Team GB funding plans announced

Basketball, synchronised swimming, taekwondo, boxing, archery and hockey are the big winners in UK Sport’s Olympic 2012 funding programme. All six have received sizeable increases in their budgets ahead of London, with basketball getting a huge 136% increase, up from £3.7m to £8.7m. Rowing is now Britain’s best funded Olympic sport, getting £27.5m of the £304m pot available. The big losers include shooting, table tennis, handball and fencing.

UK Sport insists the level of funding builds on the £265m that was provided ahead of the Beijing Games and enables Britain to target a top-four finish in the medals table in London. But its £550m budget is £50m below the £600m that had been pledged and has meant that some sports, like handball, have lost out. “We are gutted,” Paul Goodwin, general manager of British Handball, “I don’t know how we are going to afford our coaches.”

What to do with the little ones?

Author Rae Pica is constantly asked by elementary physical education teachers, “What am I supposed to do with the little ones?” Most PE programmes don’t address the issue either, but in her latest book, Physical Education for Young Children: Movement ABCs for the Little Ones, she comes to the aid of teachers who are stumped when it comes to the developmental needs and abilities of young children.

Through Physical Education for Young Children, you can:

• Learn about the unique needs of 4- to 8-year-olds and write developmentally appropriate lesson plans to meet these needs.
• Provide a logical progression of movement skills and awareness of the elements of movement (space, shape, time, force, flow and rhythm).
• Develop children’s motor skills, manipulative skills and fitness while making connections across the curriculum.

Physical Education for Young Children places the focus squarely where it needs to be: on the fundamentals. The book provides teachers with the following tools:

Youngest ever whistle blower

Congratulations to Harry Goodhew, aged 11, who qualified for an entry in the Guinness World Records last weekend by becoming the youngest ever qualified rugby referee to take charge of a match.

The Dulwich College pupil and member of the Old Alleynian rugby club, took the Entry Level Referee Award Level One and Two course in September, with a group of adults.

His first significant outing as a qualified referee on Sunday was at Dulwich College, where he took charge of a Kent v Herts girls’ under-12 match. By all accounts, Goodhew was exemplary in keeping order.

Recreation, Event and Tourism Businesses

Recreation, Event, and Tourism Businesses: Start-Up and Sustainable Operations uncovers the keys to business success in the commercial recreation, event and tourism sector – one of the fastest-growing segments in the tourism and recreation industry.

Until now, students, professors and professionals interested in this growing industry have been forced to rely on general business or basic recreation texts as their main reference source. With Recreation, Event, and Tourism Businesses, the authors have combined their expertise both as business owners and professors, to offer a comprehensive and industry-specific textbook and step-by-step guide for new business start-ups.

Written from both entrepreneurial and operations management perspectives, the book provides a practical overview of the recreation, event and tourism (RET) field and the business planning process. A new conceptual model of the RET industry is presented and related to existing models. It explains how the industry works and examines the key components of commercial RET businesses. It also describes how companies are started, operated, and managed, including information on service issues, risk management, finance, and marketing. It also provides examples of how RET businesses can be operated in a more sustainable, environmentally friendly manner.