About Us
About the Project
The biggest winners is an inter school, inter borough and international fitness challenge. It involves young people undertaking a range of physical fitness tests during school PE sessions across the 2012 school year - inspired by the backdrop of the Olympics.
Building physical self-esteem and broadening the concept of fitness ... The selection of tests enables all young people regardless of size, perceived “fitness” and ability to gain positive feedback on at least 1 of the multiple dimensions of fitness – each linked to explicitly to Olympic events.
A competitive framework... Classes of schoolchildren then compete against other schools, boroughs and even countries as they track their progress across the 2012 school year on an interactive, fun and password controlled website.
Additional after-school sports and conditioning… Schools get the support of a Biggest Winner coach who will run 2 free fitness sessions for the students as part of their extra-curricular programme.
Ambassadors from the sports and entertainment world… Schools involved may receive a visit from Footballer Jermaine Jenas, Olympic Wrestler Chloe Spiteri or RnB singer Starboy Nathan during the fitness assessments or after-school coaching sessions.
A global health and sports programme… Partners in Ghana, Colombia and Brazil and are interested in running The Biggest Winners in parallel in 2012 and the long-term plan is to link these up and the schools involved in a global challenge.
The Biggest Winners core Team
Daniel Cohen: Senior Lecturer in Sports Science and Sports Nutrition-London Metropolitan University. Daniel is part of the University of Essex research team (led by Dr. Gavin Sandercock) that has implemented one of the largest ever studies of fitness in UK children. Recent evidence from this research team made front page news in the UK and national and international radio and TV. http://m.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/21/children-weaker-computers-replace-activity?cat=society&type=article
Daniel has also initiated physical activity and fitness research and intervention projects in South American schools and is committed to developing projects which positively impact children in developing countries as well in the UK. He conceived of The Biggest Winners challenge as a vehicle for motivating children with diverse backgrounds, body-sizes and physical abilities, to increase their levels of physical activity/ fitness underpinned by the spirit of the Olympics or other sporting events.
Jessica Elliott: A trained dancer and founder of Dancing After School and J’S Dance Factory, which provides dance education and extracurricular dance activities for children to over 23 schools across London. Jessica believes in dance as a means for children to develop socially and physically, and ultimately a tool to help tackle social issues such as youth crime and childhood obesity. She has received a number of awards, including the 'Community Business Entrepreneur' at the Spirit of London awards 2010.
Chris Sharman-Director of iKidz Training and Consultancy Ltd. Before leaving to establish his own consultancy business Chris held the Head of Retail Services position for premium health club operator Esporta, responsible for the strategic development and financial performance of the company's Fitness and Family Activities divisions across the UK. Chris has subsequently been retained as their Childcare Consultant. Chris brings a wealth of experience in developing, marketing and delivering sports and activity programs for young people.
David Kuper. David has been a volunteer worker, and was formally also an Executive Director, of Forest School Camps, a registered charity that provides educational holidays for some 1,200 children a year, including a significant number with learning and/or physical disabilities. David Kuper is a practicing solicitor specialising in intellectual property and technology transfer, and general commercial law. He has acted for clients ranging from creative individuals and start-up companies to universities and multinational corporations.
4 Schools
Head Teachers, PE Teachers, School Sports Coordinators.
Members of our team have delivered the fitness assessment model used by The Biggest Winners to over 8000 children in Essex and London within timetabled PE classes.
“Not only do the visits benefit the pupils, but data received has been invaluable for the PE department … used to help our Gifted and Talented athletes."
With budgets for sport and extra-curricular activities being cut this financial year leadership teams and Physical Education Coordinators are having to be more creative than ever in engaging children in physical activity and promoting the importance of healthy lifestyles with little funds and resources is a daunting prospect. This challenge could be exactly what you are looking for. Not only can our team work with your school to incorporate the challenge into curriculum time. We can also provide your school with up to two hours extra curricular sports training/ fitness clubs led by our certified and CRB checked Biggest Winners coaches. To conduct the challenge in your school requires minimal commitment from school staff and will not put a major strain on the already very limited time school staff have, and the best part is the challenge can be delivered free of charge! Absolutely NO COST to the school.
Some of the many benefits include:
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Raising the fitness of your students in physical education
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Improve academic performance and behaviour, both associated with fitness levels
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Creating a real sense of cohesion amongst your students
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Creating a fantastic ‘shop window’ and positive press opportunity for your school
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Gaining the opportunity for a celebrity to conduct a session at your school
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Free training programme and challenge pack
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A Biggest Winners coach assigned to your school conducting extra-curricular sessions free of charge
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Potential to raise OFSTED standards in key areas
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Receive professionally formulated data to track the progress of your students, you truly will see how your students have progressed and have tangible data to back it up
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Gain access to the Biggest Winners website which includes numerous resources for both your teachers and students
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Help achieve Healthy School status
“The assessment days provide the pupils with an insight to University activity …., boosting the aspirations of higher education”
4 Sponsors
At present we are looking for companies and organizations to sponsor/support the Biggest Winners challenge in London. The opportunities for companies attached to the challenge to raise brand awareness. With such high profile ambassadors supporting the project the PR and positive press opportunities a project like this creates are numerous brand exposure opportunities such as: branding of the testing equipment used, traffic on the family friendly website or to link to the delivery of extra curriculum activities in schools.
Fitness in children is already and will be increasingly be a hot topic leading up to the 2012. Members of our team’s recent publication on declining fitness in UK children was front page national news in the UK and subsequently covered nationally and internationally on radio, TV, and print and internet news. It prompted follow up stories in several nationals and national and international TV.
The Biggest Winners challenge will engage thousands of young people across the Capital and potentially beyond; which can truly support the social awareness and community engagement objectives of many companies.
London is the proposed starting point during the 2012 school year, the programme already has interest worldwide and aims to further roll out across the around the UK in the build-up to the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014, other major sporting events and the Olympic Games in Rio 2016
We are not only looking for financial contributions to help fund the challenge but would be interested to hear from companies who can donate time in areas such as:
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Marketing and PR
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Logistics
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Design
We are also particularly interested in building mutually beneficial relationships with companies involved with sporting equipment and clothing
To obtain more information please contact us: info@thebiggestwinners.org
International
Ghana
www.deyale.com
Dr. Angel Chambers, CEO of DeYale Sports Centre, is the Ghana coordinating officer for The Biggest Winners. “This is a great tool to bring kids back to the art of play. As the idea of a global community becomes the norm, implementations of global fitness competitions such as these are instrumental to children’s growth physically, mentally, and socially”. The official launch of The Biggest Winner is scheduled for Ghana in September with all activities will be based out of DeYale Sports Centre which is located on Marcel Desailly’s Sansiro Sports Complex in East Legon.
Columbia
We are working with Dr.Mario Quintero (Chief of Sports Medicine, Indeportes Antioquia; Member of the Medical Commission of the Colombian Olympic Committee) and Prof. Gabriel Cardenas (Escuela Nacionale Del Deportes, Cali) to implement a Biggest Winners competition between the departments of Antioquia, Valle De Cauca and Bogota, DC.
Brazil
Dr.Victor Matsudo (Chairman of Agita Sao Paulo Program,Chairman of the Physical Activity Network for the Americas) is interested within Sao Paulo.
“In my previous role as the South East Manager for the 2012 games I saw a great many potential projects being proposed to provide a lasting legacy for the London 2012 games, but in my opinion The Biggest Winners is the best proposal made to date”
“The Biggest Winners programme is an innovative and exciting project that could make a real difference to the health of young people …”
“An exciting yet high-quality technical multidisciplinary approach to a very important issue of relevance to most of today’s world population”
“Both StreetGames and The Biggest Winners are driven by the inequality that exists in sports participation and physical activity levels. Some of this is due to intrinsic factors in the individual, such as poor physical self-concept and low confidence; some is due to extrinsic barriers such as access to suitable facilities and sessions. Together, we can level the playing field."
“Pupils stated the activities were very interesting and displayed a keen interest towards the various methods of assessment, improving their awareness of health”
“Great potential to challenge students to be more active. The offer of additional after school sport for free, as part of the programme, really enhances the chance of successfully achieving this and is attractive particularly given the current funding restraints.”
The Science
The Biggest Winners is an approach based on experience and publications of members of our team and of other peer-reviewed evidence and policy statements. Below is a sample of some of this work:
1. Go London! An active & healthy London for 2012 and beyond. http://www.london.nhs.uk/webfiles/.../Go%20London_16-07_LR_Web.pdf
2. Handgrip strength in English schoolchildren. Cohen, D.D., C. Voss, M.J. Taylor, D.M. Stasinopoulos, A. Delextrat, and G.R. Sandercock, Acta Paediatr, 2010.
3. Vertical jumping and leg power normative data for English school children aged 10-15 years. Taylor, M.J., D. Cohen, C. Voss, and G.R. Sandercock, J Sports Sci, 2010. 28(8): p. 867-72.
4. Centile curves and normative values for the twenty metre shuttle-run test in English Schoolchildren.Sandercock, GRH, Voss, C, Cohen, DD, Taylor, MJD and Stasinopoulos, DM. (under review- J Sports Sci)
5. A Sporting Future for London. http://www.london.gov.uk/archive/mayor/publications/2009/docs/sporting-future-2009.pdf
6. Physical self-perception and motor performance in normal-weight, overweight and obese children. Morano, M., D. Colella, C. Robazza, L. Bortoli, and L. Capranica Scand J Med Sci Sports, 2010.
7. Contribution of athletic identity to child and adolescent physical activity. Anderson CB, Mâsse LC, Zhang H, Coleman KJ, Chang S. Am J Prev Med. 2009 Sep;37(3):220-6.
8. Physical fitness in childhood and adolescence: a powerful marker of health. Ortega FB, Ruiz JR, Castillo MJ, Sjöström M. Int J Obes (Lond). 2008 Jan;32(1):1-11.
9. Tomkinson GR, Olds TS. Secular changes in pediatric aerobic fitness test performance: the global picture. Med Sport Sci 2007;50:46-66.
10. Moliner-Urdiales D, Ruiz JR, Ortega FB, Jiménez-Pavón D, Vicente-Rodriguez G, Rey-López JP, Martínez-Gómez D, Casajús JA, Mesana MI, Marcos A, Noriega-Borge MJ, Sjöström M, Castillo MJ, Moreno LA; On behalf of the AVENA and HELENA Study Groups. Secular trends in health-related physical fitness in Spanish adolescents: The AVENA and HELENA Studies. J Sci Med Sport. 2010
11. Sandercock G, Voss C, McConnell D, et al. Ten year secular declines in the cardiorespiratory fitness of affluent English children are largely independent of changes in body mass index. Arch Dis Child 2010;95(1):46-7.
12. Cohen D, Voss C, Taylor M, Delextrat A, Ogunleye A, Sandercock G. Ten year secular changes in muscular fitness in English children. Acta Paediatr. 2011 Apr 11. doi: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2011.02318.x. [Epub ahead of print]
13. Fischbacher CM, Hunt S, Alexander L. How physically active are South Asians in the United Kingdom? A literature review. J Public Health (Oxf). 2004 Sep;26(3):250-8.
14. Physical activity, obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors in 9- to 10-year-old UK children of white European, South Asian and black African-Caribbean origin: the Child Heart And health Study in England (CHASE). Owen CG, Nightingale CM, Rudnicka AR, Sattar N, Cook DG, Ekelund U, Whincup PH. Diabetologia. 2010 Aug;53(8):1620-30.
15. On the state of public health: Annual report of the Chief Medical Officer 2009 http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/DH_113912
16. Artero EG, España-Romero V, Ortega FB, Jiménez-Pavón D, Ruiz JR, Vicente-Rodríguez G, Bueno M, Marcos A, Gómez-Martínez S, Urzanqui A, González-Gross M, Moreno LA, Gutiérrez A, Castillo MJ. Health-related fitness in adolescents: underweight, and not only overweight, as an influencing factor. The AVENA study. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010 Jun;20(3):418-27.
17. Effectiveness of a school-based physical activity injury prevention program: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Collard DC, Verhagen EA, Chinapaw MJ, Knol DL, van Mechelen W. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010 Feb;164(2):145-50.
18. Overweight – a risk factor of overuse injuries in schoolchildren? Klakk H, Jespersen E, Christiansen C, Franz C, Heidemann M, Moller NC and Wedderkopp N. Abstract presented at IOC World Conference on Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport. Monaco, April, 2011
19. Star Excursion Balance Test as a predictor of lower extremity injury in high school basketball players. Plisky PJ, Rauh MJ, Kaminski TW, Underwood FB. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2006 Dec;36(12):911-9.
20. Muscular and cardiorespiratory fitness are independently associated with metabolic risk in adolescents: the HELENA study. Artero EG, Ruiz JR, Ortega FB, España-Romero V, Vicente-Rodríguez G, Molnar D, Gottrand F, González-Gross M, Breidenassel C, Moreno LA, Gutiérrez A; the HELENA study group. Pediatr Diabetes. 2011 Apr 6. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-5448.2011.00769.x. [Epub ahead of print]
