Local and National Provision for Swimming
The sport I have chosen to analyse the Local and National provision
for is swimming. I have competed in many "in-club" races and swam
against several other clubs, this was through a continuous interest in
swimming and sport as a whole.
Every popular sport has to be provided for at different levels, from
an absolute beginner, to international excellence. At each level,
there are different coaching and training procedures, as well as the
consideration of the disabled to cater for. This operation is run by
the Amateur Swimming Association (A.S.A.), where rules are made
official and provision is provided, which coaches and swimmers have to
abide by.
The A.S.A has a swimmer development program called Swim21. I quote
from the website, "Swim21 provides a long overdue nationally
recognised club development programme which provides clear pathways
which swimmers can progress along. I'm sure the programme will go
along way to helping us produce the champions of the future." The
quote basically tells us that the A.S.A is very keen to produce
talented swimmers into the future and do everything it can to achieve
this. Swim21 also applies to disabled swimmers.
At grass roots level the most important contributor to the access a
young performer has to sport is usually from the school, and this is
no different in swimming. As well as this many young children have
available to them the opportunity of learning to swim at their local
swimming facility. Henceforth, in general, once young swimmers have
learned the basics, with a particular enjoyment for the sport, they
have the choice to move onto competitive swimming by signing up to a
club registered with the A.S.A within their area. The next stage to
improving is to enter into a training program, suited for age and
experience.
Normally within a swimming club, there are teaching groups depending
on the experience and skills they have, so that they can therefore
train to become better, or train to perfect the skills the need to
Imagine swimming in the big Olympic pools. All you can hear is the muffled noises of ecstatic fans cheering. All you can feel is the water urging you to keep swimming. Then you reach your hand out and feel the wall. You emerge out of the crystal blue pool water and have won! Michael Phelps and Dara Torres are two extraordinary swimmers who live their lives in the Olympic pools. Both Torres Is Tops and Michael’s Magic deal with the challenges and successes of Dara and Michael’s Olympic careers, but they do so in different ways. Let’s start our swim through the lives of these two Olympic champions.
I have been swimming year-round on a club team since the age of six and when I was younger improving came relatively easily. However, around age 13, I hit a training plateau despite having the same work ethic and focus that I had previously had. I grew to despise swimming and at points I wanted to quit. However, unlike Junior, I had role models and mentors who were positive influences on me and who helped me to overcome this challenge. Primarily, I had several of my best friends on the team who convinced me to keep persevering and to not simply quit the sport that I loved so much just because I was no longer dropping time. For example, every day I watch my close friends Lizanne and Cate come to practice and give it their all, regardless of the numerous injuries and medical issues that plagued their swimming career; their positive outlook and dedication motivated me to try even harder than I had before. Moreover, I had by parents, something that Junior did not have; my parents were always there to support me after yet another disappointing meet reminding me that “you get five minutes for a win and five minutes for a lost”. My parents where my voice of reason as I tried to work through my issues; they were always there to encourage me, but also were very honest with me
Competitive swimming has changed over the years but not super drastically because all in all it's still a competition. Competitive swimming was first introduced in the early 1800s in Britain by the National Swimming Society. The National Swimming Society used indoor man made pools to compete in. These events began to become popular leading to the start of the Amateur Swimming Association in 1880. Swimming was first included in the Olympic Games in 1896. There were four swimming events held, now there are about 16 events held current day. Olympic swimsuits have also changed a lot over the years. The standard male swimmers uniform at the start was a full body suit. That and other non revealing pieces stuck up through the 1940s. They soon ditched
33 feet up, looking down at the water, trying to determine if this trick will make or break a diver from the rest of his or her career is a heart pounding experience. He jumps, spins, flips, and then hurdles 62 miles per hour toward the unforgiving water head first. The loud splash the diver makes as he enters the water perfect. He disappears into the dark obis of the water for what feels like forever, as he mentally prepares himself for either applause or boos. He finally has no choice but to come up. The room is silent as his head breaks the surface of the water. Then before he has time to recollect what is going on the room busts into cheers and applause, he looks at the score board and sees his name move up from third to first place. The adrenaline rushing through a divers veins, the anticipation till he enters the water, all of this makes diving the best sport in the whole world and Britain definitely knows this.
Physical Education In Scotland from the 1930s-1960s was surprisingly poor. Girls were inexperienced with physical education and its opportunities due to lack of education, and Scotland's beliefs during this time. These beliefs consisted of the views in the twentieth century that women were viewed as mothers and wives. In the article “Exercise and education: facilities for the young female body in Scotland, 1930-1960’s”, introduced a lady Mandy Treagus who believed that the game Netball could help these woman prepare for their roles as a mother and a wife. Macrae stated that Treagus, “through this game, girls were coached in the act of bodily restraint and personal sacrifice for the sake of the team.” (Macrae) Mandy wasn’t the only one who had higher views on exercise, health, and physical education, in the article the author Macrae Eilidh also recorded that the 1903 Carnegie Dunfermline Trust had contributed to Scotland’s physical education and health to children. This trust helped Scotland build a PE College of Dunfermline, which now benefits physical education to children. This is beneficial because, it allows more
Finish, Finish, Go, and Go you just set the new world record. Every four years lots of people gather around a pool cheering for Olympians. It is a very noisy place. A lot of Olympians that are part of the summer Olympics are very athletic, they swim all year around. The swimming Olympic history and background is very interesting. They have done so many new things over that past couple of years. They come out with new rules every year to make things more fair and challenging. There are a lot of events and tons of records that have been broke. A lot of Olympians have set future goals to stride for. I was swimming the 200 meter fly I was at a really good time when I had 50 meter sprint left at the end all I could think about was I’m going to set the new world record. Olympic swimming is a very fun sport it is very athletic. Every year in the summer time every one always sits around a TV watching this it is very famous in America. Swimmers from all around the world come and here and compete. There is a lot of competition there I have found out a lot about the history of swimming. There are a lot of events and tons of records that have been broke. A lot of Olympians have set future goals to stride for.
In today’s national professional sporting community, too many Australian athletes take everything for granted. The Glamour, Publicity and their sporting attributes. Australian athletes, representing our nation, internationally and nationally showing poor behaviour both on the field and off the field. In particular, AFL, NRL and Tennis stars.
The British Sports Industry Leisure Provision The provision of sports facilities and opportunities in Britain is the result of the interaction between the public, private and voluntary sectors. All 3 sectors provide different, yet when looked at closely, similar services. Public Sector
In order to increase participation in sport we first must improve equity and access. Equity focuses on providing equal opportunities to all members of society and aims to eliminate unreasonable barriers that restrict sports participation - such as discrimination, prejudices and stereotyping. A lack of equal opportunities is a primary reason as to why an individual may choose to not participate in a specific sport. AFL, like many other sports, intend to remove unreasonable barriers in the sport to help increase participation rates. Development programs – such as AusKick - target all children, no matter gender or race and encourage them to get involved in AFL. Women’s leagues are also popping up all over Australia with more than 51,000 Queensland
Currently used to support the UK coaching framework, the participant development model “is aspirational: it reflects how the participant population could be thought about and structured, rather than how it actually is. It is a model for participation in sport, rather than a model of participation.” (The National Coaching Foundation 2009) This was developed as a generic development model that governing bodies could adapt to suit their own sports and uses similar principles to the LTAD
Swimming, one of the most favored sports by people across the world, is much greater than a form of competition and entertainment for a certain group of people. For countless mentally and physically disabled people, the pool represents a place where they build strength and derive confidence, and a place for them to connect with people who share the same mental or physical struggles as they do. According to Aquatics International’s research, people with disabilities have less time to socialize and partake in activities that require physical strength and they often experience feelings of depression. However, Aquatics International also found that “People with disabilities who are encouraged to participate in recreational activities such as swimming can achieve a greater sense of individual wellness and overall satisfaction with life” (Ostby and Skulski).Therefore, swimming is undoubtedly more than just a sport or form of entertainment; because, for some people, it is what keeps them alive and pain free. Swimming affects the livelihood of people with mental and physical disabilities in momentously positive ways, providing them support in innumerable aspects of their lives.
The targeted group of coaches were those that coach children from ages 12-16 because of the influence made on children in this adolescent stage as well as the children’s involvement in both competitive sports and the community. Though there was a criterion of the age group of participants, the actual sports context was not controlled in this study. The ratio of male to female coaches in their respective groups both roughly simplified to about 3:1. Meanwhile the sports that were sampled only included basketball, swimming, golf, ice hockey, baseball, and sledge hockey. Also, experience was not necessarily a criteria because the coaches ages themselves ranged from 16 to 70 years old with as little 2 years to as much as 45 years. However, 35% of community coaches and 91% of competitive coaches claimed to have completed a coaching certification
Sports in America have many different levels of competition, each with a particular purpose that correlates to their philosophical position. However, I believe that the overall philosophical trend of the sports construction in America is one of Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is an extension of the theory of natural selection made famous by Charles Darwin. The idea is that the fittest individuals are the ones that are be capable of leaving the most amount of offspring, in turn having an impact on the future direction of the particular species. This is where the mantra of “only the strongest survive” originates from. While it is true that at the younger competition levels this philosophical idea does not hold well to sports, however, consider the following analogy: A large pool of athletes in the younger age groups are like the starting population size of a species. However, as the age groups rise, like to high school, college, and maybe to professional leagues, the pool of athletes becomes vastly depleted. This is very similar to individuals in a species dying out to various causes, the idea is that only the strongest survive. Athletes competing at the professional level are so competitive that sometimes they will seek to circumvent the rules of the sport in order to survive and thrive. That is why the philosophical construct of sport in America is that of Social Darwinism. Professional athletes are at the top of the food chain and are under fierce competition and scrutiny from their fellow athletes, and the ever watchful eye of the media. The result is athletes tend to treat their sport more as a game of survival and compete ruthlessly in order to be the best instead of playing for a pure love of the game.
‘Beyond 2012 – outstanding physical education for all’ makes recommendations for schools and the Department for Education to secure the quality of PE in schools and draws out improvements made to PE and sport over the last four years. The Department of Education are looking on making improvements which have generated from the London Games in 2012. They are hoping to make a new strategy for PESS to help pupils become more engaged in sporting activities in their school curriculum. The Government are advising class teachers to raise their expectations by setting more challenging and competitive PE lessons, so pupils increase their performance to a higher level. Also, to engage them in regular and high intensity activities for the full period they have been given in their timetable. As previous studies have shown, when schools were visited, teachers set activities that were too easy for children which led to boredom and lack of motivation and had no planned extra curriculum activities for the pupils. However, schools with the best PE provision had excellent PE lessons with extra curriculum hours set up for them. In 2014, there was a funding of £360,000 to train primary teachers to specialise in PE. This was to ensure children developed ‘a sporting habit for life’. Children's minister Edward Timpson said: "We have announced extra funding to create a second intake of specialist primary PE
"Swimming Introduction, Organizations, Strokes, Benefits, History, Tips and Information - MedicineNet." Swimming Strokes, Benefits, Classes, History, Tips and Information - MedicineNet. MedicineNet, 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.