I think you all know my feelings in respect of SAS pathways, high performance training squads, selected classes etc. I support sailing Dabchicks because it gives sailors the opportunity to learn how to sail a proper sailboat. The class is competitive with a fun element and excellent comaraderie. Many take part in regattas knowing they are not the likely to make the top 10,but enjoy trying to achieve that. Dabbie sailors want to sail without the pressure from over enthusiastic Coaches hell bent on Olympic campaigns and not to mention over zealous parents with failed ambitions, they now wish to force their kids to fulfil for them.
I came across the following on the Sailing Anarchy Blog which goes to prove that the aforementioned is not only endemic to us.
I have yet to see a coach poaching people from fleets/clubs around here. Mostly what I see is coaches involved in youth teams trying to push kids into particular boats (around here the laser has long been a favourite to put absolutely everyone who ever showed a bit of promise in). Then a year or two later if the kid hasn’t made the provincial or national team they get virtually dumped and the concentration is on the next set of kids.
I find it so frustrating at times to see this practice as I know a bunch of people that were sailing at the same time as I was, they were involved in such programs and by the time they graduated high school (even if they had made the teams) they quit because they were (in their own words) “burned out”. A number of them took up windsurfing or kiting, but plenty have left sailing. Meanwhile I was in a much more relaxed program and a lot of the people from that program are still in some way connected to sailing though most are not racing.
I want to put the blame on the coaches for pushing the kids so hard that they burned out before they had a chance to really enjoy it, but in the case of kids the parents are just as much to blame. The parent wants their kid to be the best and go through hassle and expense, in turn the kids don’t want to disappoint their parents… But that’s the way the world is these days, look at any other sport and you see the same thing.
There is always space for the top guys,but we need to concentrate on getting numbers on boats and to do this the sailors must enjoy themselves.Yes, get them onto Dabbies, who knows they may still be floating around, like me at 58.
Owen