REFLECTING ON THE SAD DECLINE OF SPORTS IN SCHOOLS

It is always welcome to receive feedback following the publication of one of my TurfPro editorial articles - and recently I was delighted to hear to hear from Peter Driver, an old turf PR colleague of mine, who took the time to comment on my article, Sad Decline Of Grassroots Sports - Laurence Gale, TurfPro editor

Good morning, Loz,
 
I read your editorial piece on the decline of grassroots sport and wholeheartedly agree with every word you’ve written. Although you mentioned it throughout the editorial, I truly believe that the root cause is the lack of competitive sport in school. Successive governments have devalued the importance of Physical Education and we, as a society, are now reaping the unpalatable rewards.

I appreciate that I am now a dinosaur, but I attended a secondary modern school in north Essex back in the 1960s, where we were blessed with a brilliant PE teacher. Every evening, he would stay behind to coach us and we became the pre-eminent school in the area, due in no small part to his amazing commitment. All of my contemporaries went on to play in local youth football, then into men’s teams with some progressing to senior level. Three of our school team were signed as apprentices to our local professional football league team. Most of us continued to play well into our 30s and some in their 40s.

For over 30 years we played competitive sport, which meant we were reasonably fit as we approached middle age. I’m convinced we were, collectively, little drain on NHS funding!

Fast forward to today and we are faced with the scenario that you outlined: the decline of sports and social clubs associated with large businesses; local authority sports facilities disappearing due to austerity measures; playing fields being sold to developers; the rising running costs for community sports clubs together with the decline in volunteers and the significant increase in the costs of maintaining playing surfaces.

I also concur that lifestyle changes and competition from other activities have been a factor, but I am convinced that the headlong plunge by the younger generations to screen-based entertainment will come back to bite society in the future.

Your statistics from Sport England that since 2015 there has been a decline of 244,000 men regularly playing football, cricket or rugby even at a time when the official UK population has risen by around four million, is staggering.

In my early 60s I had three knee replacements; one in the right knee, very successful and two in the left knee, not so successful, as I now limp on my left leg. Obviously due to my age and the surgeries, a return to competitive sport was unthinkable.

Until I discovered Walking Football. I was approached by a couple of former school teammates who had taken up the game and they were pestering me to give it a try. I eventually relented and at the tender age of 72, went for a taster session. I was extremely sceptical and almost dismissive, as I thought it was just a bunch of ‘old blokes’ trying to recapture their lost youth, but once I’d given it a try, I was hooked.  

Remarkably, this is the fastest growing sport in the UK, with over 150,000 participants and is recognised by the Football Association. All of the home nations have national teams at various age groups.

Our club has about 60 members with ages ranging from 48 to 73 in our club, with eight teams, including a recently introduced Women’s team, playing in various leagues. The camaraderie is superb and the health benefits, both mental and physical, are excellent and I can’t recommend it enough. One of our goalkeepers plays for England’s Cerebral Palsy team. Because it is governed by strict rules it allows these diverse age groups to compete on a level playing field (or 3G pitch), so it’s a very inclusive sport.

You might be asking yourself what this has to do with the tenet of your editorial, but if we hadn’t developed a love of sport at school, we probably wouldn’t have taken up this particular form of healthy exercise in our later years

Problems arising from successive Government policy to diminish the sporting curriculum will almost certainly come home to roost in the future. The key finding of the Health Survey for England 2022 was that among children aged 2 to 15, the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) was 27%. It’s a stark fact that more than a quarter of all children are overweight.

It's time for a Government rethink on school sport!

Peter Driver