WGI departments ensure knowledge transfer on children’s and youth sports after Corona
The Corona pandemic has had a massive impact on the way children and young people grow up and on their physical activity and sports behavior. The increase in motor deficits, psychosocial stress and health impairments is now well documented by scientific studies. Against this backdrop, the NRW Research Association for Children’s and Youth Sports has issued a position paper (in German) calling for twelve concrete measures to ensure uncomplicated access to exercise, play and sports opportunities for young people. In the research association, eight NRW institutes bundle their work on children’s and youth sports research.
At the end of October 2021, with the participation of WGI Vice President Nils Neuber, an expert hearing / discussion took place in Münster on the upheaval in children’s and youth sports, which was also partly triggered or intensified by the Corona pandemic. The focus was on challenges for children’s and youth sports, such as the individualization of sports and digital exercise and sports offerings. One lesson learned from the pandemic is that children’s and youth sports need a stronger nationwide lobby in order to position themselves in a crisis-proof manner. Against this backdrop, the research association and its partners are advocating for attractive, sustainable children’s and youth sports with strong networks.
WGI Vice Presidents Prof. Nils Neuber and Dr. Dennis Dreiskämper were also present at the symposium “Health, Sport, Exercise in Times of Pandemic” at the Petersberg near Bonn in early November 2021 with a keynote address on the importance of exercise, play and sport for children and adolescents to grow up healthy. They also presented results of a recent study by the Institute for Sports Science at WWU Münster on the physical activity behavior of children in the Corona pandemic. The symposium was organized by the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the DSHS Cologne.
Finally, Nils Neuber also gave a well-received presentation on the importance of sport for children and adolescents to grow up healthy at the 45th Conference of Sports Ministers of the German States in Koblenz in early November 2021. For here, too, one of the central topics was once again sport in the Corona pandemic.