Queensland Stay On Your Feet® - Toolkit Phase 3 Sports Tours

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Sports tours

What is a sports tour

In Queensland, the Department of Local Government, Sport and Recreation organise and run annual events called sports tours. A sports tour involves local development officers from state sporting organisations travelling around a particular geographic area introducing local young people to different sports they may not have had the chance to experience before. Sports tours often visit rural and isolated communities.

Sports tours provide:

  • an opportunity for children to discover new sports and have fun, thereby encouraging young people to be involved in sport
  • opportunities to increase participation, skill development and physical activity
  • a chance for locals interested in a particular sport to meet and interact with coaches
  • an experience that broadens the children’s horizons and opens their eyes to the wider world [194].

Sports tours and the Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett trial project

Sports tours have visited the North Burnett area since 1999. In 2004, the Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett trial project raised the possibility that the established sports tours could be re-orientated to also include healthy active aging for older people. It was agreed that there were strong personal and community benefits in helping keep older people mobile and active, to reduce their risk of a fall and possible serious injury.

A partnership was developed between the Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett trial project team, the Sports Council and Sport and Recreation Queensland. This partnership resulted in older people’s activities being added to the sports tour program in 2004 and 2005 with an undertaking to continue this on an annual basis in the future.

The 2004 North Burnett Sports Tour was the biggest ever held, with about 3000 participants ranging in age from five to 94 years old. Activities for older people provided as part of the sports tour included Tai Chi for Arthritis, Lifeball, Nordic Pole Walking and strength and balance exercises [100]. These activities were conducted by trained leaders, most of whom had been trained at the Queensland Stay on Your Feet Wide Bay/Burnett trial project leader training workshops. Physical activity options for older people are now included as a regular part of the sports tour which has become a much appreciated and anticipated event in the local area.

To find out more about the inclusion of activities for older people in the North Burnett sports tour, visit: Sport and Recreation Queensland

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Last updated: 7 August 2012