Indian confidence growing

[TJ Mason]

A news story about India's hopes in archery for the 2008 Olympics and the Asian Championship:
http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=8250
The story says that archery is India's best hope for an Olympic medal (true no doubt), and that the Korean compound team are too nervous about the Indians to attend the Asian Championships.

The UK seriously needs a similar attitude to the Indians. They're a more practical example to us than the South Koreans, given that India (like the UK) doesn't put all kids through the system in the way that South Korea does.

[Furface]

A lot of what is in this fascinating article does reflect what GNAS are trying to put in place. There is soon to be a much more effective system of "talent spotting", and archery is expanding into public sector schools quite quickly. I doubt that prize money would have the same effect as it does in India, because of relative wealth patterns. What we do need is a more realistic approach to what winning involves. Too often we Brits are satisfied with being big fish in our own small ponds, and lack the drive to hack it on the world stage. The transformation in the Rugby and Cricket teams and the approaches used there, contrasted with the flaccid self-satisfaction of Soccer and Tennis (as examples)

[Jenny]

Originally Posted by Furface

Too often we Brits are satisfied with being big fish in our own small ponds, and lack the drive to hack it on the world stage.

I agree with that...it seems that a lot of Brits don't have enough pride in their country to want to prove to the rest of the world that they're the best.

I also think that there isn't enough sports talent-spotting done in this country. For all we know, we could have world-champion divers/trampoliners/skiiers/windsurfers/archers in this country but they've never been given the chance to even try the sport! It seems that schools (where you'd think talent would be spotted) concentrate on a maximum of 6 sports and even where kids show promise in one of those sports they are given no encouragement and there are few resources to support them.


~Jenny~

[Furface]

The school situation is difficult. At my daughter's school, she has one sport each half term, plus "PE"; the sport is given one double period per fortnight. Not enough to learn any sport. However, when I was a kid, we had two terms of Rugby (this was in Wales!) and one of "Athletics". I was, if anything, a swimmer, hence I was ruled out of organised games and sent on a "run". I suspect the answer is a compromise, with the taster approach of the current school backed up with well-supported "after-school clubs", run in conjunction with local clubs, and so feeding in to the mainstream.

[Jenny]

My school wasn't too bad with the variety of sports they provided...I remember we even had a taster of 'Self-Defence' although that was a fee to take part and there were some after school clubs but there was no encouragement or follow up. Even the self-defence...they didn't even say where you could go if you wanted to take up Martial Arts...and it was (and still is) very sexist in its attutude towards certain sports. Girls - Netball, Rounders, Tennis...Boys - Football, Rugby, Cricket... same old, same old. The only thing that everyone took part in was athletics.

If you were a girl and wanted to take part in Football or Basketball then it had to be an after school club (or in the case of basketball, before school) and even that was a disaster because they only found one teacher to organise the girls football club adn they gave up after 3 weeks. As for basketball, I was the only girl that went to the club!

If you were a boy and wanted to do Tennis or another 'girly' sport, you had no chance...there just weren't any provisions for it.


Anyway, I went completely off the subject there...I think taster sessions are the way to go, but with more information available at ther end of each course e.g. where you can go to take up the sport, what help you can get, where to get more info...


~Jenny~

[Tobytoolbag]

Originally Posted by Jenny

I think taster sessions are the way to go, but with more information available at the end of each course e.g. where you can go to take up the sport, what help you can get, where to get more info...

I agree, but this will involve closer co-operation between GNAS, local clubs, local council sports authorities, and schools/youth groups, which, in itself, might be a stumbling block. But not an insurmountable problem...

The main problem I've found that, as a general member of the public wanting to try out Archery, there's precious little publicity material out there to tell me where to go to find my local club or beginners' course.

It's a problem we're encountering up here on Lewis, with many people not even aware that there's an archery club on the Island, even though we've got listings on the local council's sports authority's website, on the GNAS website, and our own website. The only way to hit the mainstream is to mount a major 'publicity campaign', with adverts in the local papers, posters and flyers in the local sports facility, etc.

[Little Miss Purple]

I don't think some schools take sports at all seriously - I went to a grammar school and played hockey. I was spotted and picked for the county team and trained with Jane Sixsmith, I didn't play due to working on a weekend - nobody questioned this!!!

[cliveanne]

I do run archery classes at a school, allbeit a Public School, this is done Wednesdy afternoons 13:15-15:30 during the Summer months only, as they do not have the indoor facility needed (Well, that's their story) I also have recently benn asked to go to Rosliston Forestry Centre to instruct the older element (nearing leaving age) to give taster sessions, this is for just over an hour & the pupils might get about 1/2hr's shooting, 2 groups are normaly involved. In fact Nov' 22,23,24,25. I'll be there. So some good might yet come of it