Are you going tomorrow Damo?

Not much English in schools these days though is they?

I look over the road and its like spot the natives.

My sister works in gymnastics although I can’t speak on her behalf but by the sounds of things you get a 50 / 50 audience like anything. Probably a lot of kids who do after school activities don’t want to and only go because they parents see it as cheap baby sitting for a few hours.

My brother in law was an amateur boxer from 12 years old upwards until he turned pro at 18, it definitely changed him and made him a much more grounded individual who now works in a professional capacity with young offenders.

My brother coaches rugby union up to under 12s and again they all get a lot out of it, at that age the emphasis is on participation and everyone who turns up gets a game, but especially at 11s and 12s you start to get the parental pressures and over-competitive coaches coming into play - and its very ugly.

You have to be 3 or 4 and extremely talented to get into elite training and the potential to star in the Olympics in gymnastics. My sisters had talented kids as young as seven and eight turned away from elitist gymnastic establishments because of they age.

Very ugly indeed.

I agree, that is a problem, we need volunteers in sport but so many are 'win win' at the detriment of player development at such a young age.

On parents, in a lot of cases amatuer clubs would be better without them, but in a lot of cases they do a great job and keep clubs running. Bit of a catch 22 in both cases, I belive coaches have a responisility to discipline both players and parents when needed

nope.