With it being election day I thought I’d write a suitably political blog. While the result of today’s election will obviously have far reaching implications on education, health, defence and potentially parliamentary reform, the primary battleground during the 6 week run in has been the economy. The current budget deficit and the recent rumblings in Greece coupled with predictions of very tough times ahead for the UK make me pretty nervous. A major concern for me as a strength and conditioning coach is therefore what will happen to the funding of British sport in the coming years.

The main sport I work with is skiing and, as anyone who read the headlines around the Olympics this winter knows, it’s not a particularly well funded sport. This is the case for a good number of sports and I think that with large cutbacks across the board expected, those sports could suffer. For the most part it will be the future talent who will ultimately be the ones who pay the price. Every sport is going to keep it’s elite athletes in competition and direct funding towards them especially with 2012 on the horizon. The first area where cuts, if necessary, will be directed is at the sub elite, pathway or junior level. Without proper funding, these athletes will miss out on the necessary coaching and support needed to nurture their talent towards elite competition and while recently British sport has enjoyed a pretty solid conveyor belt of success in recent years, there’s a chance that we will see a lost generation 6-10 years down the line.

Obviously I hope this won’t be the case and I’m not normally a pessimistic person at all, but I can’t see there being no effect on athlete funding in the coming years. Fingers crossed I’m wrong!

Brian O’Driscoll will make his 100th appearance in an Ireland shirt at Croke Park today against Wales. It is testament, first of all, to his ability as a rugby player that he reaches his milestone and secondly to his longevity as an athlete that he is able to do this. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though and his career has been interrupted by injury, most notably a recurring hamstring issue and the dislocated shoulder that prematurely ended his Lions tour of New Zealand in 2005. His recovery from these injuries demonstrates his athletic ability but also highlights the quality of man management the IRFU is able to attain due to the central contracting of their best talent.

There are no conflicts of interest in Ireland, everyone knows where they stand. The vast majority of the squad ply their trade for Irish teams and so the number of games they play is essentially in the best interests of the player. This is not so in England. The issues surrounding James Haskell this week and the tug of war between Stade Francais, his employer, and the RFU shows that player management is not what it should be. Haskell is an important player for England and will play a big role in the Calcutta cup match this weekend. It shouldn’t have even been a debate, he should have no game between the intensely physical match against Ireland and the, in all likelihood brutal, match against Scotland. Instead we saw both sides consulting lawyers and threatening legal discourse.

Until England manage to sort out the management of players, these issues will continue to crop up, more so if they continue to disregard their own policy of not selecting those players who decide to play abroad.

I read a piece by Matthew Syed, the former British table tennis player, on the Times website this morning. It was discussing the funding issues surrounding the winter Olympics and the fact that many more than the representative population of schooled athletes representing Team GB come from public school backgrounds. It stated that the sports at the Olympics, he sited rowing and sailing as primary examples, are elitist and that entry to the games is only open to the very wealthy.

While there is an issue surrounding the school system, funding and achieving parity across all schools, I would argue that the money needed to enter sports such as running, throwing, jumping, walking and, to a slightly lesser extent, cycling are minimal. The ability to move well will stand any child from any school in much greater stead for future sporting participation than the opportunity to compete in sailing would. That is why I think that time spent in PE classes has to be used in the most efficient way, similarly to the way I work, namely to get the greatest gains in the shortest possible time. Teaching/coaching pupils basic movement skills and why they’re important would be incredibly valuable to the individual, any future technical and s&c coaches they may have and the state in terms of future public health.

There are many arguments surrounding social divides, class and welfare as well as public health and lifestyle choices that effect where the pool of athletic talent comes from. At the very least though, the overwhelming majority of pupils do share certain things, namely they have legs, arms, a brain and the ability to develop motor skills, it is perhaps an improvement in coaching those skills that could successfully close that Olympian divide.