We had a visit from Jack Hunter Spivey on Tuesday 20^th November to promote the Travel to Tokyo programme and inspire facility users and Greenbank College students to get involved. Jack, who is from Liverpool, is a Paralympic Table Tennis player currently ranked 7^th in the world. He is a 10 times British champion and Rio 2016 Paralympian.

Travel to Tokyo is part of Get Set, Team GB and Paralympics GB’s youth engagement programme, created with funding from Sport England, and delivered in partnership with ukactive and Liverpool City Council. The programme aimsto inspire young people aged 5–11, their classmates and families to try new activities and get active together in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. By joining athletes on a virtual journey from London to Tokyo, participants will be in with the chance to learn new skills, have fun and win some fantastic prizes along the way.

This Autumn, Travel to Tokyo is running as a pilot in the Liverpool and Merseyside area, with the aim to launch nationwide in 2019. The main aim of the pilot is to inspire young people and families to try new things, get active together and have fun, logging their physical activity to their child’s team.

Teams are set up by schools, then it is over to children and families to log their activity. Each week, teams are set personalised targets based on their previous week’s performance, inspiring children and families to improve their activity levels whatever their starting point. Teams will earn rewards for meeting or exceeding their weekly target, including active kit and athlete visits.

According to recent research carried out by Sport England, 4 in 5 young people are not doing the 60 minutes of daily exercise recommended by the Chief Medical Officer. This research shows the inactivity is linked with a family’s income. Travel to Tokyo has been created to get pupils aged 5–11 and their families more active, showing them that exercise doesn’t have to be complicated or long and we can get our suggested hour from small short burst throughout our daily routine.

Key messages we are trying to promote with the programme:

• Enjoying staying active after school and at weekends and keeping going during the colder months.
• Trying something new– exploring various ways of getting active, not just traditional sports.
• Enjoying getting active together as a family.
• Loving active Liverpool and Merseyside (i.e. mentioning local places or events, share your favourite active days out or places to go for a walk/ run/ cycle).

Children and families can log activity at participating leisure centres across Liverpool and Merseyside. Greenbank Sports Academy is one of these centres and visitors can take a picture at the Travel to Tokyo photoboard and log activity completed in the centre or nearby on a tablet. Greenbank has an extensive weekly programme of inclusive sessions that participants can join in with.