1.1 Explain the issues to consider when organising and taking part in sports

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Whether you’re organising a team to take part in a league or tournament or you’re organising the league or tournament itself, there are a few key tasks that you will need to carry out.  The size and scale of the activity is completely up to you. There will be key knowledge you will need to obtain from others and key skills you will need to use if you want your competitive sporting activity to run smoothly.

Key Skill- Communication

Being able to communicate successfully is a very important skill for someone organising a sports activity. Communication can be divided into two types:

• Verbal communication:

This is what you say. You should speak clearly and precisely, in a way that the team you are talking to can easily understand and is appropriate for their age and experience. You should encourage your team too, congratulating them when they do something well and providing support and guidance when they don’t quite meet the mark.

• Non-Verbal communication:

Non-verbal communication includes the tone of voice and your body language, your posture, your facial expressions and your gestures. Saying something motivating while your arms are tightly folded and you are frowning does not come across as positive to those listening. Be confident and enthusiastic, and demonstrate things wherever you can.

Listening is also a vital communication skill. Everyone in a team should be able to approach you with queries or concerns and it is important that you are able to listen to suggestions.

Key Task- Organising the venue and the equipment

It is critical that you think ahead and organise the venue and the equipment you will need in advance of your activity. You will need to ask yourself:

• How many people will be taking part? Do they have any additional needs?
• Where will your competitive sports activity take place? Do you need to book and pay for a venue? How long will you need it for?
• What equipment will you need? Do you need special equipment for participants who have a disability?
• Do you need to book and pay to hire the equipment? Has the equipment been well maintained and is it safe to use? When do you need to return it?

Key knowledge- Your responsibilities

Health & safety

The person organising the event is responsible for the health and safety of all of the participants.  Sports can be risky, but the organiser should minimise risks wherever possible. Remember to draw on the experience of other adults that you may be working alongside, whether this be the coach, leader, sports organiser or venue manager.

For example, they should:

• Ensure that the activities match the abilities of those taking part and that the main activity is preceded by a warm up and followed by a cool down to guard against injury.
• Find out if participants have any health problems which may have an impact on their ability to take part in the event safely, and act accordingly.
• Make sure that any equipment used is in good working order and any health and safety guidelines are followed.
• Ensure a full risk assessment takes place that covers both the venue and the activity. Can your coach or leader help with this? Do you need to complete independent research to find a sports risk assessment template?
• Collect emergency contact details from all participants.
• Make sure a qualified first aider is available throughout the event.

Insurance

The person, organisation or venue will need to be insured to protect them if anything goes wrong.  The insurance provides reassurance for the participants.  The organiser will need to research insurance specifically for sporting events. There are obvious limitations here and a young learner would probably struggle to get insurance on their own. Again your task is to research this topic and ask the other adults that may be working alongside you, whether this be the coach, leader, sports organiser or venue manager to help you with this.

Legal Obligations

The person organising the event will have lots of responsibilities, some of which will be dictated by law. Such as:

• Child protection: ensuring that all children in their care are safe and not at risk from anyone and that the parents and guardians of all participants under 16 have given permission for them to take part.
• Data protection: ensuring that all information about participants is stored according to the rules set out in the Data Protection Act 1988.
• Equality: ensuring that all participants are provided with equal opportunities to take part and are not discriminated against because of their age, gender, religion, race, nationality or sexual orientation.

Rules & regulations

Every sport has its own rules and guidelines and the orgainiser will need to ensure they have the knowledge required to organise this game.  If they do not have good knowledge they should either research or ask someone who does have the specialist knowledge to help them.

The organiser will need to know how it is played safely and fairly and use a scoring system to know who wins the game.

Personal responsibilities

The organiser should act in a professional manner.

This could be dressing for the part, looking smart, taking a lead within the group of people there for the event, and demonstrating good sportsmanship throughout.

The organiser should lead by example at all times.

It is critical that you think ahead before you start planning your activities and consider in advance any issues that may arise.

Write up a response using full sentences, answering the questions below. Remember, you have not necessarily chosen the sport or activities that you wish to plan for as yet, so think about a range of sports and activities and detail the differences between them and how this will affect your planning. You may need to complete independent research to help you.

You will need to ask yourself and include in detail within your assignment:

• What will be my main responsibilities as the organiser?
• A description of the skills I will need to display in order to plan a successful activity?
• What are the different sports activities I could plan and how will this affect the venue?
• Which sports activities can take place outside and which can take place inside?
• How will the weather impact my activity?
• A description of why I think legal responsibilities important to consider.
• What are the laws will I need to abide by, giving a detailed description of what they are as well as how I can meet these legal responsibilities?
• Is Event Insurance important and why? What might happen if I do not have this in place?
• How many people will be taking part? Do any players or participants have any particular needs to be met?
• What age are the players taking part? How will their age affect my planning? What issues surrounding their age will need to be considered?
• Where will my competitive sports activity take place? Do I need to book and pay for a venue? How long will I need it for?
• What equipment will I need? Do I need any special equipment for participants who have a disability?
• Do I need to book and pay to hire the equipment? Has the equipment been well maintained and is it safe to use? When do you need to return it?
• How will I ensure that I have an understanding of the Health and Safety requirements associated to the activity? Can I complete a risk assessment? Could I research a risk assessment template that I could use?
• What specialist expertise or support do I need? How will I gain this information or help?

Assessment Criteria	Pass	Merit	Distinction
1.1 Explain the issues to consider when organising and taking part in sports	Learners will explain the issues to consider when organising and taking part in sports	Learners will give a detailed explanation of the issues to consider when organising and taking part in sports	Learners will give a comprehensive explanation of the issues to consider when organising and taking part in sports