Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Bridget McConnell is one of the reasons why Glasgow Sports facilities are so shit
























Dear All

Yapping Yousuf has decided to witter on about sport as if he knows something about it, which I sincerely doubt.

He laments the inactivity in Scotland by its population and says it needs to be challenged.

For large sections of the poor on benefits, they don’t have the option of taking up sport or even engaging in training.

Taking part in sport and fitness cost money.

On top of that once you go, you encounter the next problem, tuition; people need to be taught in order to build the most important foundation which is attendance.

The Commonwealth Games coming to Scotland offer an opportunity to strive to do better in 5 years time.

But it is worth pointing again that the difference between Commonwealth athletes and ordinary Glaswegians.

Tuition!

Yousuf has stated that there are terrific facilities being built for the Games in Glasgow.

What does he base that on?

The fact they are new?

Glasgow City Council via its arm’s length proxy Culture and Sport has terrible facilities, the mindset seems to be to cater for the lowest common demoninator and they can’t even do that correctly.

For example in a recent visit to the Gorbals Leisure Centre, their conditioning facilities I would describe as bordering on pathetic, heading towards embarrassing.

Is it any wonder that Glasgow fails to produce elite athletes in serious numbers?

Another problem is Sportscotland, if you look at their website about what they do, you will realise what they do is bullshit.

Buzzwords and PC statements appear like stakeholders, partnerships, creating effective sporting pathways, developing a strong infrastructure, embedding ethics and equity throughout sport, achieving performance and success, working in partnership.

If that is what they do, why are sports facilities in Glasgow so bad, when all these professionals are involved from local to national level?

Big statement where’s the proof you might howl in a Labouresque voice?

Audit Scotland showed that the majority of Councils don't even have modern sports strategies.

The strategy seems to be, keep it simple, keep aerobic and keep it cheap.

What the Scottish Government needs to do to get a healthy population is to greatly increase the numbers of suitable qualified instructors in the community.

If you are sick, you go to a qualified doctor, seems straightforward.

If you want to get fit in Glasgow, you effectively go to a Sports centre where you get limited tuition by a person who is more like a janitor than an instructor, whose teaching experience is limited to doing inductions, if they are lucky.

And people ask why there is such a high turn over in participation!

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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