Imperial receives £65k of lottery funding for casual sport initiative

Sport Imperial have launched a new initiative, aimed at people who want to play casual sport without the pressure of being a part of a sports club or the atmosphere of being in Ethos for a fitness class or gym session.

Imperial College has been recognised as the top university for sport in the South East by the British Universities & Colleges Sport organisation, and has recently been commended by the European Network of Academic Sport Services (ENAS) for its previous participation events, ‘goFit’ and ‘One Big Thing’. Impetus is the first long-term event to take place, with 13 sessions running every week.

The programme costs £30 for the year and is open to any student or staff member at Imperial. Sport Imperial has also received part of a £65,000 lottery-funded grant from Sport England, as part of the ‘University Sport Activation’ programme, the successor to ‘Active Universities’.

Impetus is one of a number of similar initiatives, with King’s College to receive over £240,000 for their version, ‘BeActive’, over the next three years. This extra funding has allowed them to run 22 sessions a week, in a wider variety of locations – although this is perhaps not surprising given their more varied spread of campuses. King’s College has also been running the initiative, having received funding in the first of two rounds so far.

The sports available, taken from student feedback earlier in the year, include ultimate frisbee and triathlon, in addition to more regular sports such as tennis and badminton. Sessions are being delivered by Hyde Park ‘s ‘Will to Win’, who own the tennis courts between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, as well as some sessions by the Active Lifestyles team at Ethos, and other partners.

Interestingly, football and gym work do not feature in Impetus, despite being the two activities with highest participation among people aged 18-21.

Xu Yag, who was one of those to sign up for tennis in the first week, saw improvement within two weeks, and continues to enjoy the sessions.

One of the organisers is Jenni Phillips, the Student Sports Experience Officer (Participation), appointed as part of a restructure to separate Sport Imperial’s dual aims of participation and excellence (now represented by Hannah Blandford, previously Sports Partnership Officer at the Union). When asked about the College’s attitude to the program, she responded “they recognise the gap in provision [for people who don’t do sport]”.

Jenni is managing the promotion and marketing of the programme, aiming to make it clear that Sport Imperial caters to people with less time, commitment and experience.

Another aim, long term, is to expand the sports available currently, and to offer the chance for students to assist with the delivery of sessions. There is also an awareness that for full success, Impetus must spread to campuses other than South Kensington – although the space may well be harder to find outside of the South Kensington bubble.

There has been engagement with the Sports teams, including ongoing conversation between the ACC and Sport Imperial. Fears that College-run schemes might pull students away from club membership (we do, after all, already have an Ultimate Frisbee Club) appeared to be groundless during the Active Universities initiative, and it is to be hoped that this success can be repeated both at Imperial and at a national level. The onus will be on Clubs and Societies to engage with the initiative and modify their recruitment methods accordingly.

Impetus is open to suggestions of different sports and people interested in helping out – if you want to know more, contact Jenni at jennifer.phillips@ic.ac.uk. If you want to take part, the form to fill out (only A6) is available at Ethos reception.