Canada's Genevieve Lalonde hot on the heels of eventual winner Purity Kirui in the Steeplechase (© Getty Images)
Athletics Canada has demonstrated the spirit of the Athletics’ World Plan through their programme targeted at promoting youth involvement in Athletics similar to the Kids’ Athletics programme that is a strong focus of the World Plan. ‘Run Jump Throw’ has inspired us and we hope that you will find it inspiring too.
Run Jump Throw (RJT) is a programme developed by Athletics Canada and is implemented by provincial Athletics Associations across the country. RJT is a grassroots development programme that teaches the fundamental skills of running, jumping and throwing with a technical skill progression for track and field events.
It is designed for boys and girls ages 6-12 and has progressions for older athletes, and can be adapted for special needs. This program forms the basis of all land based sport and as such and provides a strong foundation for success in all sports and physical activities.
The programme provides individual assessment for participants and is a terrific tool for physical education, special education or adaptive physical education programmes. Moreover, it is a great after school or Saturday morning programme in which parents can participate as volunteer officials.
All of Canada’s ten Provinces are actively engaged in providing RJT programmes, and two of the three Territories have begun offering training opportunities. In total they have been able to train 1540 teachers across the country and an additional 692 instructors. That’s over 2000 trained Run Jump Throw professionals!
The programme itself has reached over 240,000 children throughout the country – either through school physical education classes, school and club track and field programmes or other community run activities. The total participation in 2009 alone was 79,992 and increases annually! More information can be found at Athletics Canada.
How has your organisation implemented new programmes to bring Athletics to children under 12 years old? If you want to share some of your own experiences please contact us at worldplan@iaaf.org with a short summary, and a member of our editorial team will contact you. Together, we can share in the spirit of the Athletics’ World Plan.