22-12-2011, 05:04 AM
Quote:Hugh, I’m not sure we are talking about cutting funding to top players quite the opposite we are talking about pulling funding from Juniors and moving it to our top players. In my view the current split between the International Junior budget and International Budget should remain the same.
Sorry David, missed this earlier. Absolutely agree, it's been said earlier - including by the original poster - that we do seem to be fielding pretty strong teams in Olympiads. I don't think there's any need to divert further resources in their direction. Just don't think we should step back from that level of funding either.
It probably won't come as a surprise to anyone that I absolutely support Clement and Dougie's suggestion of grading floors, with two caveats to which I doubt they'd object. Firstly, the specific rating levels required should be arrived at after a bit of analysis and discussion, as I'm sure they inevitably would be. Secondly, the rating criterion should not be completely inflexible- if the selectors strongly believe that a particular player is seriously underrated then they could still be considered for selection. Again, I'm sure that this rule would be followed as a matter of course.
As referred to earlier, if we do continue sending squads of the size we're currently selecting, then I really do believe that it's imperative to do something about coaching. The people there work fantastically hard, and it's great that our older and stronger juniors are prepared to contribute, but I don't think that gives the likes of Andrew and Ali a fair chance: if we've got a situation where some countries' strongest juniors have one-on-one preparation with titled players before games, while ours are generously helping younger players prepare, the disadvantages are obvious. I think there should be a ratio of coaches to players (perhaps somewhat dependent on the average age, but it would be a useful guide nonetheless) that we shouldn't dip below - not having been at any of these events myself I'd defer to the judgement of those who have on what this ratio should be. With the exception of concrete preparation in specific lines we shouldn't be expecting anyone to straddle both categories.