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What has been your favourite involvement in sport?

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:29:56 GMT

How teamwork helped me and my team compete at our best.

Something we teach the children we work with is teamwork, and we talk about it a lot as it is one of our school games values. But as adults, just like them, we often fall into the trap of overthinking about ourselves and letting self doubt sink in. This can lead to a negative outcome when trying to work effectively as a team.

Myself and 3 others competed together in a teams competition in Manchester. Throughout the day we had to complete a series of events aimed at testing our strength, speed and stamina amongst other elements that determine ‘fitness’.

I was physically the smallest on our team and therefore couldn’t put up as high a score during the strength tests as the others. This made me very insecure on the day however my team supported me through each weight I lifted and I was able to match my PB in training.

A similar situation unfolded later on in the day as a member of our team struggled with running and this next event featured 2 team runs. On the same day the Gym I was part of at the time had several other teams competing. Luckily for us, during this event we were positioned in a lane beside one of our other teams. Throughout the event they were cheering for us as well as themselves and vice versa because of this we were all able to rally around one and other to help her keep going and complete the event as a team all crossing the finishing line together!

Upon reflection the day wasn’t about shining as an individual but rather giving your best efforts as an individual to support those around you.

What has been your favourite involvement in sport?

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:29:54 GMT

Playing sport has been a major part of my life and has brought me great enjoyment from a very early age. My earliest memories are playing badminton on Friday nights, football matches and training for Abbeytown on weekends, before starting to play tennis- with training taking place on weeknights and local/ regional competitions taking place on weekends. As I got older this then led to playing for local badminton and tennis teams in Cumbrian leagues and I continue to do so to this day (prior to the pandemic).

For me, the reason why I’ve had so much enjoyment playing sport over the years is due to the competition. I love the concept of battling against an opponent, coming up with tactics/ strategies and testing my own skills against someone to see if I’m able to come out on top. Without that competitive element I wouldn’t have carried on playing sport to this day.

I’ve some great memories, from winning tight matches, to winning competitions and leagues in badminton and tennis. For me, those are great memories as they represent an accomplishment and achievement that my performances were good enough to win, and the victory’s were rewards for the hard work put in when practicing and training.

However there was also a lot of defeats and set backs in similar situations. Although obviously disappointed at the time- those defeats were just as important as they were a reality check that my performances weren’t good enough. After reflection, I’d use those defeats as fuel in training to make the changes needed in order to improve. This was so id be better prepared and next time that I’d be in competition I’d be able to reverse the previous result and come out on top. This then making the victory feel even greater and make me want to carry on working hard in training.

I believe that having this kind of perseverance is a vital quality that all young athletes should have. Rather than taking an easy option to give up or lose faith in their ability, they should look to work on their weaknesses and work hard to improve. This is something that I try to instil in all my groups when coaching now.

What has been your favourite involvement in sport?

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:29:53 GMT

My blog today is going to start by sounding quite negative, but I will explain how I turned that negative involvement in sport, into a positive.
Sport is, and always has been the biggest part of my life, from playing since I was in primary school, to moving up and playing for district and county teams in netball and cricket, I have also built myself a career in sport and soon to being going into teacher training. Sport for me was one of the only subjects at school I found a real love for, and to be honest, it was the only subject I was any good at. I was captain of the hockey, netball and rounders teams all the way through school, I then moved onto playing for West Cumbria Netball and for the County. I started to play for league teams in Workington and Whitehaven and at this point, all I wanted to do was have a career in netball.

I moved to University after my A Levels, and I just presumed I would make it onto the 1st team, assuming I was at the top of my game. I really wasn't. My confidence disappeared into thin air, I had lost all coordination and fitness, my social skills were extremely at breaching point: I trialled and by the skin of my teeth made it onto the 5th team. I could not comprehend or understand this, I was absolutely gutted, I felt a complete failure and didn't even want to go to training. This is something I really was not used to. Before I moved to University, I played goal shooter or goal attack, at University I was moved to a centre court player or defender. I couldn't of got the ball into the net, even if it was 10 times the size. There was several times I almost quit, the pressure to keep my place in the team was too much and I had 0 confidence left whatsoever.

However; I persevered, gave myself some positive encouragement, listened to my team mates and coaches and eventually by my 3rd year I was in the 3rd team. I had to accept that I had come from a small town, which lacked in resources, to play unless you travelled miles away. I had to accept if I was constantly putting myself down, constantly engaging in negative thinking and living in the 'fixed mindset', I was never going to get any better or get my confidence back. I ended up playing weekly, making friends and joining in at socials (all of which I hadn't done until my last year at Uni).

I stopped putting pressure on myself and started to believe in myself. Since Uni, I haven't really had the opportunity to play for a team with other commitments, however I have set up 2 Netball now sessions, a walking netball session and volunteered to coach at West Cumbria Netball- to give back and help others onto the pathway into sport. I turned my negative thinking, into a positive step in the right direction. I now have a love for organising and running netball sessions for women who may lack in confidence, or have lack of opportunities to play netball. This is now my favourite involvement in sport to date.

We are now lucky enough to have a base at Cockermouth RUFC, where finally after the pandemic, we can go back to playing and get ourselves back into netball and fitness. We are hoping to make this facility accessible for all, see our crowdfunding page here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/crufc-wasps-get-active-outdoors

There is always a positive in every negative, you just have to find it yourself sometimes!

What has been your favourite involvement in sport?

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:29:51 GMT

When asked the question 'What has been my favourite involvement in sport?', it got me thinking of how my enjoyment of sport all started.

Growing up on a very busy farm with my parents and sister, we were always active and had jobs to do!

I was never the 'best' and didn't often 'win' the races at school and sport didn't come natural to me. Sometimes in my younger years the annual 'sports day' was a dread. Because it didn't come natural to me, I had to work at it. Whereas with my sister, it was more of ease for her. This didn't put me off trying my best and giving anything a go. Because it was more of a challenge to me, I was determined to find something that I really enjoyed. Something that I was good at. Well I can remember at school, trying everything!

My favourite sport at school was cricket and hockey, hockey being the one that I played throughout all my schooling; but my real passion was water sports! Anything water based, especially kayaking and swimming.

My mum didn't learn to swim until she was older and so I was always more apprehensive and nervous, so she was determined that my sister and I had to learn to swim properly from a very young age, especially living where we do in the Lake District. What she didn't realise was that swimming would take over my life and she would become a taxi up and down the country for several years!

Not only did I swim for my home town Cockermouth Swimming Club and life saving club, I went all over the country competing.

I then decided years later that my hobby would become my career and went on to obtain my coaching qualifications and start my own swim school. I wanted to give back something to the sport that has given me so much enjoyment over the years. This started with a note on a clipboard at a private local swimming pool and from what I thought I may have 10 children interested in lessons, it was actually over 100 children just in 2 weeks. So my swim school was born and I ran it for 10 years.

I have had such enjoyment from helping children and adults from all ages and abilities, from to start with having a fear of the water, to then being able to jump in and swim confidently and unaided or supported; so turning that fear into enjoyment and ability. Children and adults with disabilities and injuries, the journey has been incredible and one special little girl I will always remember. This little girl travelled with her Mum and Grandma 62 miles to come and have weekly lessons with me to conquer learning to swim, and we did it and she overcame all her challenges. She then went on to join her local swimming club and competitive swimming. This to me was inspirational and I am still so proud and feel so lucky to be able to help others, not only learn a life skill but to open pathways to other things.

To appreciate that you don't have to be the 'Best' or to 'Win' that it really is about taking part and trying your best. Having your own goals and ambitions and trying to achieve them. That is what really matters and when you're taking part and trying your best, you're learning life skills and these are life lessons. Making new friends and opening new doors and ventures along the way.

Are the only benefits of exercise as a child physical?

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 10:35:29 GMT

At Chance Camp, our drive and commitment to exercise and sport has always come from the knowledge that physical activity will help to improve the development of young people as a whole and that as sport specialists we can help to encourage and develop lifelong positive physical activity habits.

One positive shift through the onslaught of the pandemic is the increased awareness and focus on improving physical activity levels across the nation! As you scroll through social media, browse through the papers and magazines or listen to broadcasts many are leading campaigns to get the government to do more regarding exercise provision. In addition, you can’t help but take in the vast amounts of information on the physical benefits of increasing exercise levels. However, there are so many more benefits to being physically active. The aim of this blog is to explore the other, sometimes hidden, benefits.

I have been reading a book Spark, by J. Ratey & E. Hagerman (2008) which provides case studies that prove there is a huge link between physical activity and learning. One outcome of such a case study is summarised in this quote from the book.

“ When the students in Naperville go for a mile run in the gym before school, they are more prepared to learn in their classes: their senses are heightened; their focus and mood are improved; they’re less fidgety and tense; and they feel more motivated and invigorated .” (Ratey.J. & Hagerman.E. Spark, 2008). There are many more examples in the book all with similar outcomes.

Whilst reading the Sunday Telegraph another article grabbed my attention, ‘ Hormones change our bodies and affect our feelings- but the good news is our lifestyle choices can keep them in check! ’ (Ough. T, 11 Oct 2020).

I decided to explore the link between learning, hormone control, brain development and physical activity a little more.

Cognitive Development – Can physical activity strengthen and improve the brain as it does our muscles?

In schools, we try and promote the use of small bursts of exercise throughout the school day in addition to structured PE lessons.

Exercise stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators. If our mood is elevated, we feel more motivated and are in a state where we can take in information and therefore in the case of children be able to understand what is being taught.

Cortisol can also be linked to our learning state, in the right levels it can improve focus and attention. As with everything we talk about, it is a fine balance and if our levels of Cortisol become too high there will be negative effects. High levels of Cortisone can affect sleep and kill nerve cells in a vital part of the brain, the hippocampus, which is in control of memory and learning, this process is STRESS. More than ever we are seeing higher levels of stress in the population which is beginning to be seen in the higher numbers of children and adults having mental health issues. If our children are going to school feeling stressed or feel high levels of pressure in school, learning will be limited. Exercise has been proven to reduce levels of the body's stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. If our bodies and minds are less stressed our ability to focus and learn will be increased. Therefore, without doubt, what we need to do is allow children to be more physically active in the day. By allowing and encouraging children to move more they will naturally increase their attention and focus within the classroom and their ability to learn and memorise would be limitless.

Whilst some teachers encourage movement outside the perimeters of PE, for example through initiatives like Active Maths, Skip to be Fit and Activate, there is still a huge reluctance within the education system to embrace daily physical activity but hopefully as people’s understanding of physical activity improves and people in education start to see the undisputable link between learning and physical activity things may start to change.

Creative Development – Can thinking positively and trying new things improve brain function?

I have tried reading about the brain and it’s a very complex read but basically, it’s an ever-changing organ based on how it is used. It is made up of billions of neurons all connected by synapses. When we put ourselves in a position to learn new things, we create new synapses and then as we build confidence to continue this learning, the synapses strengthen and become programmed into our brain, making more and more connections.

I don’t believe our society is great for encouraging brain growth through creative development. Many people are deterred from being creative because of how they will be perceived by others or because of fear of failure. We also live in a society of quick fixes, everything these days is instant. As a result, it is often a challenge to keep children’s focus on an activity or motivate them to keep practising at home and instil in them that some things take time and you won’t always get it right the first, second or third time and that is normal. Perseverance is a key skill and it’s hard to learn, giving up is much easier. If we can change this culture, become bigger risk takers, learn to persever, see mistakes as part of the learning process, give ourselves chances to be more creative and learn new hobbies with a care-free attitude, I do believe we can improve our brain by strengthening the synapses and connections within it.

Social Development – Does making new relationships improve your self-confidence and motivation to succeed ?

Although this pandemic is driving exercise to be a solitary habit, I would recommend you take advantage of the exercise ‘with one other’ rule, in usual circumstances it’s a fantastic way to make new social connections.

Whether it’s running with a partner or as part of group or team sport, there is a feel-good factor associated by exercising with others. There’s the added motivation to improve your own performance to benefit the whole team or to motivate and help the person you are exercising with, there’s also the competitive motivation; to be better than the opposition. Being motivated is linked to higher levels of self-confidence and generally a positive thought process. If we go back to the wiring of the brain in the above section, this self-motivation and a self-confidence to try new things and improve will help us create and strengthen the synapses and connections in our brain allowing for improved brain function.

A positive thought process leads to optimism, being optimistic will encourage us to grab new opportunities that may come our way and over time master new skills and be successful. An amazing team leader once said to me ‘Success breeds success!’ Never has a saying stuck with me so much. Once you get one success you are motivated to go back for more! Also, particularly in team sports, people want to be part of that success and so more people join the club and we go right back to the start and form new relationships.

Personal Development - Do good lifestyle choices lead to brain growth?

Let’s put this into an equation

MOTIVATION to MOVE more + choosing NATURAL FOODS over processed food + increased RELAXTION and SLEEP = Improved health & wellbeing

Parents often thank me for the peace they get in the evenings after their child has attended Chance Camp. The physical benefits are seen first (improved stamina, strength, speed combined with the feel-good endorphins kicking in). Then the unseen benefits, brain development due to being sociable, working as a team, being successful, feeling motivated and improved confidence. Once the child is at home they tend to be calmer (due to reduced levels of cortisone), ready to eat nutritious food because they have expended so much energy in the day and go to sleep earlier because their bodies are tired from physical effort. All the above will be lead to brain growth and improved brain function as outlined earlier.

On the flip side of the coin, there are people who for whatever reason are not making the decision to move more, eat well and have poor patterns of sleep, along with that lifestyle comes a whole raft of negative consequences to a person’s physical and mental health.

We have discussed the effects of exercise on brain growth, but diet is a huge factor as well! This is probably better left for another blog but put simply, we should try and eat a balanced diet for many reasons. Diabetes has been another hot topic through Covid-19 as people with diabetes are considered more vulnerable to the negative impacts of the virus. Insulin helps regulate blood sugar levels. After you eat, carbohydrates break down into glucose, a sugar that is the body's primary source of energy. Glucose then enters the bloodstream and it’s important we expend this energy via movement. If our bodies contain high levels of insulin over time this can lead to anxiety, fatigue, obesity, irritability, high blood pressure and even some cancers.

So, going back to the equation at the top, if we have young people who are not reaching their activity levels, eating a highly processed diet that contains too much sugar or carbohydrates and have poor sleep patterns we have a ticking time bomb on our hands. We are already seeing higher numbers of Type 2 diabetes and it is not an improving picture. As an aside, research around Alzheimer's Disease is now also showing the positive effects of being active and having a good diet on this dreadful disease (again one for another blog).

I hope this blog has made you interested in doing your own research on the positive impacts of exercise. It certainly wasn’t meant to sound like I was preaching, as I was writing the blog it made me consider some of my own lifestyle choices and the choices we make as a family.

Exercise doesn’t just make us stronger and fitter the benefits are endless, in fact I’ve only scratched the surface in this blog. In 2021, we hope young people can try as many different physical activities as possible. Once restrictions allow, join a new sport’s team or push for new sport’s teams to be formed. Once you find what works for you, preserve (even when it’s tough) and see the long-term benefits, don’t treat exercise, nutrition and sleep as quick fixes, see them as a daily medicine to your long-term health & wellbeing…

Footnote -

At Chance Camp we are backing the Telegraph’s ‘Keep Kids Active’ Campaign who are lobbying the government with high profile sport’s stars support such as Mo Farrah. The key parts are to:

· Implement a mandatory virtual physical education curriculum

· Create a centralised online hub with age-related activities and advice for parents

· Prioritise opening kids’ activities at the earliest opportunity

· Deliver a plan to put PE on a par with core subjects when schools return

· Open school facilities as community hubs during holidays to help close the social divide.

We hope this campaign has a successful outcome it will certainly accelerate our drive to use PE and Sport to impact on whole child development.

Will developing a love of exercise as a child only bring about physical benefits?

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 18:02:05 GMT

We all know that regular physical activity is one of the most important things that you can do for your own health. There are so many physical benefits from exercising regularly, such as helping you maintain a healthy weight- by burning off those excess calories. It helps to keep a healthy heart and reduce the risk of having heart disease, stroke, blood pressure & cholesterol. It also helps to protect and maintain strong muscles, bones and joints which allows us all to lead a healthy happy life! Research suggests (Hirvensalo & Lintunen, 2011) that playing and enjoying sports/ exercise from an early age can lead to a lifetime of participating in physical activity. This would help someone remain healthy throughout their life, and reduce the risk of any of the health issues listed above. My earliest memories is me being taken to lots of different sports clubs as a child. Although over the years I decided not to continue in some, I have in others- and believe I will continue to for the rest of my life.

However there are so so many more benefits other then physical. One is mental (brain health). It’s commonly known that exercise is effective in treating anxiety, relieving stress and tension, clearing someone’s mind and helping improve someone’s sleep. By exercising, your brain releases chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins which trigger the positive feeling in your body. These act as mood boosters which improve your mindset. So much so that studies suggest the exercise can treat mild- moderate depression just as effective as antidepressant medication. A recent study done by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that running for 15 minutes a day or walking for an hour reduces the risk of major depression by 26%.

When exercising more blood travels to the brain, sending more and more oxygen & nutrients. This can help stimulate growth which in turn can lead to improving long & short term memory, thinking and overall brain function.

I know a lot of schools in the past & still do implement the daily mile challenge, where children walk, skip and run for a one mile first thing in a morning. One reason for the physical benefits it provides the children, but the other is from the mental benefits- where it wakes children up, allows them to focus on their work and sharpens their minds for the day ahead.

Another would be the social aspect that playing sport provides. It allows children to meet new people, develop new friendships and helps improve social skills when communicating and speaking to other people that they’ll need in later life. For me personally some of my closest friends have come from playing sport with & against and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get to know them without doing so. It also provides personal benefits. As a child, going to clubs to train to improve at your own skills, to compete against other people or teams can help build up a determination and work ethic that is required as an adult in order to achieve in life- whether that be competing against others to get the job or having the drive in order to complete a task.

It just shows how important sport & exercise is, and how the many different ways it can have an impact on someone’s life.

Will developing a love of exercise as a child only bring about physical benefits?

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 12:03:34 GMT

As we enter another year we also enter another national lockdown. The lockdown's purpose is to work together in staying at home as much as possible to help save lives and protect the NHS during these testing times. All of us here at Wright Sport Services/Chance Camp hope that you are all staying safe and well and are hopeful we will be able to see you all again soon. In the meantime we hope that your families lockdown experiences are keeping you active at home. This half terms blog is going to discuss why developing a love of exercise at a young age will bring about not only physical benefits but a great deal of mental and social benefits too.

We are currently experiencing some of the most testing times any of us have faced in our lifetime, during which many young people are facing various emotional encounters that are unavoidable, such as feeling disconnected from friends and family and an anxiety of going outdoors amongst many others. It is important that children and young people are made aware that these feelings are perfectly normal and should be provided with methods of helping ease these unsettling feelings; and it should come as no surprise that exercise is one of them! Research by Mayo Clinic found that those who take part in 3 or more aerobic based exercise activities each week felt more relaxed, had lower symptoms of anxiety and depression, experienced a more positive outlook and had better sleep patterns than those who participated in less aerobic based exercise activities. An improvement in our sleep quality can raise concentration levels meaning an overall improvement in academic performance, leading to boosts in confidence/self esteem levels. This is because when we exercise our brain releases neurotransmitters known as endorphins, or in simple terms, feel-good hormones, these help to boost our mood and create a more positive mindset. This research has been backed up by the Institute of Medicine (2013), who found that exercise helps to increase basic cognitive functions by connecting neurons in the brain leading to an increased level of memory, attention and concentration in the classroom. The research also found that this increase in brain function following physical activity, resulted in an increase in the overall thinking ability of children and improved problem solving abilities, particularly in reading and mathematics. This research should be a key consideration to help young people who are currently experiencing home-schooling and also the parents and carers of those young people who are providing home-schooling.

We hope that it won’t be too long now until schools reopen and PE is back, grassroot sport returns and gyms/leisure facilities are able to run as normal again. And when this does happen, children and young people will be able to continue to be active and social once more. Sport and physical activity are key to developing not only physical motor skills, but also what is known as “soft skills”, these are skills such as competitiveness, teamwork, leadership, risk taking, confidence, communication skills, ethics and positive attitude. These skills are often overlooked in day to day life, however they are the key skills that employers look for when hiring. Being able to possess these skills creates a positive character, and a positive character breeds success.

For some at home activity ideas please click on the link below for 5 weeks of challenges designed to get the whole family moving!

https://www.chancecamp.co.uk/lockdown-3-chance-camps-5s-pe-programme-at-home

Will developing a love of exercise as a child only bring about physical benefits?

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 11:51:44 GMT

Physical activity has countless health benefits for children and adults. It not only improves a child’s overall health and fitness but it can massively improve their overall wellness such as their attitude, mental health, behaviour, concentration and cognitive development as well.

Speaking from my own experience at first hand with my own children, who are ages 8 years and 7 years. My daughter used to really lack confidence, she would not try things in the fear of getting it wrong or not being able to do it correctly. After a lot of perseverance and keeping things simple and fun, she will now have a go at anything, and has found passion for swimming, gymnastic, dance and running, but more importantly will give everything she tries 100% effort. Now this didn’t happen overnight, but by making physical activities a daily routine and keeping it fun and still challenging, it grew her confidence and social skills immensely.

My son has always been incredibly sporty and everything came very natural to him and more of an ease. He can literally run like a rocket going off! He has always loved nothing more than to be outside on the go, often with a ball! By attending Chance Camp where he got to try numerous challenges and different sports, it improved his social skills and motivated him to be more independent. It would challenge and push him to do his best and he would come home so happy and literally buzzing about it all. So not only did it lift his mood, he ate very well and also slept well, so a win win all round!

So I see daily what impact of children having daily physical exercise really does do to our children. By making it a big part of your child’s and family’s routine makes your children happy and smile from inside to out! It makes them feel so much better in themselves, by boosting their confidence and improving their self esteem to concentrating and learning; eating and sleeping improves also.

There is no better time to start than now, to get out and get moving! Soaking up some fresh air is a great way of unwinding, and letting off some steam from home schooling!

Try and find activities that make your children happy, and even connect as a family and remember to make it fun! Active children is not only healthier children, but happier children.

Will developing a love of exercise as a child only bring about physical benefits?

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:41:57 GMT

From personal experience developing a love for exercise and physical activity in primary school, brought about many benefits throughout adolescence and in my day to day life now. I not only have a career in physical activity and sport, but I also have developed a wide social community, have a strong willing mindset and a relativity fit and active body. Yes sport, physical activity and exercise provides immense physical benefits such as; decreasing the risk of obesity, creating strong and flexible muscles, decreasing the risk of bone diseases, diabetes and cancer, and helps towards a healthy balanced lifestyle. However, when we promote exercise or try and motivate others to take part, we also need to embed the other benefits such as the psychological and sociological benefits.

There have been many studies undertaken to look at the long-term benefits of exercise from participating as a child. The Guardian (2017), reports on studies by scientists and researchers that suggest that exercise has colossal lasting psychological, as well as physiological benefits of exercising daily in early life. It is suggested that if children take part in sport, physical activity or exercise early in life their bones and brain retain a “memory” of that early life exercise, which provides health benefits even in a sedentary adulthood. Exercising young can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, prevents cognitive decline, releases anxiety and stress and increases serotonin, which in-turn increases motivation and has therefore lasting psychological benefits. Creating a habit and developing a love for exercise at a young age, can truly be a perfect way to creating a happy and healthy brain and body.

As a young person playing sports and taking part in regular exercise, I was always found of how easy it was to socialise and connect with other people outside of my regular friendship group. Each individual was different, but had a similar interest to myself, which made us connect on a different level. Exercising with other people helps to encourage one another, creates a sense of fun and competition and makes you feel wanted. Taking part in exercise from an early age has exactly the same social benefits, as it does, taking part in exercise throughout adolescence or adulthood.

I believe that psychological, physiological and sociological benefits are closely connected here; you are exercising and working your body hard, you make friends and feel accepted, therefore boosting motivation, confidence and self-esteem.

What good practice have you been involved in or can share from your schools, which promotes the government's requirement of 30 active minutes every day?

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 18:33:20 GMT

With everything that’s happened this year with the pandemic (being in lockdown, maintaining social distance and sticking to bubbles) it can be difficult for children to complete their daily exercise. The pandemic could also be used as an excuse for not taking part in daily activity. However in all of my schools that I’ve been in, I’ve seen good practice and rules adapted in order to help children keep active.

Unfortunately in the North West we don’t have the warmest of weather- especially this time of year! And with some schools having their halls unavailable it’s meant most of my delivery has had to be outside. However the weather hasn’t prevented any lessons from not going ahead! Special mention to years 3, 4 & 6 at Maryport Primary that have faced all the elements on Thursday mornings this term and continued to be active in the lessons! Just shows that weather is no barrier to sport. And credit to the schools for not cancelling!

In most schools I’ve noticed that different bubble groups have different playtime slots, giving children the opportunity to still be outside, running around, playing games whilst still only having contact with their bubble. In Silloth & Maryport Primary schools, children in each bubble have their own set of playtime equipment- that only those children can use. This helps to give a variety of different games & activities to play.

In Silloth Primary school, netball & basketball court lines were painted on the playground over the summer, with new netball and basketball posts bought and set up to be used every day in lunch/ play times. When we returned to school in September, the Key Stage 2 classes were taught the skills, rules and different netball/ basketball games to play- so that they could then replicate them during their own break times.

In Dean Primary school, a lot of the teachers and children were following & still are completing the daily Chance Camp challenges that are uploaded to our Facebook & website pages. These challenges range from testing physical fitness, skill and coordination. From completing and repeating the different challenges the children’s fitness and skill levels have improved with skipping being the main one!

Finally this half term, for the first time I delivered Sports Leadership training to Fell View Primary School. The yr 5&6 class took on the role of leading activities, coming up with rules, officiating and finding ways to maintain fair play during games which they all did brilliantly. This will help the class come up with different games and activities during their own playtimes- providing a way for the class to be active. Ellie is currently doing the same in Dean Primary School and it was great to hear today that the children & staff that she’s been working with are listening to her advice, activities & games and are replicating them during their breaks & playtimes. Well done to them!

What good practice have you been involved in or can share from your schools, which promotes the government's requirement of 30 active minutes every day?

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:42:35 GMT

Working throughout many schools in Allerdale, it is extremely evident that schools go out of their way to providing excellent opportunities for participation in physical activity. It is so important towards a child’s physical, social and mental well-being to have further opportunities to keep active throughout the school day; whether that be taking part in activities at break times, extra-curricular clubs, or other activities throughout the day and not just PE lessons. In my blog, I would like to talk about 2 positive case studies, in which show fantastic efforts towards the governments requirements of 30 active minutes every day within school; these are Maryport Primary School and Wiggonby Primary School.

This is my first term working with Maryport Primary School myself, however Wright Sports Services have worked with them for some time now. During lunch times, they have had a fantastic idea to bring in qualified and experienced coaches to provide lunch time activities to the playground. Last term, Chris Wright provided skipping challenges every Thursday and the children would challenge one another or Chris to mini competitions; many of the children now still challenge myself, and explain how they have been practising at home or have asked for skipping ropes for Christmas. Personally, I found it quite hard to engage lots of children in skipping, and had the same group of children want to take part for the first couple of weeks; so now I bring out a number of types of equipment e.g. footballs, basketballs, hoops and skipping ropes. I allow time to set up their own mini challenges or games and then everyone takes it in turns. This is a fantastic initiative by the school, as it engages different children and allows them to be creative. They are active for the full 30 minutes, setting personal challenges and competing with others. Well done to Maryport Primary School!

This is my 2nd year of working with Wiggonby Primary School and each year more opportunities arise for the children in the school. During the first lockdown, Andrew Brookes (headteacher) had a tarmacked track put in place around the school field. This is one of the most beneficial elements to the playground now; it has used up the wasted space, is an all weathered surface and is multi-functional. It has been extremely beneficial to our PE lessons, as we have been working on Stamina, skipping and moving at the same time and great for warm ups and cool downs; it is also going to be used for biking, which Andrew has also invested in lots of bikes and helmets for the school. The children from reception to year 6 absolutely love it- asking if they can run around the tarmac every time we start a lesson. It really has boosted the motivation of each child at the school. Well done Wiggonby!

There are so many other primary schools I have witnessed doing so much to provide physical activity to their schools, for example: Playtime leaders at lunch times at Seaton Primary School, Fairfield Primary School ensuring they do their 1k run a day and Bridekirk Dovenby Primary School ensuring every child is catered for and allowing me to work with their SEN pupils with extra PE lessons. You are all doing amazing and there is so much more I wish I would write about- please keep up the hard work, by helping our youngers reach their potential!

What good practice have you been involved in or can share from your schools, which promotes the government's requirement of 30 active minutes every day?

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:42:33 GMT

Victoria Infants: A Case Study

I am now in my fourth year of teaching at Victoria Infants and Nursery School and can confidently say that they are a gold standard of an active school. Given the growing pressures schools face each year, it is easy to understand that physical activity may often ‘take a backseat’ as academic targets take pole position. However the staff at Victoria Infants haven’t let this stop their pupils from receiving a high level of physical activity provision throughout the school day.

Classes start in the morning and afternoon with a period of physical activity whether that be an interactive YouTube challenge, such as follow along dances, virtual reality movement games or a “5 a Day” challenge (online challenges to boost physical activity and wellbeing in the classroom). Classes are not limited to the indoor classroom and you will often see children out on the playground whether they are learning about different shapes they can see around the school, using chalk to do maths on the ground, hunting through nature for their science or art projects, or helping with the maintenance of the school garden.

An invested approach to the government’s school sports premium allows the school to bring in high quality coaches to deliver PE and after school clubs throughout the academic year. This allows children the opportunity to learn basic fundamental motor skills required for both sport and day to day living through a range of games, multi-skills, dance and gymnastics. These coaches also provide fun and engaging physical activity games on the playground during break times. Children are also provided with a wide range of physical activity opportunities through the schools involvement in the Allerdale School Sports Partnership, which provides schools with specialist coaches who deliver 6 hour blocks of a range of sports to children of all year groups; including football, cricket, sport leaders and tennis to name a few.

As part of the schools Covid-19 response they prioritised increasing children's physical activity levels and are currently undertaking their daily mile, completing 10 laps of the school playground every day no matter the weather; and each week the children are progressing with their stamina which has been reflected in their PE performance.

It is a pleasure to be a PE and Sport professional, working within a school which shows a high appreciation for the work we as coaches dedicate our time to, and who share a vision of improving the health and wellbeing of pupils through the continuous improvement of physical activity, to support the development of the whole child.

What good practice have you been involved in or can share from your schools, which promotes the government's requirement of 30 active minutes every day?

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 17:42:30 GMT

The Chief Medical Officers’ guidance on daily physical activity levels, states that children should do at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day and all pupils should have access to 30 minutes of physical activity within the school day. In school, this is currently delivered through PE lessons, lunchtime sport’s clubs, innovative activities such as ‘The Daily Mile’ and building activity into classroom lessons.

As we approach a post-covid period, we hope more than ever that the importance of daily physical activity is given priority. In line with the huge government investment into Primary School Sport over the last few years, schools have been required to work towards the Chief Medical Officers’ guidance as outlined above.

In this blog, I will be covering People, Places and Programmes as outlined in the diagram and I would like to share good practice from two schools, regarding ‘Places and Programmes’ and my views on ‘People’.

Good practice: Places (Community Engaging Facilities)

Over the last eight years, the investment into Victoria Juniors School’s outdoor play and sport facilities has been fantastic! The availability of a running track, outdoor gym, scooter track, sport’s areas, target wall, tyre park, climbing wall and interactive playground markings ensure all break times within the school are very active. It gives teachers opportunities throughout the school day to implement short bursts of activity (e.g. the mile run to stimulate children and support their 30 minutes of daily activity) which research shows supports academic progress.

The government is now starting to look at the possibility of school facilities opening outside of school hours to support physical activity within local communities. Although consideration will have to be given to how this will be managed as school staff cannot take on further responsibilities.

Good practice: Programmes (Partnerships between school and sport & exercise specialists)

The lockdown period certainly accelerated the development of online platforms to assist schools in the implementation of PE programmes. The sport’s market has an abundance of advice and support and hopefully these can have an impact in developing Physical Education delivery in Primary Schools. Wright Sport Service’s staff used lockdown as an opportunity to develop their new programme which is called ‘The 5S Programme’.

Seaton Junior School were keen to have a go at implementing the new programme, the idea behind ‘5S’, is to give children further access to sporting and exercise programmes by developing their strength, stamina, speed, suppleness and skill and ultimately their physical confidence. These lessons still incorporate activities that will develop the whole child including, social, cognitive, creative and personal abilities. The teaching staff will now be given detailed booklets outlining activities that they can dip into to further support the 5S programme within the school day. This will help teachers to ensure all children get the opportunity to be active for 30 minutes daily. The teachers also have access to the Interactive PE Programme (IPEP) which supports them with the children’s second PE lesson delivering sport specific games and activities linked to the Cumbria School Games.

The Playground Leader’s Programme is another scheme implemented by the school and has been used successfully in the school for the last three years. Every year after completing a six hour workshop, a number of children are selected to become Play Leaders. They are given the opportunity to deliver a playtime activity programme to ensure their fellow school friends can access fun and challenging activities. The children are supported by lunchtime supervisors and once a week they work with a Wright Sport Service’s coach to review and plan their sessions.

People: (Inspiring role models creating behaviour change)

People are an ongoing debate. Currently, primary school Physical Education is delivered by the class teacher and/or the teaching assistant and in a lot of cases supplemented by external sport coaches and instructors. The engagement and delivery of PE by teachers is variable across schools and within schools. Research indicates that teachers do not get the in-depth training required to teach PE through teacher training and ongoing throughout their careers. Many teachers will admit to not feeling confident with the subject and lots of parents and teachers will know that two hours of high quality PE time and 30 minutes of daily activity opportunities are not always met for a whole host of reasons.

To ensure we have a high quality PE system I believe PE should not be the responsibility of the primary school teacher and instead there should be a workforce of Physical Education Specialists who are managed and deployed by the primary school cluster secondary school.

This would result in connected delivery programmes between primary and secondary schools, creating a development model from ages three to eighteen. Higher levels of physical competence would be achieved by the time a child leaves primary school enabling them to engage more in the sporting opportunities available at secondary school and the wider community. At the secondary school site, alongside the curriculum, all children would have the opportunity to be involved in sporting pathways that align to community sport’s clubs. The secondary school site would also ensure that there was a good choice of recreational sports and physical activities for those children who wanted to participate for the sake of participation not performance.

Wright Sport Service’s staff are pleased to continue being part of the physical education system and having the opportunity to inspire behavioural change in young people. We will continue to seek opportunities to develop programmes, people and places in sport.

Wishing you all a lovely Christmas break and a more positive outlook for 2021!

What has been your experience of delivering the 5s programme?

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 18:43:31 GMT

This half term we began delivering the new 5s programme to both key stage 1 and 2 children in our schools with a focus on stamina.

The programme has allowed me to talk to the children in a lot more depth about the ‘Why?’ of activities. Providing the opportunity to explain why we are learning these skills, how they will help us in sport/ leading healthy lives and also develop an understanding of how the body moves and works. This was highlighted when Key stage 1 children at Allonby Primary School went back into their classroom and taught their teacher all about how their bodies use food to fuel prolonged exercise.

Working with the new programme has been a great experience which is reflected in how well the children have engaged with it, working hard to develop their new skills and improve their stamina. One child at Victoria Infant School went home and asked his mum to buy him a skipping rope so he could continue to practice. This really showed during lessons as his skipping improved massively throughout the half term. He also managed to get star skipper in his classes competition during National skipping day last week!

My personal view is that being able to educate the children both physically and academically during a PE lesson from a young age is the best way to increase their engagement with sport, physical activity and leading healthy lives that will hopefully stay with them as they transition through life. This first half term back has been a great success and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the rest of the programme, next half term we move onto strength!

What has been your experience of delivering the 5S programme?

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 18:40:44 GMT

For those that do not know what the 5s programme is, I will start my blog by explaining a little bit about it. The programme was developed by us coaches here at Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp during the first lockdown of 2020. The programme was designed to allow whole child development and to focus on each child individually to help reach their physical potential. The 5s' stand for Stamina, Strength, Suppleness, Speed and Skill. Each area is so important to developing our children, not only in the sense of bettering their sporting abilities, but to also develop them in physical, cognitive, creative, personal and social ways.

The first half term back after summer was a little bit chaotic, with children not being in school since before lockdown and with all the new rules and restrictions it was a crazy few weeks. The 5s programme really helped me to structure my lessons, allow for social distancing and work with each individual child. We started working on Stamina, it was obvious not many children had taken advantage of 'at home' exercise so this was a good topic to start with. At the beginning of every lesson the children set themselves a challenge of how many laps of the yard/playground they were going to run without stopping/minimum power walks, giving them a minimum laps or time to ensure each child pushed themselves weekly. I found this really gave the children a challenge, something to focus on and a sense of competition for themselves and their classmates.
Throughout the term we took part in learning how to skip, running techniques, speed endurance, whistle tests, duathlons and much more.

I have worked with Wiggonby Primary School for a couple of years now, and having taught the same pupils really has shown me what a difference in motivation and effort the pupils have put in, compared to last year. The 5s programme has encouraged the less willing pupils to give PE a go, even coming along to multi sports after school clubs, it has greatly increased their fitness and willingness to push themselves, and it has also motivated many of the children to take up skipping outside of school. Andrew Brookes at Wiggonby gave us this awesome review to sum up the 5s programme so far:

“Since becoming Headteacher at Wiggonby, one of my aims was to improve the access to quality PE and sport, with the overall ambition for children to develop skills in order to enjoy a range of sports in both a friendly and competitive environment.

The 5S programme has been a revelation. The children have become even more eager to participate and push their perceived limits, realising that the harder they work, the better and fitter they will become. When the session then moves to playing a game, you can actually see the difference that the 5S programme is having on each individual child's performance.

I am so glad to have given the green light to the 5S programme and I am grateful for the delivery provided by Ellie and Wright Sports Services.”

This half term at Seaton Juniors, Wiggonby Primary School and Maryport Primary School I will be delivering Strength and Suppleness from our 5s programme. I can't wait to see what a difference this makes!

What has been your experience of delivering the 5S programme?

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 18:16:05 GMT

“In order for people to succeed in life, they were provided with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and other for the body, but for the two together. With the two means, people can attain perfection!” - Plato

A number of years ago, a friend suggested reading ‘Spark! How exercise will improve the performance of your brain’. Dr John J.Ratey and Eric Hagerman. It was a highly complex read and in all honesty some content was lost on me, however it did make me reflect on my delivery within Primary School’s Physical Education lessons.

The first lockdown gave us the opportunity to produce a new scheme of work, ’The 5S Programme’ and this academic year we have had the opportunity to deliver this instead of our sport specific programmes linked to the Cumbria School Games.

During the first long Autumn half term, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching our stamina module. My delivery was much more individualised; it included simple building blocks to learning, higher levels of understanding, more time to practice each step and most importantly increased engagement from pupils. When you deliver a sport’s specific programme, you will have a percentage of disengaged children. Reasons for this can be related to preconceived ideas about the sport, a lack of knowledge about the sport or a self-opinion that they can’t play the sport because of their physical skill set.

With the stamina module the engagement was so much higher, children of all abilities could understand the task, all the children understood the steps needed to make progress and as a result were more confident to ask questions. One of the most pleasing findings was the engagement of children out of school hours. Each week, more children were eager to share their home achievements, and the progress they made, however this did backfire on one occasion when pupil x brought a note in explaining he couldn’t do PE today because he was injured from over skipping the night before. Ultimately over this period the increase in children’s stamina levels was fantastic!

If anyone else out there has read about any articles, journals or books on physical activity and its positive effect on us, or has read Spark and can embed my understanding further, I look forward to having a chat, below are some extracts and reviews from the book.

Reviews

“Thought provoking … Dr John Ratey… describes a new approach to physical education that builds the link between exercise and the brain… He shows that walking, running and strength training not only improve school performance, they also fight stress, anxiety, depression, addiction and even the affects of ageing … If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster of the century. So what you waiting for? Get moving!’ Focus Magazine

“Forget fish oil and Sudoku – it’s exercise that makes you brainier . . . Regular exercise isn’t just good for your body… it can also dramatically improve your brain, boosting learning capabilities, reducing stress, smoothing hormonal fluctuations and reversing the signs of ageing . . . This book Is the first time scientific evidence from all over the world has been pulled together to show that the fitter you are, the better your brain works.” Daily Mail

Extracts from Spark!

“We envision our hunter-gatherer ancestors as brutes who relied primarily on physical prowess, but to survive over the long haul they had to use their smarts to find and store food. The relationship between food, physical activity, and learning is hardwired into the brains circuitry.”

“The sedentary character of modern life is a disruption of our nature and it poses one of the biggest threats to our continued survival!”

“Our culture now treats the mind and body as if they are separate entities, and I want to reconnect the two!”

“In Spark, I’ll demonstrate how and why physical activity is crucial to the way we think and feel. I’ll explain the science of how exercise cues the building blocks of learning in the brain, how it affects mood, anxiety , and attention; how it guards against stress and reverses some of the effects of aging in the brain; and how in women it can help stave off the sometimes tumultuous effects of hormonal changes.”

“In fact, the brain responds like muscles do, growing with use, withering with inactivity. The neurons in the brain connect to one another through “leaves” on treelike branches, and exercise causes those branches to grow and bloom with new buds, thus enhancing brain function at a fundamental level.”

Dr Ratey J & Hagerman E. 2008 Spark! Quercus. London.

What has been your experience of delivering the 5S programme?

Mon, 09 Nov 2020 18:16:03 GMT

Since September, we started to deliver the 5's program to our schools in Allerdale. The program is designed to improve children's physical literacy. We've felt for some time now that physical fitness levels amongst children is on the decline, and with a higher chance of inactivity during lockdown- we felt that this program would be of real benefit and would make a difference. This half term we have been delivering the stamina block of lessons and I have been teaching them in Dean Primary & Maryport Church of England Primary School.

During my time so far at Wright Sports all of my teaching has been based on delivering sport specific P.E lessons, so the 5's program was something new to me. So there was a mix of nerves/ excitement at delivering something new to begin with. I also wasn't sure how the children would take to the lessons with them being demanding and requiring lots of effort to complete. However I've been pleasantly surprised. From what I've seen, all of the children have been engaged throughout the block, giving 100% effort and working to their maximum! I've noticed that the children are enjoying facing different challenges, and like having the opportunity to beat their own previous or their partner scores. Whether that be trying to do more skips in 2 minutes compared to last week or complete more reps than their partners in a circuit activity.

The children are also understanding why these lessons are important in terms of their own health but also how the P.E lessons can have an impact and help improve their own performances in their chosen sports. During each week I hear lots of super stories of how some children practice their skipping, go on walks & attempt the Chance Camp Whistle Test in their own gardens. I also know a year 2 boy is now looking to join a running club which is great to hear.

I've noticed that my teaching style has changed slightly as well. Prior to the 5's program, my teaching style was very command based- giving out instructions, copying my demonstrations and making sure that technique/ teaching points were the same as I had shown. However this half term it's changed with a few different approaches adopted. One is a more practice approach- giving the children an opportunity to try out an activity before offering feedback. Another is a reciprocal style, where partners go off to observe and give feedback on each other when completing a task.For example when completing a circuit, whilst one child completed the number of reps, their partner observed them, making sure they maintained good form throughout. A final one is an inclusion style, where the tasks set have different levels of difficulty, depending what their ability is when completing a task. For example which route to run in the marathon: the mini, medium or extreme challenge.

Overall i've enjoyed teaching the Stamina section of the 5's program and can't wait for the next block starting next week- strength

National Fitness Day 2020

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 18:46:52 GMT

The team have already posted fantastic blogs about fitness and the link to well being. My blog is about promoting us to use National Fitness Day to review our use of fitness/physical activity as a family.

As a parent of two children at different ages with different interests I appreciate the weekly plan often involves thinking about each persons weekly calendar, organising the children sports clubs and planning in our time to participate in our own fitness interests. Within this it's also vital to plan in our family activity time together. Many families often get the movie night, the meals out etc but the benefits of family activity are considerable and should be thought about.

Encouraging Good Habits

Sedentary lifestyles are easily followed with todays advancement in technology and it's vital we set good lifelong habits early. Often you will take your childhood habits and how you interacted with your parents into the type of parent you become. By involving children in the planning process, setting family activity challenges and celebrating these when achieved we are hopefully doing our bit as parents to create positive lifelong habits for our children. This process will hopefully ensure children see physical activity as a priority and connect it to fun times in the great outdoors.

Creating Family Bonding Time

Whether you decide to play against each other or set a challenge to complete as a team, this is a great opportunity to develop your families team work and communication skills.

For example if playing doubles tennis you would get a chance to plan and chat tactics, react and follow each others instructions and call outs and observe how each family member reacts to success and failure. Face to face communication is an essential skill, developing empathy, learning how to discuss and challenge will occur during a family challenge e.g. following a map around one of the Whinlatter Forest routes. Family bonds will be created and an excellent opportunity to observe your child's character and reflect on any development needs.

Increasing self confidence.

"Studies show that quality of family bonding and family encouragement affects child mental health and future mental health. Good family bonding paired with positive family encouragement builds confidence and self-esteem in children" O.S.R. Physical Therapy

Children naturally face challenges in a negative state "I can't" "I don't want to" and there is no better feeling for parent or child when together you support each other to accomplish. Sports and physical activity challenges are a great opportunity for this and allow you to build on success and develop the self confidence of all involved. A personal example of this was our family bike ride starting out as a small loop around the towns cycle track and progressing to 5 mile bike rides with our 4 year old who was supported by her big brother.

Teamwork

Children will get the opportunity to build team work in many different settings but essentially to become a lifelong habit/skill this needs to take place in the family home and activities undertaken together. We would love to read in the comments section any family teamwork challenges you have completed or challenges you would like to set others?

What is the right sport or activity?

As with anything we do, there will be ups and downs, some activities we do will suit some but not others. My advice would be to:

-share ideas and ensure every family member gets to lead/choose an activity.

- start gradually and make sure the challenge set is achievable

- encourage family members to be open minded and develop a "have a go" attitude

- celebrate successes together

- ensure everyone sits down at the end of the sport/activity/challenge and chats about their experiences and what to do next!

We would love to see our Chance Camp page being used to highlight and promote family activity, we look forward to seeing your posts!

National Fitness Day 2020

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 18:46:51 GMT

Today marks National Fitness Day. A day in which we celebrate and highlight the important role that physical activity plays in helping all of us lead healthy and active lifestyles.

As Ellie & Amy have both mentioned in their blogs, taking part in regular physical activity has many vital health benefits that allows us all to keep physically, socially & mentally well. Especially with what is going on in the world today, keeping active is more important than ever.

The reason why I enjoy exercising is because it can completely change my mood. Playing in a competition or completing a workout boosts my confidence & gives me a feeling of self worth- that I’ve managed to achieve something during the day. If I’m having a bad day or have things on my mind, exercising allows me to switch off and forget about those worries or problems, clear my mind and allows me to be able to focus on something else.

Exercise is a powerful depression fighter! Studies have shown that it’s just as effective at treating mild/moderate depression as antidepressant medication. An example of one study from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health found that 15 minutes of running or an hour of walking reduced major depression by 26%. Whilst maintaining an exercise schedule can help prevent a person from relapsing.

When lockdown was first introduced, in order to keep active I started walking and completed different running routes around my home- gradually increasing my times/ distances. Borrowing gym equipment I was able to follow some workouts online. With friends, we’d meet on zoom and complete them together- a great way to maintain social contact. Even though everyday life is currently different, improvise and find ways to keep active.

The Importance of Fitness for Children, Young People and Adults.

Wed, 23 Sep 2020 17:39:24 GMT

Wednesday 23rd September is National Fitness Day, so I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss why I believe fitness is important for both adults and children.

It will come as no surprise to most of us that by increasing our fitness levels we boost the strength of our bones and muscles making everyday living more manageable and reducing the risk of injury. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention explains that maintaining high levels of fitness also helps to improve our respiratory and cardiovascular health, improving our lung function and lowering the risk of heart disease. Along with this many studies show that an increase in fitness means you are less likely to develop type II diabetes and are less at risk of some cancers. A study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine looked at the relationship between oxygen usage during exercise and the blood. It discovered that during the fitness test individuals who scored either good, excellent or superior had a higher rate of white blood cells circulating in the bloodstream compared to those who scored fair, poor or very poor. White blood cells are used to fight infection within the body, the more rapid the circulation of these cells the greater chance an individual can fight off an infection quickly.

Throughout different stages in our lives we will encounter emotional difficulties that are unavoidable, stress with schoolwork, home life or family matters may play into this and exercise is there to help. When we exercise our brain releases neurotransmitters known as endorphins, or in simple terms, feel-good hormones, these help to boost our mood and create a more positive mindset. Research by Mayo Clinic found that those who take part in 3 or more aerobic based exercise activities a week felt more relaxed, had lower symptoms of anxiety and depression, experienced a more positive outlook and had better sleep patterns then those who participated in less aerobic based exercise activities. An improvement in our sleep quality can raise concentration levels meaning an overall improvement in academic/workplace performance leading to boosts in confidence/self esteem levels. BioMed Central (UK based scientific research committee) found that in children and young adults regular aerobic activity has been proven to increase their attention in school and improve classroom behaviour along with improving markers of mental health.

It’s fair to say from this list of benefits that fitness isn’t just important for any one specific demographic and that the benefits of maintaining a strong level of fitness is paramount in living a healthy life no matter your age. For more information on National Fitness Day or for some inspiration of activities you can do to help boost your fitness, visit https://www.nationalfitnessday.com/

National Fitness Day 2020

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 10:43:29 GMT

My blog this week will focus on the amazing effort people are going to, to support National Fitness Day. 2020 has been a tough year for many, but many people have used the lockdown and restrictions to their benefit to use physical activity in the best way possible. I for one, took advantage of being able to get fit and healthy again whilst I had the time. Now I have got into a routine of regular exercise, it has been much easier to adapt it into my every day life, even with work and socialising!

National Fitness Day is a fantastic day to get the message across to all, about how important fitness is for our physical, mental and social wellbeing! Fitness is so important to help us maintain a healthy weight, become toned or muscular, decrease our chances of developing physical problems such as heart disease or becoming obese. Increasing our fitness and physical activity levels helps us to release those ‘happy’ endorphins which help us to trigger a positive feeling in the body. This increase in endorphins helps us to sleep, concentrate and learn better, it helps us to decrease levels of depression and anxiety. The world can be a very lonely place when being a lone ranger, but taking part in fitness and physical activity can really boost our social wellbeing, making us feel more part of society.

For me, I love to get out on my road bike a couple of times a week, especially at the weekend! It helps me to clear my head, gain great levels of fitness and visit so many nice places around the Lakes. I am attempting to complete all the 214 Wainwrights as soon as I can, currently I am on 100! Being out on the fells with family and friends is a relaxing way to exercise, gain muscle and fitness and really clear the mind. I really enjoy doing yoga and meditation for my mental wellbeing, this is something I wasn’t very familiar with until late last year, and it has been a god-send to me during 2020.

Fitness can look and be so many different things for different people, what does your fitness plan/week look like? Let me know in the comments below!

Physical Literacy of Young People – Where does the responsibility lie?

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:48:56 GMT

Lock down has had a positive effect on physical activity levels

As a physical activity and sports enthusiast it has been great to see how my hometown of Cockermouth has embraced physical activity during lockdown. In the beginning, whilst out taking my allowance of one hour of exercise a day, it was brilliant to witness families walking, cycling and running together, people of all ages out exercising in the local parks and fields and then the huge uptake of people using technology in a positive way to access new classes and activities.

Now we are in the recovery phase creating a new normal, I hope this momentum doesn’t fizzle out. The human body was designed to be active not sedentary, movement is essential and being physically active is one of the most important things you can do for your health and wellbeing. Families will have set new habits and will certainly have been reaching their target of one hour of exercise a day or the magic 10,000 steps. Businesses have also had to form new habits and adapt, I have been particularly impressed with the resilience of the sport’s sector, in addition to Chance Camp and the innovative ways they have supported their customers. Luke Reeson Fitness and Body Fit are just two great local examples of sporting resilience.

It’s inspiring to watch through the course of a day at Cockermouth RUFC, all the different forms of activity going on from young athletes practising their running, the teenagers arriving by bike and playing socially distanced football, and the range of age and abilities using the 1km walk around the perimeter of the grounds to get in their daily steps. It’s also refreshing to see Cockermouth Rugby club and Archery Club get their members back to some type of activity whilst adhering to government guidelines.

Unfortunately, in some recent newspaper articles and social media reports this positivity has not been highlighted. Headlines suggests ‘ One in three children don’t get their one hour of exercise a day ,’ and ‘ One in ten children haven’t participated in any physical activity since lockdown !’ This data has been used to target Primary Schools as the answer to addressing a problem of poor physical literacy rates amongst young people. I couldn’t disagree more! The unrealistic expectations put on teachers is a whole other debate but fundamentally our primary school physical education system is not set up to create physically literate children. This is mainly down to an overcrowded curriculum with a heavy focus on academic performance of pupils. These pressures inevitably limit the time available for physical education which in many instances is pushed aside for academic gain. In addition, teacher training has minimal time spent on PE delivery and many teachers lack the confidence to deliver a comprehensive physical education programme that all pupils can access, combined this with a lack of specialist PE teachers in many schools and what we have is a bleak picture for the physical literacy of our younger generation. Since 2011, the Sport’s and PE premium has helped in some way with schools who have implemented the plans and programmes available but this funding is now under severe threat and not confirmed for the next academic year!

In my opinion, the buck stops with parents and the young people themselves. They need to create daily routines that include active travel, family physical activity sessions or buddy up sessions with another family, put screens on hold and schedule outdoor activity including gentler sessions like yoga or walking, practice skills and set challenges and goals where you can see success and nurture a desire to access the various sporting and exercise opportunities in your locality. Parents need to help children understand that physical literacy is not a quick fix and mastery often takes time, it’s certainly not related to how well you play it on a video game. It’s about self-discipline, practice and finding lots of fun ways to be active. Parents can have a huge influence on this, firstly and most importantly by being the positive role models we should be to our children and leading active lives and discussing all the associated benefits. Secondly, by managing children’s screen time. As a parent in this generation, I constantly hear, “I can’t get them off their X-box!” The reality is any parent can get their child of their consoles but they choose not to because it’s easy entertainment, it’s a babysitter in a neat, convenient package. I’m certainly not against children using technology and during lockdown our family has relaxed the rules but not at the expense of being physically inactive for large parts of the day. Some of the hours and days I hear children and teenagers have been allowed to play on their games genuinely scares me and fills me with dread in terms of the damage being done to their physical, social, creative, personal and cognitive development!

In conclusion, developing physical literacy is not a quick fix. It’s about developing a lifelong love of physical activity and understanding all the benefits that come with it, it’s inculcating movement and activity into our daily lives in the same way we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, it’s scheduling physical activity gentle or otherwise into our day, it is about young people having the opportunity within their educational setting to be active in lessons and receive the two hours of high quality PE every child should be entitled to, it is accessing after school clubs and local sporting provision to find the exercise or activity that fills you with a sense of achievement and helps build positive relationships with others and most importantly being part of a family that is prepared to hit the ‘off ‘button on the screen and prioritise health and wellbeing.

What has your experience been like working from the new Chance Camp Arena and detail a case study showing a good example of impact

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:48:46 GMT

The current Covid 19 Pandemic has meant that we have all had to change our daily habits and routine, including our work here at Chance Camp. With schools being closed we have had to adapt our coaching to create the Chance Camp Arena as a way to provide 1 to 1 or small group activity sessions to a wide range of children and parents.

This new normal has brought about a series of challenges which we wouldn’t normally face and has helped us as a team of coaches to further build on our workforce core behaviours of honesty, approachability, consistency and developmental.

Seeing the positive impact the Chance Camp Arena is having on so many people both physically and mentally has been a stand out moment of these current testing times. One case study that I have found to best represent both the physical and mental health benefits would be a group of teenagers who have attended the arena on a weekly basis. Before attending they didn’t know each other well and at first were quite reserved. By week 3 they are fully engaged with the sessions, playing games with full effort, they have their own private jokes in place and from the outside looking in you wouldn’t think they had only been worked with each other for 6 hours. They put 100% effort into each activity they do, building on their sporting skills and enjoying each moment.

We hope that under our new summer set up running these activity sessions 4-6pm will see them continue to develop and hopefully encourage more teenagers and young adults to get involved!

What has your experience been like working from the new Chance Camp Arena and detail a case study showing a good example of impact.

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:48:43 GMT

During these very strange and different times we have all had to adapt in many different ways. For us coaches, usually we would be working away providing PE and after school sports provision to many schools across Allerdale; we could profoundly see what impact the lock down was having on so many children and families, some good- some not so good. So we acted quickly and once we got the green light from the government guidelines, we set up our Chance Camp Arena. Our arena has been a fantastic benefit to the local community, allowing children to participate in sport and experience some sort of normality, allowing parents to work or take time off home schooling (as we were essentially providing their PE lessons), and allowing us to do what we love best- work with children in sport.

I have certainly enjoyed working at the Chance Camp Arena, we have had the opportunity to work with more teenagers, adults and total new faces who had never experienced Chance Camp before. We have worked with families, pre- schoolers and children of all ages. I have loved to see the competitiveness in families, the hard work in children striving to become professional sports people, and to hear the laughs and pure joy coming from children’s mouths. At first many children were apprehensive about coming along, crying and holding onto their parents or couldn’t speak or look us in the eyes for the first 5 or so minutes; however this completely changed as soon as they stepped into the arena, many of these children have been coming to weekly sessions with their friends and loving every single second. They have also booked on to our summer programme which is fantastic!

During the second to last week of our way of working at the arena, before summer Chance Camps commence, I had the pleasure of working with a group of children, some with disabilities and their families. I had previously worked with one of these families who attended ICANN a few years ago and it was so great to see them again. The group came along with full spirits, smiles on their faces and full of energy. We didn’t stop laughing from start to finish. As a coach I have always enjoyed working with children with disabilities, as I feel a huge sense of achievement providing sport and physical activity for all. Every sport is adaptable, every game we can change and everything in the arena is totally diverse and made possible for all to use. It is fantastic that this group have now made a regular booking throughout the summer holidays with myself, and I really cannot wait to work with them again.

Last of all, I would just like to say a huge thank you for the lovely gifts I have received from some of the lovely children I have worked with over the past couple of weeks. I am now full of cake and so thankful for my lovely card from a football fanatic legend! I really hope we see many of our new faces over the summer holidays, if not then I hope to see you all in September.

What has your experience been like working from the new Chance Camp Arena and detail a case study showing a good example of impact.

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:48:39 GMT

Like everyone else during these unusual and uncertain times I was very wary of what to expect when things began to return to the “new normal”. That included going back to work and coaching again within schools, tennis clubs and at the Chance Camp Arena. The concerns, such as the risk of catching COVID, passing it on to family, being able to keep up with health and safety regulations whilst coaching, and having a new/ different role as a coach when teaching- did make me doubt if I was ready to return. However all these concerns soon disappeared once we got started.

Working from the Chance Camp Arena has brought many positives to me. The main one is that it has brought a structure back to my working week. Having this routine back allows me to organize my time better, makes me feel productive, allows me to see people again and all in all is good for my mental well being.

Another is that I’ve been given the opportunity to meet and work with a wide range of different people. Whether that be toddlers, teenagers or families. This has also meant I’ve lead a variety of different sessions- whether it be multi skills, multi sports, sport specific or strength and fitness. Without the Chance Camp Arena, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity, to lead these sessions, and push myself outside of my usual comfort zone.

A final one is seeing new faces experience Chance Camp for the first time. Although initially scared, nervous and sometimes upset it’s great to see the children get stuck in, get active and enjoy themselves, as well as returning the following weeks. This definitely makes it the most rewarding part.

Just to add before we started the Chance Camp Arena sessions, each day the team were uploading different skill challenges to our Facebook and website. This was to give children the opportunity to test themselves & get active whilst at home over lockdown. It’s been great to see and hear that lots of people were tuning in and taking on the different challenges over the weeks. This week I was back in Dean Primary School for the first time since lockdown and it was fantastic to hear that the children were following throughout, taking on the challenges and even continuing to do them. A special mention to one boy that couldn’t skip before lockdown. After a lot of hard work he’s now able to complete 140 skips in a minute, as well as cross overs, double unders and many more tricks. Simply superb!

Adapting to Lockdown April 2020

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 12:16:31 GMT

1) How have you adapted to function during the lockdown? 2) Positives you have found from the lock down and what you have learnt about yourself? 3) What are your hopes for when we return, will we go back to “normal”?

I’ve found that by removing the structure of my usual day to day routine during the first couple of weeks of lockdown meant that I was wasting a lot of time watching Netflix and using my phone, leaving me feeling unproductive.For me following some type of routine is key as it keeps me busy and gives me a sense of achievement. I have had to create a new routine where I do one hour of admin work in the morning and the work at the Hub School in the afternoon. I then fill in the time between with home workouts, odd jobs around the house and chilling out. I am also helping out an elderly neighbour with her weekly shopping as well as family members who are currently shielding, all of this is helping to reaffirm that sense of purpose that is currently missing as I am not teaching.

The clap for our carers on a Thursday night has helped to bring the community together on my street and I have met neighbours who I had never actually seen before now. We all go out to our doorsteps and do our clapping, banging of pots and pans etc, and just those couple of minutes really does lift the mood of the street. We have had children delivering Easter gifts and drawings to everyone's doorsteps and are enjoying soaking up the sun whilst we sit outside and learn more about one another. I have seen some positive changes in my health since the lockdown began, my resting heart rate has dropped dramatically, my quality of sleep has improved significantly and I think the biggest positive change for me has to be my fitness routine. Anyone that knows me knows that I have a small obsession with training. I leave work and head straight to a CrossFit class and then I either go to boxing or to do my own workout, before heading home for food and sleep, ready to do it all again the next day. I have found that with working out at home I have created a better balance in my training, I pick and choose what workouts to do and have discovered some great online coaches who are showing me different ways to train. I have found that this time to slow down has really helped me to take some time to think about my future and what I want to do in life (no spoilers here).

My fear is that we DO go back to “normal”. We have been living in a world filled with a lot of greed and ignorance towards others, I don’t believe this is intentional but sadly just the way life has become for so many, myself included. I think this time in our homes has given people the opportunity to evaluate many aspects of their lives and I hope it provides people with the drive they need to pursue something greater, whatever that may mean to them. Across the world people have lost their lives, we have lost loved ones, lost our jobs, but with that sadness we have found the good. The country has come together through their love and support of Captain Tom Moore who has raised almost £30million for our NHS. Closer to home, people we didn’t know 6 weeks ago are now our friends, we have people in our community raising money for charities, people donating goods for key workers of Allerdale and out walking with their families we see kids smiling and playing, possibly spending time with a family member they don’t normally have the opportunity to. Soon schools will reopen, the shops will be back in business and roads will be busy again, but I think it’s important we all remember who kept our country afloat through these unprecedented times and continue to thank them for the work they do.

Adapting to Lockdown April 2020

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 09:40:00 GMT

1) How have you adapted to function during the lockdown? 2) Positives you have found from the lock down and what you have learnt about yourself? 3) What are your hopes for when we return, will we go back to “normal”?

Personally, I have found adapting to life during lockdown quite easy. We have been so very lucky to have this amazing weather, and I am so used to living a very busy lifestyle, that for me it has been quite pleasant. I have had time to focus on myself by getting out on the bike and walking, spending quality long lost time with the family, and focusing on admin work and catching up on work in general. I have ensured a healthy diet, lots of yoga and meditation and a routine on most days has helped me adapt to these crazy times.

There are lots of positives and learning curves I am taking out of the lock down, especially when it comes down to self-appreciation and mental toughness. I have found my love for my bike again and have been doing more miles than I ever have done and could ever of dreamt of doing. I have learnt I am a lot stronger being alone than I ever thought I could be and I am living better in my own head space than ever before. I have found my love for fitness, the outdoors and work again. I have learnt to never take anything for granted again, for example I need to visit my grandparents more! At the times when things are taken away from you it makes you appreciate them more, the same with friends and family. I have learnt I am terrible at communication with my friends and family, so that is something I am hugely going to work towards getting better at!

My hopes for when we return don’t necessarily mean I want everything to go back to “normal”, nor do I think they ever will. We are going to have a stronger generation, a happier and friendlier generation and a generation that will understand and appreciate cleanliness and won’t take the small things for granted.. at least I hope so! I hope as a coach, we can get back into schools as soon as possible and make up for lost time. I also really hope we can run our Chance Camp school holiday sports programme in the summer holidays. We miss our chance campers and schools and we really want to get back to you developing in social, personal, cognitive, creative and physical ways. For now, we are still providing weekly at home workouts that your child can do in the meantime and get themselves ready for when we can get back up and running.. visit www.chancecamp.co.uk .

Adapting to Lockdown April 2020

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 09:39:57 GMT

1) How have you adapted to function during the lockdown? 2) Positives you have found from the lock down and what you have learnt about yourself? 3) What are your hopes for when we return, will we go back to “normal”?

Wright Sport Services & Chance Camp Limited, like a lot of businesses, adapted swiftly to the lockdown and have found a new temporary way of functioning. At this point, I would like to say a huge thank you to the Primary Schools and Allerdale School Sport Partnership who have honoured our payments and to the kind donations that came into Chance Camp.

I have personally adapted by shifting my administration work to the early morning to allow for home schooling and my wife's work during the day. As a group of coaches, we have gone online to provide daily challenges and have embraced social media where possible. Our online weekly meetings have followed a set template which have made the last five weeks extremely productive with lots of outputs including a new programme ready for next year called 5S's (Stamina, Speed, Strength, Suppleness and Skill). We have also ensured that all lesson plans are uploaded to an online platform, an extensive update of the website, supporting local campaigns to increase physical activity, core behaviours for our staff agreed and implemented, early discussions on how to extend our Multi-Skills Academy programme by producing an online hub for selected children and parents and recently we have supported the Primary Business Partnership to provide online career videos.

In general, despite a couple of wobbly days, I have tried to take positives and look for opportunities. Embracing the time to try and review and improve the business, support and engage with my fantastic coaches and where possible keep up to date with leading physical activity organisations. From my voluntary role with Cockermouth RUFC the time has been excellent to prepare for the up- coming season.

On a personal note, I have enjoyed the time to engage with my four year old in activities that I wouldn't normally get time to do or think about doing. I have learnt more about my wife's role in business continuity and I have been impressed with how she goes about her role. I also admire how my son works hard through his secondary school timetable, getting up early to complete his tasks, allowing him to enjoy the rest of the day and also his ability to engage in play with his younger sister to allow my wife and I to have some down time. In terms of learning about myself, I can be a good cook when I follow Jules Huck's fantastic recipes, the days go too fast when you’re engaged with Early Years School Work. My older son still has a fantastic imagination and ability to play, which isn't always allowed to shine through in our old normal and this period has also reinforced to my wife that I am useless at DIY!!

As a business, we will learn from this period and have found new ways of using technology to be more productive in terms of planning, raising our profile and holding team meetings. However, this period has reinforced more than ever the importance of social interaction, being face to face with our groups, embracing and enjoying human interaction and we can’t wait to get back into schools and host our Chance Camps. I hope the new normal is a place where we all appreciate the efforts of people a little more and get outside of our own selfish bubbles and that more people will interact with their local community, supporting local businesses, volunteering in local groups and just being a good neighbour!

Finally, I hope my new normal includes better time management, continuing the family activities we have created during this lockdown including lunchtime picnics in the front garden, new bike ride routes, star gazing at night, bird spotting and tapas evenings in our newly renovated back terrace - yum yum!!

Adapting to Lockdown April 2020

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 09:39:55 GMT

1) How have you adapted to function during the lockdown? 2) Positives you have found from the lock down and what you have learnt about yourself? 3) What are your hopes for when we return, will we go back to “normal”?

Like most people during lockdown, I’ve tried to keep a structure to my days. I set myself targets, and go about completing them each day- so that I have something to work towards. Examples could be updating our school lesson plans for next year, setting different online challenges to help keep children active, helping on the farm and completing jobs around the house such as cleaning, gardening and tidying my sports equipment shed. With not delivering lessons and with all sport coming to a standstill, I’ve been looking at different ways to remain active each day. This is to help maintain my physical and mental wellbeing. These include going on walks around where I live, running and completing different workouts on zoom with friends- a great way to keep in contact with others outside my home.

The main positives that I’ve found from the lockdown is seeing how everyone is doing their bit to help during the pandemic. Health, care and social workers looking after people and saving lives. Workers in food production/ distribution that maintain a constant supply goods and basic essentials. Or teachers going into schools to take care and look after children of key workers. As well as communities pulling together showing great spirit. All of these people plus many more, risking their own health to keep the country running is very inspiring!

At Chance Camp we’ve worked hard to try and help as many people as possible. Every day we’re uploading different challenges to give children the opportunity to practice their skills, complete the challenge once they’re ready and have a chance to win vouchers that can be used at future camps. We’ve created an “At Home” workout booklet that has a series of different challenges and ideas to test strength, skill, stamina, suppleness and speed. We’ve also offered and handed out equipment to be borrowed free of charge to people in our local communities. Giving families another opportunity to remain active. Finally, I’ve also being going to Silloth Primary School, twice a week, to provide P.E lessons for the children that still go.

From a personal point of view. One positive I’ve taken from lockdown is having more time available to plan and prepare, to be ready for when we go back. Completing planning or computer work isn’t a strength of mine- however I’m pleased I’ve been able to use the time wisely and be productive whilst we’re unable to deliver.

When we eventually return, I’m looking forward to going back into schools/ clubs and delivering P.E lessons. I hope that when we return that there’s a big boom in adults/ children/ families wanting to get active and using as many opportunities as they can to do so. I hope that children don’t get used to staying indoors or at home with being in lockdown, but use this time to realise why sport is important and how it can have an impact on your physical/ mental well being. It will take time though, with government restrictions slowly easing off, however once they do i’d like to think that people will make an effort to be more active. I also hope that we don’t forget this time and communities continue to rally together. It’s great to see people offering their services by doing shopping, jobs, providing meals etc for people that are in need. It would be brilliant for that to continue as well.

New Years Resolutions 2020

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:48:30 GMT

In a personal level I am hoping to implement the following steps for a better quality of daily living

1. Exercise Daily

2. Drink more water and eating higher quality food

3. Get more sleep

4. Quality time with family

5. Keep in touch with friends

6. Remove sense of entitlement

7. Do not respond to negativity

8 Random acts of kindness

On a professional note I hope to continue to grow the business using all available opportunities to grow and develop our coaches and continue to strengthen the links with our partners.

I hope Chance Camp gets the opportunity to operate from the planned new facilities at Cockermouth RUFC and ensure we reach out to many new customers and programmes.

I have seen a positive change this year with physical activity getting more exposure/promotion than ever, so let’s hope 2020 is a healthy year for as many as possible with exercise being used as the brilliant preventive measure it is.

New Years Resolutions 2020

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:48:26 GMT

1.To complete my level 2 fitness instructing exercise and physical activity for children qualification, and look to use that qualification in schools and after school clubs.

2. To build on and develop the Chance Camp programme at Silloth so that it can grow.

3. To improve the link between Silloth Tennis Club and the local primary schools in order to increase the number of junior members.

New Years Resolutions 2020

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:48:22 GMT

2020 is hopefully going to be my year. I am going to pledge to take more steps in creating a physically and mentally stronger me, whilst being more selfish and productive throughout the year. My new years resolutions also include some challenges that I have set myself, allowing myself to be more focused, dedicated and spend time with loved ones.

1. Complete ALL the remaining Wainwright mountains that I am yet to do, along with my dad

2. Reach 50+ miles on my bike

3. Drink more water and eat more fruit and veg

4. To gain my Level 2 Netball Coaching and Level 1 Cricket Coaching

5. Swim in the lake (as this is one of my biggest fears)

6. Make an impact on other peoples lives who are less fortunate than myself

New Years Resolutions 2020

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 10:48:18 GMT

As a highly active person already I find setting resolutions related to health and fitness quite difficult and so this year I've decided to take a slightly different approach to my new years resolutions than in previous years. For me this year my focus isn't solely on developing my fitness, trying to reach 10,000 steps a day or striving to hit new PB's in the gym. Instead this year my main focus is on keeping my mind healthy and happy. To do this I have set myself the challenge of disconnecting from my phone/social media etc and spending more time outdoors.

We are so lucky to live in a place with so many areas of outstanding natural beauty here in Cumbria and for 2020 I want to explore this local landscape more. I was lucky to be gifted with some walking boots this Christmas. I am aiming to get through as many Wainwright Walks as possible throughout the year and have recruited a friend to help me with this and keep me motivated whilst hiking up some of the highest peaks.

How to keep your child active over the winter months?

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 09:53:36 GMT

Here at Wright Sport Services we currently run a young sports leaders programme titled 'Playtime Leaders' as mentioned in a previous blog post. The programme works with a group of pupils to develop their leadership skills in order for them to deliver fun sporting activities at playtimes. All primary schools in Allerdale will be receiving this programme throughout the Autumn and Winter school terms in the hope that children will increase their physical activity levels throughout the school day.

As part of my delivery of early years and foundation stage PE, I currently lead a Wake Up and Shake Up activity with the reception children of Victoria Infant School. The activity consists of 15 minutes of non-stop singing and dancing to various songs, although 15 minutes may not seem like a long time, it is 15 minutes that the children are constantly moving their bodies, developing co-ordination and movement skills and avoiding sitting down behind a desk. The wake up and shake up based activities have proven to boost children's concentration in class and raise their mood, a great win for the teachers as well as the children. It would be amazing to see this type of activity added to every schools timetable!

How to keep your child active over the winter months?

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 09:53:33 GMT

In these dark and not welcoming months it can be a great excuse to curl up by 4pm every night and have a movie night. Or get to the weekend and use the rain, cold or wind as an excuse to have a duvet day. BUT lets make sure we stay active and find ways to be outside and get much needed daylight to keep us healthy, mentally and physically.

We are blessed with local walks and I would highly recommend the new Shaun the Sheep Trial at Whinlatter Forest or the lake walk at Buttermere. Or use it as a time to explore your home town and create your own trials and games as a family. e.g. split into two teams, who can collect 10 named items and get back to the house first.

We are lucky to have some fantastic sport and physical activity centres in Allerdale, the winter months are a great time to use these individually or as a family. Also many sport clubs operate throughout the winter months, some outdoors and some indoors, clubs are always looking for new members.

Lastly I am currently teaching sports hall athletics which is a fantastic programme which adapts athletics into the school hall. As a family why not adapt this further to have a competition in your house
Long Jump - Use the mat in the kitchen along with your tape measure who can do the furthest 2 to 2 standing jump?
Speed Bounce - Who can do the most 2 to 2 side jumps over a line in 30 sec?
Running with high knees on the spot - who can keep running on the spot with knees coming above waist line for the longest?

I would love to read posts under this blog of all the ways you are keeping your family active during these winter months..

How to keep your child active over the winter months?

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 09:53:29 GMT

This time of year for me personally I struggle to find the motivation to leave the house to do exercise once in from work, this will be the case for hundreds across the country. The dark, cold, wet nights don’t exactly energise me or my family to get out and get active, HOWEVER, there are so many ways to keep active indoors if you and your family are in hibernation like myself. I am not a great believer of using the internet for a child’s entertainment sake, however, there are so many amazing videos on YouTube to keep you fit and healthy! For example, there are many kids yoga videos, keep fit videos including aerobics, dance, stretching and skills practise. These are animated and are profoundly exciting for your child, it can keep them entertained and healthy from the comfort of your own home. I highly recommend using this tool as a way of keeping active, I love the online yoga and meditation tutorials and aerobic and HIIT work outs, there is something for all the family! Also there are many apps you can download to help benefit you and your families health and fitness, take a look, what have you got to lose?!

We are so very lucky living in the Lake District, we have the most beautiful mountains and lakes, it’s like one big free playground! At a weekend, I can’t stress enough how important it is, to get out and get some fresh Cumbrian air, get out walking, biking, jogging, playing sports in the park, or using the climbing frames. In many parks such as Fitz Park Keswick, there is an outdoor multi- use gym, suitable for all ages and abilities, an extremely fun way to entertain your child without then knowing they are doing any exercise.

This time of year we have very short sunlight days, this is why it is so important to get up and out and enjoy the amazing outdoors whilst it’s still light, get some of that vital vitamin D into our bodies that we crave and need so much. If you don’t have time through the day to enough the outdoors, then get wrapped up, head torches on and go for a walk around your local town to see the Christmas lights, even a brisk walk for 30 minutes is better than nothing! Keep warm, active and healthy over the winter months!

For more ways of keeping healthy this winter, check out the NHS website for more information: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/five-ways-to-stay-healthy-this-winter/

Objectives for 2019/2020

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:12:59 GMT

My objectives for this year are to not only work on building children's skills and knowledge, but to develop my own. This year I have been lucky enough to gain more work in some fantastic schools across Cumbria and I am loving working with all different ages ranges in a range of different sports and activities. My main objectives within schools are to focus on the children's multi skills and introduce more sport specific skills throughout this process.

I am hugely passionate about increasing opportunities in netball to all ages and abilities and I want to further develop my knowledge by taking part in more netball coaching courses and increase this on a larger scale. I am currently in the developing stages of creating an Under 11's Netball club for those that want to play regularly but have not been selected for the district team; I am extremely passionate about creating opportunities for everyone, not just the minority.

This year I want to increase participation levels at our school holiday sports programme- chance camp. During my marketing role over the past year we noticed an increase in numbers of children participating at chance camp. I want to carry on increasing the numbers of children at our camps and give children the chance to be smart, active and healthy in the school holidays.

Another fantastic achievement that chance camp had last year was working alongside ICAAN, and I would absolutely love to increase the number of sessions offered and to get more children and their families at the sessions. These are extremely inclusive sports sessions and we provide a range of different sports activities and competitions, in a safe and fun environment.

Objectives for 2019/2020

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:12:57 GMT

This academic year I will be entering my third year of coaching and teaching in schools, the past two years have allowed me to gain a wide range of experiences including working with different age groups, working with a wide range of abilities and delivering in the classroom and at events. During this time I have noticed a decline in the level of fundamental motor skills possessed by children as they transition into key stage two, with many children falling short of the expectations I have for that age group. A whole multitude of factors may play there part in this and so my main aim for this academic year is to look into what more I can do as a coach/teacher working with early years and key stage one children on a regular basis to further develop each child's skills in order for them to be able to thrive when transitioning into key stage two.

Off the back of the Women’s Football World Cup and Netball World Cup this Summer, we saw a great number of girls attending Chance Camp and putting 100% effort into a wide range of sports including rugby, football, athletics, netball, handball, tennis and so much more. Earlier on this year Ellie and myself attended the Cumbrian Girls Can summit to discuss factors affecting the decline in girls participation in sport/physical activity and what we as sports providers can do to increase participation. I hope that by continuing to work with Cumbrian Girls Can and involving some of our female Chance Campers we can begin to create camps that appeal more to girls and hopefully continue to grow the number of girls taking part in a wide range of sports that they may not be able to access in schools/their local community.

Objectives for 2019/2020

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:12:55 GMT

As the business owner I strive to keep Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp operating to its best potential and ensure our excellent coaches are supported and motivated to keep providing our services to our partners. Within this its important we keep listening to our schools, community organisations and families to ensure we are working with them to engage young people into physical activity and sport.

On a personal level I hope to find new ways to motivate myself to keep coaching, keep finding ways to engage with young people and ensure they are having the best chance to explore and learn within my lessons and coaching sessions. More and more its common practice to have to deal with

"We cant go outside its raining"

"I can't do this its to hard"

"I have dirty hands can I go in please"

rather than

"I am really looking forward to getting outside and playing....."

"This is a great challenge, can you help me with this"

"This dirt makes good face paint"

My objective is to work hard. keep to the high standards I set myself and try and ensure I impact on as many children, teachers and families who want physical activity, sport, outdoors, teamwork, resilience to be at the heart of their children's development.

I am excited to extend my knowledge and ability this year and re invest time in myself by completing the Crossfit level 1 coaching course and the recently added online course "Coaching Others to Coach".

Coaches review of sport and physical activity led throughout the academic year of 2018/19.

Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:55:10 GMT

This academic year has flown by bringing with it some magical moments.

The delivery of both the Healthy Movers and Playtime Leaders programmes have once again been a great success in 2018/19! They have raised the activity levels of children throughout the school day and educated them on the importance of exercise and the effects it has on the body.

My teaching highlight of the year has been working alongside the nursery children at Victoria Infant and Nursery School. Back in September we began working together to introduce children aged 3 and 4 years to multi-skills. The programme has helped to develop the children’s understanding of agility, coordination and balance and has been achieved through gymnastics, football, creative movement and throwing and catching based activities. Throughout the programme we have seen children develop in confidence with many of them now being able to perform forward rolls, walk unassisted across thin beams and jump from benches into controlled landings. During the Nursery sports day the children who had accessed the programme excelled in many different events, especially when testing their accuracy of throwing beanbags into hoops to earn points for their teams. The programme has received positive feedback from staff and the children and we can’t wait to see the children develop further during the 2019/20 academic year!

Coaches review of sport and physical activity led throughout the academic year of 2018/19.

Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:55:08 GMT

It’s hard to believe that the 2018/19 academic school year is nearly over! However it’s definitely been another fantastic one. One of my main highlights of the year is having the opportunity to again deliver P.E weekly to Silloth, Flimby and Dean primary schools. All of the children are super to work with, they work hard during lessons and it’s great to see them develop and improve their skills and sporting potential from week to week. I look forward to coming back in September to continue this!!

Another highlight over the year for me is developing and running a Chance Camp at Silloth Primary School during the term breaks. The school are brilliant hosts and are very keen to help provide sports activity to the area. The support of the school has helped promote the camps and throughout the year numbers attending have continued to grow which is great to see. We look forward to building on this again next year.

One final high point from the year is delivering the Maryport cluster schools tennis competition for the first time. Taking place at Ewanrigg Junior school, the Maryport based schools came and competed against each other with the winners going through to the next round of the Cumbria School Games. Prior to the event taking place, I worked with a group of sports leaders, to teach the rules, how to play points and how to play mini tie breaks so that they could officiate the matches. This meant the competition was able to run smoothly without a problem and becoming a success. Again I look forward to coming back and doing the same again next year.

Hope you all have a great summer holiday that’s filled with lots of sports activity!

Coaches review of sport and physical activity led throughout the academic year of 2018/19

Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:55:03 GMT

For me 2018/19 has been one of my best years to date and I can’t believe how fast the academic year has flown by! My academic coaching year has been filled with the profoundly beneficial Play Time Leaders, which I feel has massively helped to increase physical activity levels across Allerdale schools. This programme trains children to become sports leaders and provide fun physical activity sessions for their peers at break times.

My year has been super exciting with gaining funding from the National Lottery Project in association with Cumbria Youth Alliance, to design and deliver a programme aimed at young people aged 14-25 to help to improve their emotional resilience. This project was delivered in two secondary schools in Allerdale, which focused on a leadership style programme to help increase communication, self confidence and esteem, leadership in groups and with peers and emotional resilience. We provided many exit routes into sport and as a result of this many of the young participants now take part in regular physical activity, volunteering in sport and playing for competitive teams. Feedback from the participants has been astonishing, especially in relation to their mental health and their increase in confidence and they have all been so thankful. I really hope this project can run again in the future!

In October I created a Netball Now group called ‘Chance4Netball’ in Keswick and extended to Cockermouth, with over 60+ women participating, it really worked towards the values and visions that the ‘Cumbrian Girls Can’ project is working towards. This month I am undertaking a Walking Netball course, to be able to provide further opportunities to women and girls in the Allerdale area.

Throughout the academic year I have gained my level 2 multi skills and attended a Bee Netball Workshop with England Netball, which I cannot wait to introduce into schools in the next year, but also to finally be able to have the chance to develop netball clubs for aged 5-11.

With the great success of all our sports teams in recent competitions and tournaments, sport and physical activity is hopefully on the up. We are here to provide opportunities to West Cumbrians to increase physical activity levels, such as our amazing sports camps we have running throughout the summer at Chance Camp!

Is Age a Barrier to Sport?

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:30:48 GMT

In my opinion some people can experience barriers in sport, whether that be not having the free time to fit exercise in to their daily schedules or not having the money available to join clubs, sessions or being able to pay for equipment. However age for me is not a barrier. In my favourite sport: tennis, my coaching sessions can range from 4 to 60+ years old.

The mini tennis programme is a great pathway that allows children to grow and develop their skills from an early age. For mini tennis tots (4/5 year’s old) children can develop their fundamental movement skills such as balance, agility, coordination and racket skills through fun games and activities. In mini red tennis (8yrs and under) children learn to serve and rally by playing fun games and short tie breaks matches. In mini orange, mini green and full ball (8-11yrs+) children learn to develop technique, match tactics and begin to compete. The court gradually increase in size as well, allowing children to learn and play the game until they’re ready to play on a full size court.

Once the skills are learnt, a person can play tennis for life as it’s a low impact/ non-contact sport. A great example of how this can happen is at a tennis club I coach at: Dalston. Children of all ages have the opportunity to learn their skills following the mini tennis pathway. As they reach full ball, there are opportunities to compete for teams in league matches or in club competitions each year. There are also different adult groups for beginners, improvers, club nights as well as an over 60’s group, a great example to show that age isn’t a barrier to playing sport.

Is Age a Barrier to Sport?

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:30:47 GMT

There are many barriers to playing sport for example those living in rural areas, however I do not agree that age specifically is a barrier. Age will only effect participation levels depending on the playing level of the sport and perhaps the length of time one will participate for. Age is just another challenge that we all have to face, and I live by, that we as humans can accomplish anything if we give it a go.

Chance Camp provides many different opportunities for a wide range of ages, as we truly believe that sport and physical activity is for everyone. Our Active Families programme, ran in association with Fairfield Primary School starts at the age of 2, this allows families to take part in fun physical activity together. These sessions include fun multi sports, yoga and cricket. These programmes have been extremely successful and families love taking part with their children, which puts children onto the pathway into sport and physical activity from a very young age. All activities are modified to suit all ages and abilities and our specialist coaches welcome everyone to these sessions.

In October Chance4Netball was set up to reintroduce women back into netball post school/college. The ages within the sessions range from 14-60, with many women never playing netball before. The session is a supervised but non-coached session that allows you to take part in a fun and relaxed atmosphere with no pressure of competition. Walking Netball is a new, inclusive and fantastic initiative that allows the older generation to participate in netball. Walking Netball is perfect for those who want to slowly reintroduce netball back into their lives, who want to learn the game, or for those who struggle to run around for long periods of time. It is profoundly effective in the increase of participation in women and shows there is no barrier to age for participation. This is something that Chance Camp will be offering very soon, watch this space!

I currently run light physical activity sessions on a Monday afternoon for Age UK, the first group is a standing, partly seated group, where the participants take part in a gentle stretch, warm up and some fun exercises including light weights and resistance bands. The sessions also include balance training, grip training and joint strengthening. The second group is more seated group that do exactly the same as the first group however at a different pace. The ages within the sessions range from 50-90, which shows that age really is not a barrier. Each activity is modified to meet then needs of the participant, whether that be a lower weight, different exercise or smaller reps.

There really is something for everyone at every age within sport and physical activity, for more information on how we can help you to get more active visit www.chancecamp.co.uk .

Is Age a Barrier to Sport?

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:30:42 GMT

Here at Chance Camp we try to engage every age and ability in sport and physical exercise, there are no barriers in sport and activities can be adapted to people of all ages. Sport should be fun for all and give opportunities for everyone to develop, improve and succeed in whatever you put your mind to.

Chance Camp is working hard to provide many activities across West Cumbria with Chance for Netball, Early Years Healthy Movers and Active families to name a few.

Chance for Netball has risen fast and has given a lot of opportunities for people to engage back into netball without having to worry about playing for a team or joining a club and is mainly focussed on Fun and enjoyment for all!

We also provide yoga through little lotus to try and engage more families working together to enjoy all aspects of yoga and the understanding of how important it is to work together to develop and improve our well-being.

There are also many sports in the area which can be adapted and developed into walking sports which include rugby, football and netball. Its main focus is to try and keep as many people active no matter what age, It may not be the same speed or physicality however each sport is still very challenging and very fun!

Is Age a Barrier to Sport?

Fri, 14 Jun 2019 13:30:40 GMT

My philosophy on life is that nothing is impossible if you truly want to achieve it, whether that be running a marathon, buying your first home or overcoming personal challenges, the same principles can be applied to sport. For this topic I’m going to use the word sport to describe both competitive sport and non- competitive physical activity, my post aims to show the opportunities that we at Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp are creating for people of all ages along with providing information on other sporting activities available in the area.

Sport for the early years : We are lucky that here in allerdale we have access to a wide range of sporting opportunities for children in their early stages of development. The local leisure centre offers activities such as Rugby Tots, there are also soft play centres, Funtastic and Monkey Madhouse that provide young children with the space to play and learn. These activities do incur costs which may well prove to be a barrier for some parents/guardians however the town also offers a multiple parks and playgrounds that can be explored. Within schools Wright Sport Services/Chance Camp are currently working with Nursery children aged 3 and 4 years old delivering a multi-skills programme, this programme began in September 2018 and has seen great results. We also provide Healthy Movers programmes aimed at developing basic fundamental motor skills within children aged 4-6 and provides children with the opportunity to learn about the physical makeup of the body and how it moves. .

For children aged over 5 years old the area offers a wide range of activities, the local leisure centres hosts martial arts, swimming, climbing, dance, gymnastics, squash and so much more for young people to get involved in. St Joseph’s School (Workington) offers a range of after school clubs to primary school aged children with Coach David Wise leading the programmes. In Allerdale there are a number of CrossFit Boxes offering classes for children and teenagers, along with a number of football and rugby clubs who are always looking to recruit new players providing children with high quality coaching and the opportunity to play sport competitively. In schools we not only deliver high quality PE and after school sports clubs we also run a sports leaders programme where children who may not invest in the competitive nature of sport can have the opportunity to coach and lead sporting activities and help assist the running of school sports events.

For those who have left school we provide a back to netball scheme, where you can join groups in Allerdale and Keswick to play netball on an evening, a great way to keep healthy whilst meeting new people and socialising. In Allerdale and Copeland there are a wide number of gyms offering memberships and classes including a growing number of CrossFit boxes, these are based in Workington, Whitehaven and Egremont. For those who are still wanting to participate in sport but feel like their youthful years are behind them St Joseph’s School also offer walking football. There is no questioning that for those who have left school and are leading busy lives juggling work and family life may find it more difficult to find the time to take part in sport, however many sporting activities can be done as a family and at a low cost. In Allerdale we have coastal walks and beaches, a number of parks offering playgrounds and football pitches for the whole family to enjoy.

Below are the links to some of the activities mentioned above for anyone who would like more information.

Chance Camp:
https://www.chancecamp.co.uk/

Rugby Tots: https://www.toddleabout.co.uk/directory/group/cumbria/workington/rugbytots-workington/

Workington Leisure Centre:
https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/allerdale/workington-leisure-centre

Cockermouth Leisure Centre:
https://www.better.org.uk/leisure-centre/allerdale/cockermouth-leisure-centre

Workington Reds Juniors:
http://www.workingtonafc.com/j/default.html

CrossFit Stormbreaker (Workington):
http://crossfitstormbreaker.co.uk/

What are the benefits of a new multipurpose venue being developed in Cockermouth?

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 10:39:26 GMT

A multipurpose venue would be a fantastic facility to have. More and more areas in Cumbria have them including Carlisle, Wigton and more recently Silloth. There is obviously major health benefits as having the area gives people the opportunity to take part in physical activity. Socially, it can be used as a meeting place for friends or help people make friends by joining clubs or activities that use the facility.

One of the main benefits of having the venue is that it allows a variety of different sports to be played on it. This is because different courts/ pitch markings are on the floor with nets and goals placed on the sides. Because there’s only one area to look after it means there would be less maintenance rather than if there were multiple facilities.

It also gives the town the opportunity to take part in sport all year round due to the surface being suitable for all weathers. A great example of who this can benefit is our Chance Camp programme. The current facilities are great with football and rugby pitches as well as tennis courts, however during the winter months if it’s raining the courts could be inaccessible for being too slippy or we have to rotate on the pitches to stop them from becoming boggy. This venue would allow us to run our Chance Camp programs all year round without having to face these issues.

What are the benefits of a new multipurpose venue being developed in Cockermouth?

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 10:39:23 GMT

I personally think that a new multipurpose venue being developed in Cockermouth is a fantastic, sustainable way to increasing the local communities physical and mental wellbeing. It will provide many opportunities to take part in different types of physical activity, including the use of a safe and secure all weather MUGA, which can be used for many different activities for any age and ability, including a safe area for our Chance Camp Programme in the winter months. It will provide a local gym, including the ever increasing popular CrossFit style gym, which targets a wide range of participants and helps to bring together the local community.

The multi-purpose venue will provide a sustainable base for employment and volunteer opportunities, including targeting the wider area of Cumbria and not just Cockermouth. An increase in employment, friendships being formed and physical activity opportunities, will in theory, lead to a decrease in crime and making the local community a better place overall. The venue will help to decrease sedentary lifestyles and obesity levels by promoting a healthier, happier way of life, which in turn will help promote a better mental wellbeing of those in and around the Cockermouth area.

Many different age groups will benefit from the multi-purpose venue and in hope increase these levels further due to a more permanent base including; children who attend Chance Camp, participants who attend Chance4Netball (a recreational netball session), children and parents at our Active Families programme in partnership with Fairfield Primary School, community groups including our Emotional Resilience Programme in association with the National Lottery Funding and Cumbria Youth Alliance and provide exit routes for Age UK as well as many other community groups.

What are the benefits of a new multipurpose venue being developed in Cockermouth?

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 10:39:21 GMT

Chance camp are hoping to work together with others to create a new all-weather sports pitch up at Cockermouth Rugby Club in the near future. This will give a great boost to schools, clubs and societies in the area a chance to use the facility for sports and events all year round especially in the winter times. It will also give more opportunities to run our own clubs and sporting sessions during the week. This will give more opportunities for fitness and sports sessions for all to keep everyone active throughout the year.

What are the benefits of a new multipurpose venue being developed in Cockermouth?

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 10:39:20 GMT

The creation of a new multi-purpose venue being developed in Cockermouth provides the local community with a fresh environment to get active, socialise and increase both their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

The new venue will feature a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) providing the space for a wide range of ball sports and athletic based activities. Along with a new gym facility featuring equipment and apparatus found in the growing number of CrossFit communities across the county. The development will help to regenerate the current ageing facilities, such as the tennis courts and greatly improve the aesthetics of the area. There will be access to functions rooms that the local community can use the venue for hosting a wide range of events, such as parties, social clubs, and fundraising activities. The venue can be used by local sports clubs to help inspire the next generation of young athletes in an environment that is clean and safe to use.

The proposed plans for a new Workington stadium have not yet been given the go ahead further highlights concerns that for too long West Cumbria has been left with poor sporting facilities, that have resulted in less people being active when compared to other areas of the county, such as Penrith and Carlisle. Having a new facility that provides access to physical activity that is accessible to all ages and abilities will help to bring together a healthier and happier community!

Review of Allerdale Multi-Skills Academy 2019.

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 10:33:21 GMT

What a brilliant week we had at the multi skills academy. The event was backed by many schools which helped to provide a high standard of games and coaching for us all. Each child got the chance to showcase their skills Socially, Cognitively, Creatively and Physically over a number of different sports and were provided a booklet to rate themselves over the week in each aspect. The booklets gave the chance for children to review themselves after each session and gain an understanding of how important it is to review a performance and to give themselves the chance to realise their strengths and weaknesses to work on for the future. Each coach also gave feedback to the schools on how they scored throughout the week.

The children however, did have lots of fun with the chance of practising lots of different sports with the chance to improve their skills to eventually compete in the competitions on Friday. The children showed really good attitude, skills, sportsmanship and team work over the week and mainly in the competitions as they were joined with either older/younger children when competing in the team sports on Friday. The children had massive amounts of skill and talent and I believe we have seen some sports stars for the future so WELL DONE To everyone who attended and I wish every single child the very best for the future, Keep up the good work!

Review of Allerdale Multi- Skill Academy 2019.

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 10:33:18 GMT

Last week saw children from year 2 to year 6 take part in four days of different sporting activities at this years Multi Skill Academy hosted by Chance Camp. Once again this year my role was to assess the children's creative abilities through teaching them gymnastics and observing them in yoga. Within gymnastics the children created routines that incorporated roles, jumps, balances and transitional movements. Gymnastics tends to be a sport that highlights weaknesses in a child's confidence, this was evident in those who are used to playing sports such as football and rugby along with children who were at the later stages of primary school. However, by the end of the week each child had managed to hold a headstand position or a scaled option unsupported, a movement that often proves difficulty to master.

Another role of mine was to oversee the development and abilities of the children within the Didi Stars age category. As part of the week the children learn about nutrition and the impact it has on sport this lead to one of the didi star children going home and finding out that his cereal was high in iron, and remembered that Chris had mentioned iron when talking about minerals. The group fully invested themselves into their learning and were keen to show off their knew skills to me each day, they were all very welcoming of each other and showed a great level of maturity for children of such a young age. This level of maturity was highlighted when they had to self-assess their performances and the children weren’t afraid to acknowledge their weaknesses and set out some goals to overcome these.

The multi skill academy is my favourite week of the year, it allows children to engage in new sporting activities whilst interacting with children from different schools. It is great to then see these children return year on year and keep these new friendships alive, especially within the older age groups as some will be moving onto secondary school this September and will now know children other than those from their school. All the children put 100% effort into the week and were a pleasure to coach, I hope to see many familiar faces return in 2020!

Review of Allerdale Multi- Skill Academy 2019.

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 10:33:14 GMT

This is my first year of being involved with the Allerdale Multi- Skill Academy and being lead coach of the mini stars, and I loved every second of it. Children selected from schools all over Allerdale gathered together to show off their sporting talent, whilst also learning many new skills and making many new friends along the way. The academy is great as it allows us to assess the children on their physical, social, cognitive and creative skills, which in turn gives schools a solid platform to work from, to see which areas and skills need to be improved on for the children to reach their sporting potential. If the children return next year, it will furthermore allow a sound understanding of whether or not the children have improved on their scores. The camp was full of energetic and enthusiastic children, that were a pleasure to coach.

I was in charge of leading the athletics and cricket sessions, working on physical development. Looking at aspects such as skill, speed and stamina, in events such as triple jump, endurance bleed test and throwing a cricket ball. It was great to see so many of the children putting 100% into each event. During cricket we did lots of bowling practise, which is a tricky skill to master, and many of the children excelled for their age group doing so. The children had different targets to aim for, such as bowl the ball into in to a large square, making their way up the different targets until they could bowl at the stumps. So much concentration and skill was shown, which then lead into a pair cricket competition.

I can't wait to see the difference the children are going to make, with the help of IPEP and the assessments that have been completed by us coaches, but also with the help of the schools and the children themselves. The Allerdale Multi-Skills Academy was a brilliant week, if you'd like to take a look at what else the children got up too; including tennis, rugby, gymnastics and yoga, then please go to www.chancecamp.co.uk/gallery .

r childre

Review of Allerdale Multi- Skill Academy 2019.

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 10:33:12 GMT

For me, my favourite week of the year is running the Allerdale Multi Skill Academy. The reason being, is because it gives us coaches the opportunity to work with 50-60 talented children that are eager to learn, develop their skills and compete to the best of their abilities. During the week my role was to run the tennis sessions. We did lots of work to develop forehand and backhand technique, developing the children’s ability to rally and to play points and matches. My sessions also tasked the children to think about what strategies they’d use to beat their opponent, and what their strengths and weaknesses were when performing. This meant we had lots of insightful individual and group discussions. This is the third year now that I’ve been at the Multi Skill Academy and it’s great to see the children that return to us that have used the feedback from previous years, worked on the areas that they needed to improve on and come back more developed.

During the first week of the Easter holidays I was also running a multi sport camp at Silloth Primary School. It was great to see 20 children coming to develop their throwing, catching, kicking, dribbling and striking skills. Thanks to everyone for supporting and the school for being fantastic hosts. We’ll be running another camp during the summer holidays.

he c

How physical activity can help to enhance your child's academic performance?

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:03:50 GMT

Depending on where you look you will find conflicting information in regards to the effects that regular physical activity has on academic performance throughout the school day, below are some of the findings of different research studies that have been published in the last 9 years.

Research by The Institute of Medicine (2013) found that exercise helps to increase basic cognitive functions by connecting neurons in the brain leading to an increased level of memory, attention and concentration in the classroom. The research also found that this increase in brain function following PE and physical activity resulted in an increase in the overall thinking ability of children and improved problem solving abilities, particularly in reading and mathematics.

A study by The Department of Health (2010) looked at multiple research papers spanning 23 years to try and better understand the association between regular physical activity throughout the school day and academic performance. This research showed that 52% of studies analysed showed a positive correlation between increased physical activity and increased academic performance, whilst the other 48% showed no correlation, meaning that physical activity did not improve or hinder academic performance.

And research by The Journal of Preventive Medicine (2011) found that children who were more active had a greater level of academic achievement then their less active peers. However, following a physical activity intervention where the less active children were encouraged to take part in more physical activity throughout the school day resulted in no changes to their academic performance.

As you can see from these findings it is difficult for me to say for sure if physical activity levels do have a direct impact on academic performance. With the ever growing trends in technology and screen time it will be interesting to see what evidence a long term study can provide into the effects of physical activity throughout a child's school years and of course this would have to be done on a large scale in order to provide an accurate result for children across varying social backgrounds.

ndow.

How physical activity can help to enhance your child's academic performance?

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:03:43 GMT

We all know the numerous benefits regular exercise has on our physical health, but it can also help improve our mental well being as well.

One reason why I keep regularly active is because taking part in physical activity can help clear my mind and forget any troubles that might be bothering me. The same can happen with children. Rather than worrying about their studies, I believe it’s important that children have that break to change their focus, to relieve any stress.

A study from the university of Illinois found that children that are physically fit are more likely to perform better in school and achieve higher grades. They believe this is due having a higher flow of oxygen to the brain which increases the ability to focus, concentrate, learn and handle stress.

An initiative that I’ve seen schools use to get children active is the daily mile challenge. This is where children have 15 minutes to run/ walk a mile every day before returning to the classroom ready to learn. The initiative is really popular with just under 4000 schools and nurseries involved in England. Teachers that I’ve spoken to have praised the scheme, with many agreeing that behaviour and focus in the classroom improving as a result to taking part in regular exercise.

How physical activity can help to enhance your child’s academic performance?

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:03:37 GMT

Physical activity is a massive help towards academic performance in school as there are many skills children don’t learn inside the classroom at primary age. We coach children around key areas of sport to be able to improve our kids creative, personal, social, cognitive and physical attributes. Each is really important in sport and helps to give children an understanding of being able to control and use these attributes to their advantage in the future.

These can also be done in the classroom in single or group tasks or even in a homework task. However, giving the children the chance to do it in a different environment can help to improve their understanding further.

Physical activity can help children in many ways during their learning experiences in school and giving kids the chance to partake can improve these main factors:

More focused attention
Better memory retention
Better cardiovascular function
Improved fitness
Better metabolic function
Improved bone health
Better problem-solving skills
Better performance on standardized academic tests
Immediate and long-term improvement in academic performance
Better reaction time and creative thinking
Increased positive moods

To seek more information please click on the link below

https://www.curejoy.com/content/does-physical-activity-affect-kids-academic-performance/

With all of the benefits above I believe sport should be encouraged throughout a child’s life in order to be successful in anything they would like to achieve. During our chance camp sessions, we use all of these focuses to improve every child that attends our camp, whether it be socially by making new friends, physically by being able to coach a different/new skill or even being creative by coming up with strategies or building new games during sessions. This is the perfect chance to give your child every chance in becoming successful for the future:

To book your child onto one of our camps please visit the link below and select the book now icon

https://www.chancecamp.co.uk/

How physical activity can help to enhance your child's academic performance?

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:03:32 GMT

During physical activity the human body starts to take in more oxygen and this is passed throughout the body via the blood to our vital organs and muscles, especially the brain. Having increased levels of oxygen to the brain, allows the brain to be stimulated and allows functioning and more focused attention, therefore having a positive effect on children's information processing and in-turn their learning. As suggested by the Journal of Applied Physiology (2011), that in recent research it shows that childhood physical activity, and subsequently reduced aerobic fitness, is associated with poorer academic achievement. It is suggested this is because aerobic fitness is actually associated with memory retention, increases concentration and increases cognitive development through more productive information processing.

Physical activity is a natural stress reliever, which helps to decrease anxiety and depression. It improves social wellbeing, therefore better friendships in the classroom which in turn can create a sense of wellbeing and comfort. Physical activity increases self esteem and can help to boost confidence, again helping in the classroom when answering or asking questions and increasing focus. Physical activity tends to make us feel tired as we have worked hard, this has a profound effect on our sleeping pattern and therefore increasing children's attention and concentration, which extremely benefits academic performance.

Before exercise we may feel extremely stressed, tense or worried; however it is proven that during exercise there is an increase in serotonin production, due to an increase in plasma tryptophan levels which boosts our 'feel good' emotions. Our serotonin levels can extremely effect our mood, if a child has low serotonin levels it can show in their behaviour, mood and attentiveness. This shows that children should take part in at least 60 minutes of exercise/physical activity every day, to have a positive effect on their academic performance, as well as increasing their self confidence and self worth.

Can technology and physical activity work together?

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 15:11:13 GMT

Definitely, I believe technology plays a massive part in progression and improvement in sport. There is a recent surge in dancing and moving in specific way due to gaming and goal celebrations of sports stars which can forward on to sport in schools. These can be used in dance and other sports to express themselves in scoring points or goals during games, to helping with coordination and balance doing basic skills.

However, bringing technology into lessons and activities is the next step of our coaching, we use technology to gain access to all of our lesson plans, sessions objectives and more. Each session will have a video demonstration in specific schools, this helps to coordinate between the coaches and schools’ teachers to help practice specific skills and activities in sessions without a coach being present. This idea can also be used to show progressions and learning to improve the child’s skills by video analysis. If possible, the coach can use any school’s provisions to video a skill and use this video to show the children what is needed to improve and get better in sport, this can then be used by teachers to provide feedback of improvement or progression if needed. These are just some ways in which technology can be used in physical activity, can you name anymore? If so, please leave a comment below.

Can technology and physical activity work together?

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 11:40:46 GMT

In recent years with the advances in computer technology, participation in physical activity has gradually declined. I believe this is due to the fact that technology can give easy entertainment whilst using minimal effort for all ages. Whether it be toddlers on the iPad, children watching YouTube videos, or teenagers on games consoles or on social media; and with television as well, the options available has unfortunately led to physical activity declining. The guardian completed a survey in 2015 and found that children aged 5-16 spend on average six and a half hours per day in front of a screen. Teenage boys spend the longest time, averaging 8 hours. Compare this to 20 years ago where children spent around 3 hours per day.

Although children are spending more time in front of screens, technology can help to promote physical activity. Media campaigns such as #thisgirlcan can motivate people to choose to take part in physical activity. One year after the campaign began, Sport England released the figures that 2.8 million 14-40 year old women did some or more activity due to the campaign.

Technology games that get people active are a major positive. I’ve seen videos of children in a P.E lesson throwing balls, trying to hit animated bugs moving around that are projected onto a wall. Another example is the Pokemon Go game where you have to move to different locations. Activities like these are great as they incorporate technology to get people active in a fun way, so that children want to continue to take part and keep active.

A final point is how I use technology within sport. When teaching, I feel it’s important to be creative and change my sessions or activities every so often, to prevent them from becoming tedious. I use the internet for new ideas and different games in order to stop children from becoming bored from doing the same things all the time. I feel this helps keep children motivated to continue to play the sport and keep active.

Can technology and physical activity work together?

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 11:40:42 GMT

The increasing popularity and increasing accessibility to technology is a huge contributor to the child obesity crisis that we find ourselves in today. Many schools that I teach in I always hear children talking about games such as 'fortnite', and many children prefer to stay in and play games, go on YouTube or snap chat instead out getting outside to throw a ball or physically play outside with friends. The problem is that children are creating a habit through screen based games and programmes and this is where children seem to get their sense of fun and entertainment from.

However there are ways that technology and physical activity can work together. For example on smart phones there are many apps that promote physical activity, many apps that show the correct way of eating and apps that promote a healthy balanced lifestyle. Children like to watch and look at animated screens, so these apps can work really well in the promotion of physical activity. 'Yoga for Kids' is a brilliant app that shows many yoga poses and meditation suitable for children and progressions they can make, it is bright, colourful and entertaining and children can see an animated picture of a child doing the pose. From experience of assisting to run a Yoga and Art Camp for children, this app profoundly helped and also gave the children a sense of competition and personal achievement once they were able to get into that pose. 'Eat and Move' is a brilliant app to teach children about different food groups and what types of activity they can do to help burn off the calories and what they can do to make small changes to make a big difference to their diet and physical activity; it's a great way to help children make healthy decisions.

YouTube can be used as a form of escape and many children are enriched in watching children's programmes on there, however YouTube can also be a very beneficial way of finding videos promoting healthy physical activity routines for children and adults. There are many videos such as aerobic exercise classes, yoga routines, gym workouts and help and guidance in relation to recovery from injury. For kids, there are many videos of animated characters and children of similar ages, showing dances that the children are able to copy, such as 'Just Dance Kids, Trolls'. These are brilliant in schools for wet play times, as children still have the opportunity to get moving and being active. They are extremely engaging, colourful and fun and can have a great impact on participation. YouTube can however be dangerous and parents need to ensure maximum safety when children are left to roam the site for physical activity videos.

In my opinion technology and physical activity can work together, but more needs to be done to ensure a healthy balanced relationship between the two. More effort needs to be proactively put on getting children outside and enjoying their childhood, playing in team and individual sports and socialising in person rather than on the screen.

Can technology and physical activity work together?

Mon, 11 Mar 2019 11:40:39 GMT

In today’s society technology plays an integral part in physical activity and sport with professional sportsmen/women using technology to analyse their performance on a daily basis. Heart rate monitors, distance trackers, motion trackers, force plates, elevation training masks are a few of the most common forms of technology used to see how well an athlete is performing.

Away from the lives of professional athletes and into the average person's day to day life, you are now surrounded by the latest innovations in wearable sports technology. Go into any office block, school, hospital, supermarket etc and you will notice a large number of people wearing smart watches, apple watches, fitbits, garmins etc. Watches designed to track steps, exercise levels, calories, heart rates and even sleep quality. And it isn’t just in adults, I teach a number of children who are now sporting the latest physical activity trackers designed for kids. Personally I think that this wearable technology is a great thing, many people are now realising how little activity they do during the day and are being influenced to get up from the sofa/behind the desk and go for a walk, take the stairs, commute from A to B on foot rather than take the car. Children are challenging one and other to see who can get the most steps in by the end of the school day which is increasing their activity levels at break/play times and during PE lessons and after school clubs. With one small group of Key Stage one Children I teach, we use the watch to see what our heart rates are after short bursts of high intensity activity, this has allowed me to teach the children of the role the heart plays during exercise and from there we have explored all the different ways in which our bodies respond to physical activity.

Another way in which I have been using technology within my teaching is through using YouTube videos, such as those posted by Pinkfong ™ and Go Noodle ™ . These videos feature dance routines, wake up and shake up activities and simulators where the children are stood in front of a large screen and have to run on the spot through a woodland, jump over obstacles, using dodging and ducking movements to complete each level. These videos last between 3-5 minutes and are a great way to start/finish a PE lesson as it provides the children with a short burst of high intensity activity that is fun and doesn't feel like hard work.

How can you enhance a child's motivation to engage in physical activity?

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 18:10:42 GMT

How can you enhance a child's motivation to engage in physical activity?

Physical activity can help children in many ways during their learning experiences in school and giving kids the chance to partake can improve these main factors:

More focused attention
Better memory retention
Better cardiovascular function
Improved fitness
Better metabolic function
Improved bone health
Better problem-solving skills
Better performance on standardized academic tests
Immediate and long-term improvement in academic performance
Better reaction time and creative thinking
Increased positive moods

With all of the benefits above I believe sport should be encouraged throughout a child’s life in order to be successful in anything they would like to achieve. During our chance camp sessions, we use all of these focuses to improve every child that attends our camp, whether it be socially by making new friends, physically by being able to coach a different/new skill or even being creative by coming up with strategies or building new games during sessions. This is the perfect chance to give your children every chance in becoming successful for the future.

To book your child onto one of our camps please visit the link below and select the book now icon

https://www.chancecamp.co.uk/

How can you enhance a child's motivation to engage in physical activity?

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 18:10:39 GMT

I believe the challenge to motivate children to participate in physical activity is becoming more difficult. With the advances in computer technology, children are able to keep themselves occupied, entertained, experience challenges and have success whilst using minimal effort to play/watch computer games.

In order to get children engaged with physical activity and to want to participate, I always try to make my P.E or out of school lessons filled with fun activities, with children learning and developing through playing and competing. If you’re having fun and enjoying yourself, you’re more inclined to want to carry on in my opinion.

I also believe it’s important to have a variety of different activities in order to prevent children from getting bored playing the same games.

I also believe it’s important that all children are challenged so that they have something to work towards to experience success. In order to do that I always try to have different variations to activities, to make it slightly easier for less-able children and more challenging for children that are excelling. I’ll also try to have children of a similar standard to be competing against each other during activities to maintain a fair challenge for all of the children.

I also try to highlight the successes that children make, with lots of positive reinforcement and praise throughout the lesson.

How can you enhance a child's motivation to engage in physical activity?

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 18:10:36 GMT

Making sure children are active is vital these days due to an increase use of technology and the rise of obesity. Many children prefer to stay inside and play on games, as this is a form of release for them and keeps them occupied, rather than getting outside and doing some form of physical activity or heading to a local sports club. Motivation is needed on a much larger scale to keep children physically active.

I think it's important that children can set and reach realistic goals in sport and physical activity. In my sports clubs I make sure the children understand the aim of the sessions/activity beforehand, then allow time to practise skills before heading into the game or competition. This way, the skills being practised allow a stronger form of motivation during the game, because they feel they have reached a target of learning a new skill or developing upon a skill they may already know. As humans, we have a need for progress/accomplishment, especially as children to keep up their highest levels of motivation. Therefore setting challenging, yet achievable and realistic goals, and keeping tasks simple then children feel they are accomplishing something and will have positive benefits on their motivation and attitude towards physical activity.

I think it's important to create a positive environment in a physical activity session, as a way of motivating children to participate. I ensure in my sessions that children work highly on their teamwork and team building skills, and in most after school sport sessions we play team games. This ensures strong social bonds to be made, and also allows children to work together to over-come challenges, such as scoring points to pull back against a winning team. If positive friendships are made, a positive sporting environment is apparent and children feel supported throughout a sports session, then motivation to participate in sport and physical activity will be increased.

I also think educating children on the benefits of physical activity also has a profound effect on whether or not they have the motivation to participate in physical activity. If they understand they positive benefits such the physical, social and mental benefits, then they are much more likely to want to take part. These benefits can be taught to children through families, assemblies and schools, through the media, roles models and through sports clubs.

How can Chance Camp improve whole child development and future opportunities e.g. employability?

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 11:26:31 GMT

A brief analysis of what to expect at Chance Camp:
At Chance Camp children are given the opportunity to meet new friends whilst playing sports and being physically active. We promote friendly competition, teamwork and leadership across all our camps, encouraging children to take risks and step outside of their comfort zones by trying something new. Not all the children know each other when they first arrive and are introduced to new people on a daily basis, this requires the children to develop their confidence and communication skills when working alongside each other. We follow a code of ethics that the children agree to adhere to throughout their camp experience as well as teach them rules and roles of conduct within a wide range of sports, the number one rule, keep a positive attitude and have fun!

So how does this help with future opportunities in employment?
Employers tend to be looking for two key attributes when hiring new employees, experience and character. Chance Camp can’t provide young people with the experience needed to become an engineer, a teacher, a doctor or a member of the armed forces. But if you re-read the statement above you’ll be able to highlight a lot of key skills that we can provide, “friendly competition, teamwork, leadership, take risks, confidence, communication skills, ethics, positive attitude, fun”. These are known as soft skills and can often get overlooked by individuals in day to day life. These soft skills however are the types of skills that future employers will look for. Being able to possess these skills creates a positive character, and regardless of experience; a good employer can train you up, a positive character breeds success.

How can Chance Camp improve whole child development and future opportunities e.g. employability?

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 11:26:28 GMT

I’ve now coached at Chance Camp for over 6 years. During my time, the biggest positive that I see, is how many children have developed whilst they’ve been with us.

Whether it is children that have continuously came or children that have came for one week, I believe most children leave Chance Camp with more self confidence. This is because our camps allow children to achieve, whether that be learning a new skill, completing a challenge, winning a game or a competition.

Even though children achieve, they still experience challenges whilst they’re with us. Whether that be challenging themselves to develop a skill or competing against someone or a team in a competition. I believe this is important to experience as everyone faces challenges as an adult, for example competing with someone to get a job. It’s important children learn not to give up and continue to work hard in order to achieve.

Chance Camp also helps build children’s social skills. Most children don’t know each other when they first arrive but have lots of new friends by the end of the week. This is because the children end up spending a lot of time with each other, getting to know different people and communicating with one another.

This can help children develop their teamwork. At Chance Camp we look for children to work as a team to come up with strategies to overcome different challenges. To do this, a team needs lots of different ideas, but the group also need to be to listen to each other in order to decide which is the best plan. As an adult, I believe is a very important skill to have in any workplace.

How can Chance Camp improve whole child development and future opportunities e.g. employability?

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 11:26:24 GMT

In my opinion there are many different aspects to Chance Camp that has a profound effect on whole child development, we quite often refer to the 5 key developmental areas that children will build upon at our school holiday programmes. Chance Camp is our school holiday programme that supports young people's physical development in a fun, competitive and positive environment. With trained coaches and a safe and sporty environment, children excel in developing personally and getting onto the sporting pathway.

Children develop physically at Chance Camp due to being taught new skills and able to participate in fun competition in many different sports, for example; football, rugby, tennis, cricket, netball etc. Even if children are only present at one day of Chance Camp, they will leave with new sound knowledge of skills and different sports. This will allow them to develop their skills at home and also opens endless opportunities for exit routes.

Children will develop infinite social skills at Chance Camp due to working with other children from all over the county, to work on skills and then compete against each other or working together to complete a task. Children spend the full day interacting with other children of all different ages. This allows strong bonds to be create and confidence to be constructed.

There are many personal skills to be developed at Chance Camp, such as learning a new skill or sport, or simply coming out of a child's comfort zone and socialising with new friends. Children can set targets for themselves and try and beat personal bests, or simply just achieve learning a new movement or skill. Children develop in many different personal ways, increasing confidence and sets them on the pathway to adulthood.

Children will develop cognitive skills, such as building up emotional resilience during competition, learn how to channel emotions and use their brains to overcome challenges and develop new skills and knowledge. Sport helps shape the cognitive functioning and is very important in adolescence.

Chance Camp also helps whole child development through building on creative skills. It is important that children are allowed to be creative and express themselves in many different ways. Chance Camp allows this, as there are many different sports including Yoga and Art that allows children to be creative using their bodies and minds.

These key developmental areas are vital for building on future opportunities for things such as employment, because they help build on teamwork, confidence, self esteem, emotional resilience to deal with life situations, allows brain development as well and physical development, and also helps a child to focus. These positive attributes are something an employer will look for in future prospects.

Chance Camp

How has being involved in sport helped to shape the adult you have become today?

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 11:42:44 GMT

I don’t know where my enthusiasm for sport and fitness comes from. Thinking back to my childhood I can recall memories from the age of about 3, living in Bradford I remember watching my older brother play rugby, us watching wrestling together, seeing the Mighty Bulls win another match or trophy, riding our bikes up and down the street and running around the garden until it was time to go to bed.

I then moved to a little village in the Eden Valley, where I had masses of land to go explore, we’d ride our bikes along country lanes, climb trees and throw ourselves from the highest branches into the river below. We’d stay out in the evenings, playing football, blocky and hide n seek, then as the church bell rang eight we’d all race home as not to miss curfew.

I don’t remember a school sports team I wasn’t on, both in primary and secondary school, sport was just my thing, I didn’t have to train or study the rules, I would just turn up, play and more often then not, win. I was just a naturally sporty kid and that was how people identified me, so I just went with it. But I was selfish with sport, I did it to win, if I didn’t go home with a medal I wasn’t happy, and if I went home with anything less than gold, that was worse.

I went on to study sports at college and then physical education at university, working for the Leeds Sports Academy, the This Girl Can Campaign and The Leeds Rhinos. Sport at some point just became me. It was working in sport that changed my perspective from competition and winning to teamwork and participation. I wasn’t only working as part of a team myself and striving to do well for them, I was also teaching a diverse range of children the positives of sports and exercise, putting into practice the sports psychology I had learnt in university and seeing them celebrate being able to catch a ball like they had just won a World Cup.

I’ve now moved away from team sports or from anything that involves competing purely for the win. I do CrossFit now and train around 5/6 times a week, entering my first pairs competition in September last year and finishing second in our group, the whole day I felt sick and couldn’t eat, but I kept putting in 100% effort, not for me, but for my teammate. Knowing that the day wasn’t about me, but he deserved to be recognised for his hard work and determination to succeed. For me working in sport and seeing its impact has had more of an effect on my mindset then taking part in sport ever has and I think this shows in my coaching and teaching today. I still want to be the best I can be, and I get mad at myself when I don’t hit a PB in the gym or I don’t now perform as well I should in a workout, but I no longer feel jealous of others doing better around me.

How has being involved in sport helped to shape the adult you have become today?

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 11:42:37 GMT

During my childhood I was always a sporty person who loved every sporting challenge I was able to participate in, It helped me to reduce my moods and help to concentrate towards a goal and hoping for the sense of achievement afterwards. Whether I won or lost I always tried my hardest to be better and achieve success throughout. This helped me to reduce my weight as a child and maintain a healthy weight as I went through my teenage years, I was always training up to three times a week outside of school as I wanted to strive to be the best rugby player I could be.

I believe that being part of a rugby team gave me a boost in self confidence as I struggled with this during childhood. It helped me make friends, I used it as stress relief and made me feel great to be part of a team in such an environment. Finally it gave me the challenge I needed to be able to solve problems in life, understand that things don't always go your way, you need to be able find other ways to reach your goal and when something/someone knocks you down you need to get back up on your feet and keep going. This has now lead me to coaching as I feel a great sense of achievement when I see kids learning and thriving in sport and striving to reach their goal.

How has being involved in sport helped to shape the adult you have become today?

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 10:31:13 GMT

Sport has had a huge impact on shaping the person I have become today. Growing up I was quite a confident child and always willing to get involved with anything thrown my way, however the only thing that really interested me and I excelled at, was sport and PE. At school I was captain of many teams including netball, hockey and rounder's which gave me the opportunity to learn the traits of a leader. During my time at secondary school, I was selected for West Cumbria Netball and to play for the County. I always lacked in self-confidence and self-esteem at school, but netball was the one thing that helped me release those feelings, made me feel better about myself and built up a large base of self confidence. There were games lost, won and lots of training involved, all these aspects as well as leading a busy school and part time work life helped me build up a stronger emotional resilience, which has helped me throughout my adulating life.

However, when I moved to University I trailed out for the netball team. Lacking in confidence moving from a small town to a big university, and feeling slightly intimidated by the already evolved friendships, I was placed on Edge Hill Universities 5th team. This was an honour, however going from playing at a high level within the county, to playing for the bottom team really did knock my confidence and my netball ability was also lost. The best thing I ever did was stick at it, I knew I would bounce back at some point, I just needed to train hard and play better. Luckily after my first year, my confidence came back and I made my way up through the different teams. Netball at university really did help shape the person I have become today, if it wasn't for the social aspect I would of lacked in friends as I lived 1 hour away from my campus, if it wasn't for the physical aspects I probably would of gained weight and been a lot more anxious than I was, and if it wasn't for the cognitive aspects I definitely would not of bounced back and built upon my emotional resilience.

I studied Sport Development at Edge Hill University and gained many qualifications in aspects I would not of taken up myself, for example Disability Sport, Handball, Netball Now and Mental Health First Aid. These courses have allowed me to gain a job in the sport sector and have had an extremely profound effect on my life, which I am hoping to help others with in the future. Mental Health in Sport is a huge interest of mine and studying the benefits and drawbacks of sport on mental health and wellbeing, I really have the passion to apply sport in the correct way and daily amount, to help with the wellbeing of youngsters and adults in sport.

Sport really has helped me to release those demons of stress and anxiety, build up my self-confidence by keeping off the weight and developing toned muscles, helped me to create and gain friendships and has lead me into a career of sport. I am definitely a better adult for sport and I can't wait to see how sport has positive effects on the young people's lives that I coach, as they grow and develop into young adults.

How has being involved in sport helped to shape the adult you have become today?

183:739281628 (Christopher Wright) — Mon, 14 Jan 2019 10:31:10 GMT

In answering this question I am going to look at my development as a whole using the five abilities we use to create our sporting programmes. Without doubt being involved in sport from a young age has had a huge impact on my life journey, from the early years where I was a county swimmer, water polo player and rugby player, through to my experiences as a semi professional rugby player and moving into rugby union and league coaching. The love of sport led to me choosing sports as a career and over time I have made excellent networks which spread across the world.

Physical

All the training hours with swimming and rugby when I was young have led to a lifelong base fitness which I can always rely on. Unfortunately at present with family, work and commitments to Cockermouth RUFC I have very limited time to train but still have a good level of general fitness. I still have a love of gym training inspired by my time with Sale Sharks and the fantastic training programmes put in place for us.

Unfortunately rugby is a high impact game and we play this knowing the risks and a number of injuries including a broken back, dislocated neck and ripped pectoral muscles have left me not at my physical best, but this has led me in recent months to engage with Yoga which I am really enjoying.

Social

Sport has certainly had a huge impact on my ability to social interact in my personal and business life. At the core I am quite an anxious person who can live on the edge of my nerves, if I wasn't a sporting person I believe this condition would have had a huge detrimental impact on my life. Personally I enjoy being in big groups and feel confident to engage with conversation with long term fiends and people I have never met before. In business terms the self confidence developed through sport has allowed me to stand up in front of hundreds and present material and interact in live situations.

Personal

Rugby in particular has shaped the place I am currently at, I am a hard working person with leadership skills but able to work within a team situation. The biggest skill I have acquired is resilience due to the unfortunate injuries I picked up. It was a huge blow in my early years of a professional rugby career to sustain a double neck dislocation. At the time I was also in my third year of my degree and the university suggested I took a year out and repeated my final year. At this point my resilience developed and I returned as quick as possible to complete my degree with a 2:1. From that point onwards I have lived by taking every opportunity possible and always trying to find a positive from a negative situation. A great example of this was in 2011 when I was made redundant from Allerdale School Sport Partnership and this propelled me into establishing Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp Limited.

Cognitive

In personal and business situations my strengths are organisation, decision making and planning. These traits were highlighted at an early age where in many rugby situations at club and county level I was awarded captaincies of my teams. At the age of 16 I had a successful couple of years starting my coaching career with Cockermouth Junior Rugby Club. After the career ending injury my rugby coaching journey via Broughton Red Rose, Workington Town RLFC, Rugby Football League player pathway, West Cumbria U18s, Whitehaven Reserve Team and most recently Cockermouth RUFC has ensured my cognitive skills have developed to be strengths I use on a daily basis.

Creative

Rugby has given me some fantastic opportunities and social engagements which have ensured I have developed as a fairly outgoing person and confident to perform in a group situation. I am mostly confident to perform in front of others and take risks to fail in front of others. Within my current work I really enjoy the opportunity to teach gymnastics and be creative as a coach and encourage young people to show their creative sides.

In closing I am so glad sport has been at the heart of my life journey so far and I look forward to the next forty years of sporting opportunities which will continue to the shape the person I am.

How has being involved in sport helped to shape the adult you have become today?

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 10:31:08 GMT

Playing sport has played a vital role in shaping me into the adult I’ve become today. As a child I was very shy and had little confidence, not just in making friends but with my school work as well. Joining my local football, badminton and tennis clubs helped me to build up my confidence and self belief. Every time I achieved something in sport, my confidence grew and I was able to transfer that confidence to the other aspects of my life.

Training and competing with other children helped me build many friendships, and some of my closest friends were made through playing sport. If I hadn’t joined those clubs I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet those people.

Through sport I’ve learned a series of different values that are important in everyday life. The ability to be able to work as a team and to be able to trust my team mates. To be committed to my training and to have patience that eventually I would improve and succeed if I kept working hard all came from playing sport.

Playing sport from an early age has also helped keep me healthy throughout my life. As I’ve always been relatively active, I’ve been able to keep myself fit and lead a healthy lifestyle. As I was used to training on week nights and competitions/matches on a weekend it has become routine and habit to carry on exercising as an adult. This is important as exercising allows me to clear my head and keep me in a positive mood which really helps if I’ve had a stressful day.

For these reasons I’m thankful that my parents helped introduce me to sport as a child. As a coach I’ll always promote leading an active lifestyle to children because of the effect that sport has had on me

According to Active Cumbria, 44% of children are active in Cumbria. In 2019, how are you going to help increase this percentage to ensure more children are physically active?

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 10:26:26 GMT

First of all, it is sad to read the statistics Active Cumbria have published stating that less then half of children in Cumbria are currently active. I found that Active Cumbria completed a similar study in 2012. The research suggested then that children aged between 10 and 15 years old, 64% believed that they were physical active at the time.

There will be many factors that have contributed to the drop in activity. With families having busy and hectic lifestyles, for many im sure having an active lifestyle isn’t a priority. With more cars on the road there’s less of a necessity to walk. The National Travel survey seem to agree suggesting the number of primary school children walking to school is at its lowest figure ever (48%). But obviously technology is a major factor. The advances in computer gaming allow children to be entertained with minimal effort compared to taking part in physical activity.

As coaches, I believe it’s vital that when we deliver pe in schools, the activities that we deliver should always be active, as well as being fun and engaging. This is so children will get excited to take part in the activities and look forward to the following weeks lesson.

Similar to Ross, I agree that children can struggle with confidence to try a new sport, or join a new club outside of school. I believe that having positive experiences in pe lessons and having that enjoyment can lead to children wanting to take part in that activity more outside of school, either with friends at the park or at a club where they can continue to develop their skills.

According to Active Cumbria, 44% of children are active in Cumbria. In 2019, how are you going to help increase this percentage to ensure more children are physically active?

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 18:24:54 GMT

My blog today is going to fully focus on “44% of Children are Active in Cumbria” and not on the perceived issues of children being exposed to too much screen time. This is because I have had the time to look over Active Cumbria’s research but have not yet had the time to look into the BBC headline last week titled “Worry less about children's screen use, parents told” which I feel warrants a topic to itself.

I would also like to point out that statistics are not going to bare any effect on my delivery as a sports coach/ PE teacher, and there are a few reasons why.

The first reason, and I believe the most important reason, is that this is survey is only a small reflection of the activity levels of the children living in Allerdale . The study was only carried out in 30 schools across the entire county providing no information as to which areas these schools were based in. The second part of the study looked at data collected by the Active People’s Survey, of which 378 Allerdale children aged under 19 had their data collected, there are 20,100 children living in Allerdale , this translates to less than 2% of the child population for the district being analysed.

We all know that on the whole, people are less active, both as adults and children, it is just the world we live in today. More people work desk jobs than manual labour jobs, more families now own more than one car, houses are filling up with game consoles, tablets, laptops, TV’s etc., all factors leading to a greater volume of people living sedentary lifestyles. Can I change the way people live, no. I can encourage the children I teach to take up activities out of school hours, but ultimately it's the parents decisions.

I have designed my lessons/coaching sessions to keep children physically active for 85-90% of the session duration, whether that’s a 30 minute session with early years or a 60 minute session with year 6 children. I lead young sports leader’s programmes in schools where children are taught how to encourage physical activity within the school day and learn how to lead activities at playtime's and lunchtimes. This means I am not having an impact on these statistics generated but a small impact on the hundreds of children I am lucky enough to get to work with on a weekly basis.

According to Active Cumbria, 44% of children are active in Cumbria. In 2019, how are you going to help increase this percentage to ensure more children are physically active?

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 11:02:00 GMT

During my sessions I believe that our children aren’t as physically fit as they should be at their age. Screen time is seen as a major factor to the issues in childhood inactivity but having the opportunities to play sport is also a key factor in why children are so inactive. Some don’t have the confidence to be able to participate in sport outside of school as children think they have to be good at the sport to be able to play.

In each school I wish to give the children as much confidence and understanding about sports as I can and make them aware all players get better through practice and hard work. Giving children plenty of chances during PE and afterschool activities is the best thing we can do as coaches during our sessions. Being able to play smaller games in which a child has more involvement is a MUST as they gain an understanding of how important it is to be part of a team and how important their role is. During these games we can focus more on each individual and give as much praise as we can when we see learning and improvement. I often ask children what sports they do outside of school and try to give the children a boost and sense of achievement after each session from what I have seen. Giving that feel good praise is the best thing we can do as coaches in order to strive towards helping progress children into sport and success, and hopefully join a team in their spare time out of school.

According to Active Cumbria, 44% of children are active in Cumbria. In 2019, how are you going to help increase this percentage to ensure more children are physically active?

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 11:33:58 GMT

2019 is going to be Chance Camps biggest and best year to date, with new venues, sports and coaches added. Chance Camp will be expanding to Keswick Cricket Club in the Easter holidays with a Multi Sports Camp and in August with an Olympic Week, I hope that this will provide an extremely sought for opportunity for children in Keswick and surrounding area and provide sport and physical activity throughout the holidays. I will ensure my promotional techniques are widely spread to reach even the smallest of communities, to ensure every child has the opportunity to take part. These camps are extremely beneficial for physical, social, cognitive, personal and creative skills to be develop and formed, working towards whole child development.

Yoga and Art camp will also be taking place in Keswick in May for children, giving the opportunity to participate in something completely different to what is normally provided within the Keswick area. This camp will help to build self confidence and develop tools to deal with times which can be over whelming in today's society, help with physical development as well as mindfulness and helping towards an increased mental-wellbeing.

Youngsters need to understand the benefits of taking part in physical activity and the drawbacks of gaming or watching television too much, if parents are able to have a better understanding then they could in turn motivate their children and increase the percentage of children that are active. Physical activity helps to maintain a healthy weight, decreases stress, lowers anxiety, aids sleep and increases self confidence, whilst also building on social interaction skills and allowing them to form in a way to help them grow into today's world. As reimbursed by the Raise Smart Children Article, too much screen time can cause obesity and addiction, can have a profound effect on sleep, increase levels of stress and therefore have an effect on behaviour and lower mental-wellbeing. Yes there are some benefits of gaming and drawbacks of physical activity, however for me personally the positives of physical activity and negatives of gaming far out way any other argument that may be made.

Children need to be outside learning how to deal with our world and climate, they need to be socially active and take part in physical activity to help shape their brains, bodies and increase their emotional resilience.

Review of 2018. What are the highlights of a great year in coaching? What do you want to see happen in 2019?

183:739281628 (Christopher Wright) — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:55:14 GMT

2018 has been a fantastic year for Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp with new high quality staff engaged and high quality staff retained. Out fantastic schools have continued to allow us to work in partnership to engage children into physical activity and sport. In 2018 WSS have provided;
Physical Education Programmes
Sport Specific Coaching Blocks
Gifted & Talented Programmes
Key Stage 1 Healthy Movers Programme
Key Stage 1 Playtime Buddies scheme
Key Stage 2 Playtime Leaders Scheme
Inter School Level 2 Sport Competitions
Intra School Duathlons
Intra School Sport Competitions
Professional support to Teachers in Charge of Physical Education

We have partnered with Ipep to encourage schools to implement an online programme which is fantastic for the CPD of Teachers around delivery and on-going pupil assessment of physical progress. All of us have worked with 1000s of children across Allerdale this year and we enjoyed as ever ensuring children engage with physical activity and sport. We hope they all go on to continue an active lifestyle.

Chance Camp has also had a fantastic year with a huge retention rate of children attending our holiday sport camps but also attracting new children to each camp. We were delighted to spread our programme to North Allerdale. A highlight of 2018 was welcoming Firpress printers as our Multi Skill Academy sponsors. The 2018 programme was the best one yet, with record numbers, improved resources and the use of Ipep to improve the quality of pupil assessment provided. We also welcomed Bryoni, Little Lotus Yoga, to Chance Camp in 2018 who has added a new dimension to our holiday camp and school provision.

We are all looking forward to 2019 and we hope to work in partnership with Cockermouth RUFC to draw down funding to help improve the facility offer at our Cockermouth Chance Camp with the development of a floodlighted Multi Use Games Area. May I take this opportunity to wish all our customers and friends are very Happy Christmas and an active and healthy 2019.

Review of 2018. What are the highlights of a great year in coaching? What do you want to see happen in 2019?

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:55:10 GMT

This year has seen many great moments for me, with my main highlight being this summers Olympic Sports Camp at CRUFC. The week saw a great number of children come along and try out lots of different sports that they may not usually do whilst making new friends and developing teamwork. The final day of camp saw the children split into 4 teams and compete in a lot of different challenges related to Olympic based games. Each coach was given a team to lead which made the competition that little bit fiercer! All the children really enjoyed themselves throughout the week and it was great to see so many new faces leaving with big smiles and new friendships!

For 2019 I have high hopes that we can bring more successful activity camps to the local area, with dates already in place for Maryport, Cockermouth, Keswick and many more. These camps provide children of all ages with a great platform for developing their key sporting skills and improve their social skills. It also allows them time away from their phones, tablets and computer games, letting children play, learn and simply be kids!

Review of 2018. What are the highlights of a great year in coaching? What do you want to see happen in 2019?

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:55:07 GMT

For me personally, 2018 has been a super year as I've been able to work with the same schools and children, whether that be developing their tennis or multi skills as part of an SSP lesson, or delivering the years P.E curriculum to a schools year groups every week. Working with the same children is great as it allows you to see how they’ve grown and developed their skills over a long term period.

Another highlight for me was starting and delivering the Chance Camp Roadshow during the summer holidays. This was taking Chance Camp to different areas in Allerdale, giving children the opportunity to take part in a day’s sports activity, that wouldn’t usually get the chance to. Leading on from the success of the Roadshow, we have started to deliver week long camps at Silloth Primary School.

In 2019, I look for more of the same to happen. To continue to deliver P.E in the same schools as well as developing links with new ones. To continue to deliver and build on Chance Camp’s in Silloth during the school holidays. I’m also currently completing my level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instructing Exercise & Physical Activity for Children. I’ll be looking to complete this in 2019 and offer this new service to schools soon.

Review of 2018. What are the highlights of a great year in coaching? What do you want to see happen in 2019?

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:55:04 GMT

This year has been a very exciting year for me and it has many highlights. I started with Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp on a part time basis in the summer holidays and attended my first Chance Camp as a coach, I instantly loved the job, the children's mindsets, the atmosphere and the company itself. I can't put my finger on one main highlight, however as a whole I loved to see how the children would turn up to camp with high motivation and participate in a number of skills throughout the morning, leading into competition in the afternoons. Throughout the day children would build on social skills, achieve personal goals, increase on their physical abilities and learn so many new ways of thinking and building on their emotional resilience.

In September I started to train full time, by shadowing Chris Wright at primary schools and leading physical education programmes. One of my main highlights was working with such great primary schools and watching whole child development throughout the term. We delivered High 5 Netball from September through to October, it was amazing to see the difference in passing and footwork within the first few weeks. All the hard work paid off when many primary schools competed in an inter-school competition at Lakes College. All children showed full enthusiasm throughout and were very competitive, however showed great sportsmanship from the skills and knowledge they had learnt throughout their physical education lessons.

2019 is an extremely exciting year for myself, as I will be fully emerged in Chance Camp and hosting my own camps in Keswick starting with a Multi Sport Camp at Easter and Olympic Week in Summer. I hopefully will start working with many more primary schools across Allerdale and hopefully start to expand to other areas. I have recently started a recreational Netball Club called Chance4Netball in Keswick, and I hope to expand to other areas such as Cockermouth in the New Year. My passion is to simply get people active and healthy and away from a sedentary lifestyle, no matter how little or much exercise you do, everyone starts somewhere.

As a coach, what are your favourite sports/ activities to teach? What sports/ activities do you find most challenging when teaching?

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 11:11:11 GMT

For me, I personally love teaching invasion style sports where you have to invade the other teams territory in order to score points. Sports such as netball, rugby, football and tennis. As a child I always enjoyed playing them and that’s probably why I enjoy teaching them. The activities that I found most challenging teaching were gymnastics and dance as I hadn’t much experience in these areas. However after delivering these topics and gaining that experience, I’m much more confident when covering these subjects.

I think in order to deliver a high quality lesson, you have to be prepared. I make sure before each lesson that I know the lesson’s aim, plan, the key teaching points and any progressions/ regressions for activities. If you haven’t planned one of these areas then it won’t be a high quality lesson. So for activities such as gymnastics and dance I’d spend extra time researching the subjects. What key teaching points I need to know, ideas for activities to do in order to build up my knowledge. Another thing I do is to reflect on the lesson once it’s finished and think what went well and what didn’t. If there’s something that I’m not happy with, or could be done better then I’ll look to change it before the next lesson so I don’t repeat it. Throughout the year we observe each other’s lessons which is great as it gives someone else’s observation and opinion on what can be done to improve. They might notice something that I’ve missed which is great as it improves the quality of my teaching.

core strength

As a coach, what are your favourite sports/ activities to teach? What sports/ activities do you find most challenging when teaching?

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 11:08:32 GMT

At present with the current Primary School Sports funding and the focus on ensuring schools can participate in the School Games at Level 2 we deliver the following format across the academic year

Term 1A - High 5 Netball (Years 3 -6)

Term 1B - Sportshall Athletics (Years 5-6) Gymnastics (Years 3-4)

Term 2A - Quick Sticks Hockey (Years 3-4) Gymnastics (Years 5-6)]

Term 2B - Mini Tennis (Years 3-6)

Term 3A - Football and Tag Rugby (Years 3-6)

Term 3B - Cricket and Athletics Endurance award (Years 3-6)

I enjoy all of the above sports and the progress which can be made when the children engage with the activities whatever their physical abilities. I think the most important lessons at this age group are Gymnastics and Sports Hall Athletics and I enjoy the content within these lessons which ensure children are developing the fundamentals to succeed in sport, core strength, balance, running, jumping and throwing. In relation to gymnastics I enjoy watching the creativity levels all the children can produce and its very satisfying when children who didn't think they would enjoy gymnastics come to you and feedback on their enjoyment of the lesson. Team sports, with football and rugby at the forefront can be the most challenging lessons as the differentiation amongst your classes can be so large, you need to ensure the footballers within your class are challenged and making progress and the children who are new to the sport can work on the fundamentals e.g being able to dribble with the ball. When you get to the games part of the lesson you need to have great understanding of your class, to ensure the teams are picked on ability and all the children will have a positive experience from the match in hand.

As a coach, what are yourfavourite sports/ activities to teach? What sports/ activities do you find mostchallenging when teaching?

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 11:05:51 GMT

As a coach my favourite sports/activities to teach are definitely team/invasion games, games such as netball and 'split enz'. I have always been interested in team sports loving the competitive edge and personal achievement within training and games. Playing team sports since a very young age and going into the coaching industry, has allowed my experience and knowledge to be carried over into my working life. Team sports such as netball allows participants to develop cognitive skills, personal skills, physical skills, creative skills and social skills from as early as KS2, allowing full child development which follows through into later life. I love to watch teams bond and motivate each other, but also allowing personal development across the sport and also into new sports. Team sports give opportunity to play at recreational level, however also provide a sporting pathway into playing at a higher level such as district, county or national level.

'Split enz' is a fun and creative way of combining the rules of netball, football, rugby and handball giving participants the opportunity to play different sports and learning different rules from a very early age. I tend to coach this game at extra-curricular clubs, allowing participants to combine their knowledge with fun and active games, keeping them extremely active and shaping their skills in many different ways. This game shapes friendship bonds by working as a team, being creative and also helping to shape their cognitive functioning due to having to think about rules and positioning.

Gymnastics is a sport that I find most challenging to coach, this is due to lack of experience and knowledge within this field. At school I was never really interested in gymnastics, however as a coach I can now see the full potential gymnastics has on whole child development. It fully looks at balance, coordination and also builds up confidence and resilience to participate in a sport that can be quite difficult. Gymnastics allows children to be extremely creative, work on personal achievement, allows social bonds and enhances thinking and learning, when learning completely different movements and techniques that participants would not learn during invasion/team games. I will definitely be looking to increase my knowledge and experience in gymnastics and making this more widely available to children in the future.

Describe a programme you have delivered since September within our work or other?

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 10:13:01 GMT

This half term saw me deliver the first Playtime Leaders for children in year 2 at Ashfield Infant and Nursery School (Workington), a programme which is normally taught to year 5 pupils.

Over 5 sessions the children learnt all about how their bodies responded to exercise and how they could get children in their school more active at playtime's. The children worked in small groups to create their own games and taught them to one and other explaining how this game would make them fitter and healthier. What was great to see throughout the programme was the amazing development of social skills the children showed. By working as a team children learnt to share their ideas and listen to the ideas of others and were able to stand in front of the class and explain the rules of their games before taking on the role of a coach, referee, manager etc. Each session the groups had a new captain, their captain was responsible for managing their team, choosing equipment and ensuring their game met the needs of all. Some children in week one were very confident and keen to share their ideas as well as show off their sports skills and lead their team well, some children were the opposite.

By the end of week 5, the confident and "louder" children were comfortable in letting others take charge and share responsibilities, which for children of this age group shows a great level of maturity and teamwork. Children who shied away from the role of leaders in week one grew massively in confidence over the programme, all children were able to stand in front of others to lead a demonstration and explain the rules of games, they were able to talk about what made their activity meet the needs of all, and were happy to answer/ask questions.

All the children that took part were amazing and I have every faith in them that they will do a great job in keeping their fellow pupils fit and healthy during playtime's! I look forward to hearing how they get on and getting to teach this programme to year 2 children across Allerdale!

Describe a programme you have delivered since September within our work or other?

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 12:41:50 GMT

With only recently starting with Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp and still gaining valuable experience and skills, I have over shadowed Chris Wright to learn the tricks of the trade whilst pairing it with the knowledge and experience gained at my time at University.

A programme I have recently started is a non-coached, fun way of playing netball for those who have never played before, those who live in social isolation within the Keswick and surrounding area (as team sports and physical activity is extremely limited in this area), and also for those wanting to get back into netball after perhaps not playing for a period of time, or for those who just simply want to keep fit and active over the winter months.

This programme is called Chance4Netball. Netball has never really been given a chance in Keswick and surrounding areas, due to lack of recourses or lack of time from the local people. Luckily with our pledge to work alongside Active Cumbria and their Work Force Development programme, and our values and visions here at Chance Camp to get people smart, active and healthy, I was able to devise this group on a weekly basis for 1 hour a week.

Chance4Netball allows participants to take part in an active warm up and then socialise during games, with the ages ranging between 14-60 the group really is a huge mixture of age and ability with many new faces attending each week. Participants are advised of basic rules if they have never played before and allowed time to practise specific skills like passing before playing. Teams are picked equally so all ages and abilities are mixed, this helps confidence of those who need it most and the room is filled with laughter from start to finish.

So how I am making this programme sustainable?

With players becoming more competitive and showing enthusiasm to playing in a league, I am currently looking at team leaders who are emerging from the group. These team leaders will be asked to be in charge of their team, helping to warm them up and getting them into relevant positions. This in turn helps to raise the value of the role that people in the community can play, to deliver physical activity within their communities and peer groups, by increasing confidence and helping to tackle inactivity.

I am looking to expand this group to Cockermouth, which in turn will develop a recreational league where the participants who want to play more competitively can, and for those who want to just turn up and play each week also can. This therefore gives opportunity for progression in netball, eventually leading to more competitive teams in the future, but also gives opportunity for those who just want to keep fit and healthy. So far, this group has had some very positive feedback, and I can't wait to see how much it will expand in the new year.

Describe a programme you have delivered since September within our work or other?

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 12:40:07 GMT

This year at Silloth Primary school we’ve made a change to the way P.E lessons are delivered in order to help the teachers. Since September, we’ve followed a new format where I lead the first lesson, with the class teacher shadowing my delivery. The following week the teacher has then repeated the same lesson to the class, whilst I add any progressive activities for the gifted and talented children that are ready to progress.

In a previous blog I mentioned a study suggested a third (32%) of teachers don’t feel confident when delivering P.E, and over a quarter (28%) don’t feel adequately qualified to teach the subject.

I believe the reason why some teachers don’t feel confident when it comes to P.E is because of a lack of experience from either playing sport or from teaching it. Initiatives like the one we have started at Silloth are ideal for teachers wanting to improve as it gives them a chance to pick up any ideas for games or activities that they can use in future lessons, or understand the key teaching points of a skill, and why they’re important when performing. This takes place during the shadowing. Then whilst they are delivering they’re gaining that experience teaching the lesson, and have the ability to receive any feedback during or after the lesson has finished.

It’s also a positive for the children as well as it gives less abled children the opportunity for more time to practice to develop and cement their skills, as well as allowing the more abled children to progress and be challenged with more difficult activities. So far we’ve trialled this with the year 2 children in multi skills and gymnastics and it’s worked really well. I look forward to continuing with the key stage 2 classes after Christmas.

What do you do to prepare in order to deliver a high quality lesson?

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:14:42 GMT

It’s with great satisfaction that I read the blogs this week from Amy and Rob regarding lesson planning. As an organisation we take great pride in making sure physical education lessons and sports coaching have a far reaching impact. We invest a lot of time in organisation and staff training to ensure we deliver lessons and sessions which help to impact on the whole child. Every class we teach and the needs identified will be different but at the heart of the lesson will always be physical development and then at least one of the four other important abilities, Social, Creative, Personal and Cognitive.

My staff take great pride in their delivery as documented by Rob and Amy below.

What do you do to prepare in order to deliver a high quality lesson?

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:14:38 GMT

For me, I personally love teaching invasion style sports where you have to invade the other team's territory in order to score points. Sports such as netball, rugby, football and tennis. As a child I always enjoyed playing them and that’s probably why I enjoy teaching them. The activities that I found most challenging teaching were gymnastics and dance as I hadn’t much experience in these areas. However after delivering these topics and gaining that experience I’m much more confident when covering these subjects.

What do you do to prepare in order to deliver a high quality lesson?

Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:14:35 GMT

This year is my first full year working with Wright Sport Services in schools after I joined the team in November last year, this has given me the opportunity to fully assess the needs of each class that I teach. I chose to spend the first half term of this year delivering multi skills based games to all my pupils, allowing me 7 weeks to look at each child’s level of physical competence, emotional understanding and social skills, highlighting key strengths and areas of improvement for the remainder of this year.

I am very lucky to be teaching two year 1 classes this year who have shown outstanding levels of physical, social and emotional development, far greater than I would expect from children this age ( 5 and 6 years). This has made lesson planning and delivery easy and fun. The children have told me what type of gymnastics activities they would like to learn and I have been able to work this into the current aims set out by the national curriculum. At the start of each lesson I let the children know what we are aiming to develop today, spend a little bit of time on information recall, discussing what we learnt in the previous session and then at the end of the lesson ask the children what we have been learning to do, why, or how? Children are encouraged throughout the lessons to share their ideas with one and other, showing off their skills and being given the opportunity to be "mini teachers" and teach their balances, jumps, movements etc, to their class mates.

On the reverse of this, I am also currently teaching a group of year 3's who, when assessed last half term showed a staggering amount of areas of improvement regarding their social and emotional development. In a bid to develop the whole child I have made these areas a key focus of development in each lesson plan along with aiming to improve each child's physical literacy. We are currently focusing on gymnastics this half term and I have planned each lesson so that they don’t only meet the needs set out in the national curriculum but also they aim to improve one of the needs highlighted from the observations in the previous half term. This particular group have great difficulties working together especially in large groups, therefore one of their tailored learning objectives in terms of their social development is to improve teamwork. Some people might think that if their main social issue is working as part of a large group then I should be encouraging this in my teaching, however by getting to know this group I know that putting them all together will have a more detrimental effect on their learning. So to overcome this I have tailored each lesson so that the children must work as pairs with someone they wouldn’t normally work with and try to complete a challenge that requires creativity and teamwork in order to be successful. Children are encouraged to perform new skills in front of the class whilst their peers applaud their efforts and provide positive feedback. As the class progresses through the module, their pairs will slowly become small groups of 4 or 5 where children will be challenged with having to involve everyone fairly and listen to each individuals thoughts and ideas. This, I hope will allow them to increase their ability to work cohesively with one and other and still have fun whilst developing their physical skills. Increasing this level of teamwork gradually should then help them throughout the rest of the year as we start to cover more team sports such as hockey, rugby and cricket.

What do coaches do in their free time? And how do we fit Physical Activity into our daily lives?

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

After being seriously injured playing rugby I decided to take up the role of a rugby coach. At this current time I am Head Coach at Cockermouth RUFC and therefore my free time is spent planning, delivering or analysing our teams rugby performance. This can be a very time consuming hobby but certainly has lots of rewards along the way. As I have 10 year old boy who also loves his sport and a 3 year old girl who is just starting out, my own daily physical activity sessions are currently sidelined, luckily all of the above and the job we do keeps me on the move. I really enjoy finding ways to exercise as a family whether swimming, running, attending active families events at Fairfield School or using trim trials etc. Lastly through the current partnership we have with Little Lotus Yoga, I am quickly becoming a fan of Yoga and hope to engage more with this ongoing.

What do coaches do in their free time? And how do we fit Physical Activity into our daily lives?

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

It can be quite difficult to fit in physical activity after a hard day's work, however it is so much easier when you are joined to a club of some kind. To keep myself physically fit I joined Cockermouth RUFC at a young age and found that rugby was the one for me, since then I have continued to play up until present. Playing rugby is very demanding as the body needs to be strong and physically fit to perform well at open age level. During the week I partake in two fitness/skill sessions and then a game during the weekend.

The fitness session on a Tuesday includes game based fitness and body/weights training to test and improve our game day contributions each week. Game based fitness is challenging as it can be non stop physical activity for intervals of up to 20 minutes whilst playing and reacting to game realistic scenarios. Before the game based fitness we do an indoor fitness session which looks to improve attributes needed for the game including our strength which is needed in many parts of the game. Doing this before the game training helps us to recreate how we react towards the end of a game as the body gets fatigued throughout the course of the game.

Wednesdays are more game skill based but can still be physically challenging as everything should be done at 100% which is the level that will be needed during a game with some fitness based challenges mixed in. Then it comes to game day on a Saturday which is the hardest day, as it is constant work for 80 minutes at 100% effort for the full game and the sore aching muscles that comes with it for the next couple of days. This shows that your body has worked to full capacity, pushing your body to its limits to achieve your goal. It is always worth the pain in order to see improvements throughout the season.

What do coaches do in their free time? And how do we fit Physical Activity into our daily lives?

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

For me, I feel it’s important to have breaks in order to recharge my battery. Which is why at weekends I try to relax, whether it be catching up with friends and family, going away for the day or sitting in front of the TV. However playing sport and competing has always been a passion of mine, it’s why I decided to become a coach, which is why in my free time I like to play tennis and badminton. Most weekends I’ll play tennis singles matches against my old doubles partner. I play for my local badminton team, and with matches and club nights I can be playing 2-3 nights a week.

I’m a big believer in practising what I preach. During PE lessons I say to children it’s important to get active to keep healthy, so it’s only right that I follow this motto. During the summer, when the weather's nice, I like to go running, there’s a 5 mile route where I live that I try to do a couple of times a week. In the winter I’ll stay indoors and go to a couple of fitness classes twice a week.

I feel that it’s important you make time for physical activity. Obviously if I have a busy day, I haven’t the time to do any of the things I mentioned above. But certain nights when I finish early or on the weekends that I have free time I make sure it gets used and becomes a routine that I follow each week.

What do coaches do in their free time? And how do we fit Physical Activity into our daily lives?

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

During the busy lifestyle of a coach, it can be hard to fit in physical activity into our daily lives. We coach, teach, provide extra-curricular clubs, evenings and some weekend work. However I feel it is fundamentally important that if we are teaching children to live a healthy balanced lifestyle and to be active, then we should also follow this. I think it's important to wind down in any way suitable to a specific person, my wind down time is heading to the gym for a weights work out to relieve any tensions, as it helps me to get a clear head. I have recently started a recreational netball club called 'Chance4Netball', where it gives me and others the opportunity to keep fit and healthy in a non-competitive, fun environment.

In my free time I always loved to run, it helped me relieve stress, decrease anxiety and helped me to be more self-confident, unfortunately I have gained a knee injury and at the moment unable to run. However, there is always some sort of physical activity I can be doing. I have always been a big fan of the fells and the feeling you get once you've reached the top, living in Keswick I have the opportunity to walk pretty much every day. This week I am heading to Nepal on a trek and volunteer project to help children in schools that had been ruined by the Earthquake in 2015. The training I have been doing will hopefully have a profound effect on my ability to conquer the 4065m trek up Pikey Peak. Walking really has helped my sleeping pattern, boost my mood as I was very regretful once my knee injury occurred, and also helped me maintain my weight when other exercise could not be done.

I am a big believer that we should not stop due to injury, as frustrating as it is, there is always something that can be done as an alternative to keep you busy. Even if that is heading to the gym, walking, volunteering in sport or organising sporting events.

What do coaches do in their free time? And how do we fit Physical Activity into our daily lives?

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

My number one hobby is CrossFit training and I spend the majority of my free time training at my local CrossFit box. Personally I don’t believe there are many good excuses for people to not exercise regularly, the benefits certainly outweigh the negatives and I think it is all about priorities. For me, physical activity is one of the most important aspects of my life and I have learnt to make it a priority no matter what. I train 5-6 times a week, working on developing my strength and fitness. As Ross mentions in his post, it is much easier to fit in regular physical activity if you are part of a club and unlike a regular gym you might experience at a leisure centre type facility, my CrossFit box is all about community. This means that not only am I going there to workout or attend a strength conditioning class, I am also able to socialise with a large range of different types of people on a regular basis. One day I may be sat waiting for a class to start and be having a girly chat with a best friend, 10 minutes later I’m working out next to a 65 year old man and then sharing a barbell with a parent of one of the children I teach, all whilst being coached by an ex-military man, a tech-guy, engineer, or a martial arts instructor.

Currently I am taking part in a personal challenge of completed a “hero-wod” a day throughout the month of November. A Hero-WOD, is a Workout of the Day dedicated to fallen military/emergency service men and women from across the globe. The workouts are high, often using heavy weights, high repetitions or cover long distances, they are designed to make you switch off from your reality and think about the immense sacrifices these hero made to protect others. Fitting this in around my regular day to day life has meant getting up earlier to train before work, or staying at the Box late on in the evenings, giving up lie ins and binge watching box sets, two very important aspects of my usual day to day life as a 23 year old!

How do you coach kids to be resilient during sporting activities and games?

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Resilience is a trait that I believe children can struggle with. During my time teaching PE in schools and coaching at tennis clubs, I've come across a few children that have struggled to cope with losing or getting beaten when in competition and therefore try to remove themselves by not competing. A study by the Marylebone Cricket Club in 2014 found that 64% of the children questioned would be "relieved or not bothered" if competition was removed from sport.

I've seen in the news that many schools believe this might be the answer. A poll on Families Online found that 57% of parents surveyed in the UK said their children's sports day was non competitive themed in order to keep all parents and children happy. However I do not agree with this, as competition is something that children will have to face later in their lifetime. Children won't always win and will lose at some points and they have to be able to deal with it. This is why I believe playing competitive sport as a child is important.

One thing I do try to, when a child says to me that they're "rubbish" or "can't do it", is to focus on the positives of their performance. When reflecting I'll ask them what they think they did well and I will also tell them what I think they've done well. I will also ask them to highlight an area of focus that they think they need to work on which we can then do during lessons. I think it's important that children take responsibility as it gives them the opportunity to solve the problem for themselves. I believe this then gives them experience to find a solution to a problem as they're having to think for themselves. They can then fall back on this experience and it will help them to solve other problems when competing in future situations.

How do you coach kids to be resilient during sporting activities and games?

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Resilience

In an era where children are used to instant film, instant game, instant food etc this need for instant success can have a very negative effect on our subject. Within all the schemes of work I deliver I try to build in a skill, a series of skills or fitness challenge in which they have 6 weeks to progress as far as they can. It's important they have regular opportunities to practise this and most importantly are encouraged and challenged to go away in their own time and make improvements. It's also important the children know this is about self progression and not measuring themselves against peers abilities. Many schools now work on the growth mindset principle and it quickly becomes evident the children who are 'I can, I will, I will try a new way' and the children who are 'I can't, this is boring, I will not' .

This half term we have worked on High 5 Netball and my two resilience factors were:

Hand Eye Coordination with the netball, four different skills linked together:

throw the ball away with back spin
catch it behind your bac
bounce it through your legs to the front and catch
throw it over your head and catch back behind your back.

Not everyone managed this but all showed progress.

The second area was to work on the children's ability to MOVE . It amazes me the amount of children who can't run for 2 minutes in week 1, after a few gentle reminders the human body is designed for moving not sitting, it's great to see the improvement made over the six weeks and the resilience amongst them all.

In closing, resilience is like the skills above it needs to be worked on with small, short term goals which gain small successes.

How do you coach kids to be resilient during sporting activities and games?

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Resilience is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties/difficult situations. During my time coaching cricket, I often see children struggling to deal with 'getting out' or missing the ball. In some situations children have become emotional, have wanted to withdraw from the activity, become resentful and become angry; this is due to self-anger and lack of confidence to deal with those feelings, therefore unable to recover quickly from what they see as a difficult situation. However as coaches we need to help those children to work towards progressing their skills but also their mind set.

Findings over the past few years have found that the right experiences can shape the individual characteristics of a child to help them build resilience. As a coach I try and help build resilience in my sessions by always giving positive reinforcement throughout, for example; if a child is struggling with always having their wickets hit, then pair that child with someone of a similar ability, but always constantly giving positive encouragement and identifying actions that may help to increase the skill set being done. As well as positive encouragement, letting children know that it is ok to ask for help, which cancels out the idea that being brave is all about dealing with things themselves, which creates positive relationships between the coach and the child, and therefore building on resilience and skills.

Positive feedback is also a huge factor relating to resilience. At the end of my sessions I will always ask the group what they feel they have achieved, or done well at, and what they would like to achieve or improve on in the next session. This gives chance for the children to problem solve for themselves, and realise there is always chance to change and improve, which will help in future difficult situations.

How do you coach kids to be resilient during sporting activities and games?

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The term resilience can be defined as "An individual's ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions". We tend to associate resilience with situations of immense stress and adversity, situations that we hope few children will ever have to experience. However, if we think back to our own childhood and the social challenges we faced even as early as our primary school days, we would be wrong to suggest that children don't face adversity, especially in the school sporting context.

During primary school children pass through two key stages of psychological development which Erikson refers to as the "Initiative Vs Guilt" and "Industry Vs Inferiority" stages. The Initiative Vs Guilt stage tend to happen during a child's early years of development affecting children in Nursery, Reception and Year 1. At this time children are learning about empathy and humour, the Inferiority Vs Initiative stage occurs in children aged six to twelve where children develop competencies, a sense of success and begin to experience failure on a more conscious level. Children become more aware of those around them and can begin to understand how their actions impact themselves and others.

So, how can we as coaches help children to cope with adversity in sport and become more resilient. In games where you will have a winning team/individual and a losing team/individual it is expected that some of those who lose won't be happy with the result, they may accuse others of cheating, blame players on their team of a poor performance or even blame themselves. One way to overcome this struggle I believe is using task based goal setting. I will use a netball match for this example, each team is aiming to score more points than their opposition to win the game and feel a sense of victory. However, before the match starts each team is set the challenge of deciding on a task based goal they will work to achieve during the match, they may choose to have more controlled passes, to communicate better as a team, to improve their defence strategy. This goal gives them something extra to focus on, not just winning the game. At the end of the match they can then reflect on their performance and see if they managed to achieve their task based goal, if so and they were on the losing team, they can still go away with a sense of achievement and an increase in competence moving forward. This method of overcoming defeat may well also help to develop sportsmanship as players can congratulate one and other on their skill development and see each other develop as athletes.

How do you coach kids to be resilient during sporting activities and games?

Mon, 29 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from mistakes, failure, difficulties or toughness.

It's easy for kids to feel their confidence deplete if they're not very resilient. Feeling stressed out can be brought on by mistakes, making kids feel even more stressed and the negative effects can pile up. But having the attributes below can affect the way you bounce back and show your resilience in sport or in the future;

Having a positive view of yourself and confidence in your strengths and abilities.
Being able to regularly make realistic plans, and then being able to regularly carry out your plans.
Being able to effectively and in a healthy manner manage your feelings and impulses.
Having really good communication skills or working on improving them.
Having really good problem solving skills or trying to improve on them.

However as a coach it is hard to be able to coach resilience without giving the children the chance to fail and try to figure out the mistakes they make themselves. We often hear the children use the word "I can't do it" or "it's too hard" and this is the stage in which we can step in to give the child extra tips if they really are struggling to perform the skills or activity. Often a child may be slightly behind so giving the child a similar easier task to work on can be brought in to make sure the child feels like it is possible to succeed during the session and improve as that is all we look for during our sessions.

It is very important to give the child encouragement and praise when managing to show the resilience to succeed at a specific task, game or skill. We can measure the skill by giving the children options in what skills to perform. You will find the children who are more resilient will be happy to try the harder skills and understand that failure is not a bad thing, whereas some children love to do the easy parts and stick to doing that as they like the feeling of achievement and are more reluctant to try new/harder tasks.

During this stage we always try to encourage every child to push to improve and realise that failure is good as that is the whole point of learning and that is what school is all about.

Physical Education (PE) is often seen as a marginal subject within the curriculum. Why is PE as important as any other school subject?

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches how can we make sure children understand the importance of PE, whilst also being fully engaged during lessons?

When reading this blog topic the first thought was a book I am reading, "Spark - HOW EXERCISE WILL IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUR BRAIN", Dr John J.Ratey and Eric Hagerman.

"In order for humans to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, humans can attain perfection."
-Plato

Physical Education lessons are important in its own right, but the use of daily activity is so under used and represented in the positive impact of daily school life. Our model has always been to use our subject as whole child development with a brief example below:

'Like clock-work' warm up. Children in small groups working on different types of passing whilst listening to instructions to move around grids forward or back in time.

Physical impact - Hand eye coordination and movement development

Cognitive impact - Thinking about where I need to move next, can I perform under chaos

Social impact - Communication within team and support of other groups around them

Personal impac t - Listening to instructions and respect of group members

Creative impact - Can they find a new way to pass or move

Back to the book, it is a very intellectual read and lots of scientific research and programmes are discussed but one programme in particular has amazing results, where a high school re-designed their physical education programme and witnessed their academic results go through the roof.

In closing here is the back page summary:

"We all know exercise is good for the body. But did you know that it can transform your mind? This new scientific revolution will teach you how to boost brain cells, protect yourself against mental illness and dementia and ensure success in exams and the workplace".

Physical Education (PE) is often seen as a marginal subject within the curriculum. Why is PE as important as any other school subject?

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches how can we make sure children understand the importance of PE, whilst also being fully engaged during lessons?

Physical education is important because it helps students stay physically active, develop interests in different types of physical activity, build teamwork and other social skills, and improve focus and academic performance.

NHS.UK states that:

To maintain a basic level of health, children and young people aged 5 to 18 need to do:

at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day - this should range from moderate activity, such as cycling and playground activities, to vigorous activity, such as running and tennis;

on 3 days a week, these activities should involve exercises for strong muscles and bones, such as swinging on playground equipment, hopping and skipping, and sports such as gymnastics or tennis.

Children and young people should also reduce the time they spend sitting for extended periods of time, including watching TV, playing computer games and travelling by car when they could walk or cycle. Being active for at least 60 minutes a day is linked to better general health, stronger bones and muscles, and higher levels of self-esteem.

We as coaches should be making the children understand how important PE and physical activity is to them. Easy ways of doing this are to encourage and be positive in all of our sessions, don't make PE all about winning, create an environment that's all about movement, teach health and importance of exercise and to make sure all of the children are engaged throughout using small sided games. Also giving positive feedback towards the children is a must, as children love to show the skills they can perform during a session to the coach and rewarding them with positive feedback will make the child happier and encourage them to use those skills in the future.

Making sure you engage and keep your children's attention is very important as keeping them facing you and listening when you're talking is a must. Encourage the children to talk during the games and exercises, as they are always being told to be quiet during class and this is a chance for them to express themselves through sport.

Physical Education (PE) is often seen as a marginal subject within the curriculum. Why is PE as important as any other school subject?

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches how can we make sure children understand the importance of PE, whilst also being fully engaged during lessons?

Many people see PE as a low status subject where children spend time kicking a football or swinging a cricket bat in order to meet an aim set out by the national curriculum, with little belief that PE is helping to develop the child academically. My blog this week is going to explore just some of the reasons why this view on PE is incorrect and hopefully help to explain how PE can develop the whole child both in the schooling environment.

The first and most obvious benefit of PE is that it helps to develop a physically healthy child . Activities such as gymnastics or games that require jumping and balance have been shown to strengthen bones and build muscle mass, reducing the risk of injuries and damage to joints as the child grows. PE helps to increase physical activity levels throughout the day, improving cardio respiratory fitness, increasing aerobic capacity and creating a healthy heart. Research published in the Journal of Physical Therapy Sciences (2016), shows that children who take part in regular aerobic activity, activity that lasts for at least 20 minutes are more likely to have a healthier heart than those who don't, these activities include netball, football and skipping. Regular PE and fitness activity has also been shown to help with the absorption of key nutrients into the body and improve digestion.

Not only does PE help to create a physically healthy child, it also helps to create a psychologically healthy child . Sport and physical activity is known to have stress and anxiety relieving effects, however this is mostly discussed in relation to adults and is commonly overlooked in regards to a child's mental health, a mistake that can have major repercussions on a child's overall health and wellbeing. With the ever growing demand for children to pass SAT's, get into the best schools/colleges and deal with the daily pressures our now social media driven society places upon them it is no wonder why we are seeing more children suffer with stress/anxiety at such a young age. PE can take children out of the classroom and away from technology and provide them with an opportunity to be kids again. They can take part in activities in the outdoors with their friends where they are developing key motor skills, releasing mood boosting endorphins, learning about teamwork, increasing confidence and self efficacy whilst in a playful environment. Team based games/activities have shown an increase in a child's sense of belonging creating a healthier and happier child who is more likely to perform better in the classroom.

PE and regular physical activity throughout the school day has been proven to increase children's academic performance . Research by the Institute of Medicine (2013) found that exercise helps to increase basic cognitive functions by connecting neurons in the brain leading to an increased level of memory, attention and concentration in the classroom. The research also found that this increase in brain function following PE and physical activity resulted in an increase in the overall thinking ability of children and improved problem solving abilities, particularly in reading and mathematics.

Physical Education (PE) is often seen as a marginal subject within the curriculum. Why is PE as important as any other school subject?

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches how can we make sure children understand the importance of PE, whilst also being fully engaged during lessons?

Physical Education is as important as any other school subject for a number of reasons.

In order to lead a healthy lifestyle and have a healthy body and mind, everybody needs to be taking part in physical activity, and PE lessons are the perfect environment to not only get children exercising but also shaping their lifestyle choices in the future as well. In this generation, many children have unhealthy diets which have led to high levels of obesity. Taking part in PE lessons gives children the opportunity to take part in physical activity and burn off any extra calories they might have.

Several studies have also shown that exercise can help stimulate the brain and improves the ability to focus and concentrate. In many schools you now see children completing the daily mile challenge every morning in order to steady the children's minds and get them ready to concentrate for the day's lessons. It has also been proven that exercise can relieve stress. Taking part in PE lessons can help children clear their mind if they become anxious over something and help them return to a relaxed state of mind.

I believe that as long as children are fully engaged in PE lessons, then they will see the benefits and improvements in their health. In order to improve their understanding of why PE is important, that could take place once the lesson is finished. This could be done during a reflective discussion, by asking questions as to how children feel? and why they might feel like that after exercise? Another way to improve understanding could be during lesson time. At Wright Sport Services we provide healthy workshop classes to schools in which children learn why it is important to have a healthy lifestyle, why exercise is important, what a balanced diet is and why it's also important and what impact it can have on children if they don't have one. This way children have some more information and knowledge when they make their lifestyle choices when growing up.

Physical Education (PE) is often seen as a marginal subject within the curriculum. Why is PE as important as any other school subject?

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches how can we make sure children understand the importance of PE, whilst also being fully engaged during lessons?

It has been proven through research undertaken by the Youth Sport Trust that 38% of English secondary schools actively reduce PE time for 14-16 year olds, to make way for what are deemed more "serious" or "important" subjects. This is because of the ever increasing pressure to produce high exam results, and instead of having time to burn off some stress, they are receiving extra tutoring on topics, not including PE.

PE is just as important as any other school subject. PE at any age helps children to understand the body and why they may feel a certain way, or why they may fluctuate in weight. PE promotes health and encourages life-long physical activity, which in-turn can have huge health benefits. Health benefits such as improve cardio-vascular and cardio-respiratory health and decrease the risk of heart and lung disease, maintain a healthy weight, decrease the risk of isolation, and decrease in stress and anxiety reducing the risk of depression, which is one of the single biggest killers in today's society. PE is praised for supporting cognitive and academic performances, which has a bigger impact on exam or SAT results, rather than over loading the brain and causing burnout before exams even take place. This proves PE is just as important as any other subject, as it allows time to de-stress, relax and have time away from other academic pressures.

PE looks at whole child development and at Wright Sport Services we adopt this approach in our coaching sessions, in terms of looking at developing children in cognitive, social, personal, physical and creative ways. We do this using certain skills and games or during our skeleton plan for the whole term. It is important that during PE lessons, we ask questions relating to how the children are feeling, and getting them to think about the importance of PE including how it is making them feel during and after. I truly believe that using this approach of connecting with the children during sessions, will allow them to see the benefits of PE and the improvements of their mood and academic studies, and adopt a life-long physical activity habit.

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools?

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools? Are these figures accurate? And what do you do to help build teachers confidence?

Teaching PE can be a daunting task, if you lack the confidence and resources to do so. It requires planning for different abilities, having contingency plans in case something was to go wrong. However during a primary teaching degree, PE only takes up a small percentage of the modules being led, this does not provide enough education to then help a teacher deliver skill based lessons.

At Primary School children are only just getting to know different sports and many children lack the range of skills and knowledge of the rules. Primary School teachers are in prime place to develop these skills and knowledge of the rules required to underpin the fundamentals of a range of sports. Primary schools are now in the position of receiving funding ready available for PE and school sport, which allows them better access to equipment, specialist coaches and facilities. This in theory should allow primary teachers to be better ready to teach PE, however in my opinion this doesn't always seem to be the case. With coaches being appointed in primary schools, teachers should also join in with the sessions, allowing them to get hands-on experience from a coach's perspective and allowing them to increase their knowledge on skills and gaining more experience.

There is a brilliant online resource that can be accessed by schools called iPEP PE Planner. iPEP is an interactive PE planner which helps you to plan PE for the whole year, assess students, track and monitor progress and generate ongoing assessment reports. It helps you to plan outstanding PE lessons, reducing hours planning sessions and also assisting teachers to be much more effective and efficient in the monitoring and assessment of their students. I really think iPEP is a brilliant way to boost teachers' confidence and is the future of implementing successful PE lessons, which will hopefully help the 32% of teachers who lack in confidence.

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools?

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools?

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

In 2015, the University of Bedfordshire ran a study and found that a third of teachers surveyed (32%) said they lacked confidence to teach PE. They also found that 28% don't feel adequately qualified to teach the subject either.

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools? Are these figures accurate? And what do you do to help build teachers confidence?

From my experiences of undertaking a degree in Physical Education and teaching in schools I would suggest that these figures are not accurate and that the statistics should read much higher. My time at university taught me that the majority of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) had less than 10 hours of PE training across 3-4 years of study and that the subject wasn't seen to hold a high status when compared to English, maths and science. I have spoken to a number of NQTs who say that they wouldn't know where to begin if they were asked to deliver a block of sports specific PE lessons and stating they would more likely "do a drill and a match" which does not instil a great confidence that children would be receiving high quality PE if it weren't for schools being able to access external sport coaches.

Personally I believe schools need to invest time to develop their teachers understanding of PE, learning the benefits regular physical activity has on both a child's physical and mental development and how they can incorporate physical activity into classroom on a daily basis. As a PE teacher and sports coach I am always happy to share my knowledge of PE with schools and staff who show an interest in furthering their understanding of the subject. Teachers often ask questions about children's development, asking 'should the children be able to hop, skip, jump at this age?', 'Why is this child not as skilled as the others?', 'is there a common difference between boys and girls at this age?' All good questions that show that some teachers are wanting to be more involved in PE and how it affects their pupils.

With the current pressures faced by teachers to meet the ever increasing standards in education it does not surprise me that PE often takes a back seat, not to say that this should be the case however, it is understandable as PE is rarely looked at in depth by OFSTED or assessed in the same ways as the other core subjects mentioned above. Schools currently have less than 2 years of secure school sport funding left before it is reviewed by the government and I highly recommend that schools use this time to invest funding into at least one teacher who can train alongside our team of coaches, developing a deeper understanding of PE across all ages of development. Personally, I would love to be able to work more hands on with schools to help create more confident teachers and provide more children with a greater level of high quality physical education that can help to develop the whole child.

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools?

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches, what is your experience when delivering PE lessons in schools?

Mon, 08 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

What can we do as coaches to encourage children to stay active during the winter months?

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As the winter months fast approach us we are starting to feel a change in the weather, cold winds, a drop in temperature and an increase in the levels of rain. On top of this, nights are becoming darker a lot quicker and children are restricted in the amount of time they can spend playing outdoors after school. As sports coaches and PE teachers it is up to us to encourage children to keep active during the school day and encourage them to try and stay active outside of the school environment.

Here at Wright Sport Services we currently run a young sports leaders programme titled 'Playtime Leaders' as mentioned in a previous blog post. The programme works with a group of pupils to develop their leadership skills in order for them to deliver fun sporting activities at playtimes. All primary schools in Allerdale will be receiving this programme throughout the Autumn and Winter school terms in the hope that children will increase their physical activity levels throughout the school day.

As part of my delivery of early years and foundation stage PE, I currently lead a Wake Up and Shake Up activity with the reception children of Victoria Infant School. The activity consists of 15 minutes of non-stop singing and dancing to various songs, although 15 minutes may not seem like a long time, it is 15 minutes that the children are constantly moving their bodies, developing co-ordination and movement skills and avoiding sitting down behind a desk. The wake up and shake up based activities have proven to boost children's concentration in class and raise their mood, a great win for the teachers as well as the children. It would be amazing to see this type of activity added to every schools timetable!

And finally, as we reach the halfway point of the first school term Chance Camp is all set for a week of fun, active and healthy activities for your child to take part in. Chance Camp is a great way for your child to keep active during this colder weather, make new friends, try out new sports and most importantly have fun! All our dates can be found on the Chance Camp website.

What can we do as coaches to encourage children to stay active during the winter months?

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

In 2016, researchers from the University of Cambridge found that children aren't active enough in the winter. 700 seven year old children had their physical activity levels measured throughout the calendar year. The researchers found that physical activity was lower in autumn and winter seasons compared to spring. Average activity levels peaked in April at 65.3 mins per day and reached lowest levels in February at 47.8 mins per day. Physical activity was at its lowest at weekends during winter.

What can we do?

In order for children to keep active, as coaches we need to make sure that there are opportunities available. As well as running tennis coaching in the spring and summer months at Dalston and Silloth, we also offer coaching in the Autumn/ Winter as well. We use indoor venues and floodlight courts to allow children the opportunity to keep working and improving on their skills.

I also believe there's a perception that many children and parents believe that children should stay indoors if the weather's bad. In Nov 2017, The Telegraph reported about a Primary Academy in Ipswich after parents and the Head clashed after the school enforced all playtimes to be outside regardless of weather in order to toughen up the "snowflake generation". I believe that as long as children are wearing the appropriate clothing then they should be outside. That is why when I'm in schools, I try to have my PE lessons outside as much as possible, to let the children experience the weather and show them that it's okay to be active outside. At Chance Camp we follow this motto as well and spend full days outside in all weather conditions which our regulars love to do.

What can we do as coaches to encourage children to stay active during the winter months?

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Firstly I believe above the coaching workforce we have not got it strategically right with our sporting facility infrastructure. All ambitious schools and clubs who are looking to build more sports halls and astro turfs should be better supported and more easily able to draw down funding to implement plans.

However the dark nights and wet weekends shouldn't stop our activity levels. We have excellent sport centres which provide lots of activities and lots of sport clubs who operate over winter, ultimately in terms of the rain where possible it shouldn't stop play!!

As coaches we are very flexible and adapt very well, so my tip for the winter months is to create home based family circuits with some examples below:
- Step ups on to the chair and develop those leg muscles
- Slide outs on the floor with a pillow and develop those core muscles
- Press ups and lots of different variations e.g. decline of the sofa to develop the chest
- Dips of the bottom step to develop the upper arms
- Arm wrestling or towel tug of war for a bit of fun and strength endurance.

We would love to hear your family indoor circuit activities and help ensure we all have an active winter!

What can we do as coaches to encourage children to stay active during the winter months?

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

To maintain a healthy active lifestyle, children aged 5-18 should be taking part in at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, this having a positive effect on healthy bones and muscles, better general health and boosting self-esteem. The winter months are fast approaching us, with it being the first day of October, we can really feel a drop in temperature with the frosty morning that is upon us. Here in Cumbria, the wettest place in England, we are waiting for a winter full of frost, ice, snow and more commonly rain. A study undertaken by the University of Cambridge (2016) found that there was a significant decline in children participating in physical activity when it was raining and throughout the winter months, physical activity time decreased by at least 20 minutes a day.

Here at Wright Sport Services we believe it is important that children are physically active throughout the whole year, we provide a Play Time Leaders programme across schools in Allerdale. This programme is tailored to teaching the older end of the school how to become a leader, the importance of being a leader and allowing time to create fun and active games to deliver to the play ground at lunch times. The objective of this programme is to make every child in the play ground get involved with some sort of activity, rather than just sitting inside or hiding away in the playground. This results in children keeping warm, getting active and socialising during their free time. This programme already has had a profound effect on the leaders knowledge and ability to get their peers involved in exercise.

There are many activities parents/guardians can be doing with their child at home, if they are reluctant to wanting to leave the house. Simple light aerobic exercises around the house, such as star jumps, burpees or skipping; or using the stairs for light exercises such as placing toes on edge of step and raising legs up and down, working on the calf muscles. There are many activities that can be done around the house from these light aerobic exercises to using water bottles as weights, or a resistance band to build strong bones and muscles.

More strategies need putting in place in terms of reaching children who perhaps do not live close to a sports centre or sporting facility, however there are many opportunities to get your child out the house during the winter months. For example our first Chance Camp multi-skills programme will be held in October half term at Cockermouth Rugby Club! This will be an outdoor week of fun activities!

What can we do as coaches to encourage children to stay active during the winter months?

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Keeping kids active during certain times can be such a daunting task. It is so easy to stay inside during the winter, when it rains, or when it is too hot outside. Then there are those days you are under the weather and just want to lay on the couch, however there are actually lots of fun ways to keep kids active indoors.

So as coaches at Wright Sport Services we have to be clever in what activities we do/use for sessions. I personally love the concept that kids learn best through games and not drills. So if I was to promote sessions or give advice for games that children can play at home, you need to look at safety aspects and use what facilities/equipment you have to keep the children and family entertained throughout.

Games such as dodgeball, benchball and indoor athletics are always favourites during our sessions. However it is important that even when kids are out of games or waiting they are still active and able to keep themselves involved with game play.

If you have any ideas of games you have played with your children during the winter period please let us know as I'd love to hear.

How do we get non active people engaged in Physical Activity?

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

If physical activity came in a pill, pharmacies across the country would have queues outside the door. How would you help people make the first engagement with physical activity?

Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp are keen to spread the well-being feeling associated with exercise to ensure more people are committed to daily activity.

It has been said if this could come in a pill it would be used by all.

We understand the need to make physical activity engaging to all and everyone is different. Therefore as an organisation we need to be flexible on how, where, when etc we offer this. We understand our offer needs to be customer led and over the next year we hope to get the opportunity to work in different ways with different organisations and people.

We have shown with our whole child approach we have been able to engage lots of children into physical activity and now we hope to engage those people who may have had negative experiences in the past. We don't want them to wait for the magic exercise pill, we hope they take up physical activity today.

How do we get non active people engaged in Physical Activity?

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

According to the Mental Health Act Publication released by the NHS, that in 2016/17 over 45,800 people were admitted into hospital suffering with some sort of mental health issue, this however does not account for those who are suffering in silence. It is said that if physical activity was to come in some sort of pill, then pharmacies across the country would have people queuing outside the door, but why don't people engage in physical activity in the first instance?

Here at Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp, we understand that physical activity has a profound effect on those 'feel good' factors, helping to release stress and lower anxiety, increase morale when relating to those body confidence issues and helping to create positive pathways in sport in the future. We provide opportunities for all, providing different sports to all age groups and now even offering community projects, not only working with children but also working with groups like Age Concern. We believe that everyone should have access to sport and physical activity, as when you exercise your brain chemistry changes with the release of endorphins, which can lift your mood and increase self-esteem from the sense of achievement from learning new skills.

We provide opportunities at the lowest level of activity, on the other hand we also help people to excel through gifted and talented programmes and providing opportunities for future pathways into sport. We want people to see what there is already available and what can have a much bigger positive impact, rather than just waiting around for a 'magic pill'.

How do we get non active people engaged in Physical Activity?

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

In April 2018, the NHS released the following figures:

In 2016/17 there were 617 thousand admissions in NHS hospitals, where obesity was a factor
26% of adults were classified as obese
1 in 5 children in year 6 and 1 in 10 children in reception were obese.

It's clear that these statistics are due to lack of exercise and poor diet. This is really worrying as obesity can lead to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, risk of cancer plus many more. This is why if physical activity came as a pill then pharmacies would sell out instantly.

How to engage people?

When teaching PE, or coaching in sports clubs, I believe the most important thing is to make the activities fun. If the activity is fun then children will enjoy playing it and want to continue to come back.

I also believe it is important that the activities or sport that children play are appropriate for their age, and offer the chance to progress and develop as they get older. Sports like tennis, football and rugby are great for this and allow children to have the opportunity for lifelong participation.

A final way that I think keeps children engaged is to have lots of competition. Having children compete regularly gives them something to aim for, and want to do better for, which could lead to more training and therefore engaging more in physical activity.

How do we get non active people engaged in Physical Activity?

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

I believe the first part of trying to encourage people to participate in physical activity is to have face to face contact. Trying to find out a bit about the person is a good start as you don't know what kind of boundaries or problems someone may have which could stop them taking part, you never know what might be underlying or hindering their opportunities and being able to be flexible and helpful with this can make them feel comfortable and more willing to give it a go.

Once I have managed this, I would then try and engage them into something straight away, something that is comfortable for them with the opportunities to joining sessions for improvements. Being able to give people a taster of what we are trying to do with the participants in sessions is also a great way to give them confidence. Each session should be enjoyable, challenging and engaging in order to make them learn and want to get better and come back for more.

Each session would be developed and changed towards the participant's needs, giving them the opportunity to communicate, build team work, think about strategies, improve their individual skills, improve their basic level skills, if needed build their advanced level skills and build and create challenges for themselves for future sessions.

Summer Review

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Wright Sport Services and Chance Camp have enjoyed a fantastic summer on and off the sports coaching front. Within our coaching delivery we have delivered to hundreds of children and helped make progress on their whole development. We have reached new venues, new families and engaged with new young sport volunteers who take their first steps into our industry. Chance Camp is continuing to go from strength to strength as our coaches start to progress their own development and move up to roles of camp managers in their own venues.

Just as I have watched young people use Chance Camp to be part of how they have grown into successful young adults, a great example of this is when they stop me in the street and update me on how well their sport is going at university, its great to witness the development of our staff.

Away from the coaching front we have welcomed another local sports graduate to the business. Using her sports development degree Ellie Hodgson, local to Keswick, alongside some coaching will be working hard on developing the marketing of the business and attracting new work across many sectors.

Wright Sport Services were delighted to accept the offer from the Allerdale School Partnership to deliver Playtime Leaders training across all our Primary Schools for Year 5 & 6 children.

The Chance Camp website is currently undergoing major changes and we are delighted to be working with Ipep who have re designed our booking system to ensure online bookings and payments are in place. Chance Camp was also delighted to be asked to Whinlatter during the Tour of Britain and be part of the wonderful event up there, well done Allerdale Borough Council.

We are excited and raring to go into our next academic year with our wonderful schools and young people. We will be giving 110% to pass on our enthusiasm for physical activity and sport.

As the business lead I will continue to ensure our business has strong foundations and meets our objective of Be Smart! Get Active! Get Healthy!

Summer Review

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This summer saw a fantastic programme of activities at Chance Camp with a large number of children taking part in more than one week of camp. As I look forward to the new academic year I am looking forward to working with children who attended camp back in their schools. Alongside PE I will be delivering a wide range of activities, programmes and after school clubs. Below are two programmes that I am excited to be delivering throughout the 2018/19 school year!

This year I will be delivering a Playtime Leaders course to all the primary schools in Allerdale, teaching Years 2, 5 and 6 children how to become young sports leaders and encourage their peers to become more active and adopt healthier behaviours in their school. This programme has never let me down in seeing how creative young minds can be and I look forward to seeing what activities the children can create to help meet the government's physical activity guidelines.

After a successful 6 months last year, this week sees the return of Seaton Juniors gymnastics after school club. I was amazed at how well the children engaged with learning about biomechanics at such a young age last year and so this club will not only develop their knowledge of creative movement for gymnastics but we will also explore the physiological impact of gymnastics on our bodies. The children will help to design the programme of activities to help them learn about activating different muscle groups to be able to perform gymnastic movements efficiently and safely. I am eager to see more fantastic gymnastic sequences and have high hopes that the Year 3 children who have just joined us can share their ideas and enthusiasm with the older children!

Summer Review

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

The summer holidays passed by with Chance Camp offering its highest number of weekly programmes ever!

Similar to last year, I enjoyed coaching groups in the multi skills and Olympic weeks as well as leading a racket sports camp for the first time. It was great to see lots of familiar faces returning as well as lots of new ones trying the camps for the first time.

We also started up the Chance Camp Roadshow, where I visited different areas in Allerdale for the day and provided multi skill games and activities. That week I visited Dalston, Silloth, Thursby, Wigton and Kirkbride with 50 children taking part, getting active and having fun. I look forward to returning with the Roadshow during this year's school holidays and building on the programme.

Even though the summer holidays are finished, it's great to be back in schools. Just like last year, I will be delivering PE to Silloth, Flimby and Dean Primary Schools. I will be teaching and developing the children's skills so that they are ready for up and coming school sport competitions. I will also be delivering tennis to Allerdale schools as part of the School Sport Partnership. This is where schools receive 6 hours worth of tennis coaching before the Cumbria Mini Tennis Red Competition. I look forward to teaching and developing children's technique when controlling and striking a ball, as well as the rules and tactics when playing the game.

Summer Review

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Throughout the summer camps I really enjoyed working with a bigger range of children over the Allerdale area thanks to our new exciting Roadshow and the chance to hold a football camp with Jordan from Sports Trek. This was also my first opportunity to lead a camp and I look forward to developing myself in this role throughout 2018/19.

So now it is back to the schools, I look forward to seeing the old faces from summer Chance Camp and see how well they are progressing. I look forward to meeting new children and motivating them to become new Chance Campers. I look forward to pushing my rugby coaching more throughout the year and giving the schools the opportunity to compete in rugby and hopefully inspiring the children to exit from us into the excellent rugby clubs within Allerdale. I will also be looking into a rugby competition for the Workington area, with the hope of bringing new talent to the sport, this being a work in progress and the aim to deliver a fun touch rugby competition in the summer term.

Why should children attend Chance Camp?

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

We are now into our seventh summer holiday of delivering high quality sports coaching opportunities and this year we have teamed up with more coaching providers to extend our offer. Using two excellent local sporting facilities, lots of fantastic local coaches and our years of experience, at Chance Camp we are looking forward to what is going to be an active, action packed and fun sporting holiday. We have managed to retain the sibling 50% discount when full camps are booked and we hope this helps families out and makes the opportunities more accessible.

We hope our Chance Campers enjoy the rest of their school term and we look forward to seeing many children running around the great outdoors, building and making new friendships, working up a good appetite and hopefully uncovering the next generation of Cumbrian sporting superstars.

Why should children attend Chance Camp?

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Research by The Partnership for 21st Century Skills believes that holiday camps play a huge role in developing the key life skills children now need living in the 21st Century, including communication, collaboration, creativity, leadership, socialization, and problem solving. Chance Camp provides children with the opportunity to develop all of these key skills through sport and physical activity.

At Chance Camp children are able to unplug themselves from technology and spend time actively playing and working with other children, interacting face to face and meeting new people whilst making new friends. Chance Camp promote the use of teamwork and sportsmanship throughout its camps, encouraging children to work together to complete challenges and take on leadership roles, developing communication skills and building strong social relationships. We provide children with the opportunity to experience something new and when a child succeeds they develop a greater sense of self-efficacy.

Children are provided with time for unstructured play allowing children to reach key emotional, cognitive and social development milestones. Children are taught to be responsible for themselves and others, inspiring independence, self-esteem and confidence away from close family or friends creating an environment where a child can be who they want to be.

Why do you think kids should use Chance Camp in the summer holidays?

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

When I was growing up, I'd spend my summer holidays outside playing with friends, going on bike rides and making dens. Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to go to a sports camp however going to somewhere like Chance Camp would have been something that I would have loved to do.

The NHS state that children between the ages of 5-18 years should be taking part in at least 60 minutes of exercise every day that improves muscle and bone strength and aerobic fitness. With children spending most of their weekly day in school classrooms and with the advances with technology and computer games, Chance Camp gives children the perfect opportunity to get active and get healthy!

Chance Camp also gives children the opportunity to develop their social skills and meet new people. It can always be daunting for any child to try something new and not know anyone. However, from my experience, by the end of the first day everyone has usually got to know each other and made lots of new friends.

A final reason why children should come to Chance Camp is that it gives children the opportunity to develop their sporting talents. During the summer camps we will be developing a variety of different skills and sports and it may give children the opportunity to take part in an activity that they've never encountered before. Coming to Chance Camp can help children to discover talents and interests they didn't know they had.

Why Should you send your children to Chance Camp?

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 GMT

From our experiences at Chance Camp, we have seen children thrive in their sporting achievements and become more resilient in everything they try during camp. We give them the opportunity to work with children they may not have met before, wouldn't normally work with or even help others when another child is struggling. We give them the opportunity to lead a scenario and communicate with a group in order to gain a sense of achievement and leadership that they may not usual get during school. From this the children gain more confidence in what they are doing and are able to have more chances to participate and influence in sporting activities. We have a range of sporting challenges on offer with professional coaches guiding them forwards to improve and succeed during our competitions.

We have seen so many friendships develop throughout the years during Chance Camp which is great to see, especially when the children are then focused on becoming better and challenging themselves further throughout with the challenge of beating their friends. We have seen children take up new sports at clubs due to trying them at Chance Camp and enjoying the physical challenge.

We live in a world now where technology is an easy way to keep your child entertained throughout the day whilst you get on with your daily chores. Are you not bored of them spending days sat in front of that TV screen?
If you would rather see your child achieve something they can be proud of and be successful in, send them to Chance Camp! We guarantee a great standard of Fun and Learning with the chance to compete and gain new skills that they may never have tried before!

Coaches Should Teach Life Skills Along With Sports Skills. What do you focus on and how?

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

As coaches for Wright Sport Services (Schools and Community Groups) and Chance Camp (school holiday sports coaching) we believe in using sport for the greater good. Rob, Ross, Amy and I are passionate about using sport to develop lifelong skills. Our work is excellent for developing healthy habits, respect, communication, focus, teamwork, resilience, courage . . . the list goes on.

We get great satisfaction when teenagers having worked with us as children contact us to come back and work with us as coaching volunteers at Chance Camp. In these young people we see the qualities listed above and it's a great feeling to know sport has played a part in the adult they are shaping to be.

Please read the coaches blogs to see some examples of how we develop these traits.

Coaches Should Teach Life Skills Along With Sports Skills. What do you focus on and how?

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

I believe that taking part in sport gives children the perfect opportunity to learn and develop a variety of different life skills. As a child my first experience of meeting/interacting with new people and making new friends came from me joining my local football team. Without that experience I don't know where I'd have developed that social trait. Teamwork is a vital skill, which is easily developed when taking part in sport. In life you won't get on with everyone. However you need to find a way to communicate in order to work together and get on. To develop these skills during my teaching, I always try to partner children up in different groups. This is so they can experience different characters and have to find a way to work with each other.

Confidence is another trait that sport can improve. Confidence could be gained from scoring a goal, hitting a good shot or simply answering a question correctly. It's important to build confidence as this can be transferred to other aspects of that person's life. Because of this I always try to keep positive when teaching, giving lots of positive reinforcement. If a child maybe doesn't do something well or says something incorrect then I'd always try to focus on the positive first to prevent that child from losing that confidence.

Commitment can also be gained through taking part in sport. From coaching, I've noticed that children are quicker to drop out and stop taking part. This could be due to experiencing a challenge for the first time or because a parent is happy to let them do so. However, if a child can develop the drive and motivation to carry on working hard in order to improve then this will rub off during other aspects in their life e.g. when they're in school or during work. To try to keep a child motivated I try to keep my coaching sessions fun competitive and different, to prevent them from becoming stale and boring. And hopefully lead to some children playing that sport throughout their lifetime.

Coaches Should Teach Life Skills Along With Sports Skills. What do you focus on and how?

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

I believe that anything children do in sport can help to give them life skills for the future and can be very important in becoming successful in anything they strive towards.

"The world of sport is not separate from the rest of the world. Sport breaks down barriers, promotes self-esteem, and can teach life skills and healthy behavior."
(Jacques Rogge, former president of the International Olympic Committee)

Within my coaching I make sure the children get time to interact with others the correct way. The chance to plan, interact and be confident to voice their opinion to others is crucial in becoming a successful team as each player is vital during team games. I make this possible by giving them the chance to have team talks during games, by asking them to point out things that went well during the game and what needs to be improved. The way I ask this question is important as I am not trying to promote negativity during the group discussion as this may make players feel bad for mistakes they may have made.

I also feel its important to make the children understand authority and sticking to rules throughout the game. There are rules in all aspects of life and getting children to stick to these rules at an early age will make them realise how important those rules are and using these rules can make you become successful in anything you want to achieve.

The last is self discipline and resilience. Self discipline is a trait everyone needs in life as this is the way to keep their emotions right when doing something they find difficult and beat a weakness they have without the temptations of change. Resilience is to be able to recover quickly from the difficulties they encounter. Sport is all about these two traits no matter what the scenario is, I encourage players to keep going and work hard to get the outcome they are trying to achieve no matter how many failures they have encountered.

Coaches Should Teach Life Skills Along With Sports Skills. What do you focus on and how?

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

believe that sport has the power to develop more than just physical skills relating to specific sports and that the life skills associated with taking part in sport play a major role as we progress through life. After all it is well known that an individual who states they take part in sport on their CV is more likely to be employed due to the likelihood of them possessing transferable skills that can make the workplace more efficient.

Teamwork helps to develop many key skills required for many different walks of life, it builds social skills through communication with others, creates a sense of unity through problem solving skills, encourages co-operation, and teaches patience and an understanding of others.

For me I think the most important life skill that can be taught through sport is teamwork. Within my own coaching I often set small group challenges, have the children create their own rule or tactics and promote supporting everyone no matter what their ability.

Gaming Addictions - The Impact

Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This week we set the question - What effect is the gaming industry having on the sports' coach?

In a conversation with a sport coach, ten years my senior, he mentioned when he first set out coaching within a class 80% of the children would be interested, motivated and physical competent to engage in the lesson. When I started coaching in schools in 2003 it was more like 50/50 split. However at this point now in my coaching career, I am disappointed to say, it feels in most classes I only have 20% of them interested, engaged, physically competent and getting a real enjoyment from sport. The number one frustration, their inability to focus for long enough to listen to instructions and coaching points.

Without doubt I put this down to the ever increasing trend of young people's addiction to gaming (e.g. Fortnite). This addiction is been fuelled by a generation of parents who know it's a problem but allow it and accept it! Gaming is a growing part of society and is and can be a fantastic development that children can really engage with. However, as Rob mentions in his blog, the problem is moderation needs to be used.

For the purpose of this blog I have decided to research a professional gaming team and read a blog from their professional coach. As expected they don't play on the game for hours and hours at a time, the coach uses moderation and more importantly has daily exercise and healthy diets at the core of their programme. I hope we can educate children to understand that gaming can be played daily but in moderation with school work, homework, exercise, meal times, playing out and high quality sleep as part of their daily routine.

Info from the professional gaming coach - share this with your children:

Hello! My name is Alex "Sharkz" Taranda and I am the head coach for the Vega Squadron's League of Legends team (both strategic and performance) and we are taking part in IEM Gyeonggi next week. I've decided to help out all the pro/semi-pro players who are looking to improve (they want to but they just don't know how to do it right)!

1. Wake up and drink a glass of water 30 minutes before breakfast.

2. Take a shower in order to help your body wake up.

3. At least 4 days a week you need some type of Physical activity to stay in shape - PHYSICAL CONDITION DIRECTLY IMPACTS EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR PRACTICES. It can be swimming, running, gym + cardio, yoga is going to help your mind as well as your body. Also yoga is one of the best activities for programmers. If you have some problems with your weight (obese, overweight, etc.), just start with jogging around the area, get rid of bread and sugar, start drinking water instead of soda and juices and you will see insane results in just a month.

4. Do a daily journal by using these notes - http://imgur.com/ovoppHU . It's not just going to help you focus on your goals, but you'll feel much happier about yourself and your life.

At this time, you get some food: meat/brown rice/vegetables are the best possible lunch you can have as a programmer. Don't overeat and try not to eat pastries, because it'll slow your reactions and might make you sleepy.

Why do you need to walk around? Because when you sit down for a long time, there is an enormous pressure on your back and abs and in order to help them to rest a bit, you need to stand up and stretch, as well as to walk around. You should be able to play around 5-7 games per day at your top level. If you have problems with being focused, then mindfulness, morning journals, physical activity and meditation should help you to keep your focus longer and have a better mindset as well!

Growth Mind-Set - https://imgur.com/a/6Kkn2

Don't overeat, because you'll feel tired and sleepy, so the rest of the games will be useless. Just play 2-3 extra games before going to bed. Try to finish the last SoloQ game an hour before your bedtime, so there is enough time for your body and eyes to calm down and rest as soon as you lay down.