Covid-19

[Khriss]

Sets them up fr life it does , no doubt .... er now  wheres me coat    K

[Big J]

15 hours ago, Mike Dempsey said:

In a normal year about half the kids who go to the local primary school pass the front of my house. It cracks me up to see that the majority of them are obese and they are followed by their big unhealthy obese parents.

 

I have advocated free sports for kids for decades now as the benefits far outweigh any financial costs. The argument against that has always been about cost. This last year's expenditure has shown that where there is a political will there is a way.

From every small town upwards there should be big sports barns where sport could be played all year round so that the weather doesn't put people off. I'm not just talking about the football and rugby type sports as well. Everything from sailing to skiing and hockey to scuba diving. Teenage girls love dance. Nothing difficult in organising any of it. The capital costs may be a few quid in getting facilities built, but its creating employment as well.

Get kids hooked on sport at an early age and combine it with advice on diet, give them free proper food at sports weekends/camps. 

Think of the money saved from keeping them fit and active twenty or thirty years down the line. There are also the savings to be made from the social work/criminal justice side, decrease in property costs regarding bored teenagers and vandalism.

For anyone who doubts that this will work, I have actually been involved with youth earlier in my life for over 20 years. Property Services Dept in the council gave us £10k to devise some projects over the seven week holidays. They saved more than that due to the reduction in property repairs to public buildings. It was just unfortunate that these projects couldnt be expanded as nobody was willing to fund them.

It has to be the way forward.

 

Very much agree.

 

It was pointed out earlier by someone that the Scandinavians have much lower rates of obesity than us. It is pretty standard for each village to have a sports pitch and hall. Given the severity of winter, indoor space is crucial. 

[Johnsond]

41 minutes ago, Big J said:

 

Very much agree.

 

It was pointed out earlier by someone that the Scandinavians have much lower rates of obesity than us. It is pretty standard for each village to have a sports pitch and hall. Given the severity of winter, indoor space is crucial. 

From my time in Finland J the biggest difference for me was the huge amount of cycle,walking and running paths.  Didn’t matter where the road was either in built up area or out in the sticks it was built with an adjacent pathway. All ages used them to cycle incl kids to schools etc, cars obeyed the rules to the letter at crossings. Even in winter you’d see people cross country skiing on them.  I’ve 11 year old twins whom live 3 mile from the village school and there’s no way I’d let them head out on the roads on bicycles. 

[Big J]

13 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

From my time in Finland J the biggest difference for me was the huge amount of cycle,walking and running paths.  Didn’t matter where the road was either in built up area or out in the sticks it was built with an adjacent pathway. All ages used them to cycle incl kids to schools etc, cars obeyed the rules to the letter at crossings. Even in winter you’d see people cross country skiing on them.  I’ve 11 year old twins whom live 3 mile from the village school and there’s no way I’d let them head out on the roads on bicycles. 

 

I have noticed that, from my time in Sweden and also from house hunting and looking at the aerial photos. All the roads are linked together with excellent footpaths and cycleways. 

 

We're in a similar situation here in Devon. My daughters school is too far away to cycle to, but we can't really cycle anywhere safely on the road. No cycle routes (not a single one in Cullompton, a town of over 10k people) and lethal lanes means the kids are missing out on that. 

 

I grew up in Derbyshire, where the roads are generally much better, and as a teenager was knocked off my bike twice on recreational rides (I was never hit on the way to or from school). 

 

It's about establishing a pattern of behaviour when kids are young, that exercise isn't a chore, rather a part of normal life.

 

Train hard to live easy, is another way to look at it.

[spuddog0507]

There has been some big changes in the last 30yrs that i have seen, when i was back in high school there was not that many people who where over weight and as far as i can remember in our year there was 3 lasses and 2 lads, then when i got to driving about i used to do a fair bit o delivery work for a landscaping co in the early/mid 80s and i used to pass 3 or 4 collages on my rounds and again not many over weight people about then.

 Then back in 2007-2010 i did a bit of relief driving for a kitchen co and the things i noticed then was that there was near on as many over weight students as there was normal ones ?? , when i look back at what we did in our early teens and what todays kids do there is a massive difference in the activitys that we did, if we wanted to go somewhere we just got on our push bikes and went, no asking mummy to take us in the car, we went rabbiting with ferrets,air riffel,s and snares, we went fishing for 2 days at a time and only came home when the food had run out, even in the winter we where out and one favourite place was up the hill at the back of Mrs Thompsons ( Thompsons who own the pleasure beech at Blackpool) this was a steep hill and if we got a bit of snow like today we would go armed with 2 yellow top yield till bags each and create our own bob sliegh run, and if there wernt any snow we still went up there during the winter riding the ponies from Blackpool beach which got wintered up there, I dont see or here of todays teenagers doing any thing like we did it all seems to be armchair related these days, even my own grand kids seem to be bone idol, i tried to get the 2 oldest lads in to fishing and shooting ,but fishing is boring and i dont like the bang that gun makes, but they will sit and play computer games all day where they are killing people in the war games they play, I dont understand how things have got the way they are, but today you can just make a phone call and you only have to go and answer the door when the bell rings to get your tea, Things have changed a lot for sure there are 13/14 yrs olds smoking weed and sharing a bottle of Vodka. back in my day it was 10 No10 and a can of Topdeck shandy and that only happened if we could find enough empty pop bottles in the hedge bottom to take back to the shop, One thing i have read recently is that the NHS will be spending millions on replacement thumb and finger joints by 2035 this is due to excessive use texting on mobile phones and playing on game consoles, 

[Big J]

12 minutes ago, spuddog0507 said:

There has been some big changes in the last 30yrs that i have seen, when i was back in high school there was not that many people who where over weight and as far as i can remember in our year there was 3 lasses and 2 lads, then when i got to driving about i used to do a fair bit o delivery work for a landscaping co in the early/mid 80s and i used to pass 3 or 4 collages on my rounds and again not many over weight people about then.

 

 

It was the same for me too, and I'm a little younger than you. There were two guys in our school year (of just over 200) who were properly overweight, and really no one else. And they've since slimmed right down as adults as far as I'm aware.

I just despair for their quality of life. If you take a hypothetical lad at 6ft tall, 20 years old. If he's of average build and healthy, he'd be about 75kg (12 stone ish). But so many at that height will be 95-100kg (15-16 stone). The only way I can imagine carrying around that sort of dead weight is to put my 6 year old on my shoulders. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be doing that 24/7.

[Stere]

Japenese   balance bike racing and unicycling. Very few fat people compared to UK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by Stere

[Stubby]

2 minutes ago, Stere said:

Japenese   balance bike racing and unicycling. Very few fat people compared to UK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the little fella in the white hat down for the win before the off .  You could see his tension and commitment . 

[skyhuck]

I used to be able to ride a unicycle, I'm determined to learn again.

[Stubby]

11 minutes ago, skyhuck said:

I used to be able to ride a unicycle, I'm determined to learn again.

Its like riding a bike Dave ...You know 😁

Edited February 2, 2021 by Stubby