It only takes a short walk around Wimbledon to see how relevant sports is in our community.
From the prominent – like tennis, or golf – to the less obvious – like the consistent stream of runners – it’s no secret that physical activity holds an important place in our cultural psyche.
So it’s surprising that only 47% of UK children are meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines of 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day, with 2.2 million children doing less than 30 minutes a day.
This is, of course, worrying for multiple reasons.
Exercise is not only important to our physical health, but our mental health too.
According to the National Institutes of Health, people with higher physical activity levels are less likely to develop depression.
Additionally, adults participating in daily physical activity have a 20-30% lower risk of developing dementia, and the NHS references how exercise can improve our confidence, motivation, and focus.
This means that a lowering number of children exercising, who are thus less likely to consistently exercise as adults (and therefore reap the rewards), is concerning for their future mental health.
However, Wimbledon is seeing the effects of a lowering rate of exercise in children on their physical health right now.
In 2022-2023, the National Child Measurement Programme found that 8% of Merton borough children in reception were obese, and a further 10.6% were overweight.
Whilst this is the 11th lowest rate in the 32 London boroughs, that does not mean that the figure isn’t concerning when considering the overall health of our children.
Furthermore, Merton’s obesity rate in Year 6 children was the second highest of the South West London Boroughs, with 22.7% being obese, and a further 13.2% being overweight.
This is concerning for our council, which has since trained 117 staff from a broad range of sectors in having conversations about weight with children.
Additionally, from January 2024, more children have been eligible for referral for further support from the CYP Social Prescribing service.
Whilst these improvements will bring about positive change, getting children into exercise can be difficult.
Children do sports clubs for a number of reasons – love of the activity, as a social activity, or simply from habit.
This was instrumental to Imogen Jordan, who attends multiple sport and dance classes in Wimbledon:
‘I started to love dance because I did it with friends.
Like, when I was seven and just going on my own, I didn’t really enjoy it, but I went because my Mum made me – but then, when I did it with my friends, I started actually wanting to go, and really enjoying myself.
Like, even though I didn’t love dance straight away, I kept doing it because my friends did it.
It’s the same reason I started running – my friend did it and I wanted to give it a try.’
However, prices of sports clubs can be too expensive for some families living in the Merton borough, which has a poverty rate of 15% (2022-2023), so it is unfair and ignorant to simply blame parents for not signing children up to activities, as this is often just not feasible for some families.
Thus, a focus on the education of children about the importance of physical activity, rather than only the parents, is needed to create effective change – our young people have to feel motivated to be active, rather than just being forced into it, if they are going to create a healthy mindset and set of habits surrounding exercise to last their lifetime.
