140
141
THE ALLEYNIAN 709
SPORT
SPORTS Emmanuel Del Prete (Year 12) interviews Director of Sport, Phil Greenaway, to find out about the changing landscape in sports provision at the College
to have the Herne Hill Velodrome down the road, and very lucky to make use of external facilities such as Dulwich Squash Club or the Dulwich Lawn Tennis Club in the Village, and the rock-climbing facility in Crystal Palace. We try to think outside the box and find solutions. At the same time, we have to be realistic and understand that there are some things that we just cannot accommodate. Providing martial arts, for example, is something we would like to be able to do more of, but it is also important to support the local clubs, and so forth. EDP : How has an increase in the number of sports trips allowed development and provided new opportunities? PG : I think we’ve got to be a little bit mindful about the sports tours. There are environmental considerations with going on tour, and we have a sustainability programme that we are working towards as a College. So, environmentally, can we justify travelling every year to a place like South Africa? What we have tried to do is provide more short-haul tours for all age groups around the UK and France. Those tours can be really positive if done correctly. It has been wonderful to see the students’ development during training camps, but as I said, we do still have to be mindful of the environmental impact of tours and the sustainability programme of the school. EDP : Would you say that Dulwich sports provide more support with regard to nutrition than they did in the past? PG : I think we’re getting there. We are doing some work with Matt Lovell, who was on the Sports webinar series. Since Mr Hodgson joined the College, he has been great in advising on when to hydrate and what to eat. We are absolutely doing more than what we did, but on something like that, we can always do more. We are hoping to engage parents in our work on nutrition, as well as advising students on snacks to make and food to cook. We were definitely moving towards that pre-Covid but we’ve had to put a stop on some of that. What I’d say is that we’ve made a start, but there is a lot more to do, not just on nutrition but on hydration, sleep and general health. EDP : Do you envisage students being able to have more choice with regard to their sports options lower down the school? PG : We do have to have some constraints in terms of what we can do. There is probably more choice than in previous years. When I arrived, Year 9s could only play rugby, but now there are four options, so we are moving that way. We’ve got to be careful of pigeonholing individuals into sports too early on; what we are trying to teach lower down in the school are the
skills rather than the game. We try to get people to look at the lessons that can be learnt through the game. We also have a real desire to develop a sense of community through sports at the College. EDP : What do you think has been the hardest thing about having to run sports and games sessions on Teams? PG : The hardest thing was that everyone’s home environment is completely different. What I would say is that during the first lockdown it was far easier because it was a bit more of a novelty, and the weather was great. This most recent lockdown in January was probably the toughest, but what we have done is try to encourage engagement beyond the physical. What it has forced us to do is take a step back and be really creative. We’ve looked at the pie chart of sport that students are getting on a weekly basis and broken that up slightly differently to challenge students in other ways. We certainly have looked at the full picture and we have talked about what are we not doing in terms of sports psychology, and what we need to do in terms of nutrition. And whilst it has been a challenge, I believe that the generation following this generation will have a better time sporting-wise at Dulwich because of the pandemic, as we have been able to improve and adapt. The thing that we have missed more than anything is the interaction with the students, the face-to-face aspect of having a laugh or joke with them. And we have also missed the interaction with the parents; not seeing them on a Saturday has been tough. EDP : What do you think the next step is in terms of developing sports at Dulwich? PG : I think that we are really keen to develop in areas where we don’t currently have expertise. One of the next things will be to re-ignite the student committee and get back to listening to students to see what we can do better, do less of, and do more of. We are also doing some work with a film company, which might mean we could livestream games, and provide instant feedback and analysis. So there is a lot going on behind the scenes. I think if you get the right people in the right place, with the right energy, the right enthusiasm, and the right motives, then you can achieve great things. I think that matters more than what facilities you’ve got, or how many hours you can fit in. We do need to get better at explaining why we do certain drills and exercises, as sometimes students don’t understand the point of what they are doing, and once they understand the reasons for what they’re doing, they tend to really thrive. Ultimately, sports will always be a major part of what we do here, and will be embedded in the life of the College, as we believe that sport helps develop young people of integrity, who are robust enough to deal with life once they leave.
MATTERS
Emmanuel Del Prete : What is your first memory of Dulwich sports? Phil Greenaway : In 1997 I was lucky enough to play rugby for the England U18s, and that team included three Old Alleynians. Then, at Exeter University I met quite a few more Old Alleynians, so those are my first memories in terms of becoming aware of Dulwich sports. But my first memory of being involved in actual Dulwich sport is of the U15s, the first ever rugby team I took, managing to beat Wellington College on the first Saturday. I think the thing that really struck me when I arrived here was the variety: everybody was doing different things. I had come from a full-time rugby environment and I loved the fact that students would play badminton, table tennis, basketball and water polo as well as playing rugby and football or some of the mainstream sports. Both sporting and academic pursuits were woven into the fabric of the school, and that really appealed to me. EDP : What has Dulwich done over the last 10 years to encourage involvement in sports and to allow everyone to participate and compete? PG : What I would say is that we are always looking to improve, and to get boys involved in all sorts of things. One thing we try to do is place as much value on every single student. Regardless of what team you’re in we try and find fixtures and opportunities for everybody, be that through house sport or competitive sport. Covid has challenged that, but by September we hope to be back up and running properly. The other thing that we are doing is trying to change the language of sport. So, rather than solely looking at what
the sport is, we look at the lessons that can be learnt from that sport, whether that be special awareness, agility or teamwork. We have also been working to broaden the range of sports that the students can participate in, offering genuine opportunities for students to take part in as many sports as they want. The other thing that we have really worked hard at is trying to help students understand why physical activity is so important for our mental health, and why it is a good thing to be active and involved in sport. EDP : Does Dulwich place importance on allowing everyone, no matter their level, to compete against other schools? PG : That is probably our major challenge as a department. We are a huge school, and although we would love for six or seven teams to play every weekend for each sport, a lot of schools simply don’t have that many teams. We certainly try to provide opportunities for everybody, but it’s not always easy, so that is an area where we still have work to do. If you look at some of our sports that have grown in recent times, such as badminton, basketball and water polo, trying to find fixtures is not always easy, but is something we are striving towards for the future. EDP : How has Dulwich accommodated the demand for less popular, more niche sports? PG : This is something that we are working towards developing. But it’s not always easy: we only have so much land; we’ve only got one PE centre; we haven’t got a river that comes past Dulwich for us to row on. We are always looking for solutions rather than issues. We are very lucky
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online