Steps in keeping citizens active for life
Today, we will be discussing one of my favorite topics, keeping everybody active for life. I will be relating the national movement Canadian Sport for Life (CS4L) to you, my dear readers. I’ve long been interested in this program, having had dinner with one of the proponents.
The philosophy goes like this: A citizenry that’s active for life is healthier, happier, more productive and will require less maintenance. From a sports standpoint, a healthier population is a great base to get elite athletes from, but that’s not my point for the next series of articles. Science, research and decades of experience all point to the same thing: kids and adults will get active, stay active, and even reach the greatest heights of sport achievement if they do the right things at the right times.
Here are the stages of development as proposed by CS4L’s program:
1 Active Start
2 “Fun”damentals
3 Learning to Train
4 Train to Train
5 Train to Compete
6 Train to Win
7 Active for Life
The first three stages seek to develop physical literacy before puberty so children will have the basic skills to be active for life. A quick look around school playgrounds and I see that this is something that’s desperately needed in our educational and fitness curriculum. Physical literacy forms the foundation for those who want to pursue elite training in one sport or activity after age 12.
Train to Train, Train to Compete and Train to Win stages provide elite training for those who want to specialize in one sport and compete at the highest level, maximizing the physical, mental and emotional development of each athlete.
Active for Life stage is about lifelong participation in competitive or recreational sports or physical activity. It’s great to see people getting fit and healthier. Here’s hoping that more and more Cebuanos will seek to be Active for Life, not just active to look good for summer. In the next few articles I will be looking into each of the stages in greater detail. Stay tuned!