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Draper calls for greater grassroots investment
The chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), Roger Draper, has called for greater support in grassroots sport in order to "strengthen the front line" and assist the delivery of programmes.
Speaking at the Scottish Sports Development conference in Dunblane this Wednesday, Draper said that funding was currently being spread too thinly and that clubs and especially coaches were in need of more funding to continue their development.
He paid tribute to the French system of community sports provision, which places a multi-sport club at its heart, funded by government, freeing up national governing bodies to focus on investing on the management and development of people, particularly coaching staff.
"When I look at the three main areas of sport – school, elite performance and community participation, it's community sport which concerns me," he said. "It is harder to really broaden participation because it is 10 times harder to hit the D and E social groups that so need engaging."
He added that it was essential to not over-complicate the process: "Sports development is actually quite simple, but it seems to have been made too complicated with meeting targets, hitting Key Performance Indicators and so on – we've got to start thinking differently.
"Sport has a huge capacity to inspire and motivate, and sports development plays a huge part in this."
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