UK sport funding

Originally posted by 2547 Originally posted by iGRF My Chum's over here from Aus at the moment, giving it all the we this and we that and marvelling at their coaches and tactical superiority, he's back in lasers funnily enough then telling me about this book I should read by some Aussie called Bethwaite, have you any idea how this all sticks in the craw of any self respecting Brit with a sailing history? Knowing as I do from bitter experience of all the flaws of those that would tutor and coach our young aspirants and the power they wield with that cash? I fear if you can't keep an upstart Aussie in his place you must be losing your touch ...

He's a bloody Brit as I had to keep reminding him, I haven't seen him in ten years and the last time we met I wasn't exactly myself, recovering from extreme head trauma, so we had a lot to catch up, he was a dinghy sailor who became a racing windsurfer after we met when he was an Apprentice sailmaker, worked for me for a bit before getting head hunted by Gaastra then he ended up in Aus, interesting he's now ended up in Lasers, reckons there's 45 - 50 on a Sunday in Sydney Harbour most weeks.

He's right about the coaching though they do concentrate more on tactics than we do, our lot its about equipment, nutrition, psychobabble, core fitness, all essential but pretty useless if you don't have the Tactics, which was clearly demonstrated that they don't by some of the stupid displays witnessed at Weymouth.

Something you can never really be certain about is it not, you never really know if someone you''re watching or competing against did what they did by luck, circumstance or design.

But I definitely came to the conclusion there were some elementary mistakes made at Weymouth (I watched literally every race broadcast) by folk who really ought to know better after all the money and resources thrown at them.

Edited by iGRF - 19 Dec 12 at 8:49pm

Originally posted by pondmonkey RYA vacuum... kids disappear into it.  How many stay in the sport?  How many might have stayed in it if they'd focused more on club level sailing?  I dunno, I'd like to think more.  Glad you enjoyed your experiences though; there's no one answer.  My point is simple- the funding is to pay for the performance programme and it's up to us to elect whether we dump our kids into it, or whether we finance their introduction to sailing through other avenues.  (I don't expect 'funding' to pay for my kids to get introduced to sailing, I guess that makes me 'elitist') As for my own kids, no I won't be pushing them into any form of racing or structured competition.  I'd rather they developed a natural love for messing around in boats, boards, canoes etc; if one of those leads towards a racing or competitive desire, then so be it, I will support it, but it will not be the 'end game' of any watersport opportunities I present.

I think that an advertised try sailing program would spiral into exactly the sort of RYA training/teaching/coaching that is being discussed. I'm not sure if you mean for members to take joe public out for a spin in their boats or some such but I think the liability implications are likely to preclude something so simple. I wouldn't be happy taking out anyone I didn't know very well in one of my own or anyone elses boat. Colleagues and friends wouldn't look to sue me if they hurt themselves. It would be a different matter if I was using my instructor tick on a recognised course (even a try sailing one) at an RYA recognised centre. Most sailing clubs qualify for this now although I'm not sure whether that is a result of elite funding trickling down.

I think the funding throughout the sport is currently at an outstanding level given the economic climate. At the end of the day dinghies are an expensive game. Just because it can be done very cheaply doesn't change that those of us doing it cheaply are probably expending the same percentage of our disposable income as a guy unwrapping a brand new International14 or 505. It's up to the private sector these days to persuade the 'waste product' from the squads that there are boats worth moving into with their own cash. RS being the standout performer, although plenty of class associations are trying hard.

Regarding retention, when I started racing, the Topper squad was 12 people and there were about 60 boats at Northampton winter selection. Now I believe each zone squad is over 20 boats, the national squad is around about 40 boats, theres a intermediate squad, a 4.2 feeder rig for the topper and nationals entries are nearly 300! Coupled with a high turnover as kids outgrow the boat thats a lot of very capable sailing adults in the future. Surely the percentage retained is irrelevant I doubt it'll change from the percentage retained from exclusively club sailors.

Finally regarding a control group, university sailing clubs introduce a LOT of people to sailing as young adults who have never tried it before usually using a 'try sailing' initiative, it's free, its simpler than it ever could be in the real world, it's legally covered and these days it's always competent ex squaddies doing the teaching. In my experience no matter how windy the test sail was no matter how much people claimed to love it at the time the retention rate from this sort of introduction was always pretty atrocious!

That Ben chap - no clue about tactics at all. Bring him to Whitefriars and I'll sail rings round him in my Lightning...