“Should Sports Development Focus on the Development of Elite Sport or the Development of a Wider Social Agenda?”
Using pertinent academic literature, critically discuss the following question: “Should sports development focus on the development of elite sport or the development of a wider social agenda?”
The main purpose of sports development is to focus on increasing participation and physical activity for children, younger adults and older people creating stronger and healthier communities. “Development encourages more people to take part in sport generally” (Sports Development Officer, n.d). Sports development is also vital in order to develop clubs, to manage and develop as well as sustain and improve facilities and to create links with governments and businesses to ensure healthy relationships are maintained. Sports development seeks to provide and promote sport in local communities, it also try to develop the participation in sport and the opportunities available to people. Sports development is mainly seen to increase participation for non elite athletes and in communities where sport isn‟t really well participated. This means that it is need to act as a „back bone‟ so there is a wide spread of coaches, facilities and clubs available to these communities and sports development helps this growth.
Grass roots development is vital in ensuring that future talents can have the opportunities to develop and have the chance to be the new generation of elite athletes. If we do not have the development in place to allow the grass roots athletes to evolve then we will no longer have Olympic standard athletes coming through. “Sport has a huge part to play in enriching the lives of people of all generations across the fields of health, education and social exclusion. However, if sport is to play this role, its grassroots need to be strong. Furthermore a strong and active grassroots scene means a bigger pool of talent available for elite programmes”. (Grass Roots Sport, 2010). Grass Roots development doesn‟t just give potential Olympic standard children to have the opportunity
The main purpose of sports development is to focus on increasing participation and physical activity for children, younger adults and older people creating stronger and healthier communities. “Development encourages more people to take part in sport generally” (Sports Development Officer, n.d). Sports development is also vital in order to develop clubs, to manage and develop as well as sustain and improve facilities and to create links with governments and businesses to ensure healthy relationships are maintained. Sports development seeks to provide and promote sport in local communities, it also try to develop the participation in sport and the opportunities available to people. Sports development is mainly seen to increase participation for non elite athletes and in communities where sport isn‟t really well participated. This means that it is need to act as a „back bone‟ so there is a wide spread of coaches, facilities and clubs available to these communities and sports development helps this growth.
Grass roots development is vital in ensuring that future talents can have the opportunities to develop and have the chance to be the new generation of elite athletes. If we do not have the development in place to allow the grass roots athletes to evolve then we will no longer have Olympic standard athletes coming through. “Sport has a huge part to play in enriching the lives of people of all generations across the fields of health, education and social exclusion. However, if sport is to play this role, its grassroots need to be strong. Furthermore a strong and active grassroots scene means a bigger pool of talent available for elite programmes”. (Grass Roots Sport, 2010). Grass Roots development doesn‟t just give potential Olympic standard children to have the opportunity
References: Funding Grassroots, 2010 Retrieved December 10th 2010 from http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/services/docs/sport/conference20100216/5funding_of_grassroots_sports-the_olympic_sport_movement_en.pdf 2010 Homorazzi (n.d), Retrieved December 26th 2010 from http://www.homorazzi.com/article/should-professionals-be-allowed-in-the-olympicsamateur-olympic-spirit-ideal-fair-competition/#ixzz18Hrfd1M5 Idebate (n.d), Retrieved December 11th 2010 from http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=799 Medical Statistics (n.d), Retrieved December 11th 2010 from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/40832.php 2010 News UK (n.d), Retrieved December 11th 2010 from http://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/news/2010/10/21/challenging-times-ahead-for-grassrootssport/ n.d Professional vs Armature (n.d), Retrieved December 12th from http://www.homorazzi.com/article/should-professionals-be-allowed-in-the-olympicsamateur-olympic-spirit-ideal-fair-competition/ Sport England (n.d), Retrieved November 1st 2010 from http://www.sportengland.org/ Telegraph, 2010 Retrieved November 1st 2010 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/london2012/5144780/Grass-rootssports-funding-drops-ahead-of-Olympics.html This is London, (n.d), Retrieved December 10th 2010 from http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-olympics/article-23514159-2012-games-will-fail-toboost-grassroots-sport.do2101