EDDIE IZZARD

EVENT REPORT
DR JULIE BRUNTON, VICE CHAIR OF THE ESDN
ESDN CONFERENCE
Understanding behaviours and how to change them was among the key topics at
the sixth annual conference of the European Sports Development Network (ESDN)
– the event which brings together sports academics and practitioners
One of the main
purposes of European
Sports Development
Network (ESDN) is to
give academics and
practitioners an opportunity to share
knowledge and discuss the advancement
of sport development. This year, the
conference’s main topic was sports
participation – particularly timely,
considering that Sport England and
the British University College Sport
(BUCS) are currently in the middle of
consultations which will result in new
strategies on participation for both.
INSIGHT TO PARTICIPATION
The day started with two keynotes with
contrasting perspectives – one from
Lisa O’Keefe, director of insight at Sport
England and the other from Fred Coalter,
professor at Leeds Beckett University.
O’Keefe talked about the current picture
of participation in England, describing the
need to understand behaviour, design and
delivery for the particular target audience,
and finished with an illustration using a
case study from This Girl Can.
When it comes to behaviour change
theory, there is a myriad of theories and
models. Sport England is linking its insight
to Prochaska and DiClimente’s (1983)
Transtheoretical Model that identifies a
staged approach to behaviour change.
While it has had mixed success, it can
help those delivering sport to understand
that behaviour change is complex and
often involves a number of processes
that individuals go through before they
become physically active.
Sport England highlighted the need to
design sports offers with specific target
audiences in mind, to understand the
barriers faced by a particular audience,
what motivates them and the context they
are in. There is also a need to understand
more about behavioural techniques of
how to achieve change, as well as how can
will educate people better around coping
strategies to improve maintenance.
Knowing about barriers and motivation
won’t necessarily lead people into action
and maintenance, but improved knowledge
of behaviour change techniques and
planning for dropout prevention might.
Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign
illustrated excellent awareness-raising
and stated motivation. However, to move
people who need “a push” to get active is
another complex challenge that requires
better understanding of what will move
these ‘intenders’ (those who need to
be motivated to be active) into action.
More work is needed to link university
academics with sports policy makers and
deliverers to help ‘try and test’ more
theory-based interventions to bridge the
gap between theory and practice.
INEQUALITY IN PRACTICE
Keynote two, presented by professor Fred
Coalter, reviewed the data representing
the inequalities in sports participation.
Although changes in data collection
have made longitudinal analysis difficult,
relationships between age, sex and social
class and sports participation remained
relatively unchanged from 1987 to 2014.
Sport England’s This Girl Can
campaign was designed using
a staged behaviour change
methodology
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