There are sporting structures in place in Scotland to cater for elite athletes of ages 16 and over, who have achieved representative honours.  This remit is mainly fulfilled by the Scottish Institute of Sport in Stirling and the Area Institutes around the country. 

The Scottish Institute supports the very top sportsmen and women in the country, such as Olympians Euan Burton (judo), Chris Hoy (cycling) and swimmer Kirsty Balfour.

Below that six Area Institutes – East, West & Central Scotland, Grampian, Highland and Tayside & Fife – support up and coming athletes to prepare them for the world class stage – examples include recent GB hockey debutant Laura Bartlett and Ironman 70.3 surprise package Fraser Cartmell.

The Scottish and Area Institutes offer physical and mental support, such as physiotherapy, strength & conditioning, sports psychology and nutrition advice.

However, athletes under the age of 16 are often left lacking such support, receiving their coaching and guidance from their club or school coaches. 

In itself this is no bad thing.  The cream always rises to the top, as they say.  But there is no denying that the sooner a talented athlete is discovered and nurtured to the highest possible level, the greater the chance they may have of placing on the podium on the international stage.

There are exceptions to this age / talent rule, of course.  For instance there can be occasions where a young phenomenon comes through, such as swimmer Hannah Miley, who will snapped up by the Institute and fast-tracked to the first-class circuit. 

Alternatively, other programmes are sometimes put in place by individual establishments to help nurture local talent below the age of 16, such as the Glasgow School of Sport, or the St Ninian’s High School (East Renfrewshire) Talented Athlete Programme. 

Now, however, local councils are starting to get in on the act as well.  The Scottish Borders Council has recently launched its Athlete Support Programme for athletes below the level of Area Institute standard.  The project is currently only a few weeks old, but it is expected to be a great success for a region with such a prolific sporting history.  Watch this space.

However in Edinburgh a programme has been up and running for some months now, and already its athletes are seeing the benefits that additional structure and direction can bring to the prospects of a ‘child athlete’.  The City of Edinburgh Schools Sports Academy was launched in August, focusing on three core sports – cricket, football and badminton – for boys and girls who attend local authority schools in the district.

And with its initial intake of 42 athletes, it has already seen the majority of them selected for either national or regional representation.  One badminton player – Heather Macpherson – was called up for the Scottish under-15 squad in October.  19 footballers (male and female) have regional representative honours or have been signed by a pro club, while just last month four girls from the scheme were selected for the Scotland under-15 football team.  Eight more pupils (seven boys, one girl) were invited to join the East of Scotland Cricket Academy*.

Now this isn’t to say that the kids weren’t talented or destined for greater things anyway, as they only joined the Acaemy a matter of weeks prior to their selection, but it proves that the Academy is obviously taking the right steps to a) identifying athletes with true potential and b) harnessing that talent to take them to a grander stage.

Robin Yellowlees is the Project Manager of the Edinburgh Sports Academy, and when he met with In The Winning Zone, he was – unsurprisingly – enthusiastic about what could be and already has been achieved by the programme.  “I’m absolutely delighted with our achievements so far,” he said.  This is, of course, unsurprising if you consider that within four months, the number of Academy athletes with regional or national honours had increased from less than 5% (upon its inception) to nearly 35% on Dec 1st.

Yellowlees, also the Principal Officer with the Sports Unit at the COE Council, went on to explain how the Academy came to be.

“We recognised we could better assist Edinburgh’s school pupils to achieve their goals by bringing about a more coordinated approach to sport.  National selection is increasingly becoming regionalised so the kids have to compete against schools from West Lothian, East Lothian and the Borders, as well as independent schools [for places in the setup].  We also felt that looking at some of the selections for the squads, that there weren’t many kids from Edinburgh.

“It was just a general feeling in terms of dealing with certain sports that kids were not progressing.  We had put a lot of emphasis on grassroots sport and kids were beginning to emerge, they were talented, but sometimes the most difficult thing about elite sport is actually making the first step.

“We felt that we needed to help the pupils, so this is a stepping stone to regional and national selection.  If you get into a national squad you get better coaches, you get better preparation, so it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.”

The recent call up of four girls – Hannah Reid, Louise Mason, Stefanie Malcolm and Rebecca Zoltie – to the Scotland under-15 football squad is an insight into how successful the project has been so far.  They train twice a week at Meggetland sports ground, and already they are noticing the difference the extra coaching is making to their game.

“I’ve started using my weaker foot a lot more,” explains Louise, while Rebecca comments on how much her fitness levels have improved.

The difference, says Yellowlees, is in the coaching.  They have SFA Development Officer David Drummond and former Hibernian star and Berwick Rangers manager Michael Renwick ensuring the girls learn all the skills required at the top level.  Also, as opposed to coaching they might receive at their clubs, the emphasis is on development and performance, not results.

“The main focus of the programme is to improve the technical ability of the players through a series of well prepared technical skill sessions.  As a natural byproduct of the extra training that the players are doing, we are also seeing an improvement in their fitness levels too,” explains Drummond.

Yellowlees backs the football coach up, saying: “The view is that kids are not practicing enough in this country.  In European countries children on average will practice 4 times a week on the technical skills. What tends to happen here in the club setup is that players practice twice a week, so our technical skills are not as good.

“This is all about trying to improve the technical ability of the kids, moving towards a more European type model where practice makes perfect.”

The decision to include cricket and badminton as their other core sports has been justified also.  One of the main reasons why they chose both sports was down to the enthusiasm and cooperation of the sport’s governing bodies, (Cricket Scotland and Badminton Scotland) not only to help the drive financially, but to assist in any way possible.  In badminton’s case, Yellowlees felt there was a need to address the imbalance of so many west of Scotland players making it to the top.

“We felt that badminton potentially could be a big sport in the city. Every school has a badminton court, so more kids get badminton in P.E - it does tend to be a core subject on the curriculum.  However not many Edinburgh kids were getting into national squads.  Domination was from the West so we recognised the need to do something about that. We provided a balance.”

With cricket, on the other hand, their reasons were closer to home. “Our Cricket Development Officer for Edinburgh Council is Gordon Drummond, who was a Scottish International player, and he coaches the under-15 national team, so we felt we were on solid ground for cricket.”

And, since its inception, improvement has been made.  With an astounding 100% record of all eight players having made the regional squad in just a few months, Gordon can rightly speak with pride about the innovations they have made, particularly on the introduction of video analysis.

"The use of video analysis is not only a useful tool for the coach, it is also used by the players to get a mental picture of themselves performing. It is important our young athletes understand their own game, where they can make improvements. 

"The Academy programme has allowed the young cricketers to repeat skills on a weekly basis under the supervision of highly qualified coaches, giving them the optimal environment for learning and development."

The Academy also adopts a truly holistic approach to sport.  It isn’t just about making footballers better at football or cricketers better at cricket, as Yellowlees divulges.

“What we are about is making kids think of themselves as athletes, so that they get familiar with the gym and they know good habits in terms of sleep, nutrition and lifestyle. We give them some basic programmes and we are building yoga and Pilates into sessions to bring in more flexibility.”

The overall objective is to prepare young athletes more fully for entering sport at an elite level if they are selected to join The Scottish or an Area Institute. 

“It’s more of a natural step than being thrown in at 16 years old.  The lifestyle and training needs to come from when they are young before they are involved with the Institute.

“There is no formal link, but have had great support from the East of Scotland Institute of Sport, both in terms of advice, and contacts for workshops. I think they recognise that the young people who are coming into the Institute are not at the level they would like, so if we can bridge that gap then they see us as an important stepping stone.”

A stepping stone is indeed an accurate way to describe the Edinburgh Schools Sports Academy.  They don’t expect World or Olympic Champions at 13 or 14 years old, but by giving them a little nudge in the right direction, there is a chance that we could well see some from this system by 2012 or 2014.

RO
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*Cricketers selected: Boys- Paddy Saddler, Nick Martin, Rajan Bhopal, Sohaib Ashgar, Ossie Malik, Joe Kinghorn-Gray, Kevin Meier. Girl – Leigh Kasparek.