Dear Blog,
Why do kids lose interest in athletics before they reach senior competition is a question that is continually asked. Constantly.
Late afternoon yesterday I was down the track for an inter schools competition, one of the fixtures on the calendar which allows a team of only eight pupils per school to participate … like the similar senior athletic club event, it is supposed to be short and sharp and avoid the prolonged programmes of competition which stretches into a whole afternoon and beyond into next week. It was bucketing down with rain, the kids were cold and miserable stripped out standing around in the open waiting for their jump or throw or whatever and the understandably, the staff were brassed off too. Having finished their event it was a wet wait in the rain for the rest of the team to complete their events and then it was a wet wait in the rain for the coach arrive to take them back to school, still soaking wet to wait in the rain to be picked up by their parents. So that is the best part of fifty kids who will be giving athletics a miss in the future. The weekend before last, kids were being ‘persuaded’ to take part in events ‘to get points for the club’. So many of those young athletes will be dead keen to train hard for future success in these newly found events to improve their newly acquired skills, I don’t think. And with only two per event, what happened to all the other youngsters who train in the same group and missed out on selection … they will redouble their efforts to get picked in the future, I don’t think.
And in the evening, I went straight from the track to the War Memorial Park in Coventry for the Sphinx A.C. Midsummer ‘5’ road race around the paths of the park which was preceded by a kids Fun Run of 2 kilometres (one and a half miles Colin). It was still bucketing down with rain for the kids race. BUT. The whistle went, they took off their tops went the start line, off they went on their two laps to finish with a bag of sweets each and a nicely colour printed certificate with their results posted up within a few minutes of finishing. Back into their tops, a quick drink and whisked into the car home for a shower. Question Blog????? Which of the above group of kids will be more interested in repeating their sporting experiences of today???
The ‘Fun Run’ was ‘over distance’ according to the moaners and the ‘5’ mile was ‘under distance’ according to the moaners which just goes to show that you can’t please any of the people any of the time nor most of the people sometime soon.
There was a limit of 300 places on entries by the organising club for the ‘5’ and when that limit was reached, the queue of waiting hopefuls were told to piss off. The late entries numbered only about half a dozen; as a former race organiser, it is doubtful whether I would have done that. I know the insurance was for a field of 300 but at any road race event there is a no-show of about 15% especially when the weather was lousy, like what it were last night Jimlad, so the spirit of the insurance policy would have been fulfilled. Especially frustrating for the ones turned away was the fact that they were club runners who support local races come what may, not any of your giveusthegoodybag brigade. Like two other local road races in the past couple of weeks, it is the club backboners of the sport who have suffered. Like the kids, each runner was rewarded with a medal, a drink, a pat on the head and everyone went home wet but happy.
Now that is interesting Blog. We are now in a phase of development of the sport where the worries about controlling the sport by the authorities have given way to the grass root pressure of non-compliance. Rules are handed down from on high … you are not allowed to swap numbers, so we swap numbers and its up yours Blog …. We are not allowed to wear ear pieces, so we wear ear pieces and its up yours Blog. And what do our sport’s governing body do? You tell me Blog!
It reflects the situation the Victorian upper classes faced in the late 19th century when the working classes had some small disposable income for the first time … the worry was how to fulfil the plebs time with meaningful activity and control them. But the plebs won. Similar worries occupied the Edwardian ruling classes about the effects of the emancipation of women. But the women won. So our sport changes forever and the something-for-not-much-without-too much-effort Joe Jogger wins. What the sport needs is someone like that nice Mr Cameroon’s friend, a sort of sporty Michael Gove; the coaches would be sitting paper exams with no practicals, the joggers would be doing interval sessions on the track and the trudgers would have to complete a daily routine of circuit training, only the first three in a race would get a medal to improve the rigour of the sport and funding would be cut and club membership fees doubled. He would sweep away all this present day easy going participation lark; he would soon get the sport back to the standards of the 19th century where competition was the name of the game.
Vote for Gove
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