (Wolstencroft 2002, p.45) and a recreation of sort, participation and skill development will be greater. Following the theoretical framework of the Sports Development Continuum, which is now widely accepted in the sporting world (Borough Sports Council 2007 p.3), the Sporting Nation Strategy offers an increase in curriculum time allocated to sport, as well as increasing the number of participants in other extra curricular type. To make the transition from junior to adult participation and performance convenient for the youth, the strategy’s main concern is to develop structures with the adult club to give more playing opportunities for juniors (Shrewsbury and Atcham 2007, p.9). In this approach, the number of participants in sports and recreation are expected to grow which means more world-class athletes in the future. In addition, to ensure realistic support for young and talented participant’s transition, funds are available through grant aid (55). The modification in the sports development continuum Fig. 2 (Wolstencroft 2002, p.78), not only illustrates the concept of performance decision point but also facilitates movement of one participant (entry and re-entry) into the continuum at different stages overtime. Analyzing the structure of the modified SDC, reveals a two system pathways to excellence and an open path from introduction to performance and participation. This means eager participants in the junior category can freely shift to participation stage after the completing the introduction. Similarly, eager participants with special talents can shift to the performance stage and can move back and forth from performance training to participation stage. In this approach, participation will be longer and transition from junior category to adult is likely to occur rapidly. However, the modified model does not clearly acknowledge the transition criteria significant to successful progression (Wolstencroft 2002, p.78). The solution is an intervention model that will aid transition. For instance, the talent model facilitates some useful criteria for transition. In the east and other parts of Europe, the participant’s physical and anthropometric characteristics are utilized to identify candidates for transition. However, young people who are physically mature are categorized for strength sports and the others for coordination sports. Age is also a categorized by sport. If the participants are too young and likely to have insufficient basic skills then they will not be a candidate for transition (Shrewsbury and Atcham 2007, p.4). This is true with swimmer’s selection occurring between 4 to 5 years of age that is too young to develop movement skills (Wolstencroft 2002, p.45). Some other strategies use task completion and learning progress to characterized eligible participants (9). While physical measures are commonly use to distinguish future victorious athletes, regular training seems to alter values of physical factors. For instance, swimmers are distinguishing through arm extension strength since the shoulder joints supply the mainstream of propulsive force for all swimming strokes thus considerable improvements in flexibility are expected after training (Wolstencroft 2002, p.20). There are other intervention models created for transition but in the UK situation, there is still no practical talent model with integrated transition developed (Shrewsbury and Atcham 2007, p.11). The modified sports development continuum appears to provide only a common structure for athlete’s development to ensure coordinated efforts and availability of resources for the athlete. An intervention model or a talent model is required to handle the transition details and other criteria for proper transition and successful progression. Part 2 – Geoff Cooke House of Sport Model Oppose to the single pathway model, the Geoff Cooke’s House of Sport Model was built for multiple pathways to excellence. Since it is a common argument that athletes can take two or more pathways to success, sports organization suggested that there should be a model offering multiple pathways. The first pathway includes the steady attrition of other sports in which the athlete is participating. The second includes participants moving from a recreational participation to performance orientation in their chosen field. The Geoff Cooke’s House of Sports Model (Fig.3) is the only model that features the concept of multiple pathways to excellence and the only model to allow categorical selection in the very first stage of development (Wolstencroft 2002, p.77). Similar to the modified Sports Development Continuum (Part 1, Fig. 2), the concentration of work in the Cooke’s House of Sports Model are also at the foundation stage. The importance of proper participant’s orientation is also apparent in the model. However, the type of sports in which the participants maybe categorized is transparent than the other model. Here, recreational activities are completely detached from performance-oriented sport, which in terms of future transition is relatively appropriate. This feature is distinctively an advantage over the Sports Development Continuum model that only offers participation stage after the introduction and re-introduction. This means all participants regardless of orientation are mixed together in one stage of development, making it difficult to select and identify participants for transition and progression. Let us remember that sports participation is always categorized as recreational or competitive thus categorizing them sooner would be better. Although recreational sports activities are believe to be in harmony with performance-oriented or competitive sports, they are completely a different thing in any sports development model. A competitive athlete is one who participates in organized manner that requires constant training and progress according to the demand for excellence and achievement. They are inclined to excel and exhibit the highest level of exertion beyond their physical boundaries. On the contrary, participants of informal recreational sports and other work out programme do not require constant and systematic training. They are not subject to the competitive pressure or even need to pursue excellence (AHA 2004 p.3). These disparities in the participant’s orientation are the reason why there should be a categorical separation in-between. It is the first convenient step to identify potential talent and elevate them from the rest. This obvious benefit of pre-selecting participants in the early and by sports model alone is what makes Geoff Cooke’s House of Sports Model unique and more realistic in pursuing excellence. Conversely, this does not mean participants in the recreational stage will never have the chance. The separation simply facilitate a more organize manner of selection and transition. In fact, participants in the recreation stage are free to move to performance stage whenever they decide to bring their sport into a more competitive environment. In the same manner, participants in the performance stage can bring their sport to a more leisurely environment. The benefit of this approach is long-term participation and retention since participants can independently shift to whatever level of convenience they want. Furthermore, participants in the recreation stage do not necessarily will aim for a higher stage. Some of them are just probably enjoying physical fitness and community interaction. Athletes with strong determination with advanced skills learned from the performance stage wishing to go further can avail of the next level to excellence. Although not specified in the Cooke’s House of Sports Model, the fifth stage is presumably equivalent to the last level or the highest level of the Sports Development Continuum. Excellence is where participation and performance is in its best and athletes are aiming to reach the uppermost status of their selected sport. Athletes will probably stay here much longer in preparation for the Elite stage and eventually to Gold. Similar to other model, Cooke’s House of Sports Model suffered from insufficient and unspecified stages with no integrated transition. This model apparently requires slight modification or an intervention model in between stages similar to other existing strategies. However, the flexibility offered the House of Sports Model is seemingly appropriate to the complexity of the current sports developments. For instance, take the KMC (2003) sport strategy, which require an increase in participation and seeking pathways for people who wants to improve their sporting skills (7). Since Cooke’s House of Sports Model is also participation oriented, similar to Sports Development Continuum, it can provide the same benefit together with an added option for categorical selection of participants. However, Sports Development Continuum is only a single pathway model and may not be enough for the strategic requirements thus Cooke’s House of Sports Model’s multiple pathways concept is more suitable for the job. Another objective of the KMC (2003) strategy, which Cooke’s House of Sports Model can help tremendously, is dealing with the sporting and recreational requirements of the area in an effectual and impartial way (7). Cooke’s House of Sports Model can help ease the burden by requiring categorical selection by orientation after the introduction stage. Similarly, it will facilitate equitability by allowing all participants to move freely from one stage to another. Contemporary sports development in Canada and Britain already adopted the concept of multiple pathways to excellence. Both countries found performers taking one or two route as they socialize in the elite level of sports (Wolstencroft 2002, p.74). All groups active in the field of sports development will have some kind of strategy to help them achieve something. The strategy should be realistic and customized to meet the precise requirements of the identified target group and to give the best value. It should be able to provide suitable resources, such as people, money, equipment, site and more. It is necessary that all those concerned with sports development strategy are knowledgeable of its principle, aspiration and goals (OCR 2000, p.4). In addition, sport development staff should realize the value of accommodating not only the members of the target group, but also participants that already motivated and enthusiastic to join, since this special group can help sustain and increase participation. To meet the precise requirements of a sports development strategy, a sport model should be flexible enough to hold or accommodate varying ideas and principles. A single pathway model is definitely not the right solution to the complex requirements. More importantly, a sports development continuum with few limited stages is categorically inferior to a model with two or more higher levels. Similar to modified SDC, incorporating an intervention model to HSM can further improve the transition and progression of the participants in all stages of the model. HSM is also ideal for sport development strategies requiring athlete’s retention in the elite level as in the case of British world-class performers. Although little evidence suggests that elite performers have both high task and high ego orientation, the though of reaching the next and highest level (Gold) of performance motivates an elite performer further (Wolstencroft 2002, p.67). Geoff’s Cooke’s House of Sports Model is not a complete model in terms of integrated transition. However, the mere fact that it is the only model offering multiple pathways to excellence is enough reason for any sports development to adopt the model. The flexibility of HSM, facilitating broad participation and categorical selection at the early stage of development is also a major factor for all sports development strategy to consider the model. Finally, incorporation of interventional model for transition and progression in HSM will definitely help but these models should be associated to the needs of specific athletes. Works Cited List AHA, 2004, Physical Activity and Recreational Sports Participation, Published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX, Copyright © 2004 American Heart Association, All rights reserved. Print ISSN: 0009-7322, Online ISSN: 1524-4539 Borough Sports Council, 2007, Sports Development, online, Date of Access: 07/07/07, http://www.barrowsportscouncil.org.uk/subpages-home/strategy-document/302-more-people-more-places.htm English Sports Council, 1997, England the Sporting Nation: A Strategy, The Advisory Group, Ancient House Press, England, ISBN: 1-86078-055-5 KMC, 2003, A Strategy for Sports and Recreation: A Framework and Guiding Principle, Kirkless Metropolitan Council ,online, Date of Access: 07/08/07, http://www.kirkleesmc.gov.uk/you-kmc/kmc-howcouncilworks/decisionmaking /councilmeetings/agendas/a3cabinet2-6a7.pdf OCR, 2000, Sports Development Leisure and Recreation, Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations Shrewsbury and Atcham, 2007, Sports Development and Strategy Executive Summary, online, Date of Access: 07/07/07, http://www.shrewsbury.gov.uk/public/sport/sportsdevelopment /sports +development+strategy.pdf Wolstencroft Elaine, 2002, Talent and Identification: An Academic Review, A report for Scotland by The University of Edinburgh, Published by SportScotland Caledonia House, South Gyle, Edinburgh, ISBN:1-85060-418-5 Read More