Article Text

Download PDFPDF
The development of healthy tennis clubs in the Netherlands
  1. Babette M Pluim1,
  2. Jane Earland2,
  3. Nicole E Pluim3
  1. 1Department of Sports Medicine, Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
  2. 2School of Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
  3. 3Bureau voor Ondersteuning bij Onderzoek, Wageningen, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to Dr Babette M Pluim, Department of Sports Medicine, Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association, KNLTB, Displayweg 4, 3821 BT Amersfoort, The Netherlands; b.pluim{at}knltb.nl

Abstract

Objectives To explore the factors that facilitate or hinder the development of healthy tennis clubs in the Netherlands and to identify suitable interventions that would help clubs to reach ‘healthy club’ status.

Methods A maximum variation, purposive sampling strategy was used to identify and recruit board members (n=16) from 10 Dutch tennis clubs. Data were collected using in-depth interviews based on an interview guide. The interviews explored what steps the clubs had taken to create a healthy tennis club, and what the respondents perceived to be the barriers to reaching healthy club status. The data were analysed using thematic content analysis. An ecological model was used to frame the interpretation of the themes and guide the development of the interventions.

Results Four emerging themes were identified: provision of healthy foods, injury prevention and health services, social health and safety around the club. The main facilitators were found to be support from club management, having appropriate policies in place and having appointed officers. The main barriers were identified as a lack of policy templates, inadequate knowledge of coaches on injury prevention and injury management and fragmented access to relevant information.

Conclusions Guided by an ecological model, this study demonstrates the many factors that influence tennis clubs and the individual members of a healthy tennis club. Using this model, a multilevel intervention framework has been created that could be used by the Royal Netherlands Lawn Tennis Association to increase the number of healthy tennis clubs in the Netherlands.

  • Health promotion through physical activity

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.