It is fair to report that our sport has enjoyed great
success at recent Olympic, World and European events. You may well argue that it has never been
healthier and that we live in a golden age of success. If you look at the international achievements
of the likes of Anna Sloan, Greg Drummond, Michael Goodfellow, Scott Andrews,
Tom Brewster, Claire Hamilton, Vicky Adams, Lauren Gray, Eve Muirhead and David
Murdoch – to name but ten, and in no particular order – well, you cannot really
argue. These people have been prepared to commit wholly to their sport; they have given up
huge amounts of time and effort and, yes, they are living their dream. But the
rest of us should never forget that they didn’t achieve this success by
accident: they visit the gym regularly; they put in as much work to their sport as
the rest of us do to our jobs and, though the highs are undoubtedly high, they
come at a price.
Such is the lot of any top sportsperson in the UK today. You want to get to the top? Commit.
End of. And when there is lottery
money available to fund all of the coaches and support staff, then that is
fine. Sorted, in fact.
It is up to the sport’s governing body to do the next
bit. I am going to call it “the
pipeline”. The pipeline is important for
two immediate reasons
·
The top chaps need to be kept on their toes;
they need to be kept “honest”; they need to know that if they slip – even fall
– then there will be someone else in the wings willing and able to leap into
their place.
·
There needs to be a succession plan in place; we
need to think long-term. It is all very
well thinking of these top players as being long-term solutions, but life is
about change, so there needs to be a Sarah Reid willing to step into the shoes
of a departing Claire Hamilton, for example.
Oh. There was; so that’s OK then
as well.
To be serious for a second, we actually do have at least a
couple of teams in both ladies and men that are serious challengers for the
Scottish Championships this year. I am
thinking of the likes of teams MacDonald, Brewster and Edwards in the men and
Gray and Fleming in the ladies. Any one
of these teams should have been exposed enough to top-level competition (as
well as being serious, regular visitors to the business ends of our national
championships) that, if push comes to shove and they find themselves
representing their country at World or European level – well, they should be
able to make a fist of it.
Last season, in the controversial absence of the two Olympic
teams, teams Barr and MacDonald came out top in their respective Scottish Championships
and went to the World Championships. Unfortunately,
neither team threatened the podium, but the experience gained will always be
there in the memory banks if the same thing happens again.
Earlier this season, Teams Edwards and Muirhead won the
European play-off in Scotland and therefore took on the far more perilous trip
to the European Championships. For team
Muirhead, this was all grist to the mill but for team Edwards, this was their
first outing on the serious international stage (with apologies to sundry
Junior and European Mixed Championships) and the stakes were high indeed –
qualify Scotland for the World Championships.
As the week ground on, the wee Andrex puppy was becoming increasingly
agitated, but they came through in the end – as did the ladies with a Bronze
medal win over Denmark, their slightly surprising conquerors in the 3v4
play-off game.
So – a story of mixed success then and I think that there
are some learning points here for the HHYs.
I’ll bullet-point them as follows
·
The Scottish Championships remain an important calendar
event and the stakes in this open competition should remain high. Bottoms should squeak. Top teams need to be kept “honest”.
·
Serious competition is important, so ensure that
you have at least two “other” teams that can step up to the plate. This means funneling funds in their
direction as well and sending them off to at least three Champions Tour events
in the period September to December/ early January.
·
Maintain the age-group championships, but let the
youngsters pick their own teams until at least age 18. Let them enjoy competing with friends; allow
them the space to become enthused with the game before you channel them
inexorably into teams when they are still too young.
There’s other stuff as well, but that will do for the
moment!
Sorry that it has been quiet here for so long and many
thanks to those of you whom I have met in my travels and who have encouraged me
to take up the fingers again.
More later.
