01 Shokk
10/12/09
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Sport and fitness for today’s youth
Dec 09/Jan 10 £2.75
Parents suffer ‘reality gap’ on kids’ fitness By Louise Cordell PARENTS are suffering from a ‘reality gap’ when it comes to their children’s fitness levels, according to new research from the British Heart Foundation. It found that although 71 per cent of parents think that their children are ‘active enough’, only 11 per cent are actually doing the recommended daily 60 minutes of physical activity. The findings have been released in the charity’s new Couch Kids report, which highlights how crucial physical activity is in tackling childhood obesity. It points out that while the number of obese children has risen since the mid 1990s, there have been no major changes in children’s activity levels. Dr Mike Knapton, associate medical director at the BHF, said: “Mums and dads need to take off the blinkers about how active kids need to be in order to keep their hearts healthy. “Kids need to get moving more, yet we’ve been standing still for the last decade. Children aren’t really any more active than they were ten years ago.” The report also made a series of recommendations to schools, suggesting ways they can maximise the opportunities for children to keep active through the school day. It suggests that teachers should
encourage kids to be physically active at break times and that more opportunities should be provided outside lessons through extended schools. The report states: “School provision should explicitly recognise the diversity of provision and approaches needed to ensure that physical activity reaches as many young people as possible. In particular schools must demonstrate how they are meeting the needs of adolescent girls and the least active groups.” In its conclusions the report also praises the progress that has been made on developing schools travel plans in England, confirming that active transport can contribute to a more physically active profile across the whole day. It is now being recommended that government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should aim to replicate this success and set targets for their own schools to develop similar plans. Peter Hollins, BHF chief executive, said: “While we shouldn’t underestimate the progress that has been made in some parts of the UK, such as the increase in PE hours taught in English schools, we need to move decisively and quickly to ensure that the current generation have the best chance of long and healthy lives.”
Teen girls ‘skipping meals regularly’ TEENAGE girls are regularly skipping up to two meals a day because they think they are overweight, according to a survey from the Schools Health Education Unit. The poll showed that a quarter of girls aged 14 and 15 miss breakfast, 22 per cent don’t eat lunch and one in ten of them often go without both meals. It revealed that most teenage girls believe that they are too heavy, even when they are actually a healthy weight or even underweight. Lennox Lewis appeared at the 28th Commonwealth Sports Awards to support the achievement of young athletes from around the world. The awards aim to honour the achievements of sportsmen and women and to encourage young people to aspire to greater heights. Winners included Usain Bolt and Stephanie Rice for Outstanding Male and Female Athlete and Sir Christopher Chataway was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The 18-year-old Manueli Tulo of Fiji was named Outstanding Young Achiever for his achievements in weightlifting and his plans to compete in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and the 2011 Pacific Games in New Caledonia.
More surprisingly, 40 per cent of younger girls, aged ten and 11, also thought they needed to lose weight. The report is based on answers from over 32,000 young people between the ages of ten and 15 from 361 schools across the UK.