FAQ
When was Gymnastic Equipment introduced as a facility specific and how should it be used?
Detailed information on the gymnastic equipment used within Sports Halls (Main, Activity and Barn) and Fitness Studios will be collected from December 2022.
Gymnastic equipment was previously captured but as a site level descriptor. This change to include the equipment within the individual Sports Hall and Fitness Studio facility records, allows a better understanding of gymnastic use within these non-dedicated spaces..
Where a sports hall or studio is used for Gymnastics/Trampoline activities, the range of gymnastics equipment used is recorded in ‘Facility specifics’ (Yes/No). Equipment categories include:
Floor Matting: Floor matting 25-40mm in thickness and suitable for vertical or rolled storage.
Moveable Balance Apparatus: Includes benches, padded/timber planks, and low/floor beams.
Moveable Large Apparatus: Includes agility tables, vaulting boxes, and coaching blocks.
Moveable Rebound Apparatus: Includes springboards and trampettes.
Moveable Trampolines: Includes individual trampolines, synchronized trampolines, and double mini- trampolines.
Small Apparatus: Includes ribbons, scarves, bean bags, hoops, balls, quoits, and skipping ropes.
Swinging and Hanging Apparatus: Includes wall bars, mini apparatus (i.e. scaled down bars or rings), ladders or ropes.
The facility specifics capture whether a facility has access to an equipment type. This equipment may/may not be dedicated to the space. For example, equipment could be moved between the Activity Hall and Fitness studio at a site. In this example, the same equipment types could be recorded against each facility i.e. both have access to and use the equipment. Noting that only equipment used in the facility is recorded.
To reduce recording inaccuracies, the count of individual pieces of equipment is not recorded. Rather, the facility specific records only whether the facility does (yes) or does not (no) have access to the specified equipment type.
Please note, at no point is the suitability of a space for use of a given equipment type assessed nor can it be implied.
By working with facility providers and National Governing Bodies, the Active Places Power team will seek to populate these new attributes as quickly as possible after go-live. However, information will also be gathered as part of ongoing data auditing by the Data Validation Team on the Active Places Data Platform. At release all gymnastic equipment specifics in non-dedicated spaces (Sports Halls and Fitness Studios) will be attributed as “Don’t Know”. As data is captured, the proportion of “Don’t Know” records in the database will decrease.
During this initial collection period, care needs to be taken in interrogating and interpreting information on gymnastic provision in non-dedicated spaces. Until all Sports Hall and Fitness Studio facilities have been subject to their latest audit (as part of the continual rolling audit of Active Places data), this attribute will be a partial dataset within Active Places Power. Updates are taking place through the existing Active Places Power annual audit cycle.
Please note information on dedicated gymnastics spaces is currently being collected and will be added as a new facility type. This will be released into Active Places Power once a complete dataset has been achieved.