Conference Some 70 per cent of Irish teenage girls are not physically active, and 58 per cent of teenage boys do not take any exercise, according to exercise physiologist Dave Egan of the University of Limerick. Patricia Weston reports
Speaking at the 'Can Sport Make a Difference To Me?' conference in Shannon, Co Clare, last week he warned that "obesity will be the next health time bomb in this country" given that lack of exercise can lead to all sorts of chronic health problems such as heart disease and cancer.
"There are solutions and we can improve on these shockingly high percentages by encouraging children and teenagers to look at their lifestyles as a whole and become more active," Egan added.
Students aged between 15 and 16 years from secondary schools and youthreach centres in Co Clare participated in the gathering.
"We deliberately asked teachers to bring along students who were not sporty or physically active at school so they could try out activities on the day and maybe become involved in sport," explained Tom Crowe, sports co-ordinator of Clare Sports Partnership. "This is the first time a conference of this kind has been tried so we are hoping to make a difference.
"We discussed the age groups to target with teachers and, based on research, 15-16 year-olds are the most inactive so we decided to focus on them," Crowe added.
High-profile sports men and women were present to encourage and motivate students. Fullback for the Shannon rugby team, John Lacey, was on hand with national senior cross-country champion Seamus Power to give advice to students. Former World Archery Champion Pat McLoughlin emphasised the importance of taking part in sport rather than focusing on winning.
The students had the opportunity to try out activities such as pitch & putt, golf, aerobics, swimming, dancing, weights and martial arts. "I think it's great. I brought students who didn't do any sport at all and had never been taken away to hurling or football matches," said teacher John Galvin from Ennistymon CBS. "It's a great opportunity to get involved in different sports, they'd never get a better chance than this to try out all these sports in the one day," he added.
Student Sinead Kelly from Lisdoonvarna Secondary School was very impressed. "It's very good because it gives us the opportunity to get an insight into other sports and to open our minds to other sports," she said.
Teacher Derek Dormer from Kilkee Community College was of the view that the conference could have been more activity based as it was obvious that participating students were, in many cases, badly in need of some exercise.
But, he hoped, they would get involved in some form of sport.
Teachers were given an information pack on the sporting activities available around Co Clare and an activity questionnaire for their students to fill out over the summer months to encourage them to keep active.
"They probably won't fill out the forms but we hope they do so that they can keep the activities that they did on the day in mind over the summer," said Susan Ward from the Céifin Centre.
The conference was organised by Shannon's Céifin Centre, an organisation committed to effecting changes in values within society, and Clare Sports Partnership which, funded by the Irish Sports Council, aims to promote and encourage sporting activities in Clare.