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Homeschoolers Not Welcome at Spur MTB League


Shaun Green

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Take away the podium stuff, make a baseline of of equipment/bikes to be used ridden and incorporate home schooled learners who are already in the official system. 

The only threat of "the greater good" are adults with their own agendas and undermining

. The league is big enough to accomodate this, for the greater good.

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Not sure I agree on this, are you a coach? Would be interesting for this to be quantified. Albeit an entirely seperate topic altogether.

 

No not a coach but show me a pro in any sport that only spends 2 hours a day on it. You won't find such a pro

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Not sure I agree on this, are you a coach? Would be interesting for this to be quantified. Albeit an entirely seperate topic altogether.

 

No not a coach but show me a pro in any sport that only spends 2 hours a day on it. You won't find such a pro

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For the people who want to say this is awful if she is included, the best thing would be to race as individuals and not for the school, as home schooling is better than schools.

 

For the people who want to say it is great she is excluded, the best thing would be for the rest to race as individuals, as some schools are still better than others, and her participation doesn't change that for the rest of them in shitty little schools competing against the big boys.

This misses the point altogether.  As "reading is a gift" suggests, the mission of the Spur Inter School league is to establish MTB as a school team sport, so as to allow MTB riders to access established school sport infrastructure, organisation and facilities.  The idea is a sound way to get Mtb recognised as a mainstream sport in schools.

 

The organisers need to be convinced that somehow the homeschooling system will provide similar sporting infrastructure to aspirant MTBkers within their system.  This is more than mommy and daddy driving little Johnny and his/her bike to events, it is about accessing and establishing sustainable infrastructure that will continue to support upcoming and aspiring athletes for the next 10 to 20 years.  (The biggest threat to consistent and sustainable sport infrastructure are over zealous parents-  but that is a story for another day....)

 

So no little Susie and little Johnny cannot compete as mommy and daddy in their fortuner does not constitute sustainable, accessible and equitable sport infrastructure.

 

It is not about the rider, it is about the supporting systems that need to be established to participate as a school team......

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The problem is not with the sponsor, the league organiser, the rules or with the school sport system, but rather with the inability of the homeschooling system to look after the collective sport interests of home schooled children.  If you cannot bargain collectively, you have no bargaining power.

It has been proposed, and unfortunately rejected.

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Answer to your crazy question - bull**** or bollocks .

 

And sometimes you can make everyone happy - like in this instance.

 

It is quite simple really

Yes, starchild, its all so very simple

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They could. They could also not.

 

Basing policy on hypotheticals is so dangerous. Home schoolers could easily respond by saying that normal school kids could "dope" much easier because of inter school competition like in rugby. I know this is a stupid argument, but so is "they could train more"....

 

Let the kids race.

This whole.. oh they can train longer and that's why they could be better is a weak argument. I know a girl who is 16..she is in the SA senior gymnastics team, she won medals at SA athletics champs, she received provincial hockey colours after playing the sport 1 year, she plays tennis for the school, she is also always the dux scholar of her grade.. what's the difference between her and many other children..time management and 100 % dedication in anything she does...

 

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

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lots of home schoolers get pulled from traditional schools because the parents want to focus on a specific sport.

 

These kids will very likely interfere with the racing based on the above, dilute the podiums or even the perception thereof and you weaken the events.

 

 

Andrew - where is your evidence for either of these 2 things? or is this just hearsay?

 

Sorry for calling you out, but my opinion are these are not facts... and should be struck from the record

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The various parties were contacted previously, but we found no desire to engage constructively.

Are you saying that you tried to address the matter to the actual organizing bodies, the relevant entities that set and control the rules that affect you, to no avail?

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Take away the podium stuff, make a baseline of of equipment/bikes to be used ridden and incorporate home schooled learners who are already in the official system. 

 

The only threat of "the greater good" are adults with their own agendas and undermining

. The league is big enough to accomodate this, for the greater good.

The whole reason this dear girl wants to ride in the series is the prestige of it... but lets take that away.

 

Standardized equipment is completely impractical.

 

The league is so big they can't actually accommodate everyone... the races start til late in the afternoon already as things are...

 

 

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Nobody said that, but they could obviously train from 5am til 9am and then start their school day...

Kids who go to "regular school" could obviously train from 3am til 7am and then start their school day...

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Can I pose a different question. What if an excellent cyclist, who's in a recognized school fails his Matric?

 

As per the rules:

 

 

No 6 or 19-year-old riders will be permitted to participate (Gauteng & North West – high school racing only)

 

Are we going to petition the inclusion of that rider next year as well? What if he fails again? He's now 20 and much stronger (possibly) than the other students in Matric. Are we still going to petition the change of rules? Heck, he's in the correct school, why shouldn't he be allowed to participate?

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This whole.. oh they can train longer and that's why they could be better is a weak argument. I know a girl who is 16..she is in the SA senior gymnastics team, she won medals at SA athletics champs, she received provincial hockey colours after playing the sport 1 year, she plays tennis for the school, she is also always the dux scholar of her grade.. what's the difference between her and many other children..time management and 100 % dedication in anything she does...

 

When Ryan was still at school. He would get up at 3am and go train and be at school at 8am.

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This whole.. oh they can train longer and that's why they could be better is a weak argument. I know a girl who is 16..she is in the SA senior gymnastics team, she won medals at SA athletics champs, she received provincial hockey colours after playing the sport 1 year, she plays tennis for the school, she is also always the dux scholar of her grade.. what's the difference between her and many other children..time management and 100 % dedication in anything she does...

 

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

This is an interesting point.  The transferability of fitness and skills between sports and activities is very interesting.

 

I know a kid 13 years old)  that was able to pick up a pennywhistle (for the first time) and within 1/2hr he was able to play three tunes well.  Okay he has grade three music theory, can play the bagpipes, recorder, violin and viola.  But the point is it is easier to move between similar activities, than to start from scratch.

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