Under 21 Ladies

[sammy]

How many Girls out there would train to be in an Under 21 Ladies squad if there was one next season?

Would anyone be willing to coach us if there were enough players committed to it?

Can anyone from the BCU say if there will be training weekends and/or oppotunities for Under 21 Ladies (07/08 season)?

[Nicki]

Hi :)

Yes there will be coaching along the same lines as the 2006/07 season.

Once a calendar has been organised details will be posted on canoepolo.org.uk and forwarded to all national league clubs.

Nicki Ward

[sammy]

Yes there will be coaching along the same lines as the 2006/07 season.




Erm, i thought that the reason for no U21 ladies squad this year was because of no one to coach???

[Nicki]

You will notice I wrote development... and there was development coaching this season

for their to be an U21 squad you need enough U21 players who are commited and willing to train and compete... you don't just get to represent your country by being the only 5 U21 players willing to show up...

I offered to take an U21 team to Hull, Liverpool, and Wales... not one player wished to be considered....

If you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem!!

Nicki

[sammy]

This is not a personal vendetta towards you Nicki, or infact towards anyone in particular.
I would have liked to have gone for U21 this year and would have trained for it but i didn't know there was a selection weekend for it. The only news i ever heard was invitation to ladies and/or developement.
Maybe the message intended to include U21's as developement? I just hope this year /next year it will be made more clear cut and less confusing to the easily confused people like me!!! I can also only hope that there is an U21 ladies of some description

[Nicki]

Hi Sammy :)

I appreciate your position but when I have posted details on canoepolo.org, sent details to every club who play National League and attended a Div 1 Ladies tournament for the sole purpose of being there so that players can speak to me about their interest in squad and know that your club, Meridian, have players attending training and selection weekends then I can get a bit sensitive when people feel that GB squad is a closed shop.

The same process for alerting players will happen again this year :)

Nicki

[sammy]

I'll keep my eyes and ears peeled this year then. Although i wasn't at the Div ones :(
Thanks

[geebs]

Sammy, the main problem is the lack of event's for the U21 ladies teams as there is little interest throughout the rest of Europe etc. so the main focus has to be on the senior team as they are guaranted matches.

There was coaches available to help the U21's this year but the team was dropped so was the funding because there was no chance of enough teams entering the Europeans etc. so the opportunity to continue training did not happen:mad:

Yes Nicki did offer to take a team to certain tournaments in the UK, but as most players had already committed to their own club's to play at these tournaments then there was little chance of it happening.

To be honest I can not see an U21 squad happening next year either as some of the players who have been in the squad over a number of years have had enough of being messed about and are no longer interested and would prefer to concentrate on playing for their clubs who will support them!

The future of the GB Ladies polo squad is dependant on encouraging young players to train and compete with the senior team (LTPD), unfortunatly this at the moment is not happening, in defence to the senior squad coaches they need the time to develop the senior team to come up with the results they have this year in competitions and improve in the future and thanks must go to them for their time and effort.

[hmmm]

There were 5 teams at the europeans this year... if GB had entered then there would have been 6 teams. the womens catagory only had 10 teams... not much of a difference. also if a GB team had entered, they are more than capeable of getting a medal with the talent of U21 ladies currently playing. there are a few girls who also show potential to be great players in the future, but wont be given the chance of being coached. women need to be develop from somewhere or GB ladies are going to become weaker and weaker unless players are being coached from a younger age and brought up through an U21 team.

if the U21 team was taken more seriously without people commenting on the ability of players, more U21 girls would want to join a team they can feel proud to play for, rather than the feeling of being laughed at.

[Agreed]

Here Here

[Fed-up]

How many Girls out there would train to be in an Under 21 Ladies squad if there was one next season?

Would anyone be willing to coach us if there were enough players committed to it?

Can anyone from the BCU say if there will be training weekends and/or oppotunities for Under 21 Ladies (07/08 season)?

What's the point in training for the squad unless there is some resipricle commitment from the BCU that they will support a squad for the year rather than just dropping it as they have done over the years after the players have spent thier own money on training etc?

[Rob Warren]

I understand the point and now there has been a problem in the past with a lack of U21 Ladies teams at major comps. GB have always commented how bad it was that nations don’t enter U21 Ladies. Dropping the GB U21 Ladies team is just adding to the problem. It’s a vicious circle !

But that is not the only issue. Unfortunately over the past few years it seems (as an outsider looking in – with some inside knowledge) that the blame for part of the problem lies with the players themselves (not all). It seems that a number of players did not take GB U21 seriously and seem to think it was a given that they would play. I personally witnessed players with over inflated egos and their attitude to playing and coaching/management staff. This perhaps is a major contributing factor to the lack of people prepared to give up their time to support and coach the U21 ladies squad. ** This is not the case for all of the players. The committed players know who they are.**

There has also been a reluctance from players form some clubs to put themselves forward for U21 for whatever reason and it’s the responsibility of the clubs to encourage players to enter the national squad system.

This does not help players coming through now that are prepared to commit to playing at international level. But I think they have to understand that the actions of some of their more senior team mates may have contributed to the problem.

I agree there should be a U21 Ladies team the only problem if finding a suitably experienced/qualified person to take it on and a sufficient number of committed players.

Thats my 2 :twocents:.