On Thursday 27th January Bolton Wanderers Community Trust (BWCT) invited first team players Fabrice Muamba and new signing David Wheater, along to their organised Judo session at the Bolton Muslim Girls’ School in Deane.
BWCT, Premier League 4Sport (PL4S) Manager Nicol Meredith has been coordinating this project since September 2009 and has been working with Bolton Muslim Girls’ School for the past four months, to help raise participation among young Muslim women.
PL4S is a two and a half-year long project across all top-flight clubs and aims to get children from all backgrounds involved in non-traditional, Olympic sports in a ground breaking £3.8m partnership bewteen the Premier League and central government.
Here within Bolton we have made every effort to ensure our PL4S initiative is inclusive and accessible to all young people within the Borough. In particular we have been looking at using the project to break down barriers that Muslim women face within sport.
“Research Conducted shows that Muslim women are significantly less likely to take up exercise compared to other groups. Therefore, we felt there was opportunity to create sporting chances though the PL4S project which would have the knock on effect of breaking down cultural barriers” PL4S Coordinator Nicol Meredith added.
Muamba and Wheater spent their time at the school observing the group of 16 girls being taught the basic skills of judo by British Judo Association (BJA) Technical Officer Kerry Finney and the current Female British Champion, Sarah Clarke, before taking to the mats to try it out themselves.
The Wanderers duo participated in a warm-up drill to increase co-ordination and reactions with the pupils, then were talked through the basics of how to perform a ‘hip toss’ by Kerry Finney and Sarah Clarke before having a go themselves.
Speaking after his time at Bolton Muslim Girls’ School, Fabrice said:
“It has been good to come down here today with David and get involved with something a little bit different. It is great to see that our club is reaching out into all areas of the local community and helping to get children involved in a wide range of sports.”
Echoing his team-mates comments, David said:
“I always enjoyed getting out and about in the town when I was at Middlesbrough and will be looking forward to doing the same at Bolton where it is clear that they have a great relationship with their community.
“It is clear that all of the girls today are having a great time and it is important that all people enjoy a fit and healthy lifestyle – no matter what age, religion, sex or race they may be.”
The new initiative will help the government’s ambition to raise participation rates among young people, as part of its Olympic 2012 legacy plans. It will also address the drop-off in sport participation when young people leave secondary school.
This means BWCT will work alongside The Premier League, National Governing Bodies, the Youth Sport Trust and Sport England, with the aim to get 1,125 young people aged between 5-19 to join local sports clubs within the four Olympic disciplines during the two and a half year scheme.
The Project is managed locally and works with clubs and school sports departments to maximise opportunities for young people. BWCT will build upon the success of current community programmes and aims to get children of all backgrounds involved in non-traditional sports.
In the run up to 2012, we want to see more young people from all walks of life getting involved with sport. This new initiative with BWCT is part of a perfect example of how the Olympic Legacy will benefit people throughout the country in years to come and how the games will inspire more people to get active.
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