Factors influencing implementation of easily accessible sporting programs: perceptions of national sports federation and local sports clubs.

Introduction: The Dutch government stimulates sport and physical activity opportunities in the neighborhood to make it easier for people to adopt a physically active lifestyle. Seven National Sports Federations (NSFs) were funded to develop easily accessible sporting programs, targeted at groups with low sport participation levels. A total of eight programs were implemented during a one-year implementation period. Implementation was performed locally by sports clubs. For a successful implementation of these programs, insight into factors facilitating and impeding implementation is important. Methods: For each sporting program, two group interviews were conducted with representatives of sports clubs; one successful and one less successful club. Additionally, interviews were held with representatives of the NSF. Interviews focused on factors that influenced program implementation. Factors were extracted and summarized from interview transcripts. Results: Although factors varied by sporting program, there were some factors that were commonly mentioned, both by the NSFs and sports clubs. Examples of important facilitating factors were: Having enthusiastic local actors (e.g. trainer), availability of qualified trainers and inclusion of social activities in the program. An important common impeding factor was not having enthusiastic local actors. Other factors were more specific to NSFs or sports clubs, like reliance on volunteers locally (important impeding factor for NSFs) and enthusiastic participants (important facilitating factor for sports clubs). Discussion: The knowledge about facilitating and impeding factors can be used to develop sporting programs and/or implementation strategies that are adapted to these factors. In this way, implementation of these and future programs will be facilitated.