Forty years of coaching and coaching education - part 1

In 1975 I started my long and some would say wholly uneventful forty years in coaching, coach education and more lately tutoring the future coach educators. So  slowly over forty years I've moved upstairs! To celebrate this war of attrition I thought it would be good to blog about the stages in my career from the first team I coached through teaching and coaching into coaching teams at national level and then on to systems development and now coach education development and implementation. Also I wanted to put on some sort of record who has influenced me and who I vaguely helped along the way (with a few old photos to help)

translation 

Schools Days and first coaching

I started to shape my love of coaching and teaching after a conversation with my three influential PE teachers abut how to develop a career in sport  At that time the only option was to enter into teaching - not sport science or sport development sport just good old teaching degree. I was Head Boy and the Head Teacher encouraged the Head Boy and Girl to volunteer in some way, I thought to get some experience of what it might be like to be a teacher and the three guys Vic Groves,  Keith  Stonebridge and Tony Hadley (no not the one out of Spandau Ballet but the one now in British athletics coaching sprints - more of him later) asked if I would like to coach the under 13 B football team against a few primary schools . " Hell yes" I said. Well, maybe without the H word.  So I was appointed to my first coach's position. I arranged my first coaching session and did a plan! I played defence against attack trying to set a pattern for the future crunch games. I 'd got my track suit (orange) my whistle round my neck. This was the time when the film KESS  had just come out with the classic football scene with Brian Glover.    So I had an instant role model! 

On to the game - I needed to be dressed right so I needed a rain coat or so I thought? Could be completely misinterpreted These Days  Why a rain coat - well because Villa manager Ron Saunders had a rain coat. - Why else ?    So I went off as a 17 year old with a load of 12 and 13 year old's, not a teacher in sight, for a Saturday morning fixture  against the primary school locally -  children playing against a year younger. How Times Have Changed. I cannot  remember the score but I think we won 3- 2 . I'd got the coaching bug.  I carried on coaching that year with great encouragement from the PE Staff who I can not thank enough for giving me the chance.

So football was the sport to coach but I'd also reached a good level of fitness and Tony Hadley needed someone to get points in the 400 meters hurdles for our school, Arthur Terry, in the Sutton Schools Athletics championships- so through blackmail so I was convinced to do it - never forgiven him and I still remember coming off the last bend and thinking I left behind my lungs. Still had my tracksuit so was nicknamed the "flying carrot"  

So onwards to College and the bachelor of education specialising in PE. 

College years

I went to  West Midlands College of Higher Education  (now University of Wolverhampton Walsall campus) to undertake a Bachelor of Education specialising in PE . To put things into context this was the first year teacher training was fully degree only. Before then you could become a teacher gaining a teaching certificate (T.Cert) by doing a three year course with five 'O' levels although you could by invitation stay on for a forth year to gain a degree!  The year ahead of me had 40 PE students and we were nine and one of the nine was a dance student. Five blokes and four women embarking on three years of teaching training and social the life that comes with Higher Education. I was for my sins social secretary and booked Alvin Stardust and Mungo Jerry amongst others. 

First lecture - educational dance welcome to the world of teaching

Being taken through educational theory and the philosophy of physical education came secondary to Wednesday afternoon sport!  Football, basketball and cricket dominated my college life.  But as with all student teams coaches were not thought of unless someone was injured could do it.  So that's how I started coaching basketball. We had a group of enthusiastic sports team clumsy guys, mainly rugby players and we needed them whipping into shape for a tournament! I had played a little and so I was keen to take on the organising.   We asked one of our lecturers to coach us. He agreed and started with setting up man to man defence - we agreed with the approach or what would now be called "philosophy" but playing man to man needs an element of mobility, body awareness, balance and agility  - not renowned in the rugby players of the day!  I had a badly twisted ankle, so my first coaching experience was to change that and go to a zone with an  offence of pass it around a lot until the big guy (6 '6 Second row brute) got free to put a layup in -  shooting outside the key = 0%  .  We did OK in the tournament and beat the rivals Dudley Local which was the main aim    So what did I learn as a coach - coach to a plan to get the best out of what you he's got and understand the motivations and aspirations of your players - In this case have a good run around and enjoy it.

I'd now really got the coaching bug!

These days Universities encourage students to take coaching qualifications.  It was no different then. I did my Preliminary FA coaching badge on a week of the summer of '77 on the fields of Walsall.  I must say I found it fairly easy but still had to demonstrate how to coach. Then football was technically and tactically dominated by the philosophy of Charles Hughes "Goals are scored goals in the penalty box THEREFORE get the ball into the box and as Often as Quickly as you can." Good old long ball English football.  I did also "certificate chase" and  did level 1 Tennis. Which I cannot remember ever using apart from putting on my CV!

One of the great experiences of College was going away as a year group to the then National Sailing Centre in Cowes, Isle of White . A week sailing and socialising but not always in that order. I was lucky as we had a great instructor and only two of us in a boat, Whereas the others had three in a boat. So we had more chance to have a go. This was the first time learning by doing became a very obvious way of learning skills. - This was where my philosophy of encouraging people to try things out rather than being Told took shape .  We had a great instructor who let us do it and so we learnt surprisingly quickly and had great fun learning how far you can tip a wayfarer before it capsized. We worked out a number of simple rules - the flatter the boat in the water the faster it goes adn we only need one captain. Charlie Herriotts (now a head teacher) and I had a great time and I have relived the experience sailing on a few holidays since most notably in the Caribbean trying to teach /encourage my children to sail.

At that time in the 70's the Uni captain was the key person setting tactics and I do remember nearly out-foxing a more skilful older age group in six-a-side cricket by setting 3-1 offside field.  We were well ahead until I bowled the last over of "hit me" long hops.  (note to self be a coach not a player) However that led me to be appointed as cricket captain and led to net sessions, leading player improvement and trying to work out how to win games through good tactical application.  I still think tactical awareness is under provided for in Education programmes for team sports to this day. 

Three years of rich experience was finished off in the last two terms of teaching practice (TP) and my second mentors in teaching / coaching styles. Firstly to the now closed Boldmere School and the head of PE Ed Richards. His standards set with children were firm but fair. I learnt even the good kids had to be told off when they needed to be   Ed ran a gymnastics club - far away from the College educational gymnastics.  The gym club had a focus of a display at the school open day.  They mostly did dive rolls forward over boxes and platforms in sequence.  How different from making tree shapes! It enthused a group of children who were not going to play football or do athletics. I was fascinated in this group and wanted to analyse Their movement. So with my DJ strobe light and an open camera lens I took a series of photos to demonstrate and analyse the movement. Furthermore as DJ in night clubs at the time I suggested setting the display at open days to music so with War of the Worlds Chic and blasting out the display went ahead to open mouthed potential pupils from the local primary schools.

Ed was very much about self-discovery, supporting and encouraging the team to take calculated , supported risks in their performance which challenged the group to strive for higher and more complicated skills. 

My second TP was a very different environment and one I was maybe more comfortable in; a very team based PE department. Remember this was late 1970's and then a PE was not in the national curriculum or in fact a national curriculum did not exist Until 1988 ! Manor High, Wednesbury  in a down town part of the Black Country with Martin Flint and  Graham Angel - basketball and rugby players of a high level so guess what sports they did? They encouraged me to play in the local league basketball team containing some students and this gave me my first experience of a school- links club! As well as a coupe of seasons playing West Midlands Premier and division five in the same week. This was a great experience and at that time the sports hall would be open only in the evenings for school led activity and it was free!

This teaching practice also made me realise  why I was not a high performing field event  athlete. I'd never had the practice in school!   I'd be lined up with the other 29 members of my class and had two or three goes at the shot / discuss / javelin a lesson / year. Surprisingly I never got any better. Graham however was  very different. After a very strong organised safety briefing  he had   small groups of five or six students dotted around the field . Each group had at least ten attempts at each activity before rotating. Safety was paramount and no students anywhere near breaking the throwing line. Each student recorded their scores per event into a big heavy book. Each pupil then worked out AAA five star award they were eligible for (early use of maths in PE). If anyone cheated the other pupils were excellent at informing staff! Manor had excellent results at district level but also the vast majority of pupils got a certificate. This philosophy of "you only get better if you practice" has also been a guiding principle carried through coaching and all my coaching and tutoring. "Pupils don't get any better when you are talking" This was his mantra. . 

PE Teaching

So I got a job PE teacher at Perry Beeches Secondary School in Great Barr Birmingham -  the sad part I beat my friend Charlie to the job  It was a small secondary school, the nearest one to the Alexander Stadium and right next to the M6,  The school entered competition in the Aston School District which incorporated some of the most deprived areas of the country. Now Perry Beeches is a free school and has at least three annexes across the City. Then it had a school gymnasium and a grass sports field of one one football and hockey pitch situated next to a nature reserve and quarry, which was ideal for cross country. Now it has Sportshall and synthetic grass pitch and the nature reserve is closed to cross country for safety reasons.

To put into context the only sport in 1979. The only junior leagues outside of school were Sunday morning football. I ran twelve teams helped by non-PE teachers turning out to support Football, Badminton, Table Tennis, Cricket, cross country and athletics fixtures. This changed when the teacher action in 1984/5 defined teachers as having to work 1,152 hours a year and many teachers stopped supporting teams. When I was CEO at Basketball I reviewed the national teams and on the female side there was a four year age group without any representation which directly related to year in school groups who were the most affected by the teachers action.   

My first lesson was to a year 10 group - my head of department's guidance for the football lesson "give them a ball and they'll be happy -. Oh by the way two of them are good boxers" So lets start with high standards I thought! My second assignment was to take the under 16 football team in a cup final left over from the year before end at the Birmingham County FA Ground (where I have just become a Director). It was  Perry Beeches v Holte. I thought we would be fine as we have Craig Shakespeare  Who went on to  spells with Walsall and West Brom and is now coach at Leicester with  Nigel Pearson.  It was not to be - Craig did scored our one in a 9-1 defeat and a certain Mark Walters playing for Holte score 4 or 5! What a talent.

The School was at the time known to be a Volleyball School and Craig did play for England at Volleyball -. But I was having none of that . The indoor sport was to be basketball. So my head of department took the volleyball . He moved on after two terms and had taught me nothing apart from how not to conduct yourself as a teacher   My new head of PE was coming back into teaching after a gap and gave much needed discipline to the department including simple things like improving the speed of changing to increase contact time and a format for teaching.

Working on my principle of you only get better if you play and practice before I instigated before school practice for basketball, football and in the summer athletics and cricket. Those early morning sessions along with double lunchtime sessions of an outdoor and an indoor session proved invaluable in developing one-to-one coaching and tactical development team. We developed a strong reputation for quality of our PE and play. Furthermore I wanted to give an opportunity for every pupil to represent the school. So I brought in PE department polices - 1. When we hold to home cross-country event everyone in the first three years can take part. 2. That year in league games only boys in that year group play and 3. In cup games we would move up exceptional players one age group. These polices along with good teaching improved enjoyment of PE for the pupils and success externally. 

At that time we drove both curricular and extra-curricular provision. As I had enjoyed running and cross country I wanted to enthuse pupils in this area so I made ​​the cross-country an activity. So we made sure we did cross-country every month not just when  the fields were too wet.  I used the nature reserve to make it a little more interesting by for example we had a race to the fox holes and one to the badgers set etc. Furthermore I was concerned some of the lads were of a " larger size "and not likely to enjoy cross country as much as others. So when we came to a hill we would all stop and then  have a race to the top with a difference. When the fastest got to the top I would blow a whistle and wherever anyone was they would stop and turn round and get to the bottom as quickly as possible. This pushed the quick ones and the slower ones had a longer recovery. This meant the larger lads felt more engaged and valued. Many of them represented the school and were proud of doing so even if the goal was to finish. (It also went on school reports  that they had represented the school).  The school cross-country  team won both the Birmingham and West Midlands championships . I did meet one pupil a year after I had left and he did say he missed cross-country more than football or basketball! We were successful in winning a number of district cricket, football and basketball titles in an area which was exceptionally competitive at the time.

Dave Fisher (Simon Fisher's - GBWBA father's talent manager) was a mentor of mine. Dave was an England Basketball Director and an exceptional coach. When he heard we had entered the league competition he invited us down to Broadway school for a game. I set-up a basic zone defence and a very undeveloped man-to-man and he gave my coaching lesson - they absolutely destroyed us he did tell me afterward they were national champions the year before! 

So I needed a coaching course -. I went to the Blackpool Easter school, the only provision of coach education at the time.  It was a week-long mixture of coach education courses and much "socialising".  Dave Ransom was the tutor and went on to be CEO and coach of England  At last I learnt how to build and maintain on offence and defence,  This was followed by the oterh opportunity the Loughborough summer school and the club coach award (L2 equivalent) - a great week culminating in a match against a top local / national mixed team league - it was that game I decided I was to be a coach not a player.  Although I still have the badge!

I constructed the school style of play and put together a playbook but more importantly displayed the basic offence and defence on a notice board for all to see. Something I think about now that I have always tried to make things visual for those that like pictures to understand.  I further developed the approach that lessons were dedicated to skill development and the morning and lunchtime sessions were dedicated to team development. Also I allowed players to practice shooting at break times giving them free time to practice and got to the Head Teacher invest in an outdoor goal - not the last  time I will do that! This  playbook I used all through my basketball coaching adding to it as I developed teams and players. The same in football, we played 4-3-3 until a year 10 and then to 4-4-2. This was new at the time and confused many schools who were used to 4-3-3. I spent so much time on developing staff skill and it was a proud moment was when one of the smallest school kids won a penalty competition at Wolves.

Our athletics gradually improved over time, through the Graham Angle philosophy, and a group of boys were keen to stay after school to practice throwing and jumping. Particularly in the early years we used to athletics as a basis to develop basic skills. We had pupils arriving in the first year who we had to teach how to run, jump and throw. The one pupil who went on a basketball scholarship in the states, Raymond Davies, was 6-1 'when I came in year 7 and did not have to jump. So we taught him how to jump before he touched a basketball. He was Aston District Champion at high jump and long jump three years running.  This proved vital when he came up against players of the same height. I've lost touch with Ray but I think I have now is a doctor in the USA.   

From the investment in cross country athletics came easily to pupils, even though we only had a 300 meter grass track! I had one Athletics claim to fame. Although we had a range of district champions only one boy, Ian Cattermole, made it to the finals of the English Schools Athletics and that was in the Hammer.   Still to this day I do not know any technique related to Hammer throwing but I spent many an after school session with enthusiastic "larger boys" taking great pride in throwing the hammer. Practice made perfect,. Although I did aid the process by putting in a concrete circle in learning new building  skills! Maybe a bit extreme but it was needed.

I had many enjoyable experiences in my six years of teaching but some of the most enjoyable waere coaching district football teams. I took over a team in 1980 from Bryan Jones   when he left for his first stint at Aston Villa leading the youth academy. Bryan led the most successful Academy in the country before leaving after falling out with Paul Lambert. My co-coach of that team was Steve Burns who later joined Bryan at the Villa Academy and developed a whole host of high quality footballers. 

We had the one player in team from who went on to play professionally and for England from that district district team; Tony Daley . At 12 was the most outstanding prospect in the district - better than Walters.    Tony was at St Georges School which also produced Gordon Cowans and Dean and Simon Sturridge uncle's of Daniel at Liverpool. This was down to teachers Glyn Edwards and Colin Rogers who inspired so many boys in the most challenging part of Birmingham.  So a hot bed of talent. Craig, Tony and Darren Moore (Described in later blog) are some of the nicest people you will ever meet and completely against the stereo type of professional footballers [SK1]  . I posted this picture on Facebook and we found 10 of the team. 

However at year 9 we had a problem with Tony as he had played over 120 games and surprisingly that season he was starting to get knee problems.  Everybody wanted him - He played in three different age groups at school and at the weekend  So Steve and I spoke to his parents, school and Sunday teams to reduced the number of games in the next year to between 25 to 30 games. I still feel this allowed Tony to make a career of football. Still too many of our athletes not just in football fall by the way side due to injury through over play led by short term thinking from coaches, teachers or parents. Simple message; sport for life is not the next game and players need to be nurtured through adolescence as games at that age are not important but being able to play sport for life is crucial. 

I was sad to leave teaching in 1986 but the teachers action   had ripped apart and the school sport . Governing bodies at the time were very slow to pick up and organise age group competition leaving a big hole in talent development. Even now conflict between schools and clubs exits. NGBs competition needs to recognise the role school sprot plays and has played.  However schools associations also need to be clear about the role they can play in the changing education culture of the UK even through they have been around since the late 19 th or early 20 th century. 

My next blog will explore my time coaching in That inter-club environment. 

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 [SK1] describe coaching philosophies and trial systems etc.

Professor Margaret Talbot OBE

I just wanted to write a short personal tribute to Professor Margaret Talbot OBE who passed away in the last week. 

I have known her for many year and she has always been forthright and resolute in her views and opinions about sport and particularly PE. I first met Margaret many years ago when she was lecturer at the then Leeds Met and her views about quality PE stood out as being about the child and not the political rhetoric at the time.

I then gained considerable support from her in her CEO role at the then CCPR when I left England Basketball as CEO – she gave be wonderful advice and guidance in a difficult time and that for me was one of Margaret’s wonderful qualities – the time she gave to listen and give wise advice. I hope I also supported her when she left the CCPR. She also showed me a fantastic Cheese shop in Pimlico!

Margaret also gave me my first consultancy job at Sport Structures – guiding the then British Sports Trust in their positioning of the Step into Sport Programme prior to Linda Plowright starting. A lovely experience and set me on the way to grow the business as it has.

I was delighted when Margaret agreed to be part of our team helping the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry and Education in developing their first PE and School Sport Strategy. Absolutely up her street as at the time there wasn’t any girl’s PE. Her respect for the culture yet her forthright questioning of senior people was a pleasure to see. I am delighted to say that part of Margaret’s legacy will be that girls are now starting to do PE in Saudi and she was supported by some fantastic people in the Kingdom who were open to change.

This was Margaret’s “pitch” battling to change unequal practice although some would say she over complicated PE and Sport? I always felt it needed that academic background to justify the approaches to be taken and it needed people around Margaret to interpret and implement her undoubted wisdom, background and vision.

As part of that project Margaret and we hosted a study tour of the Saudi project team. We went to a secondary school in Manchester in the last week of summer term and Margaret was beside herself why the year 10’s were doing fun games and not learning! I did ask her to relax a little and that children do enjoy games!

Her sad passing away will leave a hole in so many aspects of British sport and also what is great about our structure in that we can export the benefits of how we do things over here.

I will miss her confidence and strength – Rest in Peace Margaret.

Simon Kirkland 

Wow what a games

My first experiences of London 2012 took place on Saturday when I went to indoor volleyball at Earls Court kindly thanks  to England Volleyball. Great experience from start to finish with the exception of the result of GB. Although it is worthwhile to identify how quickly GB have risen from nowhere to compete in the games. I really don't think the BBC are giving the team sports Volleyball, Basketball and Handball enough recognition for the fact that the whole of the world plays these sports not just the commonwealth like netball. The level of competitiveness is very high and to stay in touch is one thing but to beat countries who have a deep tradition is extreme difficult.

Wouldn't it be good if the main channel of the BBC on the early evening programme instead of repeating what everyone knows what the cyclists and rowers have done to also have a short feature on one of the team sports? Every day in the first week the GB teams have been playing which could have featured hockey or more on the women’s footballers etc. missed legacy opportunity.

Back to Earls Court - thought I would take in the atmosphere before going in and found a lovely little pub with Dutch, British and Italian supporters all enjoying a pint and a pub lunch whilst watching our failed attempt at winning the road race.

So we went to Earls Court later than the 90 mins in advance - sailed through security like an early morning flight at Birmingham airport and took our seats after a little poor direction from one steward. Sat back and enjoyed the games. Although majority of the crowd were British it was great to feel the different culture to an indoor team sport - the eastern European whistling to a level I had not heard since I saw basketball in Barcelona.

Earls Court was well branded and with more than adequate refreshment facilities reasonably priced.   left after the second game straight out into the station with the barriers up and on to train - quick meal in London just off Regents Street next door to where they took the photo of David Bowie for the cover of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and off to the train.

The trains were a really good price and all in all a great day out.

Start of the Games

These games are like many people say a life time ambition to see the games in your own country – well they are nearly here. I wanted to put down a record of the average man’s experience of the games and how it felt to be involved. My involvement started before the announcement in July 2005 – I logged on the volunteer for the games. When I volunteered, with all my three children, there were only 30,000 people who had put themselves forward. Within a month of the successful bid it was over 250,000!

I then decided not to undertake volunteering as I wanted to see the games. I went to Athens and watched 6 events and found the experience wonderful and I don't think we in the UK fully realise exactly how big this thing called the Olympics is.

My ticketing experience appears to be better than most in that I got some tickets but also didn't get the popular one's i.e. didn't get any athletics, swimming or cycling. But did get women's basketball final and women's archery final (wanted to see Lords in a different light).

So as well as some basketball and handball I have a fair spread - the last round I got some boxing, beach volleyball and women's football final. Old friends also added volleyball and gymnastics so all in all ten events will do me.

As a sport makers facilitator I have started getting excited about the games for a few months now (delivered to 100 people two nights running - great fun) but it was only when the torch started touring that i got excited. I was nominated twice (not sure who by) but didn't get selected. However one person who did was Jason who took part in our personal best programme and has volunteered into football and street games so it was wonderful to see home carry the torch in Ashbourne. As a member of the black country board was delighted to see some great volunteers carrying the torch - what was disappointing was that there was more people from South Africa than Wolverhampton carrying the torch through the black country -sponsorship wins the day!

However I was invited to the Birmingham torch bearers celebration and that for me was the launch of my Olympics to see Ben Smoldon, John Fry , Matt Lloyd and Pritesh Patel, I can certainly say they picked the right people. I knew Ben's dad who was not only a PE teacher turned head teacher but a leading light in Birmingham School sport, where I came across him, and Sutton Rugby club. His actions after Ben's accident were ground breaking where he got the RFU to, sort of, take responsibility for the actions of a referee in scrimmaging. Ben has carried on that tradition with his commitment to making Sutton rugby club a great community club. He also is a regular attendee at our workshops. A great ambassador for the value of sport.

So my Olympic and Paralympic blog starts with the torch celebration - now to the opening ceremony on Friday starting at 20.12!! 

Blatter the man of equality!

It is a little ironic that in the week that Sepp Blatter has surpassed himself sees the death of someone who led by his sport performance and manner through some of the changes in the sporting landscape we currently take for granted – Basil D'Oliveira. http://bbc.in/tAY7e1 .

“Dolly” as he was known was a man who was dropped by the England selectors for being non-white only fairly recently in 1968 under enormous pressure from the apartheid driven National Party of South Africa. http://bit.ly/Kfgqd . I remember this well in my childhood and couldn’t understand why the man who scored a massive century was not selected to tour. Dolly always behaved in a calm and selfless way and was a role model to many young people of the time. It was not until 1990 after Nelson Mandela’s release that test cricket returned to South Africa although the National Party did drive to have cricket in the country it was not recognised http://bit.ly/oMGq3x .

Back to Blatter – how can the world tolerate such man leading a world body? Let’s look at his history of equality in what are seen as key areas of equality – Race, Gender and homophobia.

On race his recent interview he completely forgot the struggles of people like D’Oliveira and others to further the equal opportunity of black players. http://bit.ly/u4rBGC . Although he is used to having abuse thrown at him and ignoring it, as we saw throughout England’s abortive 2018 World Cup bid http://tgr.ph/hWumO8 .

John Terry, not unknown to sail close to the wind http://bit.ly/rOwWB4 is currently facing Police Charge after allegedly calling Anton Ferdinand a Black C*** http://bit.ly/rZ0lzd although one of Sepp Blatters “friends” did come to his defence http://bit.ly/sMaW2z . Fair play to Ferdinand at his alleged come back of “a C*** is a person who sleeps with his best friends girl friend”.

FIFA should show leadership and not the total lack of understanding of the feelings and issues of black players and coaches. FiFA should be championing the “Rooney rule” http://bit.ly/5LHNnp
and in particular in England where over 25% of players are Black yet only two coaches/managers across the 92 league clubs are black. Yet we hear that as soon as the World Cup in South Africa was finished that was the end of FIFA's drive to address race http://bit.ly/sBPqDr .

Back to Blatter and women’s football – how can we take a man who was elected president of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organization which tried to stop women replacing suspender belts with panyhose http://bit.ly/ucvaus which might lead to goodness knows what on the football field. Rather than putting pressure on television companies to increase the coverage of Women’s football, as the ECB have with Sky in their rights contract, he suggested women should wear shorter shorts http://bit.ly/h3WZRN .

He hasn’t just left his discrimination to women he bizarrely presided over the world cup in 2006 where any Dutch fans wearing shorts were told to remove them!http://bbc.in/liw7HT .

..and finally gay people – his simplistic answer to a question about Qatar’s laws over gay relationships being illegal was – "I'd say they [gay fans] should refrain from any sexual activities." rather than tackling the Qatar government who as we have seen with the Athletics world championships are desperate to have major events. http://bbc.in/hUZ2ps .

How can this man survive well – he does because he and FIFA are an irrelevance to the world and eventually they will change and this will only come when new blood come in and stand up for non-corruption. When I was CEO of England Basketball I saw how International Governing Bodies operated – voting was like the Eurovision song competition – very predictable where votes would go and people behaved in a stereotypical nationalist way. The way people were driven at all costs to seek and exert power was astonishing. England Basketball’s late President Keith Mitchell who was a great ambassador for the sport http://bit.ly/uYAHmN once said to me “when people a the FIBA conference shake by the hand look out for the other one with a knife going in your back”.

This thirst for power and lack of addressing the needs and aspirations of what are still minority groups in both participation, decision making and position, is to me immoral. However change as “Dolly” found was slow but in the end the world became a better place.

Why Martin Johnson will still be England Coach – he has a plan

Much has been said that the England Rugby Coach should be sacked following the World Cup in New Zealand by eminent writers http://bit.ly/vjjEz9 and ex-players http://tgr.ph/qxrjaE– however I think he should stay as he has a plan to win the next World Cup. http://bit.ly/sv3IPO

If you look back over the previous world cup winners the average age of the winning team is around 28/29. When Johnson took over he inherited an aging squad with a group of players in their mid to late 20’s lacking in quality, joint vision and commitment. Yet still a group of players
who won the world cup in 2003 committed and a group of talented 20-23 year olds.

So he clearly made a decision to exclude those not totally committed to the cause aged between 25 -30. Only four players in that age group were in the squad of 30. With far more over the age of thirty including Smith at 37. http://bit.ly/taS6vf

He has appeared to have taken the view in a similar vein to Alex Ferguson of Manchester United of always having experienced “old heads”, currently Giggs, Ferdinand etc, players in their prime, Rooney, Nani and young emerging players with speed of thought and action as well as the “right attitude” Young, Smalling etc http://bit.ly/oSfFc8

This mix is one that Sir Alex has adopted throughout his tenure – fairly successfully I think. However he has notably excluded players who cause difficulties – for example one word – Tevez! How right he was about resisting the pressure to re-sign him.

Ironically for Johnson he was let down by one of those senior players who should have provided the guidance and mentoring to the young group who will be 28/29 at the next world cup and how the New Zealanders loved it! http://bit.ly/rYmMkd

One saving grace for me was “Our Jonny” – who has apparently just found himself – but his guiding of the backs and in particular Toby Flood is how I see a “senior pro” passing on expertise, experience and what its like to have been there and done it! http://tgr.ph/uSHx0e

So back to Johnson – his short term plan clearly didn’t work and semi-finals is a must for England at all Rugby World Cups but I think he must be given the time to try to put in place his full plan although some players still don’t appear to have “got it” http://bit.ly/uMdgB1 as to what it means to be a role model at International level. I could start about John Terry but not enough cyber space for that one!

Johnson’s plan has already seen a significant improvement in age group performance and a clearer link between senior team style and approach to that of the age group teams. In addition how can you learn from experience if you remove someone who has now had the experience of winning and losing the World Cup! So like all plans they and Johnson who clearly demonstrates the enbodyment of committment, though and stature must be given time to mature and see it through to 2015.

Delivering an increase in sports participation

Two recent emails dropped in my inbox over the last week or so which provided a contrasting view on sport development. Firstly a link to Richard Caborn’s key note on the investment in Governing Bodies that is the cornerstone to the current Sport England Strategy, was failing after only two years http://bbc.in/nNTC12 and in contrast an email from the England Under 16’s Basketball coach, Simon Fisher.

They were contrasting because Simon’s email to Graham Jones (now with Sport England) http://linkd.in/oivUMw and Steve Nelson (Director – Wesport) http://linkd.in/nle5rd concerned Active Sports an investment programme. To give some background - when I was CEO of England Basketball (1998-2002) Graham and Steve led the implementation of Basketball’s element of the Sport England Active Sports Programme http://bit.ly/pgWUKd which has influenced a significant membership rise on the back of these actions. Simon thanked Graham and Steve for putting in place a sound system that developed better players that resulted in England’s best age group performance in European completion ever http://bit.ly/pFjWWc . To put this in perspective basketball is a true worldwide sport with over 50 countries taking part in age group competition in Europe in contrast to some British Commonwealth sports like Netball, Rugby (both codes) and Cricket who have less than 20 playing countries worldwide.

My reading of his email confirms what Steve and I said at the time – The Sport England Active Sports programme will take between five and ten years to mature and so it has. Here is the dilemma according to England Basketball they have seen a near doubling of membership, an increase in the number of national league teams and an increase in the results of age group teams as recorded in the latest annual report http://bit.ly/nRcRmF . However in contract Basketball’s Active People http://bit.ly/bg0d67 results have been dropping http://bit.ly/p9PIf6 ?

Is the question raised by the former Minister of Sport - have sports like Basketball built on this sound foundation from the Active Sports Programme through this funding round or are they unable to keep them in the sport. Clearly other factors influenced this downturn?

The key question for me is - Has the current investment, barely two years old, had time to mature? It is the largest ever in sport (five-fold larger than when I was CEO of Basketball) and was based on the Sport England strategy http://bit.ly/vgXue which was secured on the basis of the fundamental change to the sporting landscape and funding routes and have other influences come into play...

The investment routes are different - Local Authorities are no longer directly funded by Sport England for activity and NGBs have been given a clear role, responsibility and accountability to play in developing their sport not leaving it to others to decide how their sport should be structured and/or delivered. Local Authority sport development teams appear to be concentrating on physical activity and not sport for sport sake.

Many governing bodies are being measured on factors which are out of their control i.e. they have to buy facility time from local authorities and schools which are under financial pressure themselves and have either raised prices or closed facilities http://bit.ly/hkGmqU . Swimming, whom I am chair of the West Midlands, have been further affected by the withdrawal of Free Swimming http://bbc.in/b5Hfg and surprisingly participation figure are down!

Governing bodies both large and small have taken a year or so to appoint staff and start to implement their interventions and a number have re-structured since. So with all change in delivery methods it is maybe inevitable that a drop in outputs may happen in the short term but by keeping faith with the strategies and interventions is imperative.

Many of the interventions were based on making sure the sports infrastructure could respond to the potential increase in the short period after the Olympics and Paralympics. This has been the real challenge for the smaller sports such as Handball who we provide coach education services http://bit.ly/puLhqd as they need an infrastructure of coaches. We have through effective marketing doubled the number of level one courses in the last year giving the sport an opportunity to respond the expected upsurge in interest. However this could not be applied to the larger team sports who have control of facilities and actions.

So were the interventions right? The sports that are doing well are those that have implemented simple short term action and had the infrastructure to respond quickly and made sure newly appointed development staff were focused, with a small remit and clear about their roles. Netball have kept it simple working on the “Baked Beans theory” of saying what it is on the tin with “Back to Netball” http://bit.ly/pavoqB and Athletics who have been unequivocal with the support of club networks alongside associating with anyone who runs! http://bit.ly/dV8R76

In conclusion - easy to say but I do think Government, Sport England and Governing bodies need to keep the faith with the plans however if they are not working be brave to change to something simple that will engage people who have an interest but the current structure of sport does not allow them to take part.

I look forward to other views – please comment...