Developing mass sports movement

(Baonghean) - In recent times, the mass sports movement in our province has had positive changes: facilities have been improved, more clubs have been established, many sports tournaments have been organized... However, mass sports still have shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome.

In 2014, dozens of sports tournaments and festivals took place, from provincial tournaments to tournaments of departments, branches, unions and localities in the province. Most notably was the 7th Nghe An Provincial Sports Festival in 2014, with the participation of nearly 2,000 athletes from 24 districts, cities, towns and sectors, competing in 19 sports. The athletes were rejuvenated, many interesting surprises and many records were set - the success of the festival showed the development and growth of the mass sports movement at the grassroots level in recent times. In addition, there are many other tournaments that are of interest such as: The 16th Provincial Phu Dong Sports Festival, Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament, Table Tennis Tournament for Young Ages, VNPT Cup Table Tennis Tournament, NTV Open Cup Tennis Tournament, Family Sports Tournament, Badminton Tournament for Civil Servants, Volleyball Tournament for Men and Women Students, Sports Tournament for the Elderly... The tournaments have attracted sponsorship from a number of enterprises inside and outside the province such as: Traffic Construction Corporation 4, Hue Beer Company, Saigon - Central Beer Company, Thanh Thanh Dat Company, Tre Advertising Company, Nghe An Telecommunications, Sacombank Nghe An Branch, Kim Son Company Limited...

Match at the 2014 Workers' Badminton Tournament.

From the tournaments, it can be seen that the enthusiastic participation of grassroots units, especially clubs, associations and sports groups in the province, contributed to the success. Currently, the province has 885 clubs, teams and sports groups (collectively called sports clubs) in villages, hamlets, residential groups, communes and wards - an increase of more than 40 clubs compared to 2013. The clubs have been maintained and actively operated, contributing to increasing the number of players, as well as the quality of sports training. In addition, the facilities for regular sports training have also changed.

In most communes, wards, villages, hamlets, and blocks, there are cultural houses and entertainment places that have become destinations for people of all walks of life to participate in physical exercise and sports. In addition, along with Vinh City, in districts and towns, there have appeared many models of artificial turf fields, tennis courts, badminton and table tennis stadiums... The system of gyms, aerobics, and aerobics rooms has also developed quite rapidly; many families have invested in building houses for practicing table tennis and badminton to improve their health... All of these have contributed to expanding and diversifying types of mass sports, meeting the training needs of all classes of people. Up to now, the whole province has about 1.1 million people maintaining regular physical exercise and sports, reaching nearly 31.7% of the province's population and this number increases steadily every year; 21.4% of households meet the criteria of "Sports Family".

However, the mass sports movement of the province, although strongly developed, is not even. In mountainous districts such as Con Cuong, Tan Ky, Nghia Dan, Tuong Duong, Ky Son, Que Phong, Quy Hop, Quy Chau, the movement is still slow to develop due to lack of sports facilities, lack of sports instructors... For example, Nghia Dan district, although it is a fairly good district among mountainous districts, only 11/25 communes and towns have stadiums that meet the area requirements, 9 communes have stadiums but not enough area, 6 communes do not have stadiums; the number of blocks and hamlets with cultural houses and hamlet stadiums with enough area is only 58.8%. Besides objective reasons such as terrain and difficult economic life, one of the subjective reasons pointed out by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is that local Party committees and authorities have not really focused and paid regular attention to the development of physical education and sports in the area. Therefore, although the investment level from the State budget has increased in recent years, it still cannot meet the needs of sports development in the context of increasingly fierce competition in competition results between localities.

On the other hand, the establishment of sports federations and associations is slow, the activities of the established federations and associations such as the Badminton Federation, Martial Arts Federation, Tennis Federation and 1 Karate Association are not really dynamic, still dependent on the financial support of the State and have not made an impression in organizing and improving the professional quality of sports tournaments. This also leads to the fact that although many sports tournaments are organized, the socialization of organizing sports tournaments is still limited. Only a few sports tournaments mobilize funding from businesses such as the Youth-Individual Football Tournament Cup of Nghe An Newspaper, Tennis Tournament for NTV Cup, Football Tournament for students of universities and colleges... the remaining tournaments are still mainly funded by the State budget. Therefore, the issue of investment in field conditions, refereeing, and bonuses is still limited, not really encouraging athletes to strive to achieve high results. Some tournaments have loose regulations, leading to the situation of renting and borrowing athletes, so the results of these tournaments do not reflect the reality of grassroots sports development in the localities.

To promote the grassroots sports movement, according to Mr. Nguyen Danh Nam - Head of the Sports Affairs Department (Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism). In the near future, the department will encourage localities to bring the tournament to the grassroots to promote the development of the local movement; continue to mobilize individuals, businesses, and social organizations to participate in investing in building facilities, sponsoring the organization of sports activities. The department also requested the province to continue to pay attention to directing localities to promote planning, investment in building facilities, training equipment and competition for sports, continue to perfect grassroots cultural and sports institutions, have a mechanism for incentives, and encourage the role of sports instructors and collaborators...

Article and photos:Minh Quan