Young Athletes League Changes

[petehancock]

There are a series of meetings being held across the country, on training nights, to seek views about the format of this League for the future. Our meeting is next Thursday at Sports City, 7.00pm!
The things for discussion include:
Do you travel too far?
Are there too many matches?
Are there too many events?
Should we 'lose' an age group?
Would you prefer the same teams every time?

Anyone can attend, but what are the views of the athletes?
If we ended up with three matches against local clubs, with no under 13's would anyone care?
We need to make our views known.
I know mine - what about you?
ps and please don't fall out with one another if you don't agree!

I think number of meetings about right.
I think they should avoid clash with the Combined Events regional schools event.
I think the 1500 should be at events 1,3,5, with 3000 at 2 and 4 instead.
I think jav, disc for under 13's.
I like all ages involved.
I don't want to meet local teams all the time
I don't mind the journeys if it gets us an exciting competition.

[Guest]

I agree with you peter but a couple of more things i would add would be the under 13 girls should run the 100m 200m instead of 75m 150m? i also believe they should run girls and boys seperate like they used too!! this will put us at a better advantage to compete on equal terms with the big boys like sale etc. compete at the same match but let both account for themselves ? more interesting i believe.
Colin

[petercrook]

Pete, I would agree with most of your views, though I would question a couple.

I assume the alternating of the 1500 and 3000, is at all age groups with the exception of the under 13 girls and boys. I think it may be a little harsh to ask under 15 girls and possibly boys to run a 3000m, particularly those who may be bottom of the age group. I do not think it will add anything to the competition to see under 15's running seven and a half laps of a track in most cases.

From the clubs point of view, whilst we have struggled this year to fill the 3000m in the girls event, please be aware that next season we are likely to have at least 8 very good quality athletes, fighting for 6 places based on the current format. Reducing this to 4 would undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on our points total and would deprive excellent athletes of the opportuntiy to compete in the competition.
This is likely to be the case for the season after as well.

I would also advocate the re-introduction of the 300m in the under 15 girls event, along with the 4 x 300m relay.

Throws are generally our weakest suit in Young Athletes. With the exception of Bob coaching javelin and Paul shot, we don't appear to have any dedicated throws coaches and seem reluctant to put any potential throwers in squad sessions at under 13. Unless we are to address this during the winter and set up outdoor squad sessions for under 13's, I think it would be to the detriment of the team. Sprinters and middle distance athletes will be asked to fill in throws and will reluctantly do so, with little or no coaching.

It is a fair point Colin makes of reverting back to seperate girls and boys teams, I'm sure the girls would have made the final in the past couple of seasons, though I'm undecided if this is beneficial to the club and particulalry the athletes as a whole.

I would certainly argue very strongly against the abolition of the under 13's. In a minority sport constantly battling against bigger sports, the opportunity to compete at Gateshead, Sports City etc whilst having a fantastic day out, is a massive pull, in getting youngsters involved and then holding on to them in the sport from an early age.

[loz]

I agree with Pete Crook.

I think the Young Athletes league should include a 300m race and a 4x300m relay for U15s. As a middle distance runner I would love to be able to run these races as I miss being able to do a relay. I enjoy the 300m race at Mid Lancs and County Champs and know of others who feel the same.

Lozi

[aidan]

I like the idea of introducing 300m event for the U15 girls & 4 x 300m relay which the middle distance girls could do (particularly for those who might be travelling otherwise for a single event).

In my opinion the idea of U13 girls running 75m & 150m is completely nonsensical since in this age group the girls are often physically ahead of the boys because they start their development earlier (on average two years ahead of the boys).

The 3000m could perhaps be combined into a single race (girls and boys together) - it would then have less of a disruptive impact on the sprint hurdles races. Maybe the numbering would need to be altered to differentiate between boys & girls to prevent any mistakes through track judges misidentifying the sex of an athlete.

Generally though I don't think there is great deal wrong with the current format. I also think the number of matches is about right.

My girls would like to compete in all of the meetings and not have to miss out because of clashes with combined events champs.

I believe they quite like the adventure of travelling to places like Gateshead and competing against the best athletes in their age group in the North of England. I wouldn't like to see the standard of competition diluted by localisation of the leagues.

[aidan]

Oh and since I have a u13 girl who quite likes to throw things - yes I like the idea of her being able to chuck javelin and discus

[loz]

I quite like the adventure of travelling to places like Gateshead, Sale, Wirral etc. It gets the team into the mood and ready to race and we always have a good laugh on the way there and back.

Lauren

[petehancock]

I attended the meeting at Sport City last night. (apologies to my group!)
The suggestions from uka, who have asked youngsters in other sports why they are not involved in athletics (footballers, rugby players and cricketers but not athletes!) is that we need to shorten travel, shorten meetings, reduce the number of meetings, drop u13's, change age groups to u14, u16, u18, amalgamate with the junior league and score based on performances rather than positions.
It has been suggested that uka will make life difficult for the league if they do not take some of these ideas on board - whatever the clubs say!!!!
uka have not said HOW it should be done, but the only ways I know to shorten the day are to make it local, or reduce events or cut down on competitors.
Is there any merit in the idea that there should be YAL for u13/u15 and a new league for u17/u20 instead of the present junior league?
There was also talk last night that u17's should be prevented by the rules from competing in Senior competitions, to limit the demands placed on them.
Let me have your thoughts, there is bound to be the need to vote at agm in december.

[Richard Blackburn Harriers]

Hi Pete - firstly Preston - hope you do not mind me posting on your board. I enjoy some of the topics and I reveal myself if I decide to contribute.
Firstly, well done on a great NATYAL season and with a little more luck at Leeds you could have upset the apple cart a little. And great to get B&F back up - 3 of us Lancs teams cutting it at the top level next season is great for Lancashire.

On the forum - I could not go - Thursday night training - some coaches on hols.

Firstly - with this feedback that they had already prepared, I am amazed that this was not sent out to team managers beforehand so they could discuss at their clubs and have time for a reasonable response.
If I had gone, I would have felt like I had been mugged as I was not aware of any of this. I assumed that they were taking ideas from us, not the other way around.

Very much in the vein of Pete's opening comment, we at Blackburn like the league more or less as it is. We would tweak a few things. I favour discus for U13, 300m for U15G and to get rid of an U17 event, probably 3000m if it was down to me. It's great for everyone to take on clubs like Sale & Liverpool. I would also give 1 extra point to A competitors. ie. 5 - 2 and 4 -1 for B.

I would be reluctant to change to these new age groups. There is enough confusion already amongst parents, athletes and even some officials about cut-offs for age groups. It would make no sense to me to change only NATYAL to U14 etc and leave athletics generally at U13 etc.
In fact we already have problems at our club as active U11's go in to other sports and are already entrenched in football, rugby, netball, swimming etc by Year 6 - the 1st opportunity in athletics for any meaningful competition. If we made it U14, I assume that would be Year 7 & 8.

And year 6 & 7 are already the poor relations as they have NATYAL / MId Lancs and the County Champs (only AA) but nothing beyond.

I would just say that athletics administrators at the higher levels worry me. They are like politicians. Full of initiatives, spin etc. If it doesn't work, someone else comes along with new initiatives, new spin - a vicious circle.

The NATYAL at Premier and 1st Division level seems in decent nick. At division 2 level, it maybe needs looking at. But maybe this is where some clubs should look more at combined teams, or higher competition rules should be allowed to apply to Junior athletics so that all clubs in the NATYAL could add athletes from clubs not involved.
Some local clubs, like both Chorley, Rossendale etc (no disrespect guys) are in danger of losing their identity as they cannot support a NATYAL team. Higher competition rules would allow their athletes to join clubs already affiliated, without having to leave their home town club.
This is more the sort of initiative I would like to see from UKA (or whatever they are now called), not rebranding or repackaging which will cause a lot of hassle for the NATYAL administrators, the clubs and the athletes, but permit the higher beings to pat themselves on the back and say job done.

The G13 in football is poised to take on a Euro football comp if UEFA continues to meddle. Maybe that would be a good idea for athletics. If the authorites continue to meddle, take the decisions away from them by doing our own thing - after all there's already some healthy inter-club road comps - why not in T&F?

But I would rather hjave a great NATYAL - broadly along it's current format.

[aidan]

Are there any juniors, apart From Lauren, who would like to comment? Don't be frightened to post it is YOUR league and if you want to change things you have a chance to shape its future.

Aidan.

[Carole Robinson]

I have read with interest this link, and still remember with fondness Andrews first competition for Preston Harriers. He was a relatively late starter at the age of 13.
He joined the coach and traveled down to Deeside, He was so excited at traveling so far to compete for this great club he had recently joined and for the next 3 seasons he juggled athletics and football week in week out. Holidays and days out where organized around the competitions !!
If YAL take away the U 13 section athletics will lose too many kids to other sports, as a previous writer said 'they will get entrenched in something else.' .
I also agree with Lauren that traveling as a club brings a bond that the kids enjoy, Andrew is still very friendly with a lot of the youngsters he met around the country whilst competing in YAL and it also brings the opportunity to compete against a variety of abilities throughout the season.which is good for healthy competition.
Backing Petes statement re: Combined Events, for the past few years a YAL comp has been organised for the same weekend as the regional Combined events and although Preston arn't the only club to lose athletes to the combines it certainly gives clubs that don't encourage combined eventers to pull in a few extra points.
Finally regarding Senior league from personal experience with Andrew I feel that they shouldn't compete at U17's. This puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on the youngsters. they need their confidence boosting at that age not hammering.