For many schools the time of year of Sports Scholarship Assessments is fast approaching. Some schools still conduct testing alongside other longer established scholarships, which HMC rules confine to February. Sports Awards slipped in under the radar, and don't seem to be bound by any rules, so creep earlier as schools try to steal a march on their competitors. Maybe it's time for an American style Draft System.

A lot of time, effort and money goes into these programmes. It is curious therefore, how little attention is given to developing the selection process. Identifying talent in sport...

The purpose of sport is to try to win. Right? Therefore, if you win, all criteria have been fulfilled. Right? Well, not quite. Some winning is better than others.

During the Cold War, Soviet bloc athletes won often. Unsmiling and efficient. The product of a regime that left nothing to chance. But world beating effective. Unlike Brazilian football teams, who won with a smile on their faces, playing breath-taking football incorporating dazzling skill. If the purpose is to win, then neither is better than the other. But we instinctively feel that one is superior. That some hidden...

Schools spend much time, energy, money and resources on their games programmes. Administration, facilities, equipment and kit are often first class. Thousands of coaching sessions and matches happen every week impacting on tens of thousands of children.

But coaching often lags behind. Particularly if it is provided by willing, non-specialist teachers, for whom it is not the most important thing that they do. Or by forty somethings (or fifty somethings) who are trotting out tired old sessions from twenty years ago, without any burning desire to update.

What do these sessions look like? They often...