Cycling not a team sport according to school

[amdretard]

I recently tried to apply for a exemption at school from winter and summer sport. After writing a long well crafted letter i got a reply back from my School sports administrator saying: He cant grant me my request as cycling is not a team sport and i must either do rugby, hockey or cross country.

 

 

 

Three months later the same guy takes away colors from our school. His reason for doing so was he said there was no school league in place for the school to get representation or exposure.

 

 

 

We do only really have 7-10 cyclist in the school. We cant get any results read out in assembly as we dont do a summer sport.

 

So my question is why is cycling dead in schools and how do people get this illlusion that cycling is not a team sport? Does your child also have this issue at school ?

[Jonathan Kinnear]

Im wondering what school you go to but im guessing its a boys school steeped in 'tradition'. I had the same issue about 4yrs ago when i stopped playing rugby and waterpolo and decided to focus purely on my cycling. It too was a problem for my school because cycling is still going to be considered an individual sport and in many ways it is and isnt.

 

The idea of having to play a 'team' sport is to ensure that youngsters growing up learn a number of very valuable lessons ie teamwork, sacrifice, respect but more importantly - the experiences of being apart of something with the people around them.

 

When i stopped actively participating in school sport it was I who missed the friends and shared emotions and experiences of sport at school.

 

Nevertheless if cycling is what you want to do NO school can stop you from doing it. You may be disliked and ridiculed initially but in the long run doing what you love is much more important and will eventually grant you much respect from your teachers and friends alike. Just make sure that you are serious about what you are doing. Dont give your school the impression that you are using your 'cycling' time to play video games or catch a smoke around the corner.

 

Decide if you are doing cycling to get recognition from your school or doing it for yourself. You may get a mension in assembly but you probably arent going to get a Blues award either.

 

 

[gianni]

wow..I thought those days were over.

 

Ride the bike if that's what you really want to do.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling#Racing 

 

Tell them to read the 2nd sentence in the 2nd paragraph.

 

Can't believe they're still that closed minded....

 

[Tumbleweed]

amdretard, stick at it. screw them. i'm glad to see my boys' school is trying to get a cycling programme going. they try push the rugby thing too, which is really kinda sad cos they're cr@p at it (although they still harp on about their one and only springbok - conrad jantjes). do your parents support your choice of sport?

[pastapouch]

So my question is why is cycling dead in schools and how do people get this illlusion that cycling is not a team sport? Does your child also have this issue at school ?

becaue the _____ are still trying to push and save rugby...

if you do't play /support rugby then you don't belong there

[fandacious]

i must either do rugby' date=' hockey or cross country.
[/quote']

 

I ran cross country when I was at school, and it is most certainly much less of a team sport than cycling. I did my first argus in 1993 and back then the thought of trying to get cycling recognized as a school sport wasnt even thought of. There was a group of 5 or 6 of us that were quite into cycling so we used to play rugby / soccer and then in the evenings and weekends do our training together.

 

Unfortunately you are not easily going to change your school's point of view. Accept it and train in your own time.

[ewep]

 

So my question is why is cycling dead in schools and how do people get this illlusion that cycling is not a team sport? Does your child also have this issue at school ?

becaue the _____ are still trying to push and save rugby...

if you do't play /support rugby then you don't belong there

 

Same goes for soccer cervelo, so get off your high chair!

 

[pastapouch]

hey, theres NO soccer at SA schools....

I'm the king, so I'll stay on my chair

 

Ok , if you don't play rugby,cricket, soccer then there's something wrong with you.

he he he , even with my short ass , I went and played .... basketball

[Tumbleweed]

hey' date=' theres NO soccer at SA schools....

I'm the king, so I'll stay on my chair

 

Ok , if you don't play rugby,cricket, soccer then there's something wrong with you.

he he he , even with my short ass , I went and played .... basketball

[/quote']

 

but possibly you had the advantage of being in a high chair?

[pastapouch]

thanks holy... 

[butafly]

So my question is why is cycling dead in schools and how do people get this illlusion that cycling is not a team sport? Does your child also have this issue at school ?

becaue the _____ are still trying to push and save rugby...

if you do't play /support rugby then you don't belong there

Same goes for soccer cervelo' date=' so get off your high chair!
[/quote']

 

 

in the cape soccer is not a (saturday morning) school sport. Soccer is run by clubs and the players play out of their own free will. However when kids arrive at high school they get instructed play a schools sport or else, most times the choice is rugby, rugby, rugby and then maybe hockey. my point is this if rugby and hockey are (almost) enforced schools sports (in the cape) and most sports journo's are pushing for some sort of rugby development programme aimed at increasing the rugby skill levels from grade 1 at primary schools why do these sports experience such a large drop out level when the kids leave school? the local rugby clubs in my area can just about field three teams each and we have in excess of 10 high schools in the area all playing school rugby.  

[Joss]

King rugby and kricket seems to be ruling the sport scene still. When will teachers realise that there are sports that do not include balls but you still need them to participate.

[ewep]

Everything that was said is true (pulling your socks cervelo!!).  We HAD to play rugby at school (I enjoyed it though), and in summer you had a choice, waterpolo or cricket.  If you didn't do these, you were a VERY bad boy. 

 

Looking at this it seems NOTHING has changed.

[Ratty]

Its so damn irritating when they force you to do a "school" sport.

 

I had the same problem when I was younger with horse riding.  3 of us at my school were representing WP, but they refused to see it as a school sport.  The problem with horses is that you NEED to exercise them at least 6 days a week if u compete seriously.  having to do an extra pathetic school sport twice a week really got in the way.  It pissed me off more when i did swimming and we did less than 20 lengths in more than an hour???

 

What was really funny is that when inter-schools came around, suddenly they were begging us to represent the school

 

Keep fighting them!

 

[Canaris]

I recently tried to apply for a exemption at school from winter and summer sport. After writing a long well crafted letter i got a reply back from my School sports administrator saying: He cant grant me my request as cycling is not a team sport and i must either do rugby' date=' hockey or cross country.

Three months later the same guy takes away colors from our school. His reason for doing so was he said there was no school league in place for the school to get representation or exposure.

We do only really have 7-10 cyclist in the school. We cant get any results read out in assembly as we dont do a summer sport.
So my question is why is cycling dead in schools and how do people get this illlusion that cycling is not a team sport? Does your child also have this issue at school ?[/quote']

 

I have two suggestions:

 

Firstly, you as a learner at the school have very little influence, however (now this may sound patronising and degtrading) if your parents had written and signed the letter (with a suggestion that either they or one of the parents of your cycling buddies would "take charge" of the sport.  ie team manager/coach ext) the school may have sat up and listened.  Also get the cycling union to also promise support/structures(ie school league and championships) and recognition (Colours).  (Teacher hate the extra schelp that may go with recognising cycling as a school sport)

 

Secondly, take up cros country as your winter sport, running, especially cross country is brilliant cross training, as it involves much running at 100% HR.  Experince it also as CROSS TRAINING and not the primary sport.  In this way you get to keep them happy, and still achieve your objectives.

 

Happy running.

[linnega]

Firstly, at junior levels cycling is not a team sport.  A quick watch of the U16's highlights that pretty quickly.  If you are only riding in a club team then this applies even more.  BTW cross country is not a team sport at any level.

 

That all said, it is about time that school sport was dropped altogether.  There should be a requirement to participate in club sport to get a passing grade up to say grade 9.  That would free up some of the money that is wasted by schools on sport and better develop the club level infrastructure.  It would also shift the focus of many teachers back to their jobs rather than to coaching and refereeing sports which some see as the most important role they play in the development of these youngsters.