What Is The Sports Continuum?

Every form of sporting organisations uses the Sports development continuum. The continuum is used as a way of progression from one level of performance in sport to another. the way the sports development continuum works is the way like a pyramid is set out. Your Start At the bottom where it is the widest and finish at the top where it is at its narrowest. This means that in terms of a sports persons performance, since it is at its widest at the bottom, a lot of people are at that level. whilst at its top it is at its narrowest. so not that many people can get to the top of the pyramid compared to the bottom. This is why the Pyramid is divided into for different sections based on there performance in sport.

 

Foundation level

The foundation level is the lowest level in the sports development continuum. this level is mainly for beginners that are just wanting to get use to the basics of sport. they will start to only learn and performs basic things in sports. This includes movements and specific skills that  relate to the sport they are taking part in. specific skills may include just maintain balance or even something as simple as catching a ball. when a beginner has finally mastered these basic skills, it gives them more options in terms of any sport that they may wish to play in the future.

 

Participation Level

The Participation level is the next level up from the foundation level. A person will make the change from the foundation level to the participation level when they have mastered the basic skills in sport and also have chosen a certain sport they like and want to take part in regally. The participation level will include taking part in local sports clubs around where a person lives. the reason a person may choose to take part in a sport is for a number of reasons. examples include they may enjoy playing the sport, wanting to build on there current level of fitness and also socialising and meeting new people.

 

Performance Level

The next stage up from the participation level is the performance level. now the performance level is when you are building on the skills and techniques that you have learned from the participation level. This is in order to further improve a person performance for the sport they wish to take part in. At this level, you will always look to improve on what you have learned in order to develop it even further.

 

Elite Level

The Elite level is the highest ranked level in the sports development continuum. At the elite level, you will be doing the sport a person has chosen for a living. This will require them to train to over there limit in order to get the maximum possible performance out of themselves. This will require them to train for all the year for certain competitions. At the elite level, people at this level are recognises as the best in the world.

Sports Development Continuum For Athletics 2

Foundation Level

 The foundation level of athletics starts with children learned the basics of athletics. The place where they learn to do athletics at first is at primary school. This can be in the form of PE lessons where they will do running races for example, or sports days where they will do things like running races or egg and spoon races. When a primary school is going to hold a sports day, they will give time to the children in the school to practice these events in the form of PE lessons. This is so that everyone gets a better understanding on how athletics work  and makes sure everyone gets a chance to participate in sports day. Also the school might also arrange competitions against other schools. This is to give children a chance to take part in athletics for the school. it also challenges a child's athletics ability. This means that teacher can see how children perform at athletics in a competitive situation and they can forward on to potential clubs that could help them further improve if they think they have a future career in athletics.

Participation level
When a person reaches the participation level of athletics, they are firstly divided into age groups. an age group that is used is under 11's for example. When a person reaches the participation level, they will take part in an athletics club. This club will help to further improve an persons athletics potential. An athletics club is run by athletics athletes. This is due to there previous experience in athletics and they can teach what they know to the new upcoming professionals. example of events that are performed at this level include, long jump, 100m sprint, and javelin. All of these events are taught at athletics clubs. This is so that the people being taught have a better understanding of all events in athletics    so they know what athletics event they want to take part in specifically. A child can join an athletics club at any time. they can then train at that club for as many times a week as they wish. they can continue to do this until they reach the competitive age of 11 years old. Also in order to test a persons ability in an athletics club, competitions may be arranged against other clubs within the same county.

Performance level
When someone reaches the performance level of athletics, the form of training that is required is more advanced. This is because at this level, an athlete is only focussing on one athletic even specifically. This makes there training methods now become sports specific. By doing this it enables basic and sport specific skills for there athletics event to be combined. This enables an athlete to gain an edge over there opponents when they are competing. So they ways they train now are in many different competitive situation scenarios and positions. Any form of training a person does for an athletics event must be linked to the event they are doing. It also must not effect a persons health in a negative way. Anyone who makes it to the performance level of athletics will go on to represent the county against competitions against other county's from all around the country.

Elite Level
When an person reaches the elite level of athletics, they will be at the top of there performance. This will include both physically, mentally and all other aspects required. It is also vital an athlete trains everyday in order to maintain there current level of performance or else they will lose it. So training should focus on getting the best possible performance out of there chosen event they are taking part in. This can include various training methods. Examples include ''fitness training programs, and psychological preparation etc.'' This gives an athlete the ability to analyse there own strengths and weaknesses so they can improve on it on training which will improve there performance in there event. People who are at this level of the continuum will perform in events all around the world. Examples include the Olympic games and world championships.






Sports Development Continuum for Badmington 2

Foundation Level

At the foundation level of badminton, they are only beginners. therefore they will only be learning the basics of the game. This will include the skills and movement that is required to play and also an the rules of the game. This mainly occurs to children at a young age. The place where young children will learn how to play badminton is at schools. This is because badminton is normally taught at primary schools as part of the curriculum. So it will therefore manly be taught during PE lessons. There may also be opportunities for children to take part in badminton clubs that run at lunchtime and afterschool.

Participation Level
When a person reaches the participation level of badminton, it can be for number of different reasons. Examples include wanting to improve on current health and fitness levels, and also waiting to socialise and meet new people by playing the game. This normally involves people playing badminton for more than once a week. In order to take part a badminton at the participation level, people often join badminton clubs or just book out a court where they can play regally. if a person does decide to join a badminton club, they can start to arrange tournaments against other clubs within the local area. This will help people to further develop there badminton playing skills by looking how other people play and learning from it. Examples will include improving to technique of play and maybe even taking another persons playing style and possible trying to use it as your own.

Performance level
At the performance level of badminton, people play in order to further improve there badminton ability. This includes skills Training and also practicing on a regular basis. They still take part in badminton tournaments, however they take place all around the country. Therefore in this level of the continuum, Badminton players are competing against each other to become the best in the country. this can be in the form of badminton clubs against one another or even badminton players that are representing a county going up against other county's. In terms of the number of matches a badminton player takes part in at this level, they normally play 6-9 weekends over a 3 month period when they are playing at a competitive level. This requires them to train for 10 hours a week whilst playing badminton at this level of the continuum. The 10 hours of training require 5-7 hours of physical activity that is badminton related, whilst the other hours should just be made up of physical activity in general. these training session should last between 30-90 minutes in total. Also whilst people are playing badminton at the performance level, they can take part in trials for badminton academy's. This is so badminton players can gain  sponsorship money  to help fund for things like playing equipment and travel costs for example.

Elite Level
When a badminton player reaches the elite level, they are playing for the team nationally. Therefore they will be taking part in championships all around the world against other country's.  When playing badminton nationally, it is split into certain age groups. This starts al the way from under 13's up to under 19's. This can range from many different competitions. examples of competitions include ''European competitions, junior Olympics and UK school games''. When a badminton player reaches the elite level, they play at a high intensity. This requires them to take part in long hours of training. A badminton player at the elite level should train for 26 hours a week. Out of these 26 hours, 14-16 of these hours should include physical activity that is badminton related. Also 5-10 hours of this training should include ''off court training. Finally 3-4 hours of the training should be used to simulate at match. In terms of how many matches they play at the elite level, it is the same as the performance level. so it is 6-9 matches at a weekend over a 3 month period. Therefore there is not drastic change in terms of the number of matches played between players in the performance level and the elite level. Therefore training regally to improve is key as playing ability is all that really separates badminton player from the performance level and elite level apart.















 

Sports Development Continuum for Swimming 2

Foundation Level

At the foundation level, you are only looking to get people use to the water. this mainly includes children. To start with you may just get use to them sitting in a bath filled with water. This will enable young children to get use to the feel of the water. After they have done this they may start to do swimming lessons. This is so they can learn how to perform basic movements through the water. This will include strokes like Front crawl, Breast Stroke and Back Stroke. The say they will learn these basic swimming skills is by going to swimming lesson. This can be at a local swimming pool from where a person lives or even though a school a child goes to. the way they will be taught may by firstly having them practice with floats in the water. Once they gain more confidence, they may think that they can swim without them. A child will continue to fall in the foundation level of swimming until they a fine and have no problems in the water and they are able to swim without any assistance.

 

Participation Level

A person will fall into the participation level of swimming once they have mastered the basic swimming skills required from the foundation level. At the participation level, children are normally good enough to join a swimming club. Whilst at a swimming club, they will help to improve on skills that a child has learned at the foundation level. Since Swimmers will be stronger now than what they were at the foundation level, the change to the participation level from the foundation level is a huge jump. Now at first, there are going to be a mixture of children who are different in age and swimming ability. Firstly they will be divided into swimming groups in which they have similar swimming ability's. This is so that they can all learn the same type of swimming skills as each other. This is so there isn't a swimming groups that have one swimmer who isn't very good and another who is ready for more advance swimming. Due to the difference in ability's, you can teach them in the same group as one will find it to easy if the stronger swimmer is doing stuff that is based on the weaker swimmer and the weaker swimmer will find it to difficult to do stuff that is set for a stronger swimmer. As well as sorting out swimming groups based on swimming ability, you should also try to arrange swimming groups based on age group. This is because you don't want to be teaching groups of children who have a big age gap between them. For example you might have 2 beginners. One might be 5 and the other might be 9. Now although they will be similar in swimming ability at this stage, the age difference between them can make them difficult to teach in some cases. For example, the 9 year old will understand the method of teaching more easily as they are older and the 5 year old wont as they are younger and it will take them longer to grasp it. So the age difference between children can also affect the rate of speed at which they learn and advance, even though they may both start at the same level. As children start to take part in the swimming club, overall swimming skills will start to improve. This will result in children completing many swimming badges. Completing swimming badges will result in children improving there overall Stamina, stroke technique and Strength. Also as they start to improve on overall swimming ability, they will start to take part in swimming galas. This is when they race against other people with a similar swimming ability to each other. Some races include a certain swimming stroke that they must do. Others include freestyle, so they are able to choose what stroke they want to do. The distance a person swims depends on there current swimming ability. Firstly they would normally start other a distance of 1 width of the swimming pool. As swimming ability improves throughout the swimming club, they will progress onto completing swimming races over greater distances. Like they could Progress from swimming 1 width up to ether 2-3 lengths.

Performance Level
At swimming at the performance level, pupils swimming ability are at a high standard. This will result in swimmers taking part in competitions against other clubs. This will be taking part in races against each other to see which club has the best swimmers and weather there are any methods of teaching that could possible improved on based on the overall result of the competition. The clubs that they will compete against will come from all around the country. So the club wins the completion will be arguably the best swimming club in the country. The people who are swimming will compete against people within the same age group as themselves. For any swimmer that reaches the performance level, they have one key goal, to reach the elite level. This is because they want to take part in the big competitions internationally. Examples include the world championships and the Olympic games. So when a swimmer reaches the performance level, it is reality a training session so that they can reach the top of the swimming competition. Whilst training at the performance level, swimmers will have access to certain training facilities. Examples of facilities they use to train are the gym in order to improve there strength in which there muscles pulls them through the water, and also Olympic size swimming pools. This is so they can complete racing distances regally to work on stroke technique to complete the required racing distance in the shortest possible time. Sine a swimmer has access to all of these facilities, there is only one thing that can stop a swimmer from achieving this and progressing to the elite level. This is the motivation of the swimmer. It all comes down to how much they want to achieve this.

Elite Level
When a swimmer reaches the elite level, they will take part in swimming competitions all around the world. This will include representing the country at events like the Olympic games and world championships. At this level, swimmers are among the best swimmers in the world and it is truly a pure race against each other to see which one is the best. Any swimmer who takes part in swimming at the elite level will do this for a living. this will result in them training every day in order to be the best and with the aim of winning every competition they take part in. This will include training in the pool to work on stroke technique to complete the swimming distance required in the shortest possible time, going to the gym to work on strength of muscles so they can pull themselves through the water at a faster speed, and also a well balanced diet so they don't lack energy whilst swimming and aren't at weight that will decrease there overall swimming speed through the water. Once a swimmer reaches the elite level, a swimmer must do all that is required to stay at this level. If they don't, like dropping there rate of training for example, a swimmer can possibly fall down from the elite level to the performance level. This can be a weakness of a swimmer if they are all ready the best. This is because once they won, they are the best. therefore there isn't as much motivation to win as much any more like when winning a football division for example.