Team GB Sports Need More Development

[El Analyzer 308]

There are certain sports we are not competing in a high level and definitely can’t qualify for the Olympics, I have just prepared a quick list for sports which may/can/should be developed in the next years IMO:

 

• Handball: I put it first as this is my sport and I was playing for Reading Lions HC (unfortunately it has been dissolved after COVID), the sport has a huge potential in the country it also matches the British mentality which like both Football and Rugby (handball has goal scoring techniques like football and it’s physical contact sport close to rugby to some extent), England Handball Association had a very optimistic plan to get more youngers to the sport and myself went to schools and universities and picked up some great talented (very proud that the captain of U18 now I have picked him myself and was playing for our team before moving to Denmark now), the development of the sport had a huge delay during COVID and following Brexit specially when a lot of friends from different nationalities lost their jobs and return back home (our team dissolved for that reason), to conclude I think we have a lot of hidden talents can fit perfectly in this sport if we focus more to get youngsters on the field early.

 

•  Volleyball and beach volleyball: despite the conventional volleyball is a nice sport to practice but from observation we are far away from achieving professional level, people are mostly practicing it in a friendly non-competitive way compared to handball. Saying that the beach volleyball is much easier to get to professional level, when we were playing the beach handball British championship at Poole each summer and just before COVID the tournament organisers added beach volleyball as a side activity for entertainment but it turned to be more competitive and interesting tournament gripped a lot of teams with great fun and quality, my suggestion is to start focus more on beach volleyball which can be adopted anywhere not just near the beaches.

 

• Basketball and 3X3 basketball: since London Olympics and the huge potential basketball got more and more development and we have qualified for Eurobasket in the last two editions (not great results I know) the team is on its way in my opinion suffering defeats from stronger teams but in a very competitive and close results most of the time (last edition wasn’t the greatest) I hope we keep it up for upcoming challenges. Looking at this huge potential in conventional basketball I would say 3X3 is a version we should focus more in future, it needs more fitness and physical efforts and a good selection of the team members then any country can compete in a higher level (with proper training of course)

 

Those are the sports I hope they got developed more, would like to see if there are more in your opinions.

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

1 hour ago, El Analyzer said:

There are certain sports we are not competing in a high level and definitely can’t qualify for the Olympics, I have just prepared a quick list for sports which may/can/should be developed in the next years IMO:

 

• Handball: I put it first as this is my sport and I was playing for Reading Lions HC (unfortunately it has been dissolved after COVID), the sport has a huge potential in the country it also matches the British mentality which like both Football and Rugby (handball has goal scoring techniques like football and it’s physical contact sport close to rugby to some extent), England Handball Association had a very optimistic plan to get more youngers to the sport and myself went to schools and universities and picked up some great talented (very proud that the captain of U18 now I have picked him myself and was playing for our team before moving to Denmark now), the development of the sport had a huge delay during COVID and following Brexit specially when a lot of friends from different nationalities lost their jobs and return back home (our team dissolved for that reason), to conclude I think we have a lot of hidden talents can fit perfectly in this sport if we focus more to get youngsters on the field early.

 

•  Volleyball and beach volleyball: despite the conventional volleyball is a nice sport to practice but from observation we are far away from achieving professional level, people are mostly practicing it in a friendly non-competitive way compared to handball. Saying that the beach volleyball is much easier to get to professional level, when we were playing the beach handball British championship at Poole each summer and just before COVID the tournament organisers added beach volleyball as a side activity for entertainment but it turned to be more competitive and interesting tournament gripped a lot of teams with great fun and quality, my suggestion is to start focus more on beach volleyball which can be adopted anywhere not just near the beaches.

 

• Basketball and 3X3 basketball: since London Olympics and the huge potential basketball got more and more development and we have qualified for Eurobasket in the last two editions (not great results I know) the team is on its way in my opinion suffering defeats from stronger teams but in a very competitive and close results most of the time (last edition wasn’t the greatest) I hope we keep it up for upcoming challenges. Looking at this huge potential in conventional basketball I would say 3X3 is a version we should focus more in future, it needs more fitness and physical efforts and a good selection of the team members then any country can compete in a higher level (with proper training of course)

 

Those are the sports I hope they got developed more, would like to see if there are more in your opinions.

You are absolutely right -  has major issues with team sports. A lot of that is historical and down to the home nations structure and the funding mentality that if you're not winning on the international stage then there is no reason to support the sport. I think UK Sport have begun to realise that there a funding problem so they announced and additional 2.4mln in funding for 8 team sports and we are perhaps beginning to see the green shoots off the back of that funding.

 

Handball - Given how popular this was at London 2012 in the Copper Box arena, it was surprising that the federation wasn't able to capitalise more. As it is, we at least seem to have the structures in place to support the sport with age-group squads in place and the senior men are in the fight to take part in the 2026 European Championships.  

 

Beach Volleyball - The Bello brothers are a class team and can cut it on the international stage. The problem with them is that they lack consistency and haven't been able to make the breakthrough on to the main circuit. They are still in with a chance of qualifying for Paris but it would be through the continental championship pathway. 

 

Volleyball - Not sure we actually even have a team at this stage. This is a sport where the home nations are still maintaining their independence so this may be impacting the development of the sport. 

 

Basketball - Is actually in a pretty good place all things considered. It is beyond frustrating that the women threw away a great chance to qualify for Paris - I just hope that it doesn't lead to reduced financial support. By not taking up the place in the OQT the federation aren't exactly showing a great amount of respect or confidence in the men's squad. 

 

3x3 Basketball - Absolutely agree this should be an area of focus. You would think there would be a fairly deep talent pool available if only they went looking for it. 

 

Water Polo - They seem to have made good use of their additional funding - particularly on the women's side where they have qualified for European Champs for the first time in 10 years. If they can continue to make solid progress it is not beyond possibility that we could see them at an Olympics in near future. 

 

If I was going to single out a sport that is screaming out for development it would probably be sprint canoe - we're world leaders in the Paralympic events but can't replicate that success in the Olympic events. 

 

One of the things that we don't seem to be doing as well now is promoting talent identification programmes. In the run up to London, the various GB federations seemed to make coordinated and well publicised efforts to find new blood for their sports but schemes like "Sporting Giants" seem to have fallen by the wayside. 

[El Analyzer 308]

26 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

You are absolutely right -  has major issues with team sports. A lot of that is historical and down to the home nations structure and the funding mentality that if you're not winning on the international stage then there is no reason to support the sport. I think UK Sport have begun to realise that there a funding problem so they announced and additional 2.4mln in funding for 8 team sports and we are perhaps beginning to see the green shoots off the back of that funding.

 

Handball - Given how popular this was at London 2012 in the Copper Box arena, it was surprising that the federation wasn't able to capitalise more. As it is, we at least seem to have the structures in place to support the sport with age-group squads in place and the senior men are in the fight to take part in the 2026 European Championships.  

 

Beach Volleyball - The Bello brothers are a class team and can cut it on the international stage. The problem with them is that they lack consistency and haven't been able to make the breakthrough on to the main circuit. They are still in with a chance of qualifying for Paris but it would be through the continental championship pathway. 

 

Volleyball - Not sure we actually even have a team at this stage. This is a sport where the home nations are still maintaining their independence so this may be impacting the development of the sport. 

 

Basketball - Is actually in a pretty good place all things considered. It is beyond frustrating that the women threw away a great chance to qualify for Paris - I just hope that it doesn't lead to reduced financial support. By not taking up the place in the OQT the federation aren't exactly showing a great amount of respect or confidence in the men's squad. 

 

3x3 Basketball - Absolutely agree this should be an area of focus. You would think there would be a fairly deep talent pool available if only they went looking for it. 

 

Water Polo - They seem to have made good use of their additional funding - particularly on the women's side where they have qualified for European Champs for the first time in 10 years. If they can continue to make solid progress it is not beyond possibility that we could see them at an Olympics in near future. 

 

If I was going to single out a sport that is screaming out for development it would probably be sprint canoe - we're world leaders in the Paralympic events but can't replicate that success in the Olympic events. 

 

One of the things that we don't seem to be doing as well now is promoting talent identification programmes. In the run up to London, the various GB federations seemed to make coordinated and well publicised efforts to find new blood for their sports but schemes like "Sporting Giants" seem to have fallen by the wayside. 

Absolutely right mate, I wasn't aware of the development of waterpolo and thanks for the clarification ... you have spotted a very good example (Canoe) ..this has a great potential and I am wondering why we are lacking in the main Olympics compared to paralympic success!!

 

Sporting Giants scheme was a great one but my feeling it has been done as a preparation for London 2012 and there was lack of impetus to continue ..I think few Handball colleagues had been selected based on that scheme 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

48 minutes ago, El Analyzer said:

Sporting Giants scheme was a great one but my feeling it has been done as a preparation for London 2012 and there was lack of impetus to continue ..I think few Handball colleagues had been selected based on that scheme 

Sporting Giants was done for London specifically with a view to identifying athletes for rowing, handball and volleyball I think, but it proved that that type of scheme can work - it introduced Helen Glover to rowing and look what she has achieved since. 

 

I'd struggle to identify any talent schemes that are currently running nationwide in GB. Too many of our athletes are found by luck of location and stumbling upon an open day event.  

[Grassmarket 4,026]

5 hours ago, El Analyzer said:

There are certain sports we are not competing in a high level and definitely can’t qualify for the Olympics, I have just prepared a quick list for sports which may/can/should be developed in the next years IMO:

 

• Handball: I put it first as this is my sport and I was playing for Reading Lions HC (unfortunately it has been dissolved after COVID), the sport has a huge potential in the country it also matches the British mentality which like both Football and Rugby (handball has goal scoring techniques like football and it’s physical contact sport close to rugby to some extent), England Handball Association had a very optimistic plan to get more youngers to the sport and myself went to schools and universities and picked up some great talented (very proud that the captain of U18 now I have picked him myself and was playing for our team before moving to Denmark now), the development of the sport had a huge delay during COVID and following Brexit specially when a lot of friends from different nationalities lost their jobs and return back home (our team dissolved for that reason), to conclude I think we have a lot of hidden talents can fit perfectly in this sport if we focus more to get youngsters on the field early.

 

•  Volleyball and beach volleyball: despite the conventional volleyball is a nice sport to practice but from observation we are far away from achieving professional level, people are mostly practicing it in a friendly non-competitive way compared to handball. Saying that the beach volleyball is much easier to get to professional level, when we were playing the beach handball British championship at Poole each summer and just before COVID the tournament organisers added beach volleyball as a side activity for entertainment but it turned to be more competitive and interesting tournament gripped a lot of teams with great fun and quality, my suggestion is to start focus more on beach volleyball which can be adopted anywhere not just near the beaches.

 

• Basketball and 3X3 basketball: since London Olympics and the huge potential basketball got more and more development and we have qualified for Eurobasket in the last two editions (not great results I know) the team is on its way in my opinion suffering defeats from stronger teams but in a very competitive and close results most of the time (last edition wasn’t the greatest) I hope we keep it up for upcoming challenges. Looking at this huge potential in conventional basketball I would say 3X3 is a version we should focus more in future, it needs more fitness and physical efforts and a good selection of the team members then any country can compete in a higher level (with proper training of course)

 

Those are the sports I hope they got developed more, would like to see if there are more in your opinions.

Nothing much can be done to develop these sports by an outside agency like lottery funding. The way to grow them is to do what ice & field hockey have done - have a strong domestic league & club sides capable of winning matches in European Cup-type competitions.  There’s no chance of having a strong national team without strong club teams.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Grassmarket

[El Analyzer 308]

Squash, Cricket and Lacross have a good setup but don't know if Flag Football (can't believe this name) and Baseball /Softball can compete at olympic level or too difficult!

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

2 hours ago, El Analyzer said:

Squash, Cricket and Lacross have a good setup but don't know if Flag Football (can't believe this name) and Baseball /Softball can compete at olympic level or too difficult!

We should be in good stead for quotas in those sports too. We almost qualified for Softball at Tokyo, losing to Italy in the European final. Are baseball team also recently won silver at the European championships and have competed in the World Series and will be competing in the next one in 2026. In terms of Flag Football, I read somewhere that we have a competitive team and will be one of the favourites for the European quota. 

[mpjmcevoy 375]

7 hours ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

We should be in good stead for quotas in those sports too. We almost qualified for Softball at Tokyo, losing to Italy in the European final. Are baseball team also recently won silver at the European championships and have competed in the World Series and will be competing in the next one in 2026. In terms of Flag Football, I read somewhere that we have a competitive team and will be one of the favourites for the European quota. 

GBR are reigning European champions, and the coming force in WOMEN'S European flag football. They are not all that close among the men,

 

In Softball GB are already in the ballpark but it is baseball, bizarrely, where GB seem to be making strides - most might have predicted basketball to kick on rather than baseball...

Edited October 11, 2023 by mpjmcevoy

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

I certainly didn't see this coming - GB have been awarded a wildcard for the women's handball Olympic qualification tournament 

 

They are replacing Cameroon and will be up against Sweden, Hungary, and Japan. Top 2 go to Paris. How hilarious would it be if we failed to qualify in football but somehow manage to get a spot in handball. 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Could post this is the specific sport thread but as it's more about governance and structure rather than performance, figured it probably would fit here.

 

GB Basketball have announced changes to the management of the game in UK. Although they aren't doing away with the home nations approach, it looks like they are going to deliver a greater degree of collaboration across Basketball England, Basketball Scotland, Basketball Wales and the British Basketball Federation with the BBF taking a more central role and aligning the sport in UK with FIBA requirements. 

 

A fresh approach for improving and growing basketball in Britain – British Basketball

 

This, taken in conjunction with the recent announcements on the 3x3 program is positive progress as we begin to think about the LA Olympic cycle. 

 

In a separate announcement, BBF have announced new partnership with Subway. No specific details have been shared but I am hoping that the support is going to be more tangible than providing 50% discount on a foot-long sub.

 

Subway are also going to be partnering with GB Skateboarding and Breaking GB Apparently the three sports were selected on the basis of a poll which suggested that "emerging sports" would make people more comfortable and motivated to participate compared to traditional sports. I always take poll results with a pinch of salt, but the notion that breaking would be the second most popular emerging sport for people in the UK must be nonsense.