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Topic: Gout Gout (Read 1298 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Gout Gout

Reply #15 –
I did concede there is some team dynamics, but its just not the same kind of team.

Re: Gout Gout

Reply #16 –
Quote from: kruddler on
I did concede there is some team dynamics, but its just not the same kind of team.

It's probably not, especially these days, but...
We're probably looking at it from different experiences.
My football career lasted about 6 years, so it was limited
You seem to have never experienced the 'team' aspect of Athletics.

I will say that on that limited experience there was very little difference between a training session with my football teams  and training sessions with my athletic squads in terms of interactions with others. (There was, of course, considerable difference in methods and activities though.)

Naturally there is a different emphais on game/competition day.
The footballers focus is (or should be) on team performance.

The athlete's focus is on personal performance.
But the footballer will always want to perform at their best.
And the athlete will hope in performing at their best that helps their club get the points.

Athletics isn't the 'loner' sport some may think.
Very few athletes who perform at the highest level do so in isolation.
Most are part of larger training squads and support groups.
And like footballers some of those interactions can lead to life long friendships.

Re: Gout Gout

Reply #17 –
I took sport seriously when i was 15.  Round ball game.  I got super fit, cracked a senior team at age 17, and then started dreaming of "making it". 

Then the 1998 world cup happened and a 17 year old Michael Owen who played for Liverpool scored at the world cup, and dashed my ideas of grandeur because ultimately you need to have "made it" and signed at least a semi amateur contract by that age. 

I wasn't good enough.   Hormones took over and that was that.  I started chasing girls, parties and booze.  That's what likely does in "committed" little athletes. 

I imagine a lot of aspiring young athletes understand that only very few make it to the top, the few that do need to be lucky and particularly true you need to start considering life outside of sport because thats where you'll end up if you don't make it.

Wanting isn't enough.  Once you become a somewhat adult it becomes apparent that physical attributes are key to "making it".  I was 180 odd cms, and about 80 kg when I came to the realisation that I want going to grow too much more, I wasn't blessed with elite speed and no matter how hard I trained the agility wasn't there.  I wasn't a natural athlete, but I was a competitor and enjoyed team sport. 

Alex di minaur is a testament to the committed pipsqueak.   He's forged an excellent career for someone who isn't blessed with the same natural weapons and its a testament to his tenacity that he's done as well as he has.  If 100 kids of the same type applied themselves the same way only 5 would hit the heights he has, and they would have some ability that separates them from the other 95.
"everything you know is wrong"

Paul Hewson

Re: Gout Gout

Reply #18 –
It's pretty clear Gout Gout is a jet.

The most important question no-one on here has asked - can he kick a football?  Would look great going down the MCG wings.....
This is now the longest premiership drought in the history of the Carlton Football Club - more evidence of climate change?

Re: Gout Gout

Reply #19 –
 
Quote from: tonyo on
It's pretty clear Gout Gout is a jet.

The most important question no-one on here has asked - can he kick a football?  Would look great going down the MCG wings.....


:D
Kouta should have been in the Decathlon in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) ;D

Re: Gout Gout

Reply #20 –
Quote from: Lods on
A big part of the problem.
Parents living through  their kids rather than  celebrating their progress.
But there are a whole range of other issues.
Rows of young kids bored to the teeth waiting for their race throw or jump.
The dramatic drop off rate as kids are lost to the sport in their teen years.
The sport today is a shadow of itself in the 60s and 70s
Thankfully we have a few elite who succeed.
But many a potentially good athlete has been lost to the sport.


I gave up the LA's a long time ago. Too many power trips. LA's has been a great base to developing athletes. While many drop out we are doing a lot better with athletes coming through the system too. Our strength in athletics mostly in the more technical events.

I found coaching kids restrictive. My coaching blossomed once I stopped coaching young juniors as I could really expand my range as a coach. I was a lot better coach once I did that. Managed to get 5 athletes to represent their country from different countries, last one an Aussie in 2022 World Champs in Oregon with the oldest female ever. COVID sadly screwed her race, but, she was there at 49yo. Now at my age I am just focussing on masters athletes. An excuse to travel every year...lol. My masters have won 42 medals at World level, 23 gold.
 

Re: Gout Gout

Reply #21 –
Quote from: laj on
I gave up the LA's a long time ago. Too many power trips. LA's has been a great base to developing athletes. While many drop out we are doing a lot better with athletes coming through the system too. Our strength in athletics mostly in the more technical events.

I found coaching kids restrictive. My coaching blossomed once I stopped coaching young juniors as I could really expand my range as a coach. I was a lot better coach once I did that. Managed to get 5 athletes to represent their country from different countries, last one an Aussie in 2022 World Champs in Oregon with the oldest female ever. COVID sadly screwed her race, but, she was there at 49yo. Now at my age I am just focussing on masters athletes. An excuse to travel every year...lol. My masters have won 42 medals at World level, 23 gold.

I think we have similar experiences with the age situation.
Most of the last 25 years I've been coaching, my athletes have fallen into two age groups 12-18 and 30+

My athletes have had some success at national junior and schools championships and my Masters athletes have won multiple national championships.

What I've found is that there is some correlation between athletic success and achievments in other areas of life...academic and artistic (one of my athletes ended up a dancer/performer on Disney cruise ships in the Caribbean :D  :D ). I have had a couple of doctors and a vet (following in Dad's footsteps, who is also a member of the squad)
The point of all that is to say that with young athletes there comes a point about 17-18 when school finishes and 'life' takes over. The focus switches, for many, from sport to university studies or careers.
This also coincides with the ending of Little A's for the few who have still continued to that point.
The very best of athletes continue on but for others they're lost to the sport....for a time.

So it's in that 18-30 age range where the numbers have (seemed to me) dropped from the glory days of the 50s, 60s and 70s. If you're not elite or at the least very competitive by 18, there's a fair chance your athletic career is essentially over.
Very few plodders continue to compete.
So to concede Kruddler's earlier point...That's probably a little different to the team sports where folks continue to play into their 20s and later, not just for the competition but also the friendships...and because of the 'team' aspect.

But here's the strange thing...
After the age of 30 with careers established and family life beginning to settle, many return to the sport to compete as Masters.
I wrote before about the young vet who was a national age champion. When she started her Dad came along to watch her train and one day he decided to have a go  himself. Almost 20 years later he has multiple National championships under his belt. His daughter finished up about the time she started uni but has returned to the sport in the last few years and picked up a medal at the last National Masters.

We've lost that middle age range (18-30) and I suspect we've also lost a lot of talent that may have been successful on the international stage.
That's probably not something that worries most folks.
We've had a pretty successful Olympics.
I just feel we could do things better and one of the first steps is making the transition from Little A's to Senior athletics a lot more seamless.