The coaching of youngsters is a subject that we in the media constantly discuss and debate.
This is partly because there are quite a lot of middle aged journalists around who are seeing their own children go through the system at the moment, but also because we are craving success and willing a golden generation to come through.
Even this week, the aftermath of Great Britain’s Davis Cup success has been as much about where the next generation will come from as it has been celebrating the performance of the actual team.
The coverage of the coaching of youngsters tends, more often than not, to veer towards the negative.
An earlier column for JOE focused on the lack of leadership and problem solving capabilities in this sporting era.
While there will be plenty who question the character of the young sportsman or woman (and I have a feeling that that is a generational thing, you always think things were tougher and you were tougher ‘back in your day’) if you actually look at the sheer talent that is coming through then things appear a lot rosier.
England’s cricketers have just beaten Pakistan in both a one day series and twenty twenty series.
They did so with vibrancy, energy, athletic fielding and with shots that a previous generation wouldn’t have even thought about playing, let alone actually tried to play.
Sam Billings, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler, David Willey, Chris Woakes and Joe Root are all 26 and under. There is no reason why they shouldn’t all be around the England set up for a good few years.
As far as the rugby union team are concerned, we were constantly reminded in the aftermath of the dismal World Cup that the ground work was being done for the next tournament in Japan in four years time.
And while that is often the depressing mantra of a lot of sports in England – ‘it’s all about the next tournament, this one is just about the experience’ – there is more than an element of truth to it.
England went into that World Cup with the youngest squad (with an average age of 26 years and 2 months), so Eddie Jones will have some young talent to work with.
George Ford and Owen Farrell are 22 and 23 respectively. Billy Vunipola and Henry Slade 22, Anthony Watson 21, Joe Launchbury 24 and that’s before you even look outside the squad where you find someone like the 21 year old Maro Itoje at Saracens, who some rugby union correspondents have tipped to become the next England captain.
Roy Hodgson’s England football squad feels more youthful than at anytime during his reign, and actually at anytime since the so called Golden Generation.
Delle Ali, Eric Dier, Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Ross Barkley, Harry Kane and Jack Butland could all conceivably in the squad for next summer’s Euros.
Even when you widen your scope of sports – you can see Adam Peaty in swimming, Matthew Fitzpatrick in golf, Dina Asher-Smith in athletics becoming the first British woman to go under 11 seconds in the 100m, or the clutch of gymnasts who lit up the recent World Championships blazing a trail for the next generation.
It is right that we question coaching methods, it is right that we question mental strength and it is also important that we don’t go overboard, don’t revisit ridiculous phrases like ‘golden generation’.
We need to stay realistic, we need to understand that not everybody will be or even can be successful.
But in our constant soul searching and our constant questioning we should also open our eyes and our ears and recognise some of the outstanding young sportsmen and women who are out there at the moment.
And whether they deliver success for themselves or success for the country we should just enjoy them and celebrate them and try not to put too much pressure on them.
