Ian Kench, Trinity’s Director of Sport, has had a thought leadership article published in Independent Education Today and Independent School Sport Magazine, in which he argues the case for sports governing bodies aligning selective representational age.
Mr Kench believes pressure to specialise too early leads to many young athletes abandoning sport altogether.
In the article, he writes:
“With what is happening around COVID-19 and physical and mental health we surely – now, more than ever – should be doing all we can to ensure that our students take a passion for sport with them as they leave school?
“Having sat in on numerous discussions from different governing bodies on how to increase participation at youth level and ensure that adult participation drop out rates are minimised, it’s clear that there needs to be a holistic approach driven by UK Sport and Sport England.
“Trinity Sport’s philosophy has always been to ensure that students are exposed to as many different sporting environments as possible. This is true even if they have a so-called ‘high training age’ in a particular sport.
“Students should sample as many sports as possible until they find those that really interest them. Coaches and parents should support this if they want students to continue playing sport into adult life and have the best chance of reaching an elite level. Governing bodies could help by creating a uniform British age at which representational teams are selected.”
The thought-provoking article can be read in full here.
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