RYA Squad system Major Shakeup

Originally posted by polc1410 If your child was a national level 800m runner would you put them on a flight from Newcastle to Southampton several times a year on a Friday afternoon ? Why? And if you did... Would your local running club be rightly disgruntled that their best runners were off at a training camp AGAIN so they weren't taking part in local events..

I think this change had to happen sooner or later. From the Topper squad point of view, the angle they are going with is they want to avoid kids spending longer in the car than they do on the water, which to a certain extent is true.

The challenge is trying to ensure the same number of kids are in some sort of squad after this change. As this only affects the RYA squads, there is nothing to stop the class association continuing, or even expanding their own National squads.

While it would mean that the number of squad members across RYA and class association squads could still remain the same, it will mean the best kids get regional training, and the less talented kids are the ones who have to travel up and down the country.

Plus the above system only works if you have a pool of equally talented sailors in each region, with both numbers and depth of talent down the fleet. My understanding is that the existing regions will be maintained, ie a Midlands and a North, so no opportunity to combine the non-South Coast sailors into one squad