Yesterday I witnessed something that took me back to my high school career. I was out running in the torrential rain of Sydney and encountered a large amount of young lads running up and down the paths in the Domain. Curious to find out what they were up to, I sidled up alongside them and got chatting. Turns out they are a visiting school from England on a rugby tour. Now the running through hail and shine was something that definitely took me back, except that in my day we had our rugby master chasing after us with a great big stick or cricket bat to beat those of us who dropped behind the pace. This happened mostly if we had lost on the weekend. The idea being that we bonded into a tighter unit who learned not to lose in the future.
Now this sort of behaviour would today find said rugby master in immense strife and parents prosecuting, but in those days growing up in Africa it was all fine and parents encouraged the win at all costs mentality. Not to condone this sort of training method, but our team did seem to have a great win/loss ratio. These methods seemed equally effective for other sports including athletics in getting us to run quicker.
For a brief moment I was with my under16 team mates running through the rain of the Highveld and time went backwards. For all the memories, it was great to see youngsters out training hard and formulating friendships through the positive power of sport instead of what they are all too often doing these days by sitting on the couch and playing video games. There is some hope for the future and I got a glimpse of it yesterday morning.
A little beasting never hurt anyone, they do it in the armed forces to develop discipline.
ReplyDeleteKids today, pfffft, soft, at 37 I still remember getting a whack over the knuckles from a teachers ruler if we got out of line.