Students Getting Fit Between Classes and After School

EDUCATION/HEALTH PROMOTION/PROTECTION--Students Getting Fit Between Classes and After School

Nova Scotia's battle of the bulge may ultimately be won because of heart-thumping video dance machines, after-school surfing clubs and even frisbees.

More and more students are getting worked up about working out thanks to the innovative programs of the province's 10 school board sport animators. Their jobs are to get Nova Scotia's increasingly inactive kids off the living room sofa and away from their computer screens.

The sport animators are already scoring some notable successes as they inspire more students to get fit through an array of innovative, and in some cases old-fashioned, after-school and recess fitness programs.

Over the past year, student participation in extra-curricular activities is up by more than 25 per cent.

"Getting fit doesn't mean having to be really skilled or really great at catching a ball or sinking a basket," said Stephen Gallant, manager of sport animators with the Department of Health Promotion and Protection. "Our animators are out there doing a wonderful job creating games and other activities that appeal to a wider range of kids."

One of the biggest hits has been Dance Dance Revolution. The electronic dance game has become the most recent weapon in the province's struggle against the growing epidemic of childhood inactivity. The game is now being used at dozens of schools right across the province.

"It's unbelievable. The kids love it. It's very physical and very social," said Daryl MacPherson, sports animator for the Strait Regional School Board. "Seeing these kids, many of whom aren't athletes getting excited about being active, I find really rewarding."

Born a decade ago in the arcades of Japan, Dance Dance Revolution is helping a generation of out-of-breath Nova Scotian teenagers break a healthy sweat.

The province's sport animators, who have been in place for almost two years, have been instrumental in introducing a range of extra-curricular activities, including Ultimate Frisbee games, Doctors Nova Scotia After-school Running Clubs, and Sport Stacking teams, involving the rapid stacking and unstacking of cups. The sport builds agility and hand-eye coordination.

Flag football, body ball, Ominkin ball, which involves groups of kids pushing a giant beach ball up and down a field, and Infinity sticks -- a kind of juggling game -- are also taking over the province's schoolyards.

Mr. MacPherson has introduced yoga mats into some of his schools so students can de-stress before an exam.

He's especially excited about his most recent accomplishment, building two 8-feet by 30-feet climbing walls at East Antigonish Academy and Cape Breton Highlands schools.

"It's challenging. It's really different and the kids love it," he said.

But it is not all just a matter of introducing new and intriguing games. Sports animators are also trying to resurrect the schoolyard games like 4 square, hopscotch and Red Rover that now teeter on the edge of extinction because of our culture of inactivity.

"It is surprising how many children no longer know the old skipping rhymes and the playground games that we and our parents grew up with," said Karen Geddes-Selig, sports animator for the South Shore Regional School Board. "They are not being passed down, and that's sad."

Ms. Geddes-Selig has been busy running student leadership programs to training older students to lead the younger children in games during recess and after school.

Sport animators and board Healthy Active Living co-ordinators have also been instrumental in striking partnerships between schools and local recreation departments so that the sports equipment and the facility is always available to the whole community.

"There is no doubt they are making a positive and measurable impact on the well-being of students," said Ann Blackwood, director of English program services at the Department of Education. "Because of sport animators, schools feel much better supported in their efforts to get students active."

The sport animators program is funded by the Department of Health Promotion and Protection, Sport Canada, the Department of Education, and school boards.