Junior Badge Scheme

[PeterG]

I've been a little wary about entering this debate due to personal feelings about the Start Squad. The opinion I've held since the funding was cut in 2002 is that the squad should have been built on top of the BOF tours, not replaced them.

A lot of people seem to have forgotten that funding for these tours was provided from multiple sources. The two I went on were 1/3rd funded by my local club. Another 1/3rd came from the region and BOF paid all transport costs. This meant that there was really very little cost to the junior and I never heard anyone complaining. There are now far less juniors getting access to national level training than there were before and, although the missing half may not have had medal potential, a large number of them would probably have gone on to be the organisers, planners and coaches of the future.

The old tours were the orienteering social highlight of the year for younger juniors and allowed people like me to keep in touch with people all over the country. I understand that they weren't just scrapped and that the new system evolved out of the old through a series of unfortunate circumstances but the opportunity should exist for families to pay for their promising juniors to go on tour if they want to, regardless of any organisation (or lack of) at a regional level.

[Rich]

(although if i tick them of SC, Wales, EM,WM, EA and NE don't have any or many).

EM? Ahem. I think of at lest four

[Mrs H.]

I agree entirely with PeterG's sentiments.

The crux of the matter is what the objective is - if its to win medals then the start squad might be a reasonable way of going about it, but if its to keep young people in the sport, motivated and improving to ensure we have sufficient good and enthusiastic orienteers to ensure we have a sport at all in the future - let alone any medals - then i think the current system is actually doing the sport a disservice, and ensuring the latter is definitely part of BOFs business and deserves its support.

It seems that some of the present start squaddies are becoming rather defensive about their positions (and possibly their funding) it is important to remember that medals are the icing on the cake - not the cake itself!!

[Godders]

[rant]Get out there and do some training.
If you put the amount of effort into training (technical and physical) that you put into ranting about lack of opportunities your results would start to improve. You don't need a coach - there are plenty of books out there - or ask on nope.
Go and join your local athletics club. If you want to be a world class orienteer you need to be a very good XC runner. (Jamie was Scottish Schools champion, Steve Hale was Scottish East District champion.)
If you're not prepared to do that then you don't deserve to be supported by the start squad. Or perhaps you just want a free holiday?[/rant]

[Mrs H.]

Godders - you're just not paying attention are you? no-one's talking about a free holiday they're talking about a participant paid for tour and there is more to the future of the sport than winning medals. (I seem to recall we've already had the debate about how much facilitating elites do for the grass roots of the sport).

[Godders]

Certainly am paying attention.
Rant was for those people who seem to think they should have everything handed to them on a plate.
As it happens I think the B tours were an excellent idea - I was a control hanger at Grantown in 97 and 2 of the lads subsequently went to JWOC.
I've got plenty to say on this topic but sadly don't think it's worth it.

[Mrs H.]

Well that's a pity because it sounds like you might have something relavant to say.

[Peter B]

Liz if im the only one that is trying to create some civalisation round here, and my efforts are getting wasted in the hands of the mods, then whos around to stop them pissing everyone off?

[Becks]

Hear hear Peter G. I was trying to figure out how to say that but you put it far, far better than I ever could.

[rocky]

seems to me there may be a place for someone to put on an 'unofficial B tour' im not saying [nope] will do this but its an idea im intrigued by.

week before, or after, 6-days.
open to ANYONE
especially juniors who have missed out on selection for start tours
and juniors from regional squad who don't organise summer tours
not just juniors?

training during the day, and workshops at night, teaching you what you need to do to getto the top.

godders can come and teach us about hard graft

ed catmur can come and explain how he went from b tour to jwoc in two year

eddie can learn to orienteer

samsonite can warn you abou tthe dangers of drinking too much beer and not running enough

(im gonna stop now before i get fired....)

[Mrs H.]

Rocky your are a mind reader. i was just digging over the onion patch thinking about all the summer camps in various activities that are run (some at quite substantial cost) and wondering if there was some scope for private enterprise here.
I actually thought it was a business opportunity for Gross - but i'm not sure i want my children learning a whole new vocabulary and 50 winning ways with whisky

[bendover]

i went on a B tour run by derek allison in 1994. it was excellent and probably helped to stop me from ditching orienteering.

the more tours the better.

start squad is also good, i've not been involved for a while but when i was, in spite of a few issues, i felt that the aims of the coaches and managers (creators?) were worthy.

sometimes i think that coaches/coordinators/decision makers come in for a bit too much flak when they are attempting to please as many people as possible. the fact of the matter is that if YOU as an athlete really want it, opportunities are there if you are prepared to put in some decent amount of effort to get them. sometimes you have to build your own castle - contrary to popular belief coaches don't just wonder around asking juniors if they want a personal coach - its down to you the junior to do the asking.

i have to agree with someone from earlier that there must be some onus on club committees to organise coaching for their juniors. ultimately its in their interest and can help to bridge the gap up to regional/start squads. it could also potentially be the single most regular resource of advice for juniors merely due to the locality.

finally - ciriticism is good. people who are involved in coaching aren't on a mission to make things worse, on the contrary we want to make things better for juniors. my one piece of advice would to not be anonymous and to try 'counting to ten' before you write something that may offend. if you think about what you are trying to get across and write it eloquently then someone important might just take notice.

ben

[Becks]

I was thinking of trying to organise a tour for 20s/21s who aren't in the squad along the similar vein to our OUOC club tours, as fingers crossed I will finally be a qualified coach by October! If people were willing to help me out then who knows...maybe we could do this?

[Toni]

what ever happened to the 'going for bronze' weekends? We had a great few weekends in Wales/Forest of Dean/Lakes and I think they did a few others as well (but being Irish I shouldn't have really been on them) I think everyone paid something for them (at least I did) and they were really sociable with great training. The odd squaddie turned up but it was mainly the next tier down that went along! I thikn starting those again would be super (particularly if I was still allowed go to them!)

[PorkyFatBoy]

if there was some scope for private enterprise here.

I seem to recall an advertisement in CompassSport Magazine for courses at the very junior level being run by Carol McNeill. Maybe the issue is the paucity of coaches available at this level (3 and above) or coaching beyond the orange course standard. One possible solution I'm trying is to attend a level 3 training course (where it is said we will BE coached as well as coaching). Hopefully I'll be improving as a result and be able to give coaching in the future - I'll keep you posted.

Otherwise, I'm inclined to agree with Godders & Bendover that you must REALLY want it - to the point of sacrifice - and if you have really put everything into it and still aren't able to cut it , then be content that you did as much as you could, but on the day the others were better.