Hemel AGM

Last week went over to the Hemel AGM at the ski centre to view how things went and listen to the feedback from parents and gauge how things have progressed at the indoor centre this year.

Unfortunately due to traffic missed the first 15 minutes and therefore the race managers report and the treasurers report. The next part was a very extensive report about the first few months at the centre and the good progress made. There was some comments and feedback from parents there and some excellent support from parents for the committee members. Being a member of any committee is always a tough job and there are often more people around who will give you hassle and criticism than praise.

So it was good to see a united committee through the meeting and non of the politics which could have kicked off. One area which was interesting to listen to was that about the training groups. Hemel has adopted the Fun for Minis initiative which seems to be gaining momentum. It’s early days there but in general seems to be positive, the concepts are certainly right and the research has proven for most kids it is the right way to go. However I was surprised at the view of a couple of parents that they thought their kids were at a disadvantage when not going through poles and were clearly struggling to understand that the focus is concentrating on getting the technique right and everything else will follow. Whilst Ipswich are not following the same initiative yet, the coaches do spend time focusing on the younger kids and looking at their technique very closely and it certainly pays of over time.

I don’t think the parents were convinced but the head coach, Phil Brown, was excellent in his presentation on what the focus was all about. Hopefully over time the will see the benefits, but it is worrying in that this is where the pushy parents start from and the kids lose out.

Time will tell…