From the Ashes

A sport which I don’t talk about much on the blog is cricket. Looking at cricket on a global scale I think the quality of the sport and the image of the sport has gone down in recent years but it is great to see England bucking that trend. This winter for the first time in 24 years England won a series in Australia and retained The Ashes.

Now you may think well the Ashes isn’t a big competition and doesn’t prove anything as it is a competition all about two countries but if you add this to the successes the England Cricket team have had in the last twelve months it really is impressive.

Since England’s Ashes win there has been a surge in people buying tickets for their matches in 2011 when they return home which is great to see. The media attention these last couple of months have been phenomenal as well which has done wonders for the English cricket scene I think.

The only down side to all the hype has been due to it being winter here in the UK and PE syllabuses here it will be hard to capitalize on this hype and convert it in to more children playing the sport. I just hope that the memories of this Ashes series won’t fade too quickly and that when the summer comes more young people will take up the sport.

The one thing the Ashes has done this winter is shown again how sport can give the country a feel good factor, just imagine if we do well in the Olympics in 2012.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

How old is young?

What do terms such as a youth, young person and young adult really mean? What ages would you have to fall between to be classified as one of these? And if it is based on being a particular physical age, should it be this that is used as a quantifier?

Ask a hundred people in the street these questions and I am sure you would get an absolute myriad of answers on what defines you as being young. I know some people who think being young means being in your early teens but I also know people who still see you as a young person if you are in your twenties.

I think personally that being young is about your intelligence, your experience and your maturity. I have known some very mature teenagers with a ton of life skills but on the other hand I know some people in their twenties who aren’t ready to leave home yet and have the same attitudes and maturity that you would associate with a young person.

I don’t think an age range should be put on the term young person although I would like to see some unified clarification on the term. I think that people should be treated as an individual and not be forced in to a new stage of life just because they have reached a certain age.

One organisation trying to do a lot to make sure people in their early twenties get support and aren’t just expected to fend for themselves at 16 is Catch 22 and they currently have a “Ready or Not?” campaign that I urge you to get behind, to support it follow the link below:

www.catch-22.org.uk/ready-or-not-campaign

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Tuition Fees

This week the Government in England has announced that Universities will be able to charge students up to £9000 in tuition fees to attend their University and get a degree. This is the latest change to University costs and funding over the last twenty years or so. It just seems there is no end to the spiraling costs of attending University.

The first attack on Higher Education was when the grant system was taken away, this forces students to take out loans and overdrafts to cover their costs. This however was still affordable as the Student Loans Company gave out loans which you only paid back at a small rate when you were earning a high figure and tuition fees were relatively low.

After this we had Top-Up fees which lead to some universities increasing the cost of a degree by raising tuition fees. This added to the recent recession then made it even harder for students to afford to go to University. Now to hear that Universities will be able to charge £9000 must send shivers down the spine of any prospective student and this could only be the beginning.

Universities have evolved over the year and are now more business driven than ever with course places really turning in to supply and demand. Currently there are more people applying for University than there are places which means Universities can afford to bump their prices and can make more money than they would by opening more places and courses for everyone.

I think society and education are to blame for this current demand for University places which has lead to the rise in costs. I think money needs to be invested in showing people that there are other successful roots than University because if you did this the value of a degree would go up for people who do one and you would have less unemployed young adults with a mountain of debt to pay back.

Don’t get me wrong I am proud of my degree but only because it has helped get where I wanted to go in life. In today’s world with the spiraling cost and the decrease in value of a degree I am not sure if I would do one. I just think it is the madness that the value of something can go down but the price can go up, to me in any other business as a customer which the students are in this situation you wouldn’t buy it so I don’t know why so many people are.

You can share your thoughts by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=839


Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

The Commonwealth Games

Over the last few weeks you will have probably heard, read or seen something in the news about the Commonwealth Games. The competition has got a lot of press this year, a lot of which has been very unfavourable which it wouldn’t have received in previous years.

The Commonwealth Games cost a lot to host and this year it was Delhi who got the pleasure of being hosts but they soon came under fire when in the weeks running up to the event the standards of the accommodation and sporting facilities for the athletes was brought in to question.

The Commonwealth games falls behind the Olympic Games in the pecking order and in many sports World and European Championships are regarded as more prestigious. This has got the press asking whether the games are worth the money the hosts have to pay out and after seeing low attendances to events at the Commonwealth Games in the opening days this year whether the interest is really there.

I personally think it is a shame that the press are spending more time talking about these issues that the people who matter - the athletes taking part. I think any place where an athlete can compete and test themselves against fellow athletes is important. Every chance a person gets to represent their country at an event should be seen as important.

To get good athletes for the Olympic Games in 2012 to represent their country they need to be regularly competing at the highest level possible in the run up and I think the Commonwealth Games are a great chance to do this as I think it is the closest thing to the Olympics you can get and there is no shame in playing second fiddle to the Olympics. By having the Commonwealth Games countries in the Commonwealth have a chance every two years to compete in a major sporting event which can only be a good thing.

I do hope that the events of this Commonwealth Games makes all sporting bodies sit up and take notice. When a country gets awarded to host an international event more should be done to make sure they have the finances and infrastructure to host the event at the standards they require. The sporting bodies should also manage the preparations a lot better so that situations like what happened in the weeks before the Commonwealth Games don’t happen to another sporting event.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Must be the Music

Recently I have really taken an interest in a new TV series in the UK called ‘Must be the Music.’ We have had TV talent shows for years here in the UK but I really enjoyed the subtle changes this show made to the concept.

The series finished last weekend with Emma’s Imagination a female singer from Scotland winning the final. Unlike X-Factor the show was open to singers, musicians and bands, not only this but performers were allowed to play their own compositions.

These weren’t the most exciting difference though. The way they really innovated the market by making all performances from the semi-final round all the way up to and including the final available for download on iTunes straight after the performance. Not only this but the acts were given 100% profit of the sales from their performances with two acts cracking the UK top ten and four UK top forty hits.

Instead of giving the winning act a record deal the winner got a £100,000 cash fund to develop their music instead of the usual record contract. This was done to make sure the winning act had more control of their career instead of a record company which I thought was an interesting idea.

I just wish the show had mean on a terrestrial channel as if this format had the backing of one of those channels I think it could have been huge. The programme has however I think given a shot in the arm to TV talent shows and show other channels how it should be done.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Youth Olympic Games

In August we had the first ever Youth Olympic Games with Singapore chosen as the nation to host it. The event spanned twelve days and saw thousands of young athletes aged 14 to 18 competing in a wide range of sports.

When I heard this was happening I couldn’t believe that we hadn’t had this before! But I am very glad that we have it now. It is so great for young people to be able to have the pride of representing their country, being able to meet people from different cultures and to get to compete against the best in the world in their age group.

Having a huge event like an Olympics for young people will also help the media attention and coverage that these youngsters get as many of these young athletes will have been doing amazing things for years with little recognition. The event like the regular Olympic games will be held every four years with China being the next host country. Hopefully with every Youth Olympic games the press coverage will grow even bigger.

I think by having a Youth Olympic Games it will give countries a great opportunity to prepare their young talent for when they are ready to compete in the full Olympic Games. It will also help the Olympic teams spot talent and to give them a test. The Youth Olympics will also help the young athletes prepare themselves to compete at the main Olympic Games.

I can’t wait to see what it is like in four years time!

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Life is a destination not a journey

I heard someone say “life is a journey” earlier this week and it really set something off inside of me and got me thinking. Why do people say this? Yes the journey can be fun and interesting but surely the most important thing in any journey is getting to your destination. It’s like when you go on holiday you may enjoy going on the plane but the thing you are most looking forward to is going to the country you are visiting.

To me life is a series of destinations and those destinations are the dreams and things I want to achieve. If you don’t set yourself these destinations and don’t do everything you can to get to them then you are never going to achieve what you want to out of life. To me life without dreams would be a life that I wouldn’t want to lead.

The journey may be long and the journey may take you all over the place but it should always have direction. It is important we don’t get consumed or lost in the journey forgetting what our destination actually is.

It’s like when people say ”the most interesting people I knew were the people who didn’t know what they wanted to do with their life in their forties” sorry to me that doesn’t ring true. The most interesting people I know are the ones who have big dreams and are passionate about achieving them. I think statements like these are cop-outs for people who never really achieved anything or tried hard in life.

Don’t just see where life takes you, if you think life is a journey never forget that you are the driver and it’s about time you came up with a destination.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com