The sun is shining and the track season has burst into life. There are sizeable numbers of juniors at the track and, all of a sudden, the coaching resources are coming under pressure. This is after months of us rattling around with little to do and me in particular augmenting the coffee bar takings for the lack of any work to do.
Suddenly Tuesdays and Thursdays are different. There’s great activity and a great vibe. We must really do our best to pass on athletics skills while we can as – you can bet your life – many of these youngsters won’t be seen for dust once the summer holidays start.
And last Sunday at last saw a fine, sunny morning for the Minis and there was an excellent turnout. We got out the hurdles and spent the whole session delivering basic hurdles technique together with some racing to the oldest group, the Year 5s. And the group really stepped up and showed us what they could do! I wasn’t sure what the ability level of this group were at but we, the coaches, are suddenly looking upon them in a new light. Whereas the present Year 6s have a whole bunch of talent I think these 5s have, if anything, more strength in depth.
So on to the Primary Schools’ Championships which have taken place over the last three days – at least the sprints, hurdles, distance and throwing. As always there was a lot of endeavour. But today, finals day, was dominated by Spartan athletes. Even from my limited view in the results hut it was clear that the Spartan kids were, generally, head and shoulders above everyone else when it came to athleticism. And, as to the individual schools, it was a sea of JCG and VCP with just a few others breaking up the monopoly, notably Beaulieu, de la Salle and St Michael’s. The results sheets reflected just that.
Primary Schools’ Championships – Final results – May 2012
But why this concentration of talent of winning athletes who are often both Spartan athletes and pupils of fee-paying schools? If you read Matthew Syed’s book Bounce you will be told that each child is borne with the same innate ability. There is no such thing as God-given talent. Success in sport is a matter of (1) opportunity and (2) purposeful practice i.e. not just simply repetition.
If we accept this (and it is admittedly a stretch at times to go along with it) then these excellent young athletes who are rising to the top must have had both support from parents and school as well as exposure to an athletics club environment, both from an early age.
And this is what worries me. If the preceding paragraph is correct then many other, equally capable, young boys and girls do not get that encouragement and support.
Rare is the child from one of the non fee-paying schools whose Mum brings them along to Minis training. Rarely do we see a child from the housing estates that lie either side of the FB Fields. Samarès Primary School is a javelin throw away from the track yet they were unrepresented this week. One of our coaches had to make noises to d’Auvergne School to get one of the good Spartan girls released to compete. Similarly Mont Nicolle were represented by just the one Spartan.
Now, if all the others that we don’t see are leading healthy and active lives doing other sports then that is great. But I fear that, in many cases, they aren’t.
