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Angus
I Agee that might be a good way to set the target grade.
Problem with letting a parent decide is that they are frequently poor judges of their off spring's abilities! Its hard enough for selectors to decide.

robin moore Wrote:Gary,

I assume you mean unselfishness!

The volunteers are definitely unselfish, but I think selfless is the best way to descibe how much time, effort and even expenditure that they put in to their own detriment.

David Deary Wrote:

Gary McPheator Wrote:

Alan Tate Wrote:Yes it is. They should be seen as something to aim for, not an obstruction. Personally, I like the word target.

You are just going to be shot down with a comment like that Alan!

And the award for most helpful post of the year...

I aim to please! At least now I go into the new season knowing I have won something.

Angus McDonald Wrote:I don't see a problem with listing the average grade of graded players competing at the Euroyouth and World Youth each year. Perhaps that could be used as grading guidelines. 70% is too steep in my opinion.
If we can start off aiming half way up the list we might just attain it. These though, shouldn't be rigid guidelines but may be useful for parents in knowing what standard their youngsters might be up against if they enter these tournaments.
I'm always wary of limiting people's freedom of choice though and if a player is the top in his country they should have the choice to enter to represent their country even if they havn't made the guidelines.
imho

Surely 70% down the list is less steep than half way up?

Yeah just to clarify that, 7/10ths as an idea is meant as we have no players in the bottom 30%. That is definitely achievable, as a lot of our juniors are already in that zone. This only really works if we can provide something for, and support the people who would not make it. Like has been suggested, this could be done with other tournaments. The nice thing with this system is it would be event and section specific, so we know that anyone we are sending will get a positive experience.

A few people have suggested that other tounaments may be better suited in terms of strength as well as cost for juniors depending at what stage their game is developing. How about starting with our own congresses?

We could get our coaches to go and do the preparation and analysis with the juniors that they would do on foreign trips on a rotational basis so that they can still participate in congresses themselves when they are not on coaching duty.

The more I think about it the congress circuit could offer the solutions in terms of funding as well. I believe it was Andy Burnett that said earlier he wouldn't mind paying a few pounds extra at congresses to help fund the junior internationals and I concur. Also if we moved from the current selection process to a Ryder Cup style process, the race for selection could prove a good motivator as well as offer an exciting product to potential sponsors.

Apologies.

I had got it into my head that it was 7/10ths of the way up the list. Even 7/10ths down the list would present a significant challenge. I mentioned 50% last night but! then had a quick look at the grades of those playing at the Euroyouth and 50% throws up a high number.
70% will still throw up some pretty high and fancy numbers and if absolutely necessary should only be used as guidelines in my opinion. The current squad system will bring the results in my opinion. And if guidelines were imposed and started diminishing that squad then I predict there would be a falling off of juniors numbers playing in Scottish events also.

How do you put a game on the noticeboard?

Angus wrote,

Quote:The current squad system will bring the results in my opinion. And if guidelines were imposed and started diminishing that squad then I predict there would be a falling off of juniors numbers playing in Scottish events also.

I agree 100%

Angus McDonald Wrote:How do you put a game on the noticeboard?

I think you click the pgn button that appears on the screen after you have clicked post a reply and then write the moves of the game in between the two PGN words that are in square brackets. (If you can't get it to work then just give me an email with the game and I should be able to get it to work - I've done it before ages ago.)

Thanks for this Hamish.

Will post some games up tonight. Off to work now.

Some games to show the doubters that the Scottish Juniors are getting there and have great potential

Angus