HIGH SCHOOLS ATHLETICS DEVELOPMENT

A WIN-WIN STRATEGY2010-2015

Researched and Written by

VUSUMUZI MLILO

Foreword

VUSUMUZI MLILO, the Sports and Recreation Officer with the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture tackles the problems of poor track and field performance of the metropolitan Province of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. A research is done with intervention to come up with a model that can be used by the school system to improve its athletics education.

This research was made possible by the following organisations;

1. Sports and Recreation Commission of Zimbabwe

2. Sparrows Athletics Club3. National Association of Secondary School

Heads4. Bulawayo Athletics Board

Acknowledgements

PREAMBLE

The research was born out of the experiences of the writer as a teacher

involved in schools athletics, as a school sports director, also a professional

club coach and manager and also as an athletics association administrator.

The writer looked at all angles of athletics development and discovered serious

handicaps in the Bulawayo case. He then investigated the problem and

developed a model that could be used by all athletics stake holders to tackle

youth athletics development problems.

research topic

Strategies that can be employed by Bulawayo Athletics Board, High Schools and Professional Clubs to develop young athletes' careers from amateur school athletics to semi-professional and professional levels; a case study of Bulawayo’s youth and junior athletics development.

HYPOTHESIS

There is a serious lack of coordinated strategies among key principals of athletics development involved in youth athletics resulting in schools athletics remaining underdeveloped and performing dismally in national competitions.

Research Argument

The researcher argues that although NASH athletics teams perform badly in NASH provincial competitions, some of the athletes in the same NASH teams but also involved in club athletics go on to do 5 times better than the NASH team in much tougher competitions like the NAAZ Inter-provincials and the National Youth Games even when they are just one third of the size of the NASH team.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Bulawayo Nash athletes lack proper technical development and competition exposure.

School level talent identification is flawed with leakages.

Competition organisation and management at inter-house, inter-schools, and inter-zonal levels has serious weaknesses as selection platforms to produce a sound final provincial team.

There is more emphasis by teachers in charge and heads on winning, rather than developing quality athletes

Athletics is not relevant in the everyday life of the young athletes

THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

The Model

After the pilot research, the researcher then constructed an empirical model where he took 46 athletes from the 2009 NASH team who were in Form 1 to 3 (average age, 16 years). These were put into structured training and exposed to club competitions throughout the year. Each school was to support its own students financially to fit into the model.

Handicaps of the Model

The school club concept did not find comprehensive

school support although the children made it work.

Funding of athletes remained a challenge where schools did not

support their athletes because most parents could not manage both school fees and travel expenses.

Only those athletes within the walking distance to the training venue could attend

all training sessions

Achievements of the Model

The model athletes went to the Marondera National Youth

Games and collected 10 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals as opposed to the 6 gold 4 silver and 6 bronze of 2009 Gweru

Youth Games. They were second place nationally, losing to Harare by one gold medal. This was the

best Youth Games result for Bulawayo since 2003, the first

edition of the Youth GamesTwo of these athletes

went to Botswana in the national youth team for

the Singapore Youth Games selection and one

brought a bronze medal to Bulawayo.

Seven of these athletes were selected for the

2010 Swaziland Zone VI Games in December.

RECOMMENDATIONS

•The Bulawayo schools should form school athletics clubs fashioned in the same way as professional clubs. Financial resources of these clubs shall be the responsibility of the school and club members.

. NASH should keep their gifted athletes

active throughout the year through formation

of athletics clubs.

.The school clubs shall be affiliated to the Bulawayo Athletics Board and have

voting rights so that schools can influence decision

making at association level.

Intervention

The clubs can either operate alone in

schools if they have a qualified coach or be

attached to a professional club with

qualified coaches.

The school clubs shall compete against each other regularly in track and field competitions at least once a term throughout the year

and also attend as many NAAZ and club organised competitions as possible

School System Weaknesses There is no compensation given to

excelling athletes in terms of assistance in catching up with school work after being

absent as a result of sports programs. These children are ignored or ridiculed by their teachers even advised to drop sport

in favour of academic subjects.

The generality of teachers do not appreciate sport as a career option

for the majority of the not-so-academically gifted children, and a

scholarship opportunity for the academically gifted.

Parents and guardians stifle and frustrate athletic career development of their children due to ignorance and misconceptions about sport. Schools need to provide guidance and education to parents so that they understand the importance of sport careers in children’s

future.

Nash Partnership with Bab

The research revealed that there was no productive relationship between BAB and NASH. Very few zone conveners invited BAB officials to assist with technical

issues relating to their athletics competitions although practical evidence showed that these conveners had no clue of proper athletics technical applications. BAB

could be engaged at every stage of preparations by zones so that proper planning and conduct of events is done at the early stages of talent identification and

development.

The provincial convener also did not engage BAB officials at

the planning stages of their Inter-zonal competition. BAB was invited at the end of the process to run the event. At this stage, it is usually very difficult to undo or correct

fundamental mistakes which have a significant bearing on

the running of the event itself and the selection of the

provincial team. BAB organising committee should

start working with the convener right at the

beginning of the planning stages.

The general standard of competition organisation and management from inter-house to inter-schools is so haphazard and unstructured such that athletes are never exposed to proper competition conditions until they reach national championships. Teachers in charge of teams also suffer from the same ignorance and fail to field their athletes because they cannot cope with the standard competition demands. A standard competition format should be used in all athletics competitions at all levels. BAB is the only authority able to regulate competition formats as per IAAF and NAAZ recommendations.

The selection criterion is weak. It does not give athletes challenge to keep and maintain fitness before the actual competition. Those that are shortlisted travel to competitions whether fit for competition or not. NASH should engage qualified coaches to train and assess selected athletes’ fitness for competition. Coaches involved do not have to be teachers because most of the quality school athletes in clubs are trained by the same club coaches.

BAB has not had the stamina to enforce rules and regulations of athletics in NASH competitions because of a very thin working

relationship which causes NASH to always overrule some critical technical decisions. The result has been that the products of

the InterZonal competitions are half-baked and unfit to contest at

national level. Technical rules and event management rules should be enforced at school

level planning stages so that all zones are familiar with them and

prepare their athletes accordingly.

EnD of

SlIdE