[gtcarling]

Watching the rugby, cricket & football of late i can`t remember a time when they were all so poor. No passion from the players no characters in the team, technically & skillfully we are poor at all three. Are players not proffesional enough anymore to busy with there social life is the national team not taken seriously enough by the various ass. I don`t mind losing but it would be nice to know we lost fighting no chance of that at the moment. The football team struggling to qualify in what everyone said would be an easy group, the cricket team just pedalling into the super 8 but will go out and the rugby isnt looking to good for the world cup.

[pringtef]

National? Wasn't aware there was any British football, cricket, or rugby teams. Well apart from the Lions.

[RMCF]

I think the OP meant the 'England' teams.

But got to agree with him. Perhaps that is a thing thats going on years. When you consider the size of GB as a whole, they have a pretty poor record at international sports (and its main country England included here).

Admittedly they did have some greats over the years (likes of Redgrave, Coe, Thompson, Cram, Ovett spring to mind from my youth) but the nation seems to underachieve.

A lot could be down to the fact that nations like New Zealand, Australia, US etc gear themselves for sport more seriously from a young age and have a better infrastructure for their althetes.

[Reepicheep]

You only need to look at sport in schools:

Primary schools - competitive sports are now replaced with non-competitive activities so not to upset less able children.

How many school playing fields have been sold off for building?

A lot of schools don't even have school teams anymore or play other local schools on a regular bases.

[RMCF]

Originally Posted by Reepicheep

You only need to look at sport in schools:

Primary schools - competitive sports are now replaced with non-competitive activities so not to upset less able children.

How many school playing fields have been sold off for building?

A lot of schools don't even have school teams anymore or play other local schools on a regular bases.

Agree but as I mentioned earlier, the UK does not have the same attitude to sport as other nations. It is not given the support & funding seen in other countries.

Countries like Australia, US, NZ (well in rugby anyway) will spot potential talent at a very young age and give them time and coaching to make them great. Sport is not a past-time to these nations.

[Steven]

Yep. Is all changed in 10 years

When I was in primary school, every one took part. No exceptions unless you had crutches. Fast forward and the youngest sibling didn't even have sports day! At high school, head teachers have reduced lunch breaks to 45 min max. Half that is spent in the packed out canteens queuing up, so you only have 20-odd min if you actually want to play footie. Only 2xPE lessons p/wk. For a supposed Sports College (sixth form), no one could use the grass unless you joined the football team - and got in, or you were the All Blacks

Lasting legacy? Rubbish. Spend £9bn on facilities around the country instead of selling off swimming pools and fields, and maybe kids would take more than a passing interest in sport!

Lack of seriousness from adults despite the rhetoric due to the Olympics? Rather than push some one into a sport properly, mum prefers John to be a doctor or whatever. Its no surprise of the only decent male tennis players in the past decade, 2 trained outside this country!

[RMCF]

Some will probably blame the arrival of PS1/PS2/X-Box/Sky TV etc for the lack of sporting talent in the UK, but surely all the other developed nations have exactly the same distractions for children yet still seem to be able to produce great sportsmen.

[captaindobie]

Aye, well in my day we had Atari, Spectrum, Commodore, Amstrad & Dragon 32 to name but a few!

Still, typical summer day was football from 10am until 1pm, spot of lunch, football from 2pm - 5pm, time for tea, football from 6pm until it got dark.
Every single day....

Typical winter day, football from 10 am until 1pm, spot of lunch, football from 2pm -4pm, time for tea, football from 5pm until late (late depended on how strict yer dad was and how old you were). In the winter we used to play in the local underpass (how's that for floodlight improvisation?)

We used to play in all weathers (how exciting was it when some kid had an orange ball to play with in the snow!) and you were guaranteed a minimum of 20 kids every time.

I can't remember the last time i saw a group of kids kicking a ball about..

I also remember how badly run some of the kids football teams were.
I mean, running around the pitch 10 times to build up your stamina when you're 12 is just crazy. Your as fit as a fiddle at that age.

Work with the ball, learn first touch, control, confidence, vision, intelligence. Sport is fun (and yes, competitive)

When i was a lad, it was almost sacrilege to want to show off, take people on, try something out of the ordinary. Really sad.
People screaming at you to get rid of ball, hit it up the park, etc etc

Attitudes have to change in the UK before we see any real change.
Look at any other world nation to see how comfortable they are with the ball. Regardless of the position they play. The technical ability of some of the so called lesser nations puts the UK nations to shame.

Still, maybe one day....

[arthurdentpc]

Football team top of their Euro Qualifying group, cricket team in the Super 8 of the World Cup, and rugby team just took the Triple Crown.

My national teams are doing just fine, thanks

[overkill]

Originally Posted by Reepicheep

You only need to look at sport in schools:

Primary schools - competitive sports are now replaced with non-competitive activities so not to upset less able children.

How many school playing fields have been sold off for building?

A lot of schools don't even have school teams anymore or play other local schools on a regular bases.

This has nothing to do with it. And it's a tired excuse. We have (sadly) directly copied the US in our 'non competitive' sports days etc, yet it doesn't seem to have effected them too badly does it?

Other nations are experiencing similar problems to us, while others are asking (Aus for example) why they are spending so much on expensive sports facilities to train 'super athletes' when long term unemployment is so high and the money would be better spent dealing with that? It was interesting reading comments on an English led debate, which had comments from French, Germans, Americans among others, on whether sports clubs for kids are too competitive, parents are too aggressive and this is putting kids off. The answer was almost a resounding 'yes'. Again, it was not just English people saying that too. The Americans (many of whom were refs) said parents were way too aggressive and, like ours, they were jacking it in, some after being assaulted.

The sad truth is, is there isn't enough interest from parents in this country at an early age, and this means that those who do get involved are the most fanatical, leading to the less committed being squeezed out, often through fear. As such we inevitably see only a small number of 'quality' youngsters come through.

Oh, and lack of govt support over the last 30 years.................

[arthurdentpc]

It's too easy to blame parents and the Government - because in the 70s (for example) parents were no more or less interested, and facilites & government funding was no better.

The post way above is correct - in the 70s (again, example) we would have played footie on a good sized patch of estate grass for at least a couple of hours pretty much every Friday and Saturday, and there were always 20 or more joining in. When was the last time you saw that ?

There are a host of reasons why, but one is definitely current planning theory which allows nice modern housing areas packed to the rafters with semis and detached, and no playing area for miles around. The result ? Kids don't mix with others (there is also a huge fear factor here from parents that there wasn't in previous generations) and even if they do there's nowhere to kick a ball around without hitting cars and windows. Basic stuff.

[RMCF]

Originally Posted by arthurdentpc

Football team top of their Euro Qualifying group, cricket team in the Super 8 of the World Cup, and rugby team just took the Triple Crown.

My national teams are doing just fine, thanks

I notice you said team(s). Yeah its handy for us over here in that we can have 2 teams to support (as long as we aren't a small-minded bigot).