After last nights resounding win 3-0 against a team that boasted 2 professionals, we have to ask whats gone wrong.

Its like putting Jenson Button in his formula 1 car, and then putting him a race against people driving Honda Accords, Vauxhall Vectras and even Hyudi Accents and then celebrating Jensons win.

So whats gone wrong

1) is it poor facilitys?
2) poor coaching
3) kids prefer playing computer games in their formative years, rather than sport
4) We (the adults) keep distroying the kids playing areas, so they have no where to play sport

and do we stand a chance in the 2012 olympics? (of winning a few medals, not of getting a good thrashing) VOTE

Boris Johnson made a point, although not specifically about sport in the UK. Less than one in eight primary school teachers is male and thus now kids don't have a clue about being competitive.

The attitude of females is to make everyone a winner, even when it's not deserved, which in turn leads to the decline of western progress as has occured since the rise of feminism and, in a double whammy, American culture pervading society.

The hosts do win more medals in Olympics so that's something to look forward to. The fact that McDonald's sponsors the tournament, like they do football, will just lessen the pool of talent up until then so it won't be as marked.

The Chinese will be formidable by 2012 but they've taken it a step too far by pretty much breeding circus performers who are indoctrined. Somewhere in the middle of that and the "everyone's a winner" mantra by the liberals lies the perfect blend. England just needs to find it. Unfortunately until primary school teaching is more equal it just won't happen.

England was quite good at stuff and came first occasionally, but then other countries played too, meaning that the England Reserves had more opposition.

With the exceptions of the '66 Football World Cup, and the near beatification of Jonny Wilkinson in the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup, England has won bugger all of note to the rest of the planet.

Here endeth the lesson.

After last nights resounding win 3-0 against a team that boasted 2 professionals, we have to ask whats gone wrong.

Its like putting Jenson Button in his formula 1 car, and then putting him a race against people driving Honda Accords, Vauxhall Vectras and even Hyudi Accents and then celebrating Jensons win.

So whats gone wrong

1) is it poor facilitys?
2) poor coaching
3) kids prefer playing computer games in their formative years, rather than sport
4) We (the adults) keep distroying the kids playing areas, so they have no where to play sport


probably all of the above. if it's anything to do with the rise of feminism, then that's fair enough because the rise of feminism empowered both women and children and exposed the violence and abuse inflicted on both groups, and so the trade off is in my mind worthwhile, but to be honest i think the above are more likely reasons.

Is the compensation culture another factor? ie everything is too dangerous these days.

These days, yOu need to do a Risk Assessment if you plan to teach the kids how to tie their shoelaces....ie hazards, dangers etc.....

Simple answer - PE in schools. The National Curriculum for PE is responsible for it all.

PE in Primary Schools is awful. It is often taught by female teachers who have no background in PE teaching. Many of them will freely admit this.

To sum up the National Curriculum, kids have to do EVERY sport up until the end of Key Stage 3 (Year 9). They will do 6 weeks of one activity then move onto the next. Now compare this to some private school systems where kids can opt into the activities they are taught (rugby, hockey etc) and they are taught this for most of the year. For example, a kid may opt to do rugby from sept to march, and then opt into cricket from march to july.

The solution? Abolish the National Curriculum for PE and stop assessing kids in PE. Give each school a games afternoon and encourage kids to find activities they enjoy instead of teaching them everything.

When was this country ever any good at sport ..... any sport? :huh:

kids don't have a clue about being competitive.

.

The pc do-gooders have made sure that competition as been removed from Tarquins education.

No one is prepared to make the sacrifices required to be the best in the world.

And the media don't respect the few who do make it.

Two of our most successful sports stars were Linford Christie and Nick Faldo.

The wanted to be the best and didn't give up until they became the best.

But the media hated them and criticise them at every opportunity, favouring the "plucky" Frank Bruno and Tim Henman.

Michael Johnson has it right when he says the sports stars today are happy to be the best in Britain, and as they are overpaid, there is no incentive in their eyes to be the best in the world.

Talent is important, but so is hard work and dedication, something sadly lacking, and not just in sport.

The spirit of competition has been watered down over the past 30 years or so, it started with the ever popular "It isnt the winning, its the taking part" crap they feed the kids.
Why bother to strive if you get the same benefits as the last one or the first one across the line? Its almost like communism, and remember what happened there?

children are now taught in schools that they are not allowed to be competitive and that it is only th participating which counts, this is one of the biggest reasons. it is down to the government and the national curriculum which states that they are not allowed to be competitive in school and it is also preaced in out of school clubs, i.e local football clubs

if you look at football, the opposite is often true - at a young age it's the winning that counts - boot it up field and get the ball in the back of the net - large sized pitches - there's no focus on technique, skill and learning - only winning

i agree with you anvil but now the governing bodies and teachers must emphasise the fact that it is the participation that takes place rather than the wining, it was one of the topics which i covered during my degree this year in which i am studying to be a teacher

hmm, well, IMO, the emphasis in all learning environments should be on the learning, not the participation or the winning. to draw a parallel with BJJ (which i know from some of your other posts that you're now doing), i personally have rolled with several people who have used brute strength to wrench my arm away from me and subsequently armlock me - so they've got the 'win', but what have they learned? all they know is that they can use brute strength against against a smaller, weaker 'opponent' - but they knew this before. when it comes to rolling with a bigger, stronger 'opponent', they'll find this method ineffective, because they were focused on the 'winning' and not learning.

P.S. good luck with the degree - i'm studying for one myself and it's bloody hard work!

I think you have to consider the Bling lifestyle that many of our top sportsmen enjoy (especially soccer players). Their ambition is to drive the best car, pull the best WAG, wear the best wristwatch and earring and get paid the most (that way they get respect from their peers). They are basically young kids scared of leaving the gang.
Compare that to the attitude of Coe, Cram, Ovett, Holmes, Gunnell,Charlton, Redgrave etc etc....they were not interested in the financial side. C'mon - an Olympic gold medal or a new Bentley...no choice to be made there!

yes, i would guess that money and status are factors also - along with a lot of other things. i'm not a tennis player, but a former colleague of mine was and he described how sheffield city council invested heavily in graves tennis centre, but to the detriemnt of local parks tennis. as such, if you want quality facilities, you now need to travel rather than find it locally, which for youngsters isn't always easy to do.

i also think that although children these days certainly don't have it easy, materially they're much better off and it's all too easy to be a good 'sportsman' on the xbox, ps2/ps3 etc. rather than go out and put the effort into the real thing (and i think there are several reasons for this also).

all in all i think it's a very complex issue which has many contributing factors (as most things do).

i totaly agree with you anvil, what/where are you studying?

i'm studying with the Hull School of the Lincoln University - it's a Employment based Social Work Degree (Distance learning), although fortunately i'm not employed as a social worker per se, rather as a children's rights and advocacy worker, but my employer requires a Social Work Degree for me to be fully paid in this role. Once i've completed that i intend to move into counselling as it's where i'd rather be.

how far into your degree are you? and what are you intending to teach?

wow that sounds harsh, im studying to be a design and technology teacher (wood work metal work, etc), i am in my second year at sheffield hallam uni, i have one year left nd then i will be a fully qualified teacher.

It seems to me that the most "talented" people in any field start young. They need the right genes but also the opportunity to identify their talents and develop the skills.
The government of this country has never in my middle-aged experience sought out youngsters with potential and offered special development opportunities. Indeed it has probably got worse with the non-competitive philosophy and health and safety concerns.
A lot of it is therefore down to opportunities provided by parents, and that favours families with sufficient income to pay for club membership, coaching, travel, equipment etc.
Incidentally, it is something of an irony that our children should have only to co-operate rather than compete when all aspects of public service are now subject to competitive league tables.
And of course in adult life we all have to compete, for example to get a job, so is competition not a life skill that should be taught? Team sports have it both ways - by co-operating the team can compete more effectively - and that is what we should be teaching our youngsters.

The spirit of competition has been watered down over the past 30 years or so, it started with the ever popular "It isnt the winning, its the taking part" crap they feed the kids.
Why bother to strive if you get the same benefits as the last one or the first one across the line? Its almost like communism, and remember what happened there?

I agree with this. If I had kids, winning would mean food.

There is such a thing as healthy competition, I think it's also important to be able to accept loss and analyse the reasons for it to be able to improve in the future. Or just to admit that you can't be good at everything - but should definitely try to be good at something!

WELL the reason is simple the DO GOODERS!!! can you remember sports day at skool how you wanted to cum first etc, well for most skools now they wont let that happen!!! so we dont have that winning mentallity, !!!!

We reward failure in this country,if a child comes last at sports day they still get the same prize as the winner thus teaching kids it is acceptable to fail.

The spirit of competition has been watered down over the past 30 years or so, it started with the ever popular "It isnt the winning, its the taking part" crap they feed the kids.
Why bother to strive if you get the same benefits as the last one or the first one across the line? Its almost like communism, and remember what happened there?

if people were able to learn, rather than win, we'd perhaps have more winners. it's learning that should be encouraged.

with regard to communism, what happened there is that the dominant super power never allowed them to get on it with, so it failed. cuba is currently a good example, but they still have excellent success at the olympics (relatively), an excellent health system, etc, etc.