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Sport and fitness for today’s youth
February 2010 £2.75
Sam claiming schools snub talent scheme By Louise Cordell PUPILS are being denied opportunities to excel at sport because many schools see talent selection programmes as too ‘elitist’, according to a national coach. Sam Buck, head coach at Cambridge Dive Team has found local schools reluctant to get involved in a scheme set up to offer talented children free coaching for fear of excluding less talented kids. Sam, who was recently named Young Coach of the Year at the UK Coaching Awards, revealed that, in the four years the national initiative has been running, only 12 schools in the area have agreed to take part. He said: “The feedback we got was that many teachers felt that the talent selection process was too elitist and that it wasn’t the best way to get the kids involved. We’ve found a very strange attitude within schools – sporting achievement used to be celebrated, but now it seems way down the pecking order and academic achievement is more highly prized. This is a shame, because some kids are not academic, but given the opportunity, they could find something different that they are great at.”
The talent selection programme involves the coaches going into PE lessons to find pupils with potential, then inviting them to further try outs at the pool – the most promising are then offered three months of free diving lessons. However, every other pupil that takes part is also entitled to a lesson at the club, giving them a chance to try something new. After struggling to get schools involved in the scheme, Sam decided the only option was to side step the teachers and set up a pre-school trampolining group for kids aged three to five, which feeds into the diving classes. The club is now aiming to expand by 150 members over the next year, however, Sam is concerned that it will not meet this goal if schools don’t change their approach. He added: “It was disheartening and I felt like we had to start thinking of other options. We want to keep finding more talent, but we need the schools to get on board and give their pupils that chance.” Sam also added that there has been an improvement in the response from schools since the club made contact with the local SSP and showed them what the scheme is all about.
TV series follows kids for a decade
Record-breaking sailor and former PE teacher Dee Caffari has been presented with an Inspiration Award for her work with young people in schools. She is the first woman to have sailed single handed and non stop around the world in both directions and has now been awarded an MBE for her achievements. Dee was also recently presented with the Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration at the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards. The recognition came after she entered the sixth edition of the gruelling Vendee Globe race, coming in sixth out of 30 skippers and one of only 11 boars to make it back in one piece. Full story, Page 17
A NEW Channel 4 documentary, screening this month, is set to follow the lives of seven overweight children for a decade. The ‘Generation XXL’ series will be tracking kids aged seven to 11 over ten years to see how they cope with their size and what it feels like to be growing up fat. The opening film will feature three of the older children in the group, looking at how aware they are of their bodies and how the rest of the world sees them. The show will document their observations and daily routines and well as results from scans and physical and psychological tests. Paula Watson manages a healthy lifestyle programme for obese children and their families at Liverpool John Moores University, and appears as an expert in Generation XXL. She said: “A child doesn't have to look very big to be classified as obese. It's becoming almost the norm.”