Due to these characteristics females will never feel the motivation to participate and neither will the younger age groups. The younger age groups will also feel that normally they wouldn’t want to be involved in an activity which is for older people. On the Sunshine Coast, Sailing will remain more of a leisure activity than a competitive sport. This is simply because the participants on the Sunshine Coast are more interested in doing Sailing for Enjoyment or simply to just socialise. Sailing will also carry this profile in the future as the funding for advertising or any media coverage isn’t high and therefore the general public will be unaware of Sailing.
Recommendations for Sport and Sailing: As Australia faces the threat of becoming more of a sedentary country than that of a sport crazy nation it is important to look for ways to improve the situation. The first recommendation would be to encourage children at a younger age to complete the recommended physical activity outside of school as well as in it. As students are normally forced to participate in Physical Education at school they don’t usually enjoy it, however parents are able to adapt to the child’s interests and discover a way to make exercise appealing to the child. Having the parents participate with the child will boost the child’s confidence as they will feel that they can do something with their parents. By developing healthy attitudes in children at a younger age they are more likely to continue exercising as they get older as the mentality is already there.
Another simple recommendation is to walk more regularly, whether as a family, with friends or as an individual. Walking is a simple form of exercise which doesn’t involve too much exertion and that can work as a social time as well. Having more people walking will increase their fitness, and make sure they are living a healthier lifestyle. The use of walking could then motivate the person to start running or jogging which would create another opportunity to exercise.
As a sedentary lifestyle is becoming more appealing than that of a physical one, limit the amount of time spent on sedentary activities such as TV or Internet. Doing this will force a person to look for other ways to spend their time, meaning that other activities could be done that would involve some sort of physical activity. This doesn’t mean cutting sedentary activities out of the lifestyle completely as it is important to have a balance between the two. This will also mean that instead of just watching the sport on TV or on the Computer a person can go out and actually do the sport.
To get the whole family involved, local communities could hold family sporting days. These days could be sponsored by local businesses which would give the businesses an opportunity to market themselves to their community as well as getting the community active. Days like these could include simple activities like Tug-of-War or a sack race and held once every couple of months. Another way to encourage people to exercise is to use fear. With more advertising of obesity and hypokinetic diseases the public are likely to be scared into doing more exercise as they don’t want to become overweight or having a hypokinetic disease. With this advertising it would also be wise to aim it at children specifically as they will not want to become overweight like the people in the television.
As mentioned sailing isn’t looking like its profile will grow any further than it already has. However there are improvements that could be made in order to help sailing become a more participated activity. The first recommendation would be to give it more media coverage. This includes things such as more races televised, more advertisements of sailing, having websites designed for children about sailing. More media coverage means that society is able to be more aware of sailing as an activity. Another recommendation would be to have reality shows based around sailing. This could include shows which have celebrities sailing or novice sailors. This type of show would draw in the public as they are interested in watching celebrities or novice sailors improve or get worst at an activity. Seeing a celebrity doing an activity also motivates the viewer to want to do the same thing in order to be like that celebrity.
A way that sailing could become more recognised on a local level is to again have a family day. Sailing facilities in the local area (even if it’s sailing on land) could host a day where families can go out and learn how to sail and even have a mini competition. Again local businesses could sponsor the event which would be beneficial to them as well. Another way that would motivate more people to become involved is having advertising that appeals to the younger generations. If it appeals to them they are more likely to want to go out there and sail and from that if one child sees it they’ll tell their friend who will tell their friend and eventually due to the children wanting to do it with their friends they will do it. This will also create a positive attitude towards sailing in children which they can carry on into adulthood.
In conclusion it can be seen that the Sunshine Coast reflects the patterns in sport participation and the trends and attitudes of the wider community of Australia. This was seen in the male to female ratio of participation which showed that males were more likely to participate in physical activity than females. The findings also showed that the most popular form of physical activity was walking. This is because walking is a simply exercise that can be done anywhere, at any time and with anyone. Because of this more people are likely to participate in the activity as they have an easy way to keep fit and healthy. This leads to the most common motivation for physical activity which was seen to be Enjoyment and Health and Fitness on the Sunshine Coast and Health and Fitness in Australia. This shows that the Sunshine Coast, like the rest of Australia is keen to live a lifestyle that is healthy and one that keeps them fit.
The media, money, sponsorship and advertising were seen to have an influence on sport in general and on sailing. Males are more likely to be motivated to participate in a sport as male gendered sports are more apparent in the media. They also receive more funding and sponsorship than that of the female sports. As a result of this, females are more interested in socialising or focusing on their career than their fitness.
It was then seen that sailing was viewed more as a leisure activity than a competitive sport both on the Sunshine Coast and the in the wider community of Australia. This was proven by the local data which indicated that those who participated in sailing mainly participated because of enjoyment or for social reason and not for competition. In Australia, sailing is not a well recognised sport as it is only ever really brought to the public’s attention on Boxing Day for the Sydney to Hobart race. Another reason that sailing has low participation rates is that people don’t have the proper knowledge of how to sail. Due to this, they are prevented from wanting to learn or from being willing to have a go.