Grassroot Sports: Conveyor Belt for Sports Development in Nigeria

Abstract

The paper took a look at some factors such as administration and funding that bedevil Nigeria‟s Sports development efforts and saw grass root sports as a veritable vehicle for the realization of our sports development objective. Grass root sport was seen as the exposure of young and old, male and female all over the country to physical activities and sports skills. The grass root approach to sports development was discussed under institutional sports, club / association sports and community based sports. Some benefits of grass root sports were highlighted to include a reservoir of sportsmen and women instead of reliance on foreign based athletes. To realize the benefits of grass root sports, some recommendations were made which include: a sound sports development at the primary and secondary schools nationwide; training of physical education teachers as coaches in their chosen sports; establishment of sports academies to train talented athletes from the primary schools and the introduction of compulsory physical education and sports in all educational institutions in order to attract more participants from where talents can be discovered and groomed.

Keywords: Grass roots; Conveyor Belt; Numero uno; Stakeholders; Implementation; Reservoir