The changing face of sport...

A survey of college kids sports intentions is quite interesting. Increasing numbers are reluctant to sign up to team sports or sports with a large and regular time commitment. Rowing comes to mind...or rugby etc.
It appears that as there are more options on offer and motivated teenagers are participating in a wider variety of activities they don't want to be tied down to a single inflexible sport. Think back young grasshoppers to the 50's, 60's, and 70's (I can recollect at least one of these decades)...what was on offer...rugby, cricket, maybe rowing if lived in a urban area, horses in the country, and ballet (for the girls apparently). Commitment wasn't a problem...what else were you going to do on the weekend???

My gaggle of teenage girls are involved in music, drama, dancing, skiing, Amnesty International, school plays, debating...and that's only one of them. This is not uncommon...

Where am I going with this you might ask??? Well gliding is a time consuming sport that requires commitment and persistence to go X-country (going solo should not be the target). Are the modern teenagers willing to commit their weekends to sitting about a windy airfield, doing endless "Duty" days on the off chance of getting a flight?? Some will...most won't.

How do we change our approach at traditional gliding club to meet this challange? Because surely we want young enthusiastic people in the sport...not old grumpy buggers.
Youth glide is a great start...but I fear not a long term solution...
Getting them out on the field, not sitting doing timesheets would also be benefical.
Teaching them to fly in sexy new gliders not beat-up old K7's, Blaniks, Twin Astirs etc
Doing the techy stuff...facebook, web pages or whatever is the current fashion...

Any other ideas???

Good golly Miss Molly but these posts are getting wordy and boring...I should be out doing fun stuff...oh that's right I have been...last Friday was one of the best days I've had at Whakapapa this year...out skied both kids (but this could be the last year I can do that)...and met 12 cousins on the field for lunch...excellent.

Looking skyward...the westerlies are here...at least for the next 10 days. There should be a wave day in there somewhere. I saw a "Spot" track for a Ventus 2cx in the Kaimai wave yesterday...I'm guessing the ridge was working quite well...