New Website helping children make the right food choices

Professor Gunter von Gunter

The British Heart Foundation is trying to do its bit to stop kids in the UK opting for burgers instead of salads.The charity has launched a new website featuring Professor Gunter von Gunter who encourages to kids create a virtual version of themselves.

The free online game, which is called Yoobot, then shows children how their food choices and how much they exercise affects their life expectancy and general well-being.

The charity explains that children should, through this, get a real idea of how the food they eat affects them in the long term.

“Having spent time choosing their diet the child should become familiar with the nutritional content of common foods as well of the implications of such choices.”
“Overall, through allowing children to watch the future unfold before their eyes, it is hoped the game will show them the relevance of the food and lifestyle choices they make now – and encourage them to make healthier choices from an early age”, says the British Heart Foundation.

And why do this? The Foundation says, two thirds of children are predicted to be overweight or obese by 2050, and at present, almost a third of 10- and 11-year-olds are overweight or obese.

Visit the Yoobot website

Net Gains: How table tennis improves pupils’ health and behaviour

Children’s work, behaviour and even health is being improved by getting them involved in playing table tennis, but could the transformation seen in Glaswegian schools be replicated elsewhere? Table tennis, that most understated of Olympic sports, has been introduced in one of Britain’s poorest areas to give pre-teens the chance to lead a successful, fulfilling and healthy life.

Drumchapel, a sprawling housing estate on the edge of Glasgow, is blighted by poverty, poor health, gang violence and drug taking. But the local table tennis club has grown from a small group with only three shaky tables 20 years ago to being one of the biggest clubs in Britain today. In the process it has made a huge difference to the thousands of locals who have passed through its doors. A healthy living initiative has now extended the sport’s reach to 16 local primary and two secondary schools, with 60 tables now available for children to play on.

Take to the court with a mental edge

The best basketball players and coaches are known not only for their success in the sport but for the manner in which they manifest their knowledge and abilities in playing, coaching and teaching the game.

Players like Michael Jordan, Steve Nash and Diana Taurasi share a special grasp of what is needed in every game situation.

Teams coached by John Wooden, Phil Jackson, Pat Summitt and Mike Krzyzewski won many championships because of their coaches’ amazing ability to teach, motivate, discipline and unite players to perform to their potential both individually and as a group. In Court Sense, John Giannini highlights the qualities that make players and teams great and provides practical ways to improve any area that might be lacking.

The first half of the book covers all the basics a player must have in place, on and off the court, in order to excel.

The second half features the six Cs that are crucial to on-court performance:

• coachability
• communication
• cohesion
• capacity to lead
• competitiveness
• concentration

Giannini brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the subject as a former collegiate player and veteran coach who has earned a PhD in sport psychology. His insights and advice are combined with real-life examples and supported by stories shared by top coaches such as John Beilein, Tony Bennett, Tom Crean, Jamie Dixon, Steve Donahue, Joanne P. McCallie, Sean Miller, Oliver Purnell, Bo Ryan, Tubby Smith, Sharon Versyp and Jay Wright.

Playing like a winner first requires preparing like one. Use Court Sense to your advantage and you’ll be one step closer to cutting down the nets.

Court Sense
John Giannini
ISBN: 978 0 7360 4423 3
PRICE: £13.99 (18.20 Euros)

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Poor facilities put girls off sport, poll shows

Changing rooms with hairdryers and full-length mirrors would help to encourage women and girls to take up sport, a poll published last week suggests. More than half of those surveyed would take part in sport if they could style their hair afterwards. Fifty-six per cent of girls aged 10 to 15 said that hairdryers were essential and 91 per cent cited private cubicles as a must-have.

The findings, by the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation, will be used to urge schools to upgrade changing facilities as part of a push to increase females’ level of physical activity.
Less than 3 per cent of women play competitive team sports while those aged 16 to 24 are half as active as their male peers. Nearly a quarter said that PE classes at school put them off sport for life.

The publication of the latest female attitudes to sport is a precursor to a national campaign to begin next year as part of the antiobesity agenda backed by ministers. Provisionally titled Make Active Attractive, it is pitched against centuries of gender-bias in competitive sports that have traditionally been overwhelmingly male pursuits run by men in blazers.

The campaign will build on the work of an independent commission announced in July by Andy Burnham, the Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, to address the absence of female leadership in sport, a lack of media interest and lower investment levels compared with men’s sport. Chaired by Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, who won 11 Paralympic gold medals, the commission helds its first board meeting this week.

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, told a sports conference at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium that Britain must capitalise on the raised profile of women’s sport prompted by the success in Beijing of Rebecca Adlington, the double Olympic swimming champion, and Rebecca Romero and Victoria Pendleton, who won gold medals in track cycling.

Source: Times Online

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Alcohol sports sponsorship ‘fuels binge drinking’

Beer and cider companies which sponsor sports clubs could be responsible for making Britain’s binge drinking culture worse, a leading medic has warned. Speaking in response to a study that showed a link between alcohol sponsorship and heavy drinking, Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, called for a debate on whether such deals should be banned.

The study found that sportsmen and women in clubs sponsored by the drinks industry were more likely to binge drink than those without an alcohol company backer.

Nearly half of such sponsorship deals (46.7 per cent) included free or cut-price alcohol for sporting functions and post-match celebrations, found researchers at Manchester University and the University of Newcastle in Australia. Players felt obliged to drink the sponsor’s product under such circumstances, the study found.

Drinks industry sports sponsorship is widespread in Britain. Of the 12 clubs in Rugby League’s Guinness Premiership, all have a beer or cider company as a sponsor. Football also has a strong association with the industry: more than half the clubs in the Barclays Premier League list beer companies as sponsors.

Dr Kerry O’Brien, of Manchester’s School of Psychological Sciences, said: “Sports people receiving direct alcohol-industry sponsorship of any kind, including payment of competition fees, costs for uniforms and the provision of alcohol beverages, reported more hazardous drinking than those not receiving sponsorship.”

A spokesman for the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, which represents the whole industry from producers to retailers, said: “Sponsorship by the drinks industry enables many millions to enjoy the benefits and pleasure of sport and there are strict codes governing its use in the UK. It seems odd that members of the health profession want to limit the opportunities to participate in sport.”

Source: Daily Telegraph

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2 new football titles released

Elite Soccer Drills

The game’s top football players possess remarkable speed, agility and coordination as can be seen through their precision passing, incredible ball control and an almost uncanny ability to anticipate and react to the opposition’s moves.

Although the sport’s best players can make these skills look easy, mastery of each comes only as a result of dedication, commitment and countless hours of practice. In Elite Soccer Drills, renowned US coach Mike Matkovich shares the same drills he has used in developing some of soccer’s premier players.The 82 drills emphasize execution in high-level play while addressing the finer points of passing and receiving, attacking and defending and heading.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The Importance of Self-Training
Chapter 2. Speed, Agility, and Coordination
Chapter 3. Juggling
Chapter 4. Dribbling
Chapter 5. Passing and Receiving
Chapter 6. Heading
Chapter 7. Attacking and Defending
Chapter 8. Crossing and Finishing
Chapter 9. Conditioning

With drills for both individual players and teams, as well as practice tips and coaching suggestions, Elite Soccer Drills is the perfect practice tool for developing the high-level skills and soccer sense that players need in order to excel.

Elite Soccer Drills
Michael J. Matkovich, Jason Davis
ISBN13: 978 0 7360 7386 8
PRICE: £10.99 (14.85 Euros)

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Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully

Build a girls’ soccer team that are winners both on the field and off.

In Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully, one of the USA’s top high school coaches, Debra LaPrath, shares her expertise on all aspects of coaching. From establishing a coaching philosophy to making decisions during a game, this is the approach that has made her programme a perennial powerhouse. Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully covers every aspect of the coach’s role:

• Developing and perfecting skills
• Evaluating players and defining their roles
• Organising productive practices
• Scouting and preparing for games
• Adding variety to training
• Developing leadership qualities
• Motivating the team
  
• Communicating both on and off the field

Featuring seasonal training plans, drills for developing fundamental to advanced skills and advice for handling ‘off-the-field’ challenges, Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully is the most comprehensive resource available for novice and experienced coaches alike.

Coaching Girls’ Soccer Successfully
Debra LaPrath
ISBN13: 978 0 7360 7212 0
PRICE: £11.99 (16.20 Euros)

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All in the big-money game

With the huge sums involved in staging landmark sporting events don’t rule out a Chelsea MBA appearing on the syllabus If anyone had any doubt about the world-changing nature of sport and the huge sums involved in staging landmark sporting events, the Beijing Olympic Games was as powerful a rejoinder as could be imagined.

From the vast infrastructure projects to the iconic stadiums, Beijing spared no expense. London 2012’s £9 billion budget seems like loose change in comparison. What both the Beijing and London Olympics prove is the closeness of the relationship between big business and sport. Once unlikely bedfellows, they are now bosom buddies. Indeed, the United Nations has calculated that sport may account for almost 3 per cent of global economic activity. In the UK sport is thought to generate around 2.5 per cent of GDP.

This close link between sport and business is being validated by MBA programmes with a sport element. Sport management is increasingly featured on MBA programmes – after all, huge projects requiring vast sums of money need the leadership, marketing, project management and financial skills that form the basis of MBA courses.

Among the leaders in the field is the Centre for the International Business of Sport, part of Coventry University’s Business School. The Coventry centre is led by Professor Simon Chadwick, probably as near to a guru as the fledgling sports business area has. Coventry offers MBAs in sport management and international sport management, covering sport law, marketing and sponsorship, broadcasting and event planning.

Other sport business MBA programmes are offered at Leeds Metropolitan University (a two-year course); Birmingham University (a part-time, two to four-year sport management MBA); and Manchester Business School (a global MBA in sport and major events launched last year).

So far few business schools have followed the example of San Diego State University. It offers a sport business management MBA in partnership with the San Diego Padres baseball team. The Chelsea MBA may not be far away.

Source: The Times

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