SPORTSHALL PROGRAM England Photos courtesy of Roy Saxby BACKGROUND The Sportshall Athletics Programme was created to encourage youngsters to stay active in athletics on the off-season. The program included fun activities such as tossing the caber, the chest push, and the speed bounce along with a wide range of activities for aerobic speed and endurance. The child-centered program became popular quickly and is now a competitive league program in which over 10,000 youngsters have participated in since its onset ten years ago, in fact world-famed marathoner Paula Radcliff participated in a Sportshall Athletics Programme. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Roy Saxby is proposing the idea of an international competition via the Internet. If you are intrigued by the idea of exposing your children to other cultures through athletics, this might be something you'd like to develop with Roy. Please read his initial thoughts, and consider participating. It may be late for this year, but there's plenty of time to plan for the 2003-2004 school year. ROY'S IDEA My idea would be to see if a school or schools with children aged 10 years old would like to compete against schools over here (England). I would suggest field type events to start with simular to our Sportshall Athletic competition events: standing long jump, vertical jump, seated ball throw, balance test, speed bounce, standing triple jump, standing two step and jump, chest push and other athletic field event type activities. All these activities take place indoors. If we decide to put on running events a sportshall of about 33 metres would be required or we might be able to set up an outdoor race something like a 3000 m continual pursuit relay with the twelve boys team members and another race for the girls team. In this race the first athlete athlete runs for fifty metres and passes the baton on to the next runner who then runs for fifty metres and passes the baton on and so on until the baton arrives back to the first runner who then runs another fifty metres this continues untill every runner completes five sets of fifty metres making a total of 250 metres for each runner and with twelve athletes the total distance run would be 3000 metres. A small amount of equipment would be required. Most events could use a standard tape measure, chalk and a stop watch. Teams could be made up of twelve boys and twelve girls all competing in two events only and could be done as an after school activity. I could set up a Web site simular to my Sportshall Athletic site or even add another page to my site dedicated to this competition. I already have a program that works out positions and points from information and results keyed in. Distances and height would have to be in metric measurement as my results programe only works that way. If there is any interest I would try to get some sort of sponsorship from an international companyfor your side to purchase the same type of equipment we have (no promises). What do you think? A lot of organisation and preparation would be needed but I am sure it would work. CONTACT INFORMATION Please visit the Sportshall Athletics Programme Web site. And if you really think that this is just what your school, club, or community needs, contact Roy Saxby. He would like to create an international online competition with other schools or programs. Roy Saxby Activities Manager Grimsby YMCA Peaks Lane Great Grimsby North East Lincolnshire DN 32 0AN Tel: 01472 359621 Fax: 01472 340086 sportyroy@yahoo.co.uk NOTES FROM ROY October 2002 Winter is setting in over here so my squad are now preparing for the cross-country season with long runs, hill reps, and swimming. I will be introducing them to skipping soon also as it is a good fitness improving session and its fun especially if its done to cool music played loud. (I put in ear plugs) We are assisting (by internet) a coach in the North of England in setting something up in his area and have been asked by a neighbouring county to go over and do some development work in their schools. So we are pretty busy developing athletics over here. July 2002 Last year we held our first primary schools cross-country championships. We had ten schools competing and each school brought 24 children plus. There were races for 9, 10, and 11 year-old boys and girls. We were lucky enough to have the support and use of the school grounds of a school where we designed and created a cross-country course. We held the second event this year and fortunately the weather was much better with lots of sun shine and no rain, unlike last year. Our Sportshall Athletic Programme attracted 29 primary schools, so we had 4 leagues running. The matches (meets) took place every Wednesday in the YMCA Sportshall during curriculum time. Every individual child's performance has been posted on the results page of our community Web site (field events only) So far this year we have 39 entries and are awaiting a reply from one more school. At least 24 children aged 10 and 11 will represent each school so there will be almost 1000 children competing in each match and there are three matches. LINKS Oh, for Some Success Poetry by Roy Saxby Integrating Running and the Curriculum Country Running Poem and Program description Sportshall Athletics Programme Web site History, photos, league rules, and more Feel free to email the kid's editor at carol.kids@rodale.com.