Class Politics coaches going offshore?

rerun

New Member
this is a recent topic from livesaildie, thought id ask for your views on the subject:


Here’s the scenario…

Singapore just won the 4.7 World’s with the team taking out the men’s and women’s divisions in France recently. Not just one title, but two. Out of 323 sailors from 34 countries, Singapore managed to snag both titles.

Why?

I believe it’s all down to coaching.

Currently in Singapore 4 of our top coaches are currently under contract with the Singapore Team. The CEO of Singapore Sailing is also an Australian. Why the hell are we losing these guys to offshore teams when our own sailors here at home rarely receive the support and guidance they require and deserve to become the best sailors in the world?

A few years ago sailors from Australia were unstoppable. However over the recent years, our results have begun to dwindle and it would seem we now get excited about someone coming in the top 30 and seeing that as a good result.

Australia was once the mecca for top athletes, however with the division between organising committees and coaches, we are losing our best assets to offshore teams, and in the process watching them take home the titles.

What is Yachting Australia doing about it??? It would seem nothing, and without wanting to take sides, or be a fence sitter, I think it’s absolutely horrendous that this is happening to our sport.

Why doesn’t Australia have a team in the America’s Cup? There are enough high class sailors from this country competing for other nations that I shake my head wondering why we don’t have a team of our own.

We have some of the best coaches in the world right here in our backyard however have a foreigner coaching our Australian Olympic Team! I’m sorry, but am I the only one who thinks this doesn’t make sense???

I would be very interested to hear what the sailors of Australia think about this, and also, what sailors from all over the world are thinking! I bet you guys are laughing at our system.
 
I dunno... from the intensity of your post it sounds like you take this a great deal more seriously than I do... Nothing wrong with that...

In landlocked Indiana, the best thing that sailing has to offer is a good breeze on a saturday afternoon. For me, that's enough... for now anyway.
 
I don't know about all that. I think we still have some damm fine Aussie sailors - check the latest European reggattas, we have Australian sailors continuously winning and placing.

Australia has recently established the

http://www.australiansailingteam.com.au/ to help develop a team focus toward the next olympics. Check out the coaches, they seem pretty good to me.
 
It's kind of like when americans see americans like ed baird helping alinghi beat BMW Oracle in the ACC racing.
 
Free market or something like that - shouldn't a person be able to market themselves wherever he or she wants ? Making a living in this industry is hard, making a great living is probably tougher then being on a NBA team in the United states. Should we begrudge someone for wanting to make the most of an opportunity ? Yes, it sucks that a person's own country get's outbid in the money area or that an individual is so ticked off at their own country that they decide to leave for greener pastures but that's the real world. Doesn't just happen in sailing either. So, what is a country or company do to keep them "in country" ? Throwing money at them is one solution, but there will always be someone (country or individual) willing to trump the offer just to lure them away. Having a good development program is important. For both the competitor and the coaching . Being well funded (you don't have to be the richest though). Keeping the interest in the game high. Going thru a perfect example of that in the US right now, how many people in the US are following the Tour de France now that Lance Armstrong has retired (it's way down as far as interest goes) It would be interesting to hear if interest in Laser sailing in Brazil has dropped off now the Scheidt is now longer actively sailing.
 
i wouldnt be surprised if your aussi coaches are going offshore for the money. if a sailing organization will pay more why not go. and im not trying to insult sigapor but at the byte north americans at cork a couple of years back alot of people were saying that their coaches made signals telling the sailors where to go. in the end they did win the regatta.
 
rerun said:
The CEO of Singapore Sailing is also an Australian.

I believe I caused this a few years ago at a master's worlds when I rounded a mark with a couple Aussies. At the very least I put the idea in their heads.
I began bellering "Waltzing Matilda" and they yelled something like, "Go to Singapoor on the other side of the planet."





hey





it was fuinny when I wrote it



or so I thought




.
 
I'm in Perth Western Australia and it doesn't worry me that Singapore is stealing all the best coaches (if they are). Our local Yachting organisation (YWA) is very keen on developing young talent and our laser association (WALA) is also doing what we can with encouraging 4.7 sailors. I think the main thing is that if some organisation has hte money to devote to developing the sport, then good luck to them - its good for the sport overall and who cares what country they're from ?
Perhaps we should be emphasising the reputation for laser sailors to be friendly and helpful here and not concentrating on what country people are from. Lets lead a revolution and have world championships where we don't put the sailors country on the sail - just their name.
As John said - "Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do, nothing to kill or die for ......... ". I won't go any further with the lyrics or that will upset another part of the community.
 
slingsby is not doing bad at all in the laser, he has been winning a LOT of cups recently. I Don't think that you can draw your conclusion out of the result of one 4.7 world championship.
 

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