David Lloyd Leisure has identified swimming as a major trend for teenagers’ sports and fitness activities for 2012.
Europe’s premier racquets, health and fitness group predicts that sport activities aimed at 11 to 17-year-olds, including swimming and tennis, and teen exercise classes, such as zumba
and boxercise, will be a significant area of growth.
With 450,000 members and 6,000 staff, the David Lloyd Leisure Group operates 79 clubs in the UK and a further 10 clubs across Europe. Farnham, which is due to open this month, will be its 80th UK club.
Every week 20,000 children learn to swim at one of the 150 David Lloyd Leisure Group swimming pools, half of which are indoor. As a result of its research, the David Lloyd Leisure Group has exclusively launched Fitness Into Teens (FIT) for members aged 11- plus, recognising the fact that many children drop out of regular exercise when they hit their teens.
FIT includes multi-aquatics – helping 11 to 14-year-olds attain the best swimming qualifications approved by the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and featuring activities ranging from water sports to survival, water polo and endurance swimming.
Teenagers will also be offered gym group exercise and supervised sessions as well as fast track tennis, enabling them to
learn to play tennis in just four weeks. In 2011, David Lloyd Leisure has seen a rise in the number of junior members joining against a background of mounting national debate about childhood obesity. It predicts that in 2012 parents will seek out more ways of helping their children keep fit and healthy, both as a family doing sport and exercise together
and specially-designed children’s programmes.
Commenting on the teen fitness trend, David Lloyd Leisure’s head of family and programming Sarah Hobbs says: “Research has shown that many children abandon regular exercise and sports activities when they reach their teens. Teenage girls are of particular concern, with significant numbers of 13 to 14-yearolds dropping out of regular exercise and a significant proportion never taking up regular exercise again.
“Parents are really wising up to the fact that how healthy their children are during childhood will determine their long-term fitness into adulthood, but it is important that teenagers are offered programmes teaching them new skills that they find enjoyable and exciting, as well as allowing them to make new friends.”
