How safe is Paintball?

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 08:19:07 -0700

Paintball is the safest of all Extreme Sports!

While membership in the "Extreme Sports" category implies a whiff of danger, only Paintball is handicapped by a huge injury taboo--one that exists in the public mind, but not in the statistics. The industry has long maintained that the rare (but highly publicized) eye injury almost always occurs in an unsupervised, unprotected, often illegal setting; and that Paintball is a very safe activity--a claim substantiated by the current research, as the sport reflected only 0.2 injuries per 1,000 exposures, the lowest injury rate of any Extreme Sport. Put another way, the average player will suffer a Paintball injury about once every 500 years.

Read more about this article.

Safari Ridge gets a facelift!

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 13:19:02 -0700

If you’ve driven by in the last week or so you’ll notice that we have a big new sign and fighter planes circling our facade. There’s also 3 replica size cannons on our American Civil War field and a new 3 story fort being built for the Safari Ridge field on the ravine.

Participaction - statistics

Sat, 7 Feb 2009 14:48:41 -0800

The Issue

Research shows that "among children and adolescents age two to seventeen, 26% are overweight and another 8% are obese." The New England Journal of Medicine reported that "our children's lifespan could be 2-5 years less than our own." Furthermore, the economic burden of physical inactivity is estimated at $5.3 billion and the burden to the healthcare system is estimated at $2.1 billion. Canada is facing an inactivity and obesity crisis whose impact on the cost of future chronic disease management is almost unimaginable.   A potential solution is regular physical activity, which is associated with as much as a 30% reduction in all causes of mortality rates. With its partners, ParticipACTION wants to be part of the solution.

Our Children
• Childhood obesity has tripled from 5 - 15% over the past three decades
             (Source: Dieticians of Canada, 2005)

• Only 9% of Canadian children and youth (aged 5 to 19) meet the recommended guidelines in Canada's Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth.
             (Source: Canadian Physical Activity Levels Among Youth (CANPLAY) Study 2005-2006)

Canadian Adults
• Today, one in two Canadian adults is overweight (48%), with one in seven adults being obese (15%).
              (Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2000/01, Statistics Canada)

• Epidemiological data have established that physical inactivity increases the incidence of at least 17 unhealthy conditions, almost all of which are chronic diseases or considered risk factors for chronic diseases and premature death. (Source: Booth FW, Gordon SE, Carlson CJ, Hamilton MT. Waging war on modern chronic diseases:primary prevention through exercise biology. J Appl Physiol. 88:774-787, 2000)
• More than half of Canadians are considered inactive.  (Source: Physical Activity Monitor. Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute. 2004)
• People who are overweight or obese face a higher risk of developing a number of specific health diseases and problems, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, liver disease, depression, infertility, and birth defects such as spina bifida. While other factors affect incidence of these diseases and conditions, excess body weight alone increases risk.
• There is an increased risk of various types of cancer associated with obesity and the risk increases incrementally with weight.  (Source: Overweight, Obesity and Mortality from Cancer in a Prospectively Studies Cohort of US Adult, New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 348, No. 17, 2003)
• Physical inactivity threatens to reduce the decades-long progress that has been made in reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with many chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease.  (Source: US Department of Health and Human Services. Physical activity and health: a report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 1996)
• Regular physical activity reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, some types of cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, stress and anxiety.  (Source: Warburton DER, Nicol CW, Bredin SSD. Health benefits of physical activity: the evidence. Canadian Medical Association Journal 2006; 174 (6): 801-9)
• Regular physical activity could provide as much as a 30% reduction in the mortality rates for both older and younger adults.
The Impact on Economy
• The major burden to our healthcare systems is estimated at $2.1 billion  (Source: Katzmarzyk P, Gledhill N, and Shepard R: The economic burden of physical inactivity in Canada. CMAJ 2000; 163(11):1435-40)
• The economic costs of obesity are significant; direct and indirect costs associated with obesity/physical inactivity have been estimated at $5.3 billion in 2001.  (Source: Katzmarzyk PT, Janssen I. The economic costs associated with physical inactivity and obesity in Canada: an update. Can J Appl Physiol. 2004 Feb 29(1):90-115)

The Impact on Society
◦ Inactivity has an impact on social cohesion, productivity, and overall economic prosperity.

go to Participaction website here

Childhood Obesity

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:39:08 -0800

The percentage of overweight children in the United States (and Canada) is growing at an alarming rate — 1 out of 3 kids are now considered overweight or obese.
Many kids are spending less time exercising and more time in front of the TV, computer, or video-game console. And today's busy families have fewer free moments to prepare nutritious, home-cooked meals, day in and day out. From fast food to electronics, quick and easy seems to be the mindset of many people in the new millennium.
Many kids don't get enough physical activity. Although physical education (PE) in schools can help kids get up and moving, more and more schools are eliminating PE programs or cutting down the time spent on fitness-building activities. One study showed that gym classes offered third-graders just 25 minutes of vigorous activity each week.
Current guidelines recommend that kids over 2 years of age should engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week.
Preventing Overweight and Obesity
The key to keeping kids of all ages at a healthy weight is taking a whole-family approach. It's the "practice what you preach" mentality. Make healthy eating and exercise a family affair. Get your kids involved by letting them help you plan and prepare healthy meals, and take them along when you go grocery shopping so they can learn how to make good food choices.
Here are some additional recommendations for kids of all ages:
• Birth to age 1: In addition to its many health benefits, breastfeeding may help prevent excessive weight gain. Though the exact mechanism is not known, breastfed babies may be more able to control their own intake and follow their own internal hunger cues.
• Ages 2 to 6: Start good habits early. Help shape food preferences by offering a variety of healthy foods. Encourage kids' natural tendency to be active and help them build on developing skills.
• Ages 7 to 12: Encourage kids to be physically active every day, whether it's an organized sports team or a pick-up game of soccer during recess. Keep your kids active at home, too, through everyday activities like walking and playing in the yard. Let them be more involved in making good food choices, such as packing lunch.
• Ages 13 to 17: Teens like fast food, but try to steer them toward healthier choices like grilled chicken sandwiches, salads, and smaller sizes. Teach them how to prepare healthy meals and snacks at home. Encourage teens to be active every day.
• All ages: Cut down on TV, computer, and video game time and discourage eating while watching the tube. Serve a variety of healthy foods and eat meals together as often as possible. Encourage kids to have at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, limit sugar-sweetened beverages, and eat breakfast every day.
If you eat well, exercise regularly, and incorporate healthy habits into your family's daily life, you're modeling a healthy lifestyle for your kids that will last. Talk to your kids about the importance of eating well and being active, but make it a family affair that will become second nature for everyone.
Most of all, let your kids know you love them — no matter what their weight — and that you want to help them be happy and healthy.
for the full article http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/overweight_obesity.html

How to Fix Boys

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:34:14 -0700

Let them start school later and, yes, let them fight and play with toy guns.

Evidence shows that boys are more prone to school failure than ever before because there has been a profound change in the way we educate kids, beginning in kindergarten, with an acceleration of the early elementary curriculum. Thirty years ago, if you walked into just about any kindergarten in North America, you would've seen kids doing lots of different activities: singing, playing, dancing, fingerpainting. There was some didactic education, but it was a very small part of the day. Today, in just about any kindergarten, public or private, the primary activity is formal didactic education, with the kids sitting still and the teacher instructing. It's all about learning to read and write. That acceleration of the curriculum took place without any awareness of the hard-wired sex differences in the trajectories of brain development. People had no understanding of this because it only became known in the past five years.
As early as kindergarten teachers generally want order and conduct in the classroom, but there are huge differences in the ability of the average six-year-old girl and boy to sit still and be quiet. You should never ask a small child, especially not a boy, to sit down and stay quiet. Many find that very difficult, and it's not essential to learning. On the contrary, for many boys, the best classroom is one where they're jumping up and down.

Q: A lot of schools ban any kind of pretend gun play, sword fighting and so on. Is this bad for boys?
A: Policies which ban children from playing with pretend swords or toy guns are not grounded in any research findings demonstrating that those policies accomplish anything good. Prohibiting children from playing with toy swords or guns does not decrease the likelihood of any bad outcome, indeed it accomplishes no useful end. The school could have taken the opportunity to build imaginative play around concepts like teamwork and heroism. Instead, schools too often simply endorse traditional girls' activities while condemning traditional boys' activities.
Click here for the complete article in McLeans Magazine
http://www.macleans.ca/culture/entertainment/article.jsp?content=20080109_70985_70985&page=1