Page 3813 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 24 August 2010
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With this knowledge, we need to find ways of increasing the pathways to sport in an effort to engage more children and young people.
The key for families is to find a sport that the child enjoys. We need to ensure that we encourage parents, carers and families to persevere and find the right fit for the child or young person. Within the ACT and surrounding region we have many options available. Some of them are perhaps not so familiar or not so obvious, but they include bowls, softball, cycling, swimming, archery, golf, handball, volleyball and dance through to the more traditional sports we associate with children such as cricket, tennis, football, basketball, hockey and netball.
When it comes to finding a sport that a child enjoys, the approach to the game by adults is an essential ingredient. In that context, I was particularly interested in the AFL Auskick policy. This policy refers to the philosophy, guidelines and requirements in conducting football for children in the primary school age group—that is, from five to 12 years.
There are three core elements which make the AFL Auskick program successful. The first of those is that it is fun and safe. The idea here is that football needs to be fun for all, especially for this age group. Research has established that a developmental program for children that is sequential and appropriate and extremely safe, particularly when involving appropriately accredited coaches, can improve skill development, and that there needs to be an emphasis on skill development as a priority, providing challenging match programs and specifying a logical transition from introductory level through to competitions at club and/or school level.
The second element is for children and parents. The premise again is that both parties play a fundamental role in the AFL Auskick program. Auskick documents say:
Parents must ensure a smooth progression from one level of involvement to the next based on rules and procedures appropriate to the children involved.
The third core element is that the program should be managed by the community. The environments at centres, clubs and schools are managed and controlled by the community, and the importance of community ownership and management must not be underestimated. This results in participant costs for the program being kept to a minimum. This last point is a particularly interesting one, because costs would be even higher for parents if not for the volunteer contribution. Sporting organisations and clubs are administered in many circumstances in a not-for-profit environment; if every parent was paying for that volunteer, the costs would skyrocket.
The last two points lead me to the second area I would like to discuss. My focus so far has very much been on health and wellbeing, but I would like to focus on volunteers and officials. The Auskick principles note the importance of volunteers and the community in the success of junior sport, and anybody who has had any link to junior sport will attest to this. But crucial to any sport, particularly junior sport, is the provision of referees and umpires to enforce fair play. Without a referee, there is no game. I would like to take the opportunity to commend all those who take the time to take up this important role in junior games across Canberra every weekend. With my
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