In this country we spend too much time telling people they're a failure. This happens during school, sport, work etc etc. If we are to improve overall as a nation and ultimately as individuals we need to change our belief system.
I have worked in coaching both with golf and swimming and from what I have seen the change isn't even on the horizon let alone in view.
From a swimming point of view, coaches in this country are obsessed with instant results. This means they want fast times from a junior which generally come from the tallest, strongest and early maturing youths. Because the focus of attention then falls on these fast youngsters it means many more potentially fast late maturing youths will fall by the wayside. I have watched it over the last 10 years and nothing is changing. I should point out this is not ALL coaches but it is a very high majority of them.
They simply push the swimmers aerobically and try to build their strength. The focus on this means technique is often ignored and in swimming that means you will eventually fail to improve. As a child matures they tend to reach to peak of their physical ability and their performances plateau. They then lose interest because they are no longer top dog and stop swimming competitively.
Because of this short sighted attitude we lose a lot of potential talent because they never get a chance. You can apply this to just about any sport, someone pointed out Football and they're are so correct.
One saying that irks me is "Practice makes perfect". This is simply WRONG! The saying should be "Perfect practice makes perfect!", there is no point practising your faults! You can apply this to anything you like be it, football, trading, golf, swimming etc.
Cycling in the UK seems to be one of the few sports where coaches are looking to the future. This has been running for many years now and we have all seen how successful we have been as a nation. Let's not talk about the old drugs day a la Lance Armstrong.
So because we expect instant success we are looking for a genius, a child prodigy like Beethoven, Mozart etc. The rest are doomed to fail and are told as much with comments like "you're too short" "you're too slow" etc. We are always looking at stars like Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe in swimming or Lionel Messi in football and expecting our youngsters to live up to their achievements...yeah right, it isn't happening any time soon!
Until we change this thought process in this country and plan for the future we are simply going to bounce along with a modicum of success.
If you also do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got...an annoying saying but sadly all too true!
Rant over!!