THE winter months are approaching and that is usually the time of year that the supporters of schools rugby are waiting for.
Sadly, it is still unclear when competitive school sport will be in full swing again, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some will enjoy the break, as there are aspects around school sport that are very worrying.
The lack of school sport at this time has created many problems though. The biggest problem is to get the children involved in some sort of sports activity.
With the children unable to represent their respective schools on the sports field, it was basically left up to the parents and the children themselves to keep the young ones fit and healthy.
Unfortunately, this is not possible for every child, mostly due to legitimate reasons. It is still a bit shocking to see very young children struggling to get to a healthy level of fitness.
At a competitive school level, there are other problems. The traditional big-name sports schools are making all sorts of plans to be ready to win when those matches do get under way. It is also not so easy now for those big provincial rugby unions to grab the best junior players they can lay their hands on.
With no matches being played for some time, the scouts are not able to have a look at the talent on display in the junior ranks.
When the matches do get under way, there will be the usual hectic debates around who are the top sports schools, who has the best players, who are the best coaches and which dad has enough money to sponsor the kit to ensure his son plays in the first team.
Sounds familiar? Yes, most of these arguments flare up every year next to the sports fields at a school near you.
What is a worrying aspect, and it has been for several years, is that the emphasis on winning has become too big in our schools.
Everybody loves winning. Everybody wants to see his or her team win, but unfortunately the bigger picture gets blurred in the process.
For many teachers it is all about the school’s name. They don’t care about the child’s development and that is one of the reasons so many talented kids don’t continue playing sport after they leave school.
Don’t get me wrong, the schools’ sports system in our country is not bad at all. A balance is lacking though.
It would be nice to see that the development of a talented child be placed before the “win at all costs” attitude from the school principal.
Some teachers think their main task at a school is to coach sport. In many instances some of the children know more about the technical aspects of the sport than the teachers, who think they are competent coaches.
At the so-called top sports schools, full-time professional coaches or former players are looking after the top juniors.
That is good to see but is not without its problems. That is where the balancing act must come into play once again.
Many former players are looking to find a school to start a coaching career, but some of them are not looking for a long-term effort, which is needed to create a winning (for everyone) sports environment, but are just looking for a foot in the door.
If we want to keep on producing World Cup winners, it might just be a good thing to put the development of the player first.
