Marcus Agnew: Awesome winter tournaments good for kids

Marcus Agnew

Secondary school sport, winter tournament week - wow, what a brilliant week of sport it has been around the country. A great effort by all the various sports codes, and organisers in the background, to get themselves aligned and make it all possible.

We were lucky here in Hawke's Bay to have a good piece of the action, including Girls Hockey, Boys Soccer, Badminton, and the Golf champs, with visitors to wine country arriving from all corners. And that's one of the great spinoffs of youth sport, it takes you to all sorts of places that you wouldn't otherwise get to - a great excuse to force you out of your weekly routines, pack up the car and get out of town.

The travel and tournaments are great for keeping the young athletes grounded - when you are a big fish in a small pond, it can be easy to get ahead of yourself, and think you are better than you are - so there is nothing like getting around the country, coming up against some other young competitive Kiwi's, and learning a bit of healthy respect for others.

As Sport New Zealand have highlighted, Kiwi's participation in competitive sport is following the downward global trend. Therefore, we need to tip our hat to all the coaches and administrators behind the scenes who have worked hard to get the collective alignment to make these tournaments happen.

However, in this increasingly busy world, we still need to do more to sport an even better experience for the students. With a similar level of alignment between clubs and schools, the various programmes involved with the young athletes can get on the same page, and enhance the fun and long-term outcomes for the student athletes.

Sometimes in life it is easy to take things for granted, and not appreciate things until they are gone - and so it is important to acknowledge all the work that goes into making these fantastic tournaments happen for our young New Zealanders, and what a long lasting positive impact it can have on them.

Given these tournaments are such great events - there may be opportunity to get more involvement from other parties in and around the tournaments. A great vehicle for sponsors to get on board, and promote their positive brands.

Somehow it would be great to get more of the community out watching too, be it the young primary school kids getting inspired by the big kids, or even old timers getting along and see the talented youth in action. It can be refreshing to see sport like this, in its purest form. Just playing for the sheer joy of banding together with a bunch of mates, competing hard, and representing their school. The unbridled competitive spirit, natural and untarnished by extrinsic factors of fame or fortune (discounting some secondary school rugby, that is).

These tournaments are a great chance for kids to really test themselves against others from around the country. Most of the students are just entering an age where they might be starting to specialise in a sport, so a great opportunity to see what others are doing, learn from the experience, and hopefully come away inspired to master some new skills they may have come up against.

The biggest thing the young athletes will hopefully realise, or have reinforced from coaches and parents, is that although they feel like they nearly grown-ups, in a sporting context they are miles from the finished product. If you have taken a beating, or feel like some of the opposition where a step ahead - don't be discouraged.

Everyone comes up against someone more skilful, or better prepared physically, but the young athlete shouldn't worry about that; we all develop at different rates, and there is still plenty of time to catch up - in fact you are only just starting your competitive sport journey. Many top international athletes didn't emerge until their late twenties, so you can all do it, just stick at it and keep up the fun!

Turn any disappointments into inspiration and learning, be that athlete who bounces back and doesn't give up.

One of the great challenges for our sporting system, is to keep all these fantastic kids engaged in sport when they leave school, a positive connection through to a fun and exciting club experience - it's such a shame to see young athletes give up, just as they are entering their prime.

However, long last the great tradition of sport tournament weeks! They provide fantastic memories for all competitors, for many, these tournaments will end up being among the best memories of their sporting lives.

A shame we couldn't get more primary kids down to watch during the week, so if you didn't get a chance to catch much action yet - get down for some great finals action today!

Marcus Agnew is the health and sport development manager at Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust and is also a lecturer in sports science at EIT.