Athlete recruitment: Promoting initial and sustained engagement in Para sport

Recruitment, very broadly, reflects the process of onboarding athletes into a sporting program and remains a fundamental challenge for many working in Para sport contexts. However, in resource-limited systems, increasing the efficiency of how individuals are engaged and aligned with available programs is critical. In this chapter, we explore recruitment in Para sport, identifying a range of barriers and challenges for researchers and practitioners in this area. Ultimately, recruitment in Para sport should be about more than simply providing opportunities and the latter section of the chapter focuses on recommendations for improving recruitment initiatives. We conclude by advocating an approach that 'provides as many varied, high-quality opportunities as possible, as often as possible' as a way of improving most, if not all, elements of the Para sport system, from local fan/supporter to Paralympic champion.
© Copyright 2022 Talent development in Paralympic sport: Researcher and practitioner perspectives. Published by Routledge. All rights reserved.

Bibliographic Details
Subjects:
Notations:sports for the handicapped junior sports
Published in:Talent development in Paralympic sport: Researcher and practitioner perspectives
Language:English
Published: New York Routledge 2022
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003184430-4
Pages:38-53
Document types:article
Level:advanced