Grassroots approach to boost participation

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The industry must get kids active.

To increase activity, fitness professionals need to get back to the grassroots of the industry and bring sport into local schools.

This is according to the managing director of Middle East FitPro, Greg Boucher, and business development director for FitPro in the UK, Andy Jackson, who visited Dubai recently for the Middle East Health and Fitness Summit.

"A hot topic is childhood obesity and childhood sport," said Jackson.

"It's not just about childhood obesity: it's encouraging kids to play sport and be active, whether they are overweight or not," he added.

Jackson suggested there needed to be more structured activities with a purpose in terms of promoting children's fitness and health.

He also pointed to mistakes made in the UK. Here kids' gyms boomed between 1996 and 2001, but 60% of them are now empty.

"You can put in the best facilities and products, but if you don't entertain, children will stop going," he said.

Clubs didn't reinvest in staff delivering the programmes, Jackson said.

To meet the need for staff to run children's fitness schemes, Jackson suggested maximising the skills of talented people currently working in childcare in the region.

"It's about getting these people and giving them some new training rather than looking for the finished product and flying somebody in," he continued.

"Sometimes it's better to get the right personality and train them and give them the tools to do the job," he said.

RELATED LINKS: Healthy staff equals healthy profits, Competing courses, Getting to the grassroots

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