The year 2020 will be remembered for a long time as one that sparked painful and unexpected change in global society. It will be remembered for very sad reasons by many who have lost people close to them and by others for the way it changed their way of life forever.
A period of lockdown is reminding people of all ages how myriad sport and recreation activity touches them and plays a part in their lives that they previously gave little thought too. Whether it is personally, or through family, friends, neighbours and local people and teams, sport brings fun into our lives.
But WHEN will sport return to our lives? HOW will sport return to our lives? Those are key questions being asked across the world as we learn to live differently during the lockdown brought on by COVID_19 and prepare to emerge back into society.
The OSS is collating and sharing views from across Scotland’s community sport landscape and globally, through research surveys, webinars and articles.
In our first webinar we asked leaders involved in leisure trust, sport organisations and community clubs – Billy Garrett, Director of Sport and Events at Glasgow Life; Keith Russell, CEO of Badminton Scotland and former SRU Director of Rugby; and Craig Graham, chairman of Edinburgh community club Spartans FC, whose Ainslie Park facility has become a food distribution point to help communities through coronavirus.
The second webinar focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on Youth Sport – it will cover all ages from pre-school to students – and will take place on: Wednesday 29 April, 2020 (1pm-2pm) – click here to join.
We will feature the views of youth coaches, youngsters themselves and see some hot-off-the-press research from Denmark into how COVID-19 has significantly changed trends for teenage boys and girls in sport. We will ask:
- When will youth sport get back to ‘normality’ – and will it ever?
- How are clubs keeping youngsters engaged and active?
- How do we re-shape coaching sessions to take account of social distancing?
- How do we prepare for a ‘new normal’? How do we attract people back to sport? How will habits change?
- What is our new ‘normal’ going to look like?
We are also running future webinars focusing on ‘Sport for Older People’, “Volunteering and Club Sport’ and ‘School Sport’ with others in the pipeline every fortnight across April, May and June.
Please join us and share your thoughts as we learn from each other on how to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 and find new ways to encourage people to take part in sport in all shapes and forms for the good of Scotland’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.
See you Wednesday!
Until then, stay safe and follow the coronavirus discussion and ideas for keeping mind and body active during lockdown at www.oss.scot.
Thought Piece from Charlie Raeburn for Reform Scotland