(09-11-2024, 09:08 PM)laj link Wrote: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
). 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.
