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College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

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chippie
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College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby chippie Thu Nov 21, 2013 7:19 pm

came across this interesting article....and as much as they pick out the lacrosse team, this does happen at many other institutions with many other sports....

http://www.palatinate.org.uk/?p=38243

what are people thoughts of universities concentrating on High end elite level compared to participation
"Train to win, Play to win" "Shoot first. Ask questions later"

"the way to beat a tight crease is a quick stick"

It's not the team with the best athletes, it's the athlete's with the best team

My views and opinions are my own and do not reflect views or opinions of any other club, organisation, institution.
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Re: College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby UKLaxfan Thu Nov 21, 2013 11:57 pm

some interesting discourse in the comments section

as for subject matter of the article it is a common theme of limited resources.
You can't please everyone.

Facility utilisation is always going to create conflict where two parties want to use best available at optimum time.

Team Durham's long term strategy would appear to be successful in investing in Sports now to create success and increase profile & funding to invest in facilities for sport in the future.

TD have obvious;y targeted certain sports for BUCS points return on investment
Lacrosse is 3rd behind Tennis & Hockey for TD so a successful strategy

the debate really is about what is sport?
University vs College
Competitive vs Social
Sport vs Exercise vs Entertainment

overall, sounds like Durham Lacrosse need a Pep Rally, unfortunately they don't exist in this country
so much for University spirit - which in UK is probably vodka


What are your thoughts?
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Re: College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby Knight Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:56 am

It's a very different consideration in comparison to many other universities though, Durham has an extremely high participation rate, something like 80% of students are involved in college sport, with leagues, matches every week. The article complained about the money pumped into the university system rather than college. The college system is in a far better state than a very large majority of universities.

The college system is supported by the university, the university does better, the more money it has for facilities, it recently put in a second rubber crumb. The first was used for lacrosse, football and rugby, mens and womens all university, and yet time was allocated to college sports, there is no way without the university success that they could have justified funding a second. The article complains about cancelled matches, suprisingly enough there is bad weather in Durham so matches are cancelled as there are so many teams, pitches would be ruined, therefore allweather pitches will be allocated to university matches, as there are teams travelling, its a higher level and they provide funding. It's like saying a semi professional team deserves pitch time over an international, it is a different level of competition.

The article itself was ill informed and unjustly focused on lacrosse, suggesting the focus on scholarships was an additional burden for students, irrelevant to the fact that the same scholarships are offered across any top tier sport in Durham with regard to talent or international experience, as happens with Loughborough and others. Case in point the structure in loughborough is so focused on success as far as I know there is little inter-block sport, or at least nothing to the degree that Durham competes. The lack of knowledge of the lacross club as it functions also shows, considering it has 7 teams with the mens and womens combined, yes there are scholarships and some reduced fees, but nothing that other high level sportsmen cannot gain, irresepective of the 30 odd mens and more womens players they help via coaching and playing with.

The article was so self indulged, saying that because more players were not committing to the training and time that the higher levels of sportsmen did, they as the majority deserved the focus, irrespective of the skill and time put towards training and matches that the university teams did.

AKA much dislike for the article, the majority of college sport at durham was well run, considering there is probably 100+ college teams competing in leagues that is a huge commitment in itself and a huge privileged to have that fully organised for them.

As for pep rally, generally there was some support, but most people who would watch would be at university matches, or training, when you have 80% or so playing sport at Durham, unless you are directly supporting friends or a big competition not many people come down and watch, irrespective of college or university sport. However most of these arguments are covered in the article from what I remember.
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Re: College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby UKLaxfan Fri Nov 22, 2013 5:52 am

Fine response

a little like cracking a nut with a Buick

The article itself is poorly written and comes over as a rant, rather than any sort of journalism.

he may as well have opened his window and shouted at passersby

a quick synopsis would be - "it's not fair wah--wah"

the rowing tank is main point in case £1M+ could buy a lot of footballs, table tennis tables, hire astros of whatever else WSM may desire and he seems to think he personally has paid for it.

as for the original question
chippie wrote:what are people thoughts of universities concentrating on High end elite level compared to participation

IMO it is part of a much bigger issue of what is the purpose of sport?

Obviously Universities should provide for all their students wishes in a perfect world, social sportsmen and those who are dedicated to high performance. There is a balance to be found with allocating resources, boring but reality.

The word Elite is often used which is antagonistic because it has socio-economic connotations which is unfortunate.

other points:
Pep Rallies don't take place at the time of events, usually the day or evening before an event
80% participation of Durham students involved in College sports is remarkable

Durham University sounds like a victim of it's own success
it's out grown it's capacity to meet the demand of it's sporting students

one last thing regarding WSM and his mega hangovers
"never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"
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Re: College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby Knight Sun Nov 24, 2013 12:48 am

And, as I feel deserves a full post the womens team beat the England senior team today 17-7. Not the mens American contigent, the womens team which is a very strong mix of home grown talent with a couple of overseas athletes.
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Re: College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby UKLaxfan Sun Nov 24, 2013 5:52 am

Knight wrote:And, as I feel deserves a full post the womens team beat the England senior team today 17-7. Not the mens American contigent, the womens team which is a very strong mix of home grown talent with a couple of overseas athletes.

Are there any plans for the Men's team to play the England National Team?

It would be great to have competitive lacrosse for England in build up to WC2014

it would be a feather in the cap for Team Durham if they did the double over England
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Re: College v Uni sport (elite/participation)

Postby Knight Sun Nov 24, 2013 12:01 pm

I believe they are playing twice next year, February and another time from what was said when we were up for Old Boys.

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