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Photograph by Islay McLeod
In the ground-breaking movie ‘On the Waterfront’, Marlon Brando in his Terry Malloy role tells brother Charlie: ‘I could have been good – I could have been a contender’. It’s one of the most famous lines in movie history, crystalising failure engendered because Charlie didn’t look after Terry – he was too busy looking after himself. Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the Elia Kazan movie – and of course, the staging of the Glasgow Games.
I share the hopes for the games’ success, but I can’t help harbouring doubts about their legacy – the mindset that demands world-class athletes on the one hand but dismisses the need to invest in our young people on the other is a worrying one in danger of leading straight to a generation of no-hope Terry Malloys.
Scotland has a proud athletics history studded with golden names: Menzies Campbell, Mike Hildrey, Alan Wells, Lachie Stewart, Liz McColgan, and Lynsey Macdonald, to name but a few. In the 1970 Commonwealth Games, Scots won six gold medals and a lot of other shiny hardware. In the 1986 Commonwealth Games, also held in Edinburgh, there were three Scottish golds. And of course, Scots brought seven gold medals back from last year’s Olympics.
So – plenty of justification for believing that next year’s Glasgow games could inspire a veritable army of Balfron Bullets, Chris Hoys and Andy Murrays who will in years to come mount podia around the world to accept medals galore and cause ‘Flower of Scotland’ to dominate every sporting event.
But it takes much more than inspiration to win. Without the input of coaches, instructing and goading and comforting and psyching up, the raw talent may never achieve its full potential.
In December of last year, Argyll and Bute Council enthusiastically backed the Scotland-wide Coaching Champions events that enable over-16s to learn to coach in a whole range of sports. Calling the coaching qualification development project a ‘best practice example’, the council recruited 460 volunteers, who at the start of February completed a weekend of training in Oban.
Over the past six years, 1,500 have trained through this scheme in Argyll and Bute. Isn’t this exactly the kind of preparation we need to get into the spirit of the Commonwealth Games – not to mention a good move in the battle to create a healthier nation and to give young people a sense of purpose and self-worth?
Yet as the participants were showering in the locker room, instead of consolidating this investment in its young people, the council wiped the £21,000 funding for Coaching Champions off its budget in the cause of ‘savings’. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Investment in young people has few champions – and not only in the sports arena.
Argyll and Bute councillor Fred Hall thinks that schools place too much emphasis on extra-curricular activities such as pipe bands and trips. It’s an attitude shared by Westminster, which last year slashed its £100,000 funding of the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council. Broadening horizons through sharing experiences with youngsters from other cultures apparently has no value in our troubled world. Given the level of debt at local and national level, these cuts are cosmetic and so short-sighted that I can only advise Specsavers.
I have great respect for Argyll and Bute’s lead councillor for sport, Douglas Philand, and I understand his train of thought when he says that enough folk have been trained as coaches to ensure that sport will continue to grow in the area. But there is so much more to all of these projects than their face value. The piece of paper that Coaching Champions awards to its participants, just like the certificate that the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council awards everyone who takes part in an exchange visit, is of huge value on a CV and a desperately needed reinforcement of self-worth.
In December 2012, 34,700 young people aged between 18 and 24 were jobless in Scotland. That’s one in five youngsters who are fighting tooth and nail to get the next job that’s advertised, or to grab a place at university or on a ‘new apprenticeship’ scheme.
Employers rightly say there is no point in putting empty phrases in the ‘personal statement’ on your CV. Forget about ‘I am a dedicated worker’ or ‘I work well in a team’ unless you can give an example from life. And when you go for the interview for the university place, they want to know what you can do for the course, not what the course can do for you. The fact that you play in a pipe band or that you’re a member of the local shinty squad speaks volumes about your self-confidence and your ability to play a vital role in a team situation.
Confirmation that you’ve invested your time in learning to be a sports coach or that you have taken part in an exchange visit or have spent the summer performing in ceilidhs in draughty community halls also says that you have initiative and may have leadership qualities. I’m reducing it to basics, but such extra-curricular activities say that you are a contender: you could be good.
But from local government to Westminster, we seem hell bent on denying young people the opportunity to develop their talents, self-esteem, and chances to compete – in sport or in life.
We’re expecting a lot from the ‘legacy’ of the 2014 games, from extra jobs to gold medals, from foreign investment to a confirmation of nationhood. We all know that you have to speculate to accumulate but are we culling the dosh to speculate from the very projects that could prepare the next generation to profit from the games inheritance? That makes no sense at all.
We can alienate and disenfranchise our youngsters or we can open doors for them. Enabling them to be contenders is not an expendable frivolity: it is our responsibility.
Marian Pallister is a college tutor, author, and founder of a charity supporting vulnerable young people in Zambia
