Revista PODIUM, January-April 2020; 15(1): 1-4

Translated from the original in spanish

Reflectionon sport sfacilities

Reflexión sobre las instalaciones deportivas

Reflexão sobre as instalações esportivas

Fernando Emilio Valladares Fuente^1* https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4952-1846

¹Universidad de Pinar del Río "Hermanos Saíz Montes de Oca". Pinar del Río, Cuba.

^*Correspondence author: fernando.valladares@upr.edu.cu

One of the factors that negatively affect the motivation of young Cubans to practice sports is the situation related to the availability of sports facilities. However, it is not so easy to say that the difficulty is only due to the effects of the US economic blockade of Cuba, which, due to its extraterritorial nature, has not allowed the country to acquire materials for their construction and equipment for their modernization. This deficiency should also be analyzed from the perspective of the culture of conservation of these spaces, which were mostly built since the first years of the 1959 Revolution. Some experts on the subject have conducted research on the deterioration of Cuban sports facilities and on the projection of new constructions that allow the efficient use of the territory destined for such sports purposes (Benítez Llanes, J.I., 2012)

In these studies, it has been revealed that, although the various facilities created for the exercise of sport, a right of the people, have been placed in the hands of the working masses, no measures have been taken to conceive an ideal architecture in correspondence with the physical space, nor has an educational campaign been carried out in order to care for these facilities. In addition, and as is already a fact, the control methods for the maintenance of these spaces have not been the most competent, so this has created a vulnerability in the management of sports facilities within the Cuban sports movement, from the base to training, at high levels of competition.

To carry out an exploration in objects of study similar to this reflection, a bibliographic search on worldwide research is carried out and it is observed that, in different directions, sports facilities are treated from different angles and, in the majority of the cases, they are protected under the jurisdiction of a sports law. Sports facilities are analyzed from the point of view of health (Cabello Oliveros, E., & Cabra de la Torre, N., 2006), management and architecture (Paramio, J. L., et al., 2010), security of these facilities (Del Campo, V. L., & Píriz, R. S., 2016), from the level of saturation in the use of the facilities (Martínez, V., & García-Buades, E. 2007), and also from management, around the impact of the economic crisis (Grimaldi-Puyana, M., et al., 2016).

If a consensus is reached on the indicators that should be taken into account for the construction of sports facilities in Cuba, one of the priorities should be the protection of sports implements and equipment in relation to weather conditions. It is not fair that so-called bio-healthy equipment be imported from China and, in less than the average life span, to see these devices completely rusted due to the torrential rains on these spaces, which lie in the open air. That is why we must attend to the specialists who have already mentioned in their works the need to provide infrastructure for sports equipment and much more if they cost great capital to purchase, assemble and transport or simply to thank the friendly countries that export them.

It is very prudent, for the understanding of this text, to point out the differences between sports facilities and spaces that are often used interchangeably, according to Benítez Llanes, J.I (2004) and Benítez, J.I (2006). A sports space is the most restricted and specific place where sport is practiced, for example, a combat sports hall, the motorcycle racing track, the baseball stadium or a tennis court. A sports facility can have one single sports space or several, with different destinations.

These facilities can, in turn, be included in certain sports complexes which generally operate with the help of complementary spaces and auxiliary services.

This whole range of terms is very useful to understand that the development of sport has become very important and important and, although our country does not have the resources to create all the sports facilities that are needed, it must be insisted on strengthening a conscience towards the care of social property to take care of those that we already have.

Even in the current circumstances, Cuba is making an effort to revitalize or remodel sports areas, both in the Capital and in the interior of the country. In the context of the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the founding of the Capital city, it appears in the national press that:

"The revival of the Sports City included the perimeter fence, interior and exterior spaces, painting, gardening, in addition to the pool complex, scheduled in two stages...", (Arce Montero A, 2019).

Also in this framework, the 25 m. swimming pool was favored, the stadium's bleachers were renovated, the slate was improved and also the "Juan Ealo" stadium, designed to work the children's categories. In particular, the transmission cabin, dugouts, the perimeter fence, the stands and the ground were all refurbished.

On the other hand, the Velodrome has also been restored and in the Pan American Stadium, a last generation athletics track has been introduced, which is used for important competitions and modeling performed by the athletes.

It has not been possible to improve all the sports facilities and spaces required, but at least important steps have been taken. It is very true that the Cuban state is not in an advantageous economic position to invest in sports facilities and complexes at the level of world competition. That is why the little that has been achieved cannot have any other approach but the sustainable one; neither is it viable to adopt the variant that Cuban athletes must necessarily train in foreign facilities, which could be the exception, but not the rule. In any case, the philosophy that should be adopted should be, above all, one of participatory construction. The only way for the people to assume collective property and protect their assets is not only by granting them the right to enjoy these assets, but also the responsibility to ensure their care and maintenance. This has been insisted on at the level of territorial and local government; but the power of the word is not enough, the call must be made, from various points of view, from art, debate, sanitation, innovation and everything that leads to strengthening awareness and a sense of belonging.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

Arce Montero A, (2019) Aniversario 500 de La Habana: Oportunidad para revitalizar instalaciones deportivas. Artículo en la sección deportiva de Cubadebate. Recuperado de http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2019/11/07/aniversario-500-de-la-habana-oportunidad-para-revitalizar-instalaciones-deportivas/

Benitez LLanes Jesús I. (2004) Espacios para la Actividad Física deportiva. Editorial deportes. La Habana, Cuba.

Benítez Llanes Jesús I. (2006) Un sistema de superación para profesionales de la Cultura Física en relación con la gestión de los espacios para la actividad físico-deportiva. Tesis presentada en opción al grado científico de Doctor en Ciencias de la cultura física. Instituto de Cultura Física. La Habana, Cuba. Disponible en: http://roa.ult.edu.cu/bitstream/123456789/3725/69/Sistema%20de%20superacion%20para%20prof%20-%20Benitez%20Llanes%2C%20Jesus%20Ignacio.pdf

Benítez Llanes Jesús I. (2012). Aspectos técnicos metodológicos a considerar en la ubicación de las infraestructuras Físico-Deportivas Recreativas. Revista Podium. 7(1), (2012): Enero-marzo. Disponible en: http://podium.upr.edu.cu/index.php/podium/article/view/307

Cabello Oliveros, E. y Cabra de la Torre, N. (2006) Evaluación de las instalaciones deportivas escolares desde el punto de vista de la salud. Revista Internacional de Medicina y Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte vol. 6 (23) pp. 138-154. Disponible:  http://cdeporte.rediris.es/revista/revista23/artinstalaciones.htm

Del Campo, V. L., & Píriz, R. S. (2016). Análisis y evaluación de la seguridad de instalaciones y equipamientos deportivos escolares en la ciudad de Mérida (Extremadura). RETOS. Nuevas Tendencias en Educación Física, Deporte y Recreación, (29), 66-71. Disponible en: https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/retos/article/view/34364

Grimaldi-Puyana, M., García-Fernández, J., Gómez-Chacón, R., & Bravo, G. (2016) Impacto de la crisis económica en la rentabilidad de las empresas de gestión de instalaciones de ocio deportivo según tamaño, un estudio empírico. Revista de psicología del deporte, 25(1), 51-54. Disponible en: https://www.rpd-online.com/article/view/v25-n3-grimaldi-puyana-garcia-etal

Martínez, V., & García-Buades, E. (2007). El nivel de saturación de las instalaciones deportivas como atributo situacional y variable de la calidad: sus relaciones con la satisfacción de los usuarios. Revista de Psicología del deporte, 7(2). Disponible en: https://www.rpd-online.com/article/view/96

Paramio, J. L., Beotas, E., Campos, C., & Muñoz, G. (2010). Manual de equipamientos e instalaciones deportivas. Aproximación arquitectónica y de gestion. [Handbook of SportsFacilities: Architectural and ManagerialPerspectives]. Madrid: Ed Sýntesis. Disponible en: https://www.libreriadeportiva.com/libro/manual-de-equipamientos-e-instalaciones-deportivas_29729

Conflict of interests:

The authors declare not to have any interest conflicts.

Authors' contribution:

The authors have participated in the writing of the work and analysis of the documents.

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Copyright (c) 2020 Fernando Emilio Valladares Fuente