Forrester PE Dept

Environmental Issues

 

Definition:

Environmental issues can have a big impact on how you perform in a sport. It can range from the facilities you have available to train in or play in to taking part in front of an audience/crowd.

 

Impact on Performance:

 

Whilst it is not always necessary to have every new or latest piece of equipment to use when you train, it does make a difference if the equipment you are using is older, slightly damaged or just not enough of them. For instance, a class in Primary school that may only have 1 badminton racquet between 2 means time actually practising is halved and obviously progress will be slower. If you are practising your running for Athletics and the area is quite small then it is difficult to train correctly for a race on a 400m track.

 

Athletes who have access to better training facilities and equipment will usually make better progress and be much more motivated to make that progress!

 

“…I was involved in a volleyball club that had teams at most age levels. Every time we had a competition it was always well supported. There were always lots of people watching and cheering us on. This had a positive effect on us as players as we were not bothered about big crowds. When it came to certain competitions we always seemed to settle more quickly than our opponents and were used to the noise and support. We knew a lot of people were on our side and we were less nervous which helped our performance…”

 

“…my gymnastics club recently got a newly equipped hall. As well as new equipment, mats and pits we also got a sprung loaded floor in the middle as well as a sprung loaded runway. This was a great training aid for us as most of the competitions we went to had the sprung loaded floors. We always struggled to complete moves properly on these floors before but now we can train with the correct speed, power and bounce and then just repeat in competitions. It helped us become more successful…"