Minutes of East Cornwall and West Devon Athletics Forum meeting held Monday 11th June 2007 1930 at Windsor House.
Present: Steve Rose, Lance Chatfield, Chris Carpenter, John McGhee, Pat Perritt, Amanda Erith, Richard Warne, Pete Tabenor, Keith Reed, John Crockford, Jonh Smith and Nigel Rowe.
Apologies: Paul Ross, Steve Payne, Malcolm and Julie Elliott and Dave Dane.
We wish Paul and Steve a speedy recovery from their recent hospitalisation.
This meeting had a single concept on trying to understand the way forward for the Forum and its future focus.
Within this concept was two specific points that would either question the Forum’s worth or come up with an opportunity to develop the Forum’s values on to the next phase.
Whichever route we are going to take it is the responsibility of each of the club representatives to take this back to their own member clubs and debate the direction of association under the Forum’s banner.
A series of questions were pre-set to ascertain the Forum’s role, what member clubs contribute, what member clubs want/expect from the Forum.
Secondly was how best to proceed with the potential formation of Team Plymouth.
The focus of the meeting was of discussing and trying to understand the threats and opportunities that “Team Plymouth” could establish/present.
§ It is not an “Elite Club” and it would benefit every athlete, coach, official at every level
§ It would enable our Elite Athletes to be drawn from member clubs to compete at Regional and National Events under the “Team Plymouth” banner
§ It would maintain existing member clubs – essential for those communities but more importantly being able to offer a stepping-stone to Elite Team Performance and Competition whilst maintaining roots to their own club
§ Under current UKA Rules if we proceeded to form “Team Plymouth” would mean that this would become the 1st Claim Club whilst your existing club would become 2nd Claim Club
Ø For local and County levels of competition the athlete would represent their 2nd Claim Club
Ø For Regional and National Competition athletes would represent and compete for 1st Claim Club
§ This is the next development stage of “Team Armada”
Ø Currently only two clubs take advantage of this initiative
Ø It would be ideal for more if not all clubs to be part of this
Other opportunities to develop “Team Plymouth” concept exist through partnership
The College of St Mark and St John has set up Plymouth first “Hub Club” consisting of Basketball, Hockey and Netball, with other sports showing interest.
It was officially launched on 26th June 2007 as a National Pilot receiving funds from Sport England.
The following has been taken from various papers written by Harry Richardson Director of Sport at Marjon.
“ The concept of a Multi Sports Hub Club has been suggested recently by Sport England as a means of talent development in sport which makes best use of both physical and human resources. Based loosely on the European model which is very successful in France and Germany, the Hub Club involves a number of different sports which all subscribe to the Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model for working with players. LTAD promotes the idea that young people taking part in sport between the ages of 6-11 should be taught the fundamental skills of agility, balance, coordination, speed and special awareness which are essential for success in sport at any level. This “physical literacy” should be established through the participation in a range of activities, which are not sports specific, e.g. throwing, catching and striking, but which form the basis for a variety of different sports.
Once these skills have been learned, children can then apply them to different sports such as hockey, netball or football in readiness to develop the specific skills necessary for each individual sport.
The College of St Mark and St John through its Centre for Sports Research and Development, has received funding from Sport England and Plymouth School Sport Partnership, to run a National Pilot Project to develop a Plymouth Marjon Hub Club based on the College Campus. Chris Mather has been appointed as a Community Sports Development Tutor to lead the Project.
Building on well established links within the City with the sports of netball, basketball and hockey, the Hub Club is trying to develop a structure in all three sports which will promote pathways from grass roots to elite performance, whilst encouraging greater participation for local people who wish to play at a recreational level. The Plymouth Marjon Hockey Club provided an excellent example of this model, where the 1st X1 play at National League level, supported by all the local clubs and players in the City and by a very proactive coaching programme to develop the sport across all the schools in Plymouth. The College already has excellent links with Plymouth Raiders and Tamar Valley Cannons for basketball and Plymouth Civil Service for netball and the aspiration is to follow the same path to provide similar structures for these sports, which will provide talent development programmes for local athletes and ultimately, the chance for our local star players to play at the highest level for Plymouth based teams.
Plymouth as a City is very fortunate to have top level coaches in all three of the focus sports and students from the College will have the opportunity to work with them in order to develop their coaching skills. This will then provide a pool of qualified coaches to work with clubs and schools across the City to raise standards, through a multi skills approach and through sport specific work where appropriate. There will also be the opportunity to develop Academies and Centres of Excellence at the College in order to provide a structure for talent development.
Where this fits into existing initiatives and organisations –
The Penathlon provides an excellent opportunity for children to take part in activity outside the traditional sports. Because it is hosted by the College it offers a subsidised method of sustaining this initiative, which could be replicated nationally.
The College has compiled a database of over 400 students with NGB qualifications in a range of sports from gymnastics to surf kayaking. This list is available to local schools, clubs and related organisations such at the PCT and the Police so that they might work with students on appropriate programmes and activities. Some of these include paid opportunities for students but most are done on a voluntary basis. We are currently considering the best way to provide a mentoring system for students, working with the CSP (county Sports Partnership) and Sports Coach UK
The College is working with the Plymouth Sports Forum and the local council to establish a Community Sports Network in the City. As an integral part of the Single System for Delivery it is critical that the CSN is well structured and includes all relevant parties.
The College works very closely with the SSCOs and the two SSPs (School Sport Partnership) in the City, which provides access to almost all schools in Plymouth. In line with the PESSCL strategy this offers opportunities for the Gifted and Talented, for after school clubs and for curriculum material, whilst providing accredited exit routes to local clubs at the right level for individual children.