Why do we lose our champions from the sport?
Hi everybody, for my first article for Trampolineclubs.co.uk, I wanted to just examine an interesting issue and see if I can come up with any relevant reasons and how we might address those in the future.
So, this time I’ve chosen the topic of retention of skills in the sport. Why is it that our top sportsmen and women don’t automatically stay within the sport to give something back and what can we do, if anything to entice them to stay.
First of all I should say this isn’t just relevant to trampolining, but is prevalent in the majority of sports, in fact in most sports that cannot or does not lead to a well paid career.
Most amateur sports champions give up significant time to achieve what they do. It is no longer possible to reach the very top without training and practicing for many hours a week. In fact it is virtually a full time job just training, as many top sports people put in 35 hours a week.
So, is it any wonder that when they reach the end of their glittering career, national and international awards, trophies and accolades behind them, they just want to spend some time NOT doing the thing they have spent maybe the last 20 years doing. Maybe their love of the sport has simply faded away as demands increased and rewards faded.
Yet, it is these stars that can provide the link and the support to the rising stars.
Now, not all talented sports people make great coaches. To become a great sportsman and woman, it invariably requires a huge degree of self motivation and drive; this can sometimes come across as arrogance and detachment, which are not great qualities in a coach (unless maybe you are a well known foreign football coach). Consequently, sports people with such attributes need to re-learn their communications skills and learn how to integrate themselves into a coaching situation. Something that may not come easy after many years focussed internally.
So we need to engage with our superstars and help them to give back their talents, knowledge and experience to those coming through. Coach education is developing in a way that should allow them to build a worthwhile career from their activity. With the adoption of the UKCC certification, now sportsmen and women from all sports can class their coaching awards as professional qualifications, ranked against each other. A level 2 football coach, has the same level of knowledge and skills as a level 2 trampoline coach or a level 2 swimming coach. This goes a long way to assisting in the recognition of those qualifications and providing a career. Which in turn ensures we keep our stars in the sport?
But does it fully address the issue? How many kids do we have on the conveyor belt that burn out before they reach international performance levels? How can our stars of yesteryear help these kids out? Maybe today’s coaches need to recognise that previous stars also have a significant role to play in mentoring and supporting today’s stars and that is also a reward for their hard work and perseverance.
Write and tell me what you think, do you agree, do you have any ideas that can help, what else can we do, or do we need/want to? Are our former stars no longer required, gone, remembered briefly, but everyone is looking forward to the new stars on the block?
Tony Fagelman
20.07.10