The problem of sport

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Here in Australia in the 60s and 70s in schools we played everything and enjoyed everything - even the weird stuff like American football and lacrosse. We did it all pretty badly (having no access to good coaching in the school system) but had loads of fun and no-one got terribly hurt. It was expected that you would play lots of sport - not because it was compulsory (it wasn't), rather it was because that's just what Aussie kids did. There were no expectations at school of success, either. It was simply that if you were any good at any particular sport or just liked it a lot, you would join a club and get proper coaching there. And as a system of sorts, it seemed to work.

What's different now? Well, all schools (private or government-funded doesn't matter) have lots more money and take sport far more seriously. The results (ie Olympics medal tally), perhaps speak for themselves... still good for a small nation, but definitely on a downward trend. Schools tend to focus on a couple of particular sports, and that's sad, for how else are kids to find their paricular niche?

On reflection, I tend to think the old way had its merits - let kids have a crack at everything, and when they find something they liked, you could be sure there'd be a club they could join. Not now though. Now you're hard-pressed to even find a badminton centre or judo club. And yet pay-TV is full of sport. Yes, we're definitely on a trend towards spectator-dom rather than participation.

Thank God for running.