Reviving Sporting Interest
Posted: Monday, October 19, 2009
by Mark Bartley
Do you remember the middle of last summer? Strawberries were ripening and the two Red Bull cars wer
But one aspect of a big sporting event appearing regularly on our televsions was never going to be changed and that was the resurgence of interest in tennis that follows the Wimbledon tournament.
The thrill of watching the world's best tennis players on home soil served to remind people that tennis is a great sport and that facilities all over the country were just waiting to be used. Thousands of usually empty or infrequently used tennis courts in every town and city suddenly became very popular. Children, who may have wondered what that rectangle of tarmac in the corner of the park was for, were now asking their parents to dig out their old tennis rackets and a take them down for a game. Expecting to find the courts deserted as usual, they would almost certainly have been treated to the surprise of seeing the courts all busy and groups of others waiting their turn. Dust covered booking systems would be opened up and names would be listed for later in the days and weeks to come. Tennis clubs and tennis teaching academies would start to receive a flood of new enquiries, at least until the end of the summer when the annual phenomena starts to fade away again.
That is the impact of a high profiling sporting event and the same thing happens when the football season restarts or when sports such as athletics, gymnastics or swimming receive some prime airtime on our TV channels. No doubt lots of children who were watching Beth Tweddle take a gold medal in the World Gymnastics Championships held in London during October will be asking their parents how they get to do the same thing. There will undoubtedly be lots of young boy racers who are now more eager to get into a go-kart and start following in new World Champion Jenson Button's footsteps on the motor racing circuits.
Wind forward a few months and we can expect a similar situation to start evolving once the next Winter Olympic Games start in Vancouver, Canada in February 2010. There's no need to start building the bobsleigh your young ones might be asking for or to start laying the foundations for a four story-high ski jump ramp in the back garden, but don't be surprised when they start to get excited watching the snowboarding races or the freestyle skiers performing their spectacular jumps.
For most people living in Great Britain, the opportunities to take part in a proper downhill ski race or to start learning the basics of ski jumping are fairly minimal. Unless you have the time and money school-age children can look forward to just a week or two at most in a real winter sports resort, but now that doesn't necessarily mean the end of any winter sports ambitions.
Freestyle skiers and snowboarders now have a very credible alternative in the form of indoor snow sport centres. This new type of facility is able to provide the ideal conditions for getting to grips with sports like snowboarding in relative comfort and safety. The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead is just the type of facility that could be laying the foundations for British Winter Olympic success in the future and when the Vancouver Olympics start next year, it could witness the same type of increased interest that our tennis courts experience during June and July.
The Snow Centre is perfectly set up to cater for the demand too. It has a session programme and instruction schedule to take people of all ages and abilities and get them on the slope quickly and safely. Some even argue that the indoor conditions it provides are even better for beginners than those you would find in a traditional outdoor resort.
Equipment hire is included in the admission price so anyone can come along and have a go. And it's not just beginners who appreciate the options available at The Snow Centre. Accomplished and experienced snowboarders and skiers will also find sessions that cater for their more demanding needs. Each week the centre holds several freestyle sessions, culminating with a four hour freestyle night on Friday's, where the centre's staff construct the type of challenging features on the slopes that freestylers look for.
Indoor ski slopes like those at The Snow Centre are now being built all over the world, allowing many more people to take up sports like snowboarding and skiing. This review, along with others, provides information on how to get involved in the latest indoor sporting activities.
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