wimbledon 2013

[minute5072]

Yaaaaaaaas!

[pink_triangle]

What can you say, one of the greatest performances by a British sportsmen I have ever seen. Straight sets makes it sound straight forward but djokovic is the best returner I have ever seen and made it a battle. He is too good to be a 1 slam wonder and I'm glad he won the big one.

[Guest]

Like what ?

Rugby and Football can be played pretty much for free...

Cricket is pretty much free as well besides a small outlay on bat, ball and wicket...

You can't really play Tennis without a court...

[Jackmypie]

Get in!

And apparently he gave away all his winnings to cancer research? (£1.6mil)

Edited July 7, 2013 by Jackmypie

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

Get in!

And apparently he gave away all his winnings to cancer research? (£1.6mil)

[pink_triangle]

£20 a month may sound reasonable to many but its a price that will deter your more casual player. The area I used to live in had free courts and I had no problem getting mates to play. Since moving to an area without free courts, its a lot more challenging to get people to play. £20 a month may not seem much but its a price that deters your more casual players, who will one day have children who could possibly be the next murray/robson. Also the £20 only covers outdoor courts, if you want to play indoors you are looking at a hefty fee as well. A lot of the clubs are very "middle class" and you get the impression they dont want too many commoners using their courts. Even the club where I go for coaching while being very welcoming, it still has a very "middle class" vibe. Its not to say you cant produce a great sportsmen from the middle class community but you are definitely reducing your potential talent pool.

As Barry says coaching is very expensive, if your looking at individual even for the most basic players your looking at £10 for half an hour. I dread to think what more advanced and regualtr coaching would set back.

[Kowalski]

Compare it to any other sport in England and you will find it is hugely expensive compared to other sports.

[TheGayTent]

This is not a problem here with Football, Rugby and Cricket. You can get access top top quality coaching for free.

[TheGayTent]

Er suffering from brain fade?

Top quality coaching in football may be 'free' where it's available. But the point is, basically it's not available. So your suggestion that access to top quality football coaching is not an issue is patently bollocks.

Edited July 8, 2013 by TheGayTent

[t8yman]

Er suffering from brain fade?

Top quality coaching in football may be 'free' where it's available. But the point is, basically it's not available. So your suggestion that access to top quality football coaching is not an issue is patently bollocks.

Edited July 8, 2013 by t8yman

[pink_triangle]

I am not convinced comparing the amount of top players tennis (predominantly individual sport) and football (team sport) produce. Someone like James Ward is ranked the 250th best player in the world and considered a bit of run of the mill, jobbing player. The 250th best footballer in the world is probably a top players, with regualar champions league/international experience and millions in the bank. It will always be easier to produce more top class footballers because there are opportunities for far more to play at the top level, that doesnt hide from the fact that tennis needs to tap into the working class better though.

[TheGayTent]

my experience of football coaching in the UK is a lot better than your post might suggest. where we are, my son has had great quality coaching - for free, and from uefa qualified coaches. his sunday league side had qualified coaches, and we only paid subs (£100 a year)

he since then trained with a large northern club for about 6 months, where the only cost to us was our time and diesel to get there.

he is now signed to a premiership club at youth level (now in his second season), and again - the only cost to us is time and diesel (as well as some kit costs, such as boots etc).

football coaching is far more accessible than tennis coaching in my experience.

(edited to add )

In our area, I dunno what its like down south.

[TheGayTent]

You are talking bollocks... But unlike others I haven't the time to waste continuing this pointless backwards and forwards...

For all the failures in our national game in the last 30 years we still produce some of the best players in the world. And they are almost always working class lads.

[t8yman]

Your experience with your son is fantastic. Unfortunately that's far from the norm.

[TheGayTent]

I would hazard a guess that maybe there is a bit of a north/south divide? It does appear to be quite the norm up round here. Many teams struggle for players, my lad's first sunday league team regularly struggled to field a full side.

Leeds have an incredible setup down at thorp arch, however it is a bit of a "revolving door" situation.

And scotland is equal if not better than the north of england. In my experience.

[TheGayTent]

The argument isn't that every kid gets access to a top coach... The argument is every kid could get access to a top coach if they where good enough. Unlike Tennis...

And if there are "only" 1750 B coaches... How many Tennis coaches of a similar level are there ?

Do you have a plank between your ears where most people have a brain ?

You have taken this debate comparing the number of coaches in UK and Germany when its fuck all to with that. Side track of the year this one...