THE HERALD REPORTS

Coaching commitment vital to successful legacy for 2014
DOUG GILLON, Athletics Correspondent September 02 2009
The announcement of details of a legacy for Glasgow and for Scotland yesterday from hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games is welcome. There's a popular notion that just because you host the Olympics or Commonwealths, or a world or continental championships in a sporting event, that a legacy simply happens.

Not so. It must be planned for. Almost all facilities built for the Athens Olympics in 2004 are disappointingly derelict, littered with rubbish, vandalised, defaced with graffiti, underused at best, but mainly unused and protected by security guards. A total of $9bn was spent on the three-week Greek extravaganza. The legacy of Athens has been more than £500m spent on maintainance and security of Olympic sites to which public access is now blocked by razor wire. In one, a Romany squatter camp has been established.

They are among the very few who have apparently benefited from "the legacy" promised by the Greek government. They at least have a new home.

Part of the reason, of course, was the creation of large facilities for sports in which the Greek public had minimal interest. There is a lesson there for London 2012. One hopes it's not too late to learn it. Though it's worth observing that the population of greater London and the home counties exceeds that of all of Greece.

The Supercopa Italiano, between Lazio and Inter Milan in the Bird's Nest last month, is the only sports event held in the Beijing Olympic stadium since it was the focal point of the Games which ended more than a year ago. Football can't attract any more than 10,000 crowds, even in teeming China.

The 81,000-capacity Centenial Stadium in Atlanta (1996) was pulled down and converted into a baseball stadium for the Braves. It's now called Turner Field, with a capacity of 49,000. Baseball is no longer an Olympic sport.

Anecdotal evidence is very strong on Australia's inability to capitalise on the enormous enthusiasm generated by Sydney 2000. Use of world-class facilities is not an issue, but kids who wanted to try new sports afterwards found clubs ill-equipped to handle the influx - there simply weren't enough coaches. And this in a country with a reputation for being sports mad.

So as the Scottish government and Glasgow City Council fleshed out their legacy plans in some detail yesterday, we read through the available documents for both.

Coaching is often neglected on sport agendas and issues, but at least it rated a mention here. Glasgow is already acknowledged as among Europe's most sport development savvy cities.

Now I admit to a mild obsession about coaching. I was fortunate to have been mentored in several sports by some inspirational characters. They saw something in me which I certainly was unaware was there. The same applies to old hacks who encouraged and mentored me as a young journalist. Both groups are the reason I do what I do today. I will be eternally grateful, for they changed my life.

And on a near-daily basis ever since, I've watched coaches changing the lives of successive generations of kids. It's impossible to understate the importance of good coaching.

I'm not talking elite-performance coaching - the making of world and Olympic champions. I am talking about the largely unpaid volunteers in clubs of every kind across the country, who do it for little better reason than that somebody once did it for them.

They are mainly self-taught, though modestly structured courses add some professionalism and academic background.

But if there is to be a legacy post-2014 - when funding will undoubtedly become a trickle - it's essential that appropriately trained foundation level coaches in every sport are on hand. They are every bit as important as nursery teachers in schools. They are the coaches who will inspire youngsters for life, as surely as primary teachers embed basic knowledge, and instil a thirst for it. So Scottish sport should be nurturing such coaches now, working up programmes to ensure they are in place.

On the venues front, Glasgow has been prudent. Hampden will be temporarily revamped to accommodate a running track, then restored for football at minimal cost. Ibrox ditto for rugby. Cycling already is sowing the seeds of a track cycling community to take advantage of the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome.

The establishment of a nation-wide network of community sports hubs across Scotland over the next five years is designed to raise the profile of sport and physical activity and help increase participation.

But it was gratifying, in the aftermath of the joint announcement by Glasgow and the Scottish government to hear the First Minister's views on the role and numbers of foundation level coaches in 2014. "Coaching is the keynote, not just for elite athletes, but right through, and there is going to be much more concentration on that," said Alex Salmond. "You ask if there will be enough of them. I doubt if there will ever be enough, but there will certainly be a great deal more than there has been.

"In many senses, as we've seen in a variety of sports, both in terms of the top flight like swimming, for example, where coaching has been absolutley crucial to it, certainly there will be hugely more emphasis than there has been in the past. And that is at the very heart of plans in terms of sport's contribution."

I begin to think that a 2014 legacy has a chance.

This article was posted on 2-Sep-2009, 07:03 by Hugh Barrow.