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Sport and fitness for today’s youth July/August 2010 £2.75
‘Britain needs a Michelle Obama to fight obesity’ By Louise Cordell THE UK’s response to the worsening obesity crisis has been slammed by industry expert Tam Fry at a national conference. The honorary chairman of the Child Growth Foundation called the country’s approach to fighting childhood obesity a ‘national disgrace’. He said: “We deserve the problems we are facing now because we failed to observe and tackle the issue in its earliest stages.” Speaking at the Childhood Health: Fit for the Future conference, he called on the government to use Michelle Obama’s recently launched American health scheme as inspiration – claiming that following their example is the only way out of the current crisis. Tam pointed out that within a week of the US scheme’s launch, the country’s processed food and soda industries had pledged to remove a trillion calories from their products and agreed to a formal audit to guarantee results. He compared this with the UK’s attempts to encourage self regulation within the food industry, which he described as ‘less than effective’.
Under the American scheme, 60 minutes of physical activity per day will be a must and it will be a fundamental part of the school schedule – structured around and integrated into lessons. Lunchtimes will also be about educating kids on healthy eating and cooking, as well as just feeding them, with the government insisting that all young people have easy access to healty foods – not just in schools, but also in restaurants and areas like parks, to create a continuity of good food provision. Tam added: “There is a lot we can learn from this new scheme, but until we have someone as charismatic as Michelle Obama to lead the initiative we will flounder. “Unfortunately, where that person is, I don’t know. “MPs are good at producing rules, but they rarely inspire in the way that is needed, and whoever is to take up the reins of this cause needs real energy and drive – we need to find them, and fast. “It will take an obesity champion for the whole of the UK if we are ever going to make real change happen.”
Poll reveals lack of parental support
The Britain’s Got Talent finalists Strike have teamed up with ZigZag to launch a new martial arts programme for children and young adults. The duo, who reached the finals in the 2008 TV show, will link with ZigZag sites across the UK to roll out the programme, which combines martial arts, dance and gymnastics choreographed to music. Liam Richards and Danny Ball will train health club and leisure centre instructors to deliver the ten week programme, which is designed to target total martial arts beginners and to complement the training of more experienced martial arts and dance students. Full story, Page 9
A NEW poll has found that one in five children aged six to 11 do not get any support from their parents to play sport outside school. Half of boys and 15 per cent of girls say they would play more sport if their mums and dads were prepared to drive them to sports clubs. However, the David Lloyd Leisure poll found that a third of parents believe their children should be playing more sport. Sarah Hobbs, head of family and programming at David Lloyd Leisure, said: “The results reveal that while parents feel their children should be more active, their behaviour is not supporting this belief. If we don’t nurture these skills when they are young, children will find it difficult to perform well in sporting scenarios as they grow up and there is a danger that they will become reluctant to participate.”