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Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2013

10 Dec 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Youth Sport Strategy

Keir, Colin SNP Edinburgh Western Watch on SPTV

I welcome the strategy for youth sports and in particular the input by the young people’s sport panel. It is good that those whom we want to encourage to participate in sport have taken part in the direction finding that, frankly, we have required for some time.

As I see it, there are two issues. The first, which a number of members have dealt with, is how we get young people into sport. What is sport at a youth level? It was only in the latter part of the debate that the idea of fun has been introduced. People need to find a real sense of fun when they kick off—that is the only way that we will get youngsters in primary school interested. The transition between primary and secondary school has been mentioned, and there are the physical changes that happen during adolescence, which particularly affect girls’ involvement in sport. Those are all issues, but they have been around for years. Dealing with them is the first part of tackling the problems.

Obviously, I am delighted with the £5.9 million that the minister mentioned and that 89 per cent of schools have met the PE target, although I would love 100 per cent of schools to have the full amount of PE. However, having read the report, I want to raise the issue of how we help people to continue when they identify the sport that they are interested in. At school, PE provides a taster to allow kids to get into sport and to find out what sport they like, what is good for them and how they can continue doing it.

Another issue is that we want high-level athletes. Ken Macintosh mentioned Ian Stewart. The first time that I ran a 5,000m for Edinburgh Athletic Club back in the 1970s, when I was 17, we stayed with the Stewart family in Birchfield. Those people are role models to us.

I get very despondent when I see that the last time that a Scottish record for a flat race between 100m and the marathon was broken was 19 years ago with Tom McKean. We have to go back to 1975 to the 400m record by David Jenkins. There is therefore an issue with role models. Those people have been and gone and a lot of people do not remember them—we were having a laugh at who remembers Ian Stewart—but I do. Graham Williamson, who holds the Scottish record for the 1 mile, was my captain in the Scottish schools cross-country team, but that is going back so many years. We have to get people involved now.

This is where the people aspect comes in. When I went to Craigmount school, it was great. The head of physical education was Peter Gallagher, a Scottish B international rugby player. At that time I had no interest in rugby, but my English teacher was the five times Scottish marathon champion, Colin Youngson. He got me into running and, through that, I became an international and carried on from there. It was absolutely fantastic.

People are the key. We have to involve people who inspire and really want the kids to do well. If we do that, people will have fun at sport and take it through their entire careers into adulthood and we will, I hope, start to see the results in future years.

17:46

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Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2013

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