about the city fives association
A version of handball is a sport in which players compete by hitting a ball with their hands against a wall. It is played in every country in the world. The British version is called Fives and is run by the Fives Federation which oversees the running of one, three and four wall Fives in this country. There are over 100 Fives playing centres in schools and sports centres across Britain.
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rugby fives association (4 wall fives) |
eton fives association (3 wall fives) |
1-Wall Fives is the simplest and cheapest version of Fives. The rules are similar to squash: players hit a tennis ball against the front wall with their hands making sure that the ball lands within the playing area (see diagram). Three court sizes (primary, secondary and competition) allows the game to be played from an early age right through to adulthood.
dimensioned competition size one wall fives court
1-Wall Fives is ideal for solving the sporting and social problems for schools and communities in the inner city. It ensures access for all to sports facilities because it is inexpensive to play, takes up little space, involves good exercise, competitive spirit and minimal cost to the player or school.
Sport is key to the Government’s strategy for improving education and creating safer communities. Research shows that sport improves exam results, reduces truancy and reduces crime. The Government wants 75% of all schools to be receiving two hours of quality PE and sport per week by 2006, and the London Sports Board (LSB) wants 50% of London’s local authorities to have set up sport-related crime interventions by 2008.
To make this happen, there is a need for high-quality facilities and a widening of access to these facilities. The government’s sports participation target was not met though in 2006 and the LSB’s aims are still particularly challenging to implement in the inner London area. The LSB admits that there is a lack of funding which challenges their ambitious plans to increase sports participation, and that the social barriers which lead to non-participation in sport are most noticeable in London. Such barriers include gender, ethnicity, low disposable income, a lack of transport, attitudes and perceptions including peer pressure, and inappropriate planning of activities. With the Olympics being held in London in 2012, it is essential that London finds a way of tackling these barriers in its inner boroughs. It is very much with the intention of addressing these issues in the London area that this proposal for 1-Wall Fives is put forward.
1-Wall Fives will increase participation in sport by making on-site sports facilities for all schools and communities a reality. The court’s low requirement for space and cost makes it ‘scalable’ across London and the low playing cost mean that Fives could be a sport accessible to all. The sport’s accessibility means that it has huge potential for development in out of school time, when young people are most at risk to the elements of social exclusion. The City Fives Association (CFA) will be responsible for promoting and marketing the sport, whilst it will use and develop a number of key partnerships to ensure appropriate participation and organisation of coaching.
The CFA is based on a model of success from New York City where there are over 2,000 1-Wall Fives courts across the city in schools and public parks. Fives is played by thousands of children during school PE lessons and after-school in the parks with balls which cost $1. The Inner City Handball Association arranges borough and city-wide competitions, organises youth schemes and employment opportunities for young people, and provides sponsorship for college and university students. Their work is supported by the Mayor of New York and sponsored by corporations such as Coca-Cola and Sony.
