Sport in Glasgow

Friday, 8 April 2011

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Active Schools Coordinators in Scotland coordinate the engagement of children in an active lifestyle anything from hill-walking to rugby to aerobics to dance classes. The role of Active Schools Coordinators varies across Scotland some coordinators will work full time and cover a cluster of primary schools or perhaps a number of primary and a secondary school. Others will work part-time and cover one or two secondary schools.

Glasgow Active Schools is a partnership driven initiative between Sportscotland, Education Services, Culture and Sport Glasgow.

This partnership will endeavour to ensure that in Glasgow the Active Schools Team will comprise of:

29 Active School Coordinators
2 Active School Additional Support for Learning Coordinators
Active Schools Management Team

The Glasgow Active Schools Team will be responsible for putting in place and driving forward a range of planned activities in both school and community settings.
The network will be developed in a way that is consistent with the general ethos of Health Promoting Schools with the following specific objectives:

To increase physical activity levels among school-aged children in general with a focus on girls and young women, young people from ethnic minority backgrounds, young people with physical and learning disabilities, and young people in areas of socio-economic disadvantage
To improve motivation and attitude of children and young people to help increase achievements in all aspects of school and community life
To increase levels of sports participation in both formal and informal community settings
To increase numbers of young people acting as sports leaders, coaches and volunteers in both school and community settings.

Victoria Park City of Glasgow

As Athletics is my sport I thought I would write a blog on this area. As I know Glasgow does not do a lot to promote it. I compete regularly for the Kirkintilloch Olympians but I thought I would write about our main rivals Victoria Park City of Glasgow as they are the best team in Glasgow at the moment.

Victoria Park City Of Glasgow AC was formed from the merger of Victoria Park AAC and City Of Glasgow AC in January 2007 and is one of the premier athletic clubs in Scotland. From its base in north-west Glasgow, it has continually been at the forefront of Scottish athletics. The club has been fortunate to have an abundance of talented members at National and International level since the formation of Victoria Park in 1930 but VP-Glasgow prides itself on the wide and diverse spectrum of club members. Whether you just want to keep fit and enjoy the wide variety of activities or you want to fulfil your potential and compete at the highest level, VP-Glasgow has the coaches to make this possible.

Scotstoun stadium is where the train every Tuesday and Thursday. I feel that as there club is based in such a high quality stadium they are given the best opportunity in order to succeed as they have a coach for each base of a problem, meaning any injury or problem you are having with your running or racing technique they have someone stand buy in aid of help. No Club held such dominance in Scottish athletics for such a long period, and no Club could retain the position indefinitely. The chapter is now part of Scottish Athletics History, but the Club still hold a high place. Last Season the Club were top in both Divisions of the Scottish Track League. Today, the membership is one of the highest in the United Kingdom, and two-thirds are under nineteen. My club will be competing against these athletes this summer battling for top position of the league table.

After School Clubs

After School Clubs in Glasgow have been growing in number these clubs require the child to remain behind after school to take part in the club. With research I could not find a general count of after schools in Glasgow so I chose to focus on just one School and the amount of after school clubs there are. I contacted the school head teacher and asked what activities took place in the school as this is where I coach the running club every wednesday.

Chryston Primary School in North Lanarkshire has a number of different after school clubs ranging from high physical activity sport to clubs such as chess. Here are the list of activities that take place:
Football, Athletics, Chess, Basketball, Badminton, Gardening, Rugby, Hockey

Glasgow's Great Scottish Run

The Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run has been named as a shortlisted finalist for the 'Sport Industry Awards 'Sport Participation Event of Year' following the record-breaking event in 2010. The Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run is Scotland 's largest mass participation sporting event attracting a record-breaking 23,386 participants in 2010. 2011 is going to be spectacular as it is hoping to be just as good if not better. Again this is another event I compete in regularly. The popularity of the race is due to the fantastic atmosphere, the fast courses in both half marathon and 10k and the cosmopolitan buzz of Glasgow.

As I mentioned before Glasgow Club is Scotland's largest health and fitness club with over 20 facilities across Glasgow, The Glasgow Club is the perfect training partner for the Great Scottish Run. With a massive range of facilities from health and fitness suites, to swimming pools and dance studios the Glasgow Club is the best way to keep in shape and get in a reasonable condition in order to compete successfully.

The Great Scottish Run includes a 10k race as well as a Half marathon. On the same day the organisers of this event also created The Junior Great Scottish run with the option to chose between a manageable 1.5k distance or a slightly more challenging 3k distance, it's a race that will suit of all levels of ability. Athletes who run for a club in both categories get a 20% discount. But Children especially benefit from this event as at school all children receive a YoungScot Card this gives the athletes a staggering 50% off the competing price giving the mums and dads an even cheaper price to pay for their children to race.

Holiday Clubs

Spring Football, Athletics ''Run, Jump, Throw'' Programme and also the Hockey Programme. These offer a first step to new sports the activities run for children aged three to fourteen.

As the Easter holidays are coming up soon Glasgow see this as an excellent opportunity to allow free swims in over sixty pools in Glasgow. This promotes the event itself as more children will be willing to try out swimming as they wont be too worried about the price. Also this in my opinion is a great way to help the children to keep fit over the holidays as their mum and dads will not need to fork out money every time their child wants to go as they will have unlimited access with their Young Scot Card.

Each council in Glasgow will have their own sports for example West Dunbartonshire specialises in football, athletics and hockey. I have had first hand experience at these sort of camps as when I was younger I went to athletics camps held in the kelvin hall from the age of nine till I was twelve. It only lasted one week of the holiday and I went to the early class from nine o'clock till twelve so the camp did not ruin my whole day or holiday as I was still able to go meet my friends or do other activities after.

These camps are not only run in the Easter holidays they are run as summer camps as well as this also, there is October week camps and Christmas holiday camps. Both October and Christmas are not as busy as there are a lot of other things to do in this time. It is an experience for the children to go along get fir, and make new friends. I see it as an opportunity for children to try new sports as if its held in a sports arena there will be lots of other sports. As when I went to the athletics camps we had a shot at basically every event, we were shown technique for each event and how to measure out run up for high jump, long jump, triple jump. Obviously the shot put and javelin were not real as it was an indoor track at the kelvin hall, so the javelin was foam to avoid any injury and the shot but was a small bean bag like object.

Commonwealth Games

The commonwealth games as you know is coming to Glasgow in 2014 this is the largest multi sport event Scotland has ever hosted. This promotes sport in Glasgow because it will make everyone aware of the importance of sport. They will see athletes some of which at a young age possibly encouragement for them if they see someone only a few years older than them competing and actually doing very well in the events it might inspire young athletes to pursue sport as a career. An example of this would be the young diver Tom Daley.

As discussed before Football is seen to be the most played sport in Glasgow. By the commonwealth coming here it opens a whole new perspective for different sports making the athlete more aware of the importance of different sports.

It will also increase opportunity for people to participate in different sports, as new facilitates will be in place for the event and will be kept for use after the games are over. As obviously venues such as the Kelvin hall are open at the moment to use for sports such as track athletics, badminton, basketball and boxing. But new venues will give people insight into new sports and more enthusiasm to try them out as new arenas are in place.