Live life fully, take the most of every opportunity and don’t regret not trying, even if you fail*

Photo: A young athlete enjoys trampolining, one of many activities on offer as the London 2012 Roadshow stopped at the Rip Curl Boardmasters Event in Newquay as part of its nationwide tour.

* Beach Volleyball Sporting Champion and number one ranked player in the UK, Denise Austin

"Welcome to Edition 8 of the Sport England SW e-newsletter and thank you for your positive comments and reflections. Please keep them coming, both positive and less so as this will enable us to continually improve.

"I would like to acknowledge what a difficult and disturbing time it has been for those people in the north of the region, with the floods in the Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Cheltenham and Cotswold areas. In many of those areas, sporting and leisure facilities have been used to house people but, as is the case with Leisure @ Cheltenham, they have also been the subject of severe flooding. I certainly hope that things are beginning to get back to normal.

"The South West Conference on Coaching was a great success and oversubscribed. It was held jointly between Sport England and Sportscoach UK and I would encourage you to have a look at the presentations and outcomes of the conference below.

"Local Government Minister John Healey announced that nine proposals for unitary status will now go ahead towards implementation with the intention that all new authorities are fully up and running in 2009.

"This includes unitary proposals for Cornwall, Exeter and Wiltshire. Sport England and the respective County Sports Partnerships will work towards ensure positive outcomes for sport and active recreation.

"Newquay hosted the Olympic Roadshow as part of the Rip Curl Boardmasters event at Fistral Beach, with a join in / participation theme. The activities offered an ideal opportunity to see how extreme sports can engage people and help contribute to the region's participation targets.

"The Regional Plan for Community Sport is currently being reviewed and two successful engagement events have been held in Exeter and Nailsworth. The key findings of these events were reported to the RSB at their meeting in July (link to board paper) and further consultation will take place in January 08. It is intended that the new Regional Plan for Community Sport will be launched in April 2008.

"I hope that people have enjoyed a good summer break and come back refreshed and ready to make a big impact in the SW."

With best wishes

Jim Clarke
Regional Director
Sport England SW
Jim.clarke@sportengland.org

London 2012

Thousands attend South West 2012 Roadshow

Photo (R) Basketball demonstration

Newquay hosted the Roadshow during the Rip Curl Boardmasters Event as part of a nationwide tour to bring 2012 to everyone in the country. Thousands of people joined in activities and tested themselves.

The key to success was not just the glorious weather and amazing scenery, but the sheer number of different sports available for people to try, some for the first time or since school. The choice certainly invigorated the crowds and got people excited.

Demonstrations and activities ranged from the extreme of free surf school sessions, mountain boarding and coasteering to more traditional fun fitness sessions such as step aerobics, gymnastics, football, volleyball and tag rugby, attracting young and old alike. There was even a body pump for those wanting a hard workout in the midday sun.

Sport England co-ordinated Roadshow activities aimed to encourage participation in sport, help people to take part in sport and fitness, and identify local clubs able to help people take that important first step. Newquay Sports Centre, leisure services officers and staff from the Cornwall County Sport Partnership were on hand to help and assist participants. Local clubs and volunteers also gave out tips over the two days event.

Run in conjunction with London 2012, Sport England and Team South West, the Roadshow also featured strength and skill tests, the 2012 bus and a wealth of advice on getting involved in sport.

Beach Volleyball Sporting Champion and number one ranked player in the UK, Denise Austin (pictured) gave useful sporting advice and demonstrations throughout the two days:

"The best bit is I did all of it myself, no one said you can play for England gave me the money and the tracksuit and said off you go. Everything I achieved I did by my own hard work and sacrifice.

"Live life fully, take the most of every opportunity and don’t regret not trying, even if you fail’

Guy Lavender, Director at 2012 legacy directorate Team South West, said: “We were very encouraged that so many people joined in at Newquay for this spectacular event and used the Roadshow to get involved in sport. They also found out what is happening both in the region and in London as we prepare for the 2012 Games”.

Jim Clarke, Sport England South West Regional Director, commented: “It was a great success and I was really encouraged by the sheer volume of people taking part in such a wide range of sporting activities. The water and extreme-based sports were particularly popular and we really are blessed at having these activities right on our own doorstep!

“Our long term aim of increasing sports participation in the run up to 2012, and creating a lasting legacy for the whole of the Region, is starting to take shape.”

Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee, added: “London 2012 will be a nationwide Games and the Roadshow is only the first part of our pledge to involve everyone the length and breadth of the UK towards, and including, 2012. We want to encourage young people to develop their sporting talents, to achieve something for themselves or to inspire others to unearth their own talents and visiting the London 2012 Roadshow is a great first step to accomplishing this.”

For details of further activities and sports please go to www.sportengland.org/getactive

Coaching

SW Conference - Making an Impact on Coaching

26 July 2007 - Bath University Training village

Sport England South West and sportscoach UK hosted a successful regional conference at the University of Bath that gave coaches the opportunity to meet, share good practice and develop working relationships with others around the South West.

Keynote presentation by David Melville

Planning For An Annual Cycle

Game Sense by Rod Thorpe

Athletics - Raising The Bar In The South West by Richard Gwyn

Managing Behaviour by Nicky Fuller

Handout for the Managing Behaviour workshop

Do Coaches Have 'Super-Vision' In Their Coaching? by Keith Sharpe and Bridget Strong

Coaching in Schools Module by Sarah Binding and Claire Walters

Participation

Photo: Roadshow workout

Economic Impact Of Sport In the South West

Sport is a powerful tool to enhance the physical fabric of communities, to stimulate the local economy, and to improve its image with outside investors and tourists which is particularly important in this Region and at this time,

To help put your case forward for sport, economic viability and workforce development, read our bulletin and make that business case even more compelling. Together we can make a difference.

View Bulletin

Sport England Online Participation Survey

Reminder - we want to know what you would do to increase participation in sport. How can we use the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games? Which groups should we target for investment? As we write our Plan for Community Sport 2008 - 2013, due to be launched early next year, we need to know what you think.

Deadline for responses - 10 September 2007.

Click to complete an online survey or

Download a Word version (MS Word)

Events and Conferences

Promoting your Events

View some of the high profile events happening in the Region and nationally that will help to raise the profile of Sport and conferences likely to be relevant to partners working within the sector.

Please email any requests for inclusion to Jason.Lyons@sportengland.org

Upcoming

Regional Conference for Sport 2008 – an important date for your diary

27/28 February 2008 - Cheltenham Race Course

'Altogether Now - The business of Sport' will be held at an exciting venue with endless interactive opportunities! We will once again be holding a Market place following the success of last year's event, so if you know of any business or club that might benefit from being part of this event, please contact Sue Cooper at the Regional Office on 0207 273 1876.

You may remember that last year we were over-subscribed and that many of you asked for early notification so that attendance could be built in for whole teams as part of staff training and development exercises.

To register your interest email eventssouthwest@sportengland.org.

School Sport Partnership Conference 2007

28 & 29 November 2007 - Telford

The Youth Sport Trust has announced the date of this annual conference. Please note in your diary.

Equality

Photo: 2012 Paralympian swimming hopefuls Matthew Whorwood and Jonathan Fox were on hand to support and encourage at the Roadshow.

Sport England Equality Review

Jennie Price, Sport England’s Chief Executive, has announced that Sport England will undertake, with its partners, a short focused review of its No Limits Policy. "In order to realise our ambition of getting 2 million people doing more sport by 2012, we have to reach out to women, people with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds. We want to promote equality with a view to increasing participation in community sport."

Read about the Review.

Equality in Sport consultation in 2006 / 07

Sport England South West contracted Sport Structures Ltd. to support a consultation to explore barriers faced by under-represented groups.

The results and analysis published follow consultation based around a regional event, a questionnaire survey sent to over 400 key groups and organisations, and six focus groups which clearly demonstrate under-representation in sport amongst priority groups, according to the Active People survey.

The focus group meetings tackled, respectively, participation and access issues for:

- disabled people
- black and ethnic people
- older people
- people living in areas of rural deprivation
- people living areas of urban deprivation
- women and girls.

The report summarises the consultation work conducted between October 2006 and February 2007.

View Sport Structures report

View Executive Summary of the 50 page report

We would welcome any additional feedback and comments on the report, which will be used to inform the Equality in Sport Strategy for the South West.

Contact Jonathan Calderbank - Development Manager (Social Inclusion and Equity), Sport England South West, Ashlands House, Ashlands, Crewkerne, Somerset TA18 7LQ

020 7273 1844 or email Jonathan.calderbank@sportengland.org