Playing to Win Sports Program - Article Example

Playing to Win Playing to win was a sports program initiated by the government to increase the public’s interest in sports and so that more people would participate and express their interest in it. All of this was done to achieve only one thing that is to increase the participation of English men and women in sports and to win medal and tournaments all over the world. With the help of this policy, UK wanted to achieve which it had been long working hard for. The purpose of the policy was quite simple and was made with only sports in mind; the benefit of the sport. Increased sports participation creates a good impact on the society with more educational achievements and less youth crimes. The minister’s further commented about the purpose of the policy stating that he was confident that the purpose of this policy is to deliver sports in England. He further said that there should be focal point based on the development of sports and participation in it which can be achieved by forming national governing bodies, coaches, clubs, volunteers which is supported by the venture made for the facilities. The minster promised to rid the country from bureaucratic power and all the complaints and asked for their commitment in return (Houlihan and Lindsey, 2012). The vision the sports policy has for sports in England is its development of not only sports but the progress of all kinds of physical activity in England. The DCM stated that their vision is to provide a larger group of people belonging to all ages, the opportunity to contribute their talents in a quality sport which is competitive (Cryer, 2009). This is a new era of opportunities for the advancement of both sport and physical activities in England. Physical activities are a cross-government responsibility and should be lead to get more opportunities for physical activities by a number of departments. The reforms of sport are set according to this backdrop of the government’s goal to raise the level of physical activity. England has offered free swimming for the adults over 60 and teens under 16 to raise the level of ambition. England’s main reason for providing such offers and undergoing such changes is because it wants to become a world leading sporting nation; to achieve this very goal, the policy makers and the administrators are working together. Their vision is to provide opportunities to individuals of all ages to participate in highly competitive sports which need an integrated and sustainable sporting system which will nurture the following qualities namely, sporting talent, a high quality club and finally, a good competition structure. England’s visions are big and clear at the heart; therefore everyone involved in sports should make all suitable methods for the development of the country’s host nation Olympic status for the future generations. The vision for 2017 include the implementation of a system that portrays a system that is world leading for PE and sports. Every kid at school from 5 to 16 year old has to attend PE and sport class every week, to increase participation in sports and to encourage high quality clubs to promote talent. The most important goals is to sustain the status in Olympics that are going to be held in 2016. Since any one and every one can play sports. Hence, the target audience for this policy involves all the citizens of UK whether it be a child or a handicapped person. The policy will apply to all students as well. To tend to the basic needs and requirement for the target audience of the policy there are certain things that need to be dealt with first. There should be a proper infrastructure or system that helps the participants in every step of the way. Other things that need to be considered such as for young participants it should be ensured that the school are providing high quality of sports training, the children should get exposed to a wide variety of sports so that they can test their strengths and weaknesses, there should be enough coaches to train the sports team and individual players, the student should not rely on football too much and the students should be encouraged to participate in sports. The basic requirements for community sport include the provision of enough coaches to train the entire team and participants, the participants should be given incentives so as to avoid drop off from the sport, girls and women should be given priority and should not be neglected, provision of high standard clubs where the players can practice sport and portray their skills to full extent. On elite sport level, it should be made sure that the investment are being utilized in the right place and in the right time. The basic and common need for all three sections is the designing of an organizational structure. The policy solves all the issues in detail by creating a set of steps that develop and solve the problems at the very base. The first issue being addressed in the policy is the lack of participation in school sport. This was solved by making 2 hours of PE and sports each week compulsory for the students. The second issue being referred to belongs to the community sport where there is lack of clarity in conducting physical activity or sports and the difficulty for the clubs to get funds and increasing cases of bureaucracy. This was solved by developing a new strategy from the roots. Develop new clubs and partnerships with partners on national level which will be able to increase involvement of general public in sports and also improve the delivery or crystal clear instructions. In the years before this policy was implemented there was no sport system in school and there was no proper investment for students in sports area, there was deteriorating system of sports and there were no proper facilities, England did not score any gold medals in Olympics. This was until 1997. However in the year 2007, the participation of 25% had risen to 86%, there were many coaches who were hired in schools for the Sports and PE activities and good investments were made in school sports system, Facilities had been rebuilt and replaced with high tech equipment and England improved its ranking in Olympics by coming in 10th position from 36th position. The political ideologies that influence this policy is that the ruling government took the implementation of this policy as a chance to reduce the segregation of society and this policy could help in uniting the people by allowing equal contribution from all over England in sports. It was thought that with the help of sports the population that lives below normal lives could get a chance at good living and may also gain employment with the help of the policy and also get a hand over better education. The rationale for the policy was clear and simple “every child regardless of the circumstance or their ability should be given an opportunity to participate and have fun with sports and physical education (Phillpots, 2013). The theory that that underlie the policy included thing like the basic structure which although was present but was not sufficient enough or effective enough. This is the reason why National governing bodies were established and it was with heir help a basic structure was developed. The PE and sport strategy for young people (PESSYP) is based in the success strategy of PE, school sport and club links (PESSCL) which was started by the Youth sport trust in 1995. The state is involved in this policy because of the reason that none of this would be possible without the involvement of the state. Improvement in sports department means a decrease in obesity and other health issues related to obesity. Increased participation in sports also prospers the state and also the state benefits from such programs. People invest in sportsmen which also benefits the state and other people as well. It unites people and creates a peaceful environment. The secretary of state culture James purnell stated that sports matter a lot and most of the time the positives outweigh the negatives (Cryer, 2009). The policy does utilize the community approach for the development of sports. Sports England itself utilizes this approach to flourish a sport system that is recognized all over the world and increases participation of people in sports. The community based approach helps to develop equality all over the country with no acts of favoritism or racism. This community system provides the basic framework of the state of the art network of clubs. The NGB governance decision making process involves weighing the progress against achievement of the achieved target which is to be examined after every 6 months. Here NGB gives attention and support to all of those who need it. Then, comes the work of coaches and volunteers. People are given coaches who train them. Participants are selected based on a scheme by funding. Criminal records of participants are also tallied to improve the services provided by the club. The UK sport works investing the progress of coaches who worldly renowned, they also provide investment and offer support to National governance board for talent hunt, research and lifestyle performance. This body is responsible for elite performances which includes Olympics and Paralympics association. The government has a specific vision for sports in the year 2012 and beyond that. The most important goals of 2012 is to secure 4th position in Olympic and 2nd position if Paralympics. Another important role of government is to create a legacy from 2012 games to increase the ratio of physical activity all over the country. The aim is to get 2 million people active by the year 2012. The implementation of all the policies needs to be implemented to achieve the target goals by 2012. Failure to implement any of the goals will not result in a successful strategic plan and hence England will fail to achieve the status that it plans to achieve by the next Olympics and Paralympics game. Bibliography Houlihan, B. and Lindsey, I. (2012). Sport policy in Britain. New York: Routledge, p.117. Cryer, J. (2009). Ruffs guide to playing to win. [online] sportdevelopmentinfo. Available at: http://www.sportdevelopment.info/index.php/component/content/article/51 [Accessed 5 Mar. 2015]. Phillpots, L. (2013). An analysis of the policy process for physical education and school sport: the rise and demise of school sport partnerships. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 5(2), pp.193-211. Read More