{"id":5913,"date":"2018-12-07T14:25:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T14:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/mixed-ability-sports-a-family-affair\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T08:42:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:42:29","slug":"mixed-ability-sports-a-family-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/mixed-ability-sports-a-family-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed Ability Sports \u2013 A Family Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sport England announced a \u00a340m investment to get families across the country active[1]<\/a> earlier this year. As part of their \u2018Towards an Active Nation\u2019 strategy they identified that parents and families play a major role in creating sporting habits amongst children and young people.<\/p>\n

At IMAS we have taken a more \u2018organic\u2019 approach as the delivery of Mixed Ability sports enables families to get involved<\/em> rather than just being a taxi service or supporter. It does this by creating sporting environments that are safe, welcoming and non-judgemental for all, including family members. For example, within MA Rugby Union it is not uncommon to see siblings, cousins, parents and grandparents all joining in as players. The Derby Bucks, established as part of Comic Relief\u2019s \u2018Try for Change\u2019 project, exemplify this trend with 2 sets of brothers and a whole family involved!<\/p>\n

Clare Frances, mum to MA player Ben, explained \u2018I\u2019ve watched him move further away from sports that won\u2019t be accepting \u2026 to have him play with his cousins is just brilliant, it has given them a connection again that I didn\u2019t expect. Sam and George wanted to play as well, to compete alongside him. It\u2019s inclusive not exclusive. It\u2019s changed Ben\u2019s life right now.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jake and Mark Goodwin from Bumble Bees RUFC<\/h6>\n

Aside from those involved on the frontline of MA sports we have also sen how the MA environment fosters a sense of belonging and community that is shared between generations, a vital asset if we are to encourage the next generation to become more active.\u00a0 Michael Randle first got involved in MA Rowing as a participant via sessions held at Bradford Amateur Rowing Club (BARC). He identifies the social side of the club as a key motivation and appreciates MA as a different model of inclusion, which has extra relevance to him:<\/p>\n

\u2018One of my granddaughters has extra needs and so over the past few years I\u2019ve had that direct experience of being with her and encouraging her, and it\u2019s great for me to see something where people are actually involved in a community activity and not separated off all the time<\/em>.\u2019[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

As we all know, grassroots sport simply wouldn\u2019t function without the support of family members giving up their time each week to provide travel, coaching, volunteering whilst also cheering them on. Where MA differs is that family members no longer need be relegated to the role of \u2018number 1 fan\u2019, instead they can play alongside their loved ones, providing support in attack and on the river rather than simply from the side lines.<\/p>\n

To find out more about the research that we have carried out please visit:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/evaluating-the-impacts-of-ma-sport\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gabriele and Giacomo Girocchi from Chivasso Rugby<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.sportengland.org\/news-and-features\/news\/2018\/may\/23\/childhood-inactivity-targeted-by-new-40-million-families-fund\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> All in the Same Boat: Mixed Ability Rowing in Practice, Dr. Jen Dyer, 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sport England announced a \u00a340m investment to get families across the country active[1] earlier this year. As part of their \u2018Towards an Active Nation\u2019 strategy they identified that parents and families play a major role in creating sporting habits amongst children and young people. At IMAS we have taken a more \u2018organic\u2019 approach as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[549,187,173,211],"tags":[576,577,234,197,578,579],"class_list":["post-5913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-es","category-mixed-ability-sports-es","category-sin-categorizar","category-sport-england-es","tag-family-es","tag-inclusion-es","tag-mixed-ability-es","tag-mixed-ability-rugby-es","tag-sport-england-family-fund-es","tag-towards-an-active-nation-es"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mixedabilitysports.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}