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Okay, I'm ranting again on an old subject that of the fading number of elite walkers in the U.S. But, following the the dearth of elite walkers at three national in October and having just input the results of the Chinese Nationals, where the depth of performance was amazing to our eyes, in to next issue of the Ohio Racewalker, I felt moved to share with the group a few words that concluded that report. It begins after my brief description of the Chinese 50. Thirteen finished under 4 hours.
By comparison, the U.S. has had only nine athletes under 4 hours ever. And none since 2004. As a matter of fact, in the past five years there have been only four U.S. times under 4:10 , Curt Clausen, Kevin Eastler and Philip Dunn twice. Likewise, at 20, where the Chinese had 17 under 1:25 in this race. The U.S. has only 10 all-time under that mark. And again, since 2004, when Kevin Eastler, Tim Seaman, and John Nunn were all under 1:23 to make the Olympic A standard and Curt Clausen also went under 1:25, there have been only six performances under 1:25, three by Eastler, two by Seaman, and one by Nunn. Similarly, there were thirteen Chinese women under 1:35 in this one race compared to seven all-time for the U.S. (And one of those being Yueling Chen who won Olympic gold for China before she walked for the U.S.) Since 2004, only Joanne Dow (three times) and Teresa Vail (twice) have been under that mark, and, as we know, they are both in their mid 40s. Okay, that's my statement for today on the state of U.S. racewalking.
Jack M
So, we have definitive evidence of the problem - a long term lack of elite walkers in the US.
How do we makeover our sport?
I suggest that we, the members of this group, try to come up with an approach. Other well intentioned groups have tried, and for a variety of reasons have had little impact on the problem. Since the problem seems a little intractable (at least without a magic wand), I suggest that this group do a little brainstorming to throw a bunch of ideas out there, then we could talk about each idea and try to settle on a small number of approaches.
For those of you that have never been a part of a brainstorming session, there are only a couple of rules:
Bruce L
The ideas seem to be classifiable into these major areas:
Short Term - dealing with existing elite or near-elite athletes
Schedule races so the events fit into this year's training schedule
Training Centers / Centers of Excellence
Provide video technique coaching
Medium Term - dealing with up-and-coming athletes (e.g. NAIA or Talent-ID athletes)
Work with NAIA T&F coaches and athletes
Long Term - finding the athletes for tomorrow
Enlist existing coaches/teachers as racewalk coaches
Introductory materials for a club/school/parent
Cross Train - Encourage wide ranging participation in sports
Marketing - improving the image of the sport
decide sport, event or discipline
Communication - let everyone know where we are trying to go and what is happening
Provide method to contact athletes
Publish events up for bids on the web
Electronic racewalking newsletter & racewalk news website
Investigation - finding out what works
Raise Money - to support those programs that need funds
Idea: Support Existing Athletes
Info: why would anyone want to be an elite racewalker if USATF or some other group does not support them?
Info: What is needed: Massage once a week. Chiropractic once a week. Stretching and athletic trainer access daily. A training group of at least three like-minded people. Sports science testing and monitoring on a regular schedule. Free room and board. And a world-class coach to challenge everyone to be their best.
Idea: Schedule races so the events fit into this year's training schedule
Info: Events that fit into the racing schedule for each year's big event (Olympics, World Cup, etc.). This means moving the scheduled time for some of the US championship races around from year to year, or scheduling some other races at just the right times.
Info: To a lesser degree than Training Centers, but still important, camps played a significant role in the US program from the early 80's on through the mid-90's when we lost the track at Colorado Springs. These were key motivators as we were able to host senior and junior level athletes at the same time for a week to train, be tested, learn new things (physiologically and psychologically), mentor younger athletes and team build (watching Maryanne fly down the bowling alley with her hand stuck in the bowling ball was hilarious.)
Action: Susan Armenta, Jolene Moore and Loretta Schuellein-McGovern have plans for a camp for senior women, and are actively engaging in fund raising. You can help by contributing to the newly created NARI fund for Senior Women's Camp. To target your donation, just put "Senior Women's Camp" on the check or in your letter.
Training Centers / Centers of Excellence
Info: Athletics West did it in the '80's, Gags at Georgetown in the 90's, LaGrange for walkers in the 90's and the growth of Centers in the late 90's. USOTC successes in the 80's and Chula Vista in the late 90's were key factors to success in our walking program at the time. After college I hoped to move to Colorado Springs, that door slammed shut due to mismanagement. We re-opened the door with the success of LaGrange to Chula Vista and netted a bronze medal and 3 "A" standard 20km men. It is a proven formula for success if done properly. Ultimately, the USOC and USATF will always fail because of politics, lack of long term thinking and management. (In management I refer to proper discipline by athletes in Colo Springs and isolation with back biting in Chula Vista.)
Info: The prize money and the training groups to go after the money are very much linked. In LaGrange we were able to create situations where there were incentives to achieve. Together Carl S. and Allen J came up with travel funding from USATF for "A" and "B" standard levels. In '96 at the 50K Trials, Duracell was brought in as a sponsor to up the overall prize money and a large portion of that was toward an "A" standard bonus to be split among those who made the standard. My goal was not to walk too fast, but to win and do so under 4 hours. It may seem as a shrewd goal, but I didn't want to share the money with anyone and it wasn't the most important race of the year, the Olympics were!
Unfortunately, some of us never had the opportunity to train full time and were put at a significant disadvantage in relationship with our international competition. Finishing 24th in '96, you'd be hard pressed to find any of the men in front of me that could claim they even worked 20 hours a week, let alone 30-35. You just can't do it in our event and remain competitive.
If you want to help our "event" in the U.S. support an initiative to start a Center of Excellence. To heck with USATF or the USOC we will get NOWHERE if we think they will help. The racewalking Executive Committee is trying to address this issue and get something started – probably outside of USATF as the Nowhere is written on the wall. A LaGrange type of community would be an ideal situation (good weather, educational opportunities, small town – big fish small pond philosophy.) With several promising prospects on the horizon now is the time for action, can a medal be had in Rio? It's about 6-1/2 years away….
Info: When I referred to training camps [his comments involving speakers at marathons has been adjusted], I meant permanent operations like Chula Vista or LaGrange, not the weekend at Bernie's affairs that pass for them now. This requires outside money and it's not there now and given the economy won't be there in the future either. Name all the rich (I mean really rich) people interested in racewalking.
The Chula Vista site was set up specifically for this purpose and should be used for it. The USOC (remember them, Chicago?) ought to be instructed, perhaps by the WH on why they are allowed to exist. Barack is none too pleased with that disaster in Copenhagen [Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid going down in flames] and as he seeks to restructure our failed Olympic movement, now is a good time to bring this up.
Or, we could simply rent out Francisco Fernandez' house. [aside - this may not be possible as Francisco is still an active racewalker on the Spanish national team. He would make a good training partner, if we could figure out how to keep him in sight.]
Idea: Have a national walking coach
Info: Collect $100/year from every member of this list and use it pay a national walking coach.
Info: provide financial assistance to high level coaches (e.g. Tim Seaman) so they can keep coaching up-and-coming athletes at reasonable prices
Idea: Provide video technique coaching
Info: Most racewalkers do not have a skilled racewalk technique coach available. We should offer technique coaching based on a video provided by the athlete. The video could be uploaded to the web, then viewed by one or more video coaches. Match the skill level of the coach with the skill level of the athlete to get the most leverage and the best results. This should be a fee-for-service activity, enabling the coaches to be paid for their time and expertise. This would be an excellent follow-up service to a training camp.
Info: this is happening already in a slightly different form, but making what is going on visible, and accessible by others that are not "in the know" would help. This is especially important as we grow racewalking participation.
Info: this idea is also applicable to Medium Term - dealing with up-and-coming athletes
Action: Walk On! Minnesota is implementing this using EagleEye Pro Viewer: http://www.eagleeyedv.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=533 Software. An outline of the plan is available in a pdf file. Target date to have this up is Mid-January, 2010.
Idea: Provide telephone/e-mail coaching
Info: Most racewalkers do not have a skilled racewalk coach available. A conversation once a week, or when special issues arise can be of great help. Match the skill level of the coach with the skill level of the athlete to get the most leverage and the best results. This should be a fee-for-service activity, enabling the coaches to be paid for their time and expertise. This would be an excellent follow-up service to a training camp.
Info: this is happening already, but making what is going on visible, and accessible by others that are not "in the know" would help. This is especially important as we grow racewalking participation. An example: http://racewalking.org/coaching.htm
Idea: Restructure prize money to encourage performance (details)
Info: Anybody want to set up a training camp?
Info: What about holding a racewalk camp with two purposes - (1) working with the top young men/women, and (2) working with NAIA athletes that are just learning the sport? This would work to improve two generations of racewalkers, and give the top young women/men some coaching/mentoring experience.
Info: a Jr training camp is organized already in December of each year.
Info: what about holding a traditional summer time, youth, sports camps? There are already a couple of racewalk camps that target masters. Keep young people interested by offering them the opportunity to improve their skills and to meet other young walkers. Often these camps in other sports (think football camp) are held by college coaches. This helps introduce the college program to the athletes, provides some summer time work for existing college athletes within the sport, and enhances the skills of the athletes.
Idea: Work with NAIA T&F coaches and athletes
Info: NAIA is the only place in the US with college level racewalking is contested. This includes training coaches, providing event specific coaches, adapting training programs to individual athletes, providing technique videos, holding walking camps, providing/training judges for local/conference meets, etc.
Info: The national committee has a related proposal that has gone unfunded - pdf document
NAIA T&F coach training packet
Info: build a packet of tools and information that an NAIA T&F coach needs to know/have to introduce an endurance athlete to racewalking, to coach a racewalker, and then to have a racewalker participate in their meets. This packet may be very similar to that needed for school coaches and club coaches, with certain modifications needed for the age and background of the athletes. It could be created for any of the 3 target audiences first, then modified as needed for the other audiences.
Idea: Improve Talent-ID program
Info: Identify the issues with the "Talent ID" program the national committee sponsors, and fix them so this becomes a continuing source of walkers
Info: Stop brainstorming and start actually doing something to get kids racewalking and keep them racewalking. Stop typing messages here and go to a school, any school, and give a free lesson on our event. Get all of those kids into a program where they train 2-3x a week with your club and then have races for them too. This is the formula that every other activity in the US uses to get people involved. It's not rocket science & no think tank is needed to come up with an action plan with an organizational mission statement. Simply, the answer is go do something. Once you have, go do it again & again & again.
Info: I (Steve Vaitones) worked with a club this past year. All 200 kids tried it the first two week - just 200 meters. It was hard and that made an impression. 60 kids walked the 400 meters 9 of 10 sessions to get a participation medal. Judging wasn't enforced until the last 4 sessions. Several decided on their own to do longer walks, up to 2 miles, at practice. After the 6 week club session, the club had about 40 kids overall compete later ito the summer including Jr Olympics. 12 raced at the association or Regional meet. 4 went to Nationals 2 were disqualified (but finished with PR's) One medaled. They're running XC and doing other sports this fall. They might train some and race indoors. The best 2 kids for technique that tried it didn't do it very much and didn't race. They were interested in other things; but they do now have the basics. Working with a club requires - dealing with a track and field club, not trying to start it as a walk only venture - a commitment from the clinician/coach/leader - it has to be a full season, not one or two 'clinics' - a sit-down with the coach to work out a season long plan, and following _their_ lead in many cases - patience, and working on the level of the kids out for the club. You don't focus on being an Olympian 10 years down the road; that's longer than many have been alive. - recognizing that kids do a lot of things and walking is only one event. In fact you want to encourage a wide range of participation for a well-rounded athlete. It's far easier than trying to make introductions and inroads with a school system - public, private, charter, parochial - and the clubs are already in our organization. It does take work, but the basics and structure are already there. And even if none every walk beyond youth, at least there is a population that now has a knowledge and appreciation of the event. I couldn't do any more than one club in a year.
Info: I (Tom Menendez) have a JO club in Auburn, Maine that does the same thing. Everyone tries the racewalk as part the regular events and then tries the event at track meets. It is very difficult for some of the kids to grasp and a godsend for others who can't seem to find success in any other event. In the last 3 years the walkers have garnered 60 points at the state meet. The program has also produced an indoor mile National chanp, Penn Relay junior champ, 2 1-hour junior national champs, 2 members of the junior national and 15 high school All-Americans, indoor and outdoor. It takes time, dedication, desire and commitment to get these kids going and keep going but where there is a will there is a way.
Info: Each of us could work and train the elementary school coaches in our areas where we live so that they in turn can introduce thousands and thousands of children to racewalking. We could then follow through with our middle and high school coaches and eventually inundate our NAIA colleges with enough elite walkers to allow them to want to train their coaches in our beautiful sport. Currently, many of our kids trained during their early years are running into a brick wall. Our colleges are not prepared for them because we do not have enough of these kids at their front door.
Info: Steve Viatones mentions that working with a club is "far easier than trying to make introductions and inroads with a school system but that he couldn't do more than one club in a year." I too agree that its easier and I too could not do more than one club in a year, therefore, would it not be best for us to spend more time teaching the elementary school coaches so that they in turn can coach their kids?
Idea: enlist existing coaches/teachers as racewalk coaches
Info: Tim, Dave, Gary and others have traveled down to our unforgotten part of our country (as Dave said) and helped us teach our elementary school coaches at our PSJA and Edinburg School Districts. Twelve of the twenty-six PSJA coaches spend three weeks teaching their kids racewalking last year and we now have a commitment from all to teach racewalking again this year. Furthermore, racewalking will now be contested at our upcoming cross country elementary school meet in February and the twenty-six elementary school coaches in Edinburg will also now start teaching racewalking this year.
I do not think that many of these fifty-two elementary school coaches will be able to teach racewalking to their kids with the same 'gusto' that many of us do, but they, as a group, will reach and introduce racewalking to many more thousands than we can ever dream of individually teaching ourselves. Who knows, we might even get some of these school coaches to volunteer to start teaching racewalking in summer as we do. There is only so much that our small community of racewalking coaches can do. We need help and I think this is a good way to get it.
Idea: Introductory materials for a club/school/parent
Info: Create a collection of materials that assists a club, coach, teacher or parent in introducing kids to racewalking. Cover not only how to teach the technique, and basic training practices, but how to keep the kids interested in racewalking. AC already has put some of this into a book. Others have experience that could be added.
Idea: Cross Train - Encourage wide ranging participation in sports
Info: Our racewalking team just completed a five week intensive swimming program with beautiful results and I certainly recommend that all coaches consider the same program on their off-season. Some of our children have done well in the past and I attribute part of their success because they are active swimmers. In fact, I think many of our National elite racewalkers have been active swimmers at one time or another. Steve Viatones has brought up many good points including the fact that a child should be encouraged to obtain a wide range of participation (in other sports) for a well rounded athlete and I agree. Many of our kids are also active in school tract, cross country, basketball etc.
Info: The model demonstrated by Trevor's route to racewalk is the one that should lead to some results. Take the marginal runner and convince them to try racewalking, and sometimes you will find somebody like Trevor, who flourishes in the sport. The allure of medals and national teams might motivate some.
Idea: Marketing of Racewalking
Info: The perception among runners, especially the ones posting on letsrun.com, is that racewalking should not be an Olympic sport. Somebody is always starting a thread on letsrun.com bashing racewalking. I think we have seen that even an up and coming elite racewalker like Trevor B. has experienced bias against racewalk. Somehow we have to change this perception, and that is a hard thing to do. I have communicated with Robert Johnson, assistant track coach at Cornell, and co-founder (with his twin) of letsrun.com, and he is not particularly enamored of racewalk, although not aggressive against it (as far as I can tell).
Idea: Work with Race Directors
Info: Contact local area fitness race organizers and persuade them to include a racewalk element.
Action: MDRA (Minnesota Distance Runners Association) has agreed to add a racewalk category to all of their events in 2010 - unless the course is unsuitably hilly. Twin Cities Race Walkers is providing walking judges. There are now awards this year, just a presence in the results lists. -- Dave Daubert
Action: MDRA sponsors a race directors meeting in January. One of the topics covered will be "Walkers - the Forgotten Market" which addresses idea of attracting more participants to a road race by catering to the ordinary walker. Studies in MN show that there are more walkers than runners, so the economics support this approach. This is not targeted at racewalking, but once walking divisions are recognized and economically viable, racewalking and judging can follow -- Bruce Leasure
Info: Listening to John Bingham a bit this weekend at a Rock N Roll Marathon clinic, a thought struck me (and I might be a bit bruised for it). He was addressing the recent success of US Marathoners with Meb winning the NYC Marathon and Ryan Hall coming in fourth. He observed that it is due in part because of the sheer numbers of people now participating in marathons. That with that much participation we just get better. OK, that's not such a big revelation, but hear me out.
John Bingham was also the starter for this race, in which there were some 31,000+ participants. It had a wave start in which approximately 500 entrants started each 60-90 seconds. With each wave, John said "Runners and WALKERS get ready. . ." Lots of walkers in these events.
I'm not savvy about the Who's Who of running, so I didn't recognize all the names on the list of clinic speakers this weekend. But I know that Frank Shorter was also there. We're trying to figure out how to attract more participants to our sport. Why not go where the people are? They're not just at track meets in high schools or college. They're at these huge events. Any chance one (or more) of you could be a regular clinic speaker at the Expos of these huge events?
Info: There have been lots of people running marathons for decades. Our [marathon] recent improvement has been due to support from a handful of people who set up training centers. The [marathon] performances in NY were overhyped as this is a post Olympic year and the fields were weaker than normal, not stronger. Still, we have a credible marathon program for the time being. Obviously not the case for walking. BTW, I wouldn't invite Shorter to speak on behalf of walking. He hates it. Having someone speak would, however be a good idea for general publicity, but I doubt it gets us any closer to the podium. Anyone want to set up a training center?
Action: With Dave McG's permission, I sent the below e-mail to the Las Vegas RnR organizers. I think we should try to keep after this idea of having Dave and other racewalk coaches and notables speak at the free clinics at race Expos. If you will be participating in marathons in the future, please consider sending a similar e-mail to the race organizers. The more we get the word out about racewalking, the more of us there will be. Who knows, maybe the US will eventually become a racewalking powerhouse! -- Elizabeth Richardson
I am a racewalker who will earn the 2009 Super Six award at Las Vegas. Many walkers do Rock 'N' Roll events but your clinic speakers really speak just to runners. We would love to hear from someone who could speak to the specific concerns of the many walkers who participate in Rock N Roll events. May I suggest Dave McGovern, who will already be in Las Vegas as Team Challenge's National Walk Coach.
A little about Dave from his web site:
Dave McGovern is the most experienced and productive racewalking coach and clinician in the US, and perhaps the world. A 22+ year veteran of the US National Racewalk Team with a master's degree in sport science from the United States Sports Academy. Dave has conducted some 20 clinics and camps per year throughout North America as well as Europe, South and Equatorial Africa, since 1991. Many of Dave's clinic alumni have lost weight, bounced back from heart disease and diabetes, completed marathons and many have won masters racewalking championships and set age-group world records.
During his 25-year competitive career Dave won 13 U.S. National Championships and walked 20 kilometers (12.4 miles--one of the two Olympic distances for men) in 1:24:29--a 6:48 per-mile pace--which ranks him as the fastest American ever to not make an Olympic Team. (Onward to 2012!) A member of 18 International Teams, including six World Cup and six Pan Am Cup teams, Dave competed at the junior 10K at the US Olympic Trials in 1984 and in either the 20k or 50k (or both) as a senior in every Olympic Trials since 1988.
As a private coach, Dave has had ten athletes qualify for the United States Olympic Track & Field Trials. Dave also coaches the national team of Ghana, West Africa, and was one of the two coaches for the U.S. team at the 2008 World Cup of Racewalking in Cheboksary Russia. Dave is currently the National (U.S. and Canada) Coach for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation's Team Challenge Half-Marathon Walk Team, as well as their Long Island, NY Run Coach.
Dave's address is: rayzwocker@aol.com
Thank you!
Idea: decide sport, event or discipline
Info: Consistency is important. Some say racewalk is not a sport, but an event in Track & Field (known internationally as Athletics). The USATF website has a list of "sports" on the grey menu bar near the top of the main page that lists racewalking, track & field, road running, etc. Some say racewalking is a discipline, as it exists both in T&F and on the roads.
Info: If we take cycling as an example, there are track and road versions of it, as well as recreational versions. It all is described as a sport, and the track cycling is also described as a sport. Seems like the sport word can be used at many different levels.
Info: But -- we should be consistent about how we talk about racewalking -- on the web, in the rules, in e-mail, ...essentially everywhere.
Idea: spell racewalking so search engines can find it
Info: Encourage "racewalk" spelling instead of "race walk". This enhances the ability of search engines to identify racewalking references, as two words are looked at individually during searches, allowing many more documents to match. Change all documents and web sites under USATF control so that racewalk is spelled as one word. Contact major racewalking websites and clubs so they change their wording to (be sure to explain why in this contact). Make this change in the USATF rulebook too (yes, this was tried a few years ago and failed).
Idea: Improve the organization (USATF)
Info: One forward step that you can help implement is to have four regional coordinators commit to getting a named racewalk chair or coordinator listed in usatf.org for each association.
Action: Dave Gwyn volunteers to do this for South.
Info: At least 50% of the USATF Associations do not contest a racewalk event with anyone at all. Over 75% have no one between the ages of 13 and 50 doing any organized racewalking. Fill in the gaps and then we don't have to revisit this boring, rehashed topic every 4 months.
Idea: get more stories in the news
Info: articles in the newspaper and stories on TV help build the grass roots part of our clubs. Example: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2009/11/23/20091123racewalking1123.html Not sure how to encourage them, but sending a press release that told a similar story to the article in the Arizona Republic to each of the major TV stations in Minneapolis/StPaul MN has resulted in 2 stations each spending about 5 minutes of air time on racewalking. So, that is 5 years of trying, 2 press releases per year, 4 TV stations in the Twin Cities. We scored 2/40 -- which is just good enough to keep me sending out the press releases.. Each time they aired, the club got more inquiries and more people came to our racewalk 101 class.
Idea: provide method to contact athletes
Info: provide a method for event directors to contact elite, near-elite, and up-and-coming athletes so they can be invited to, or told about, racewalking events including races and camps.
Idea: Publish events up for bids on the web
Info: Publish (on the web) a list of events that are up for bids so that the event directors know what to bid on. Include suggested dates and reasons for those dates for events where there are preferred times to hold them. Have an e-mail list of potential event directors so that events that need to be scheduled on short notice can be presented to all of the event directors. Publish (on the web) a list of events that are already assigned, with contact info for the event directors - this could easily be the USATF calendar, but we are lucky to get this year's entries in the calendar, let alone the dates/places for events 3 years out.
Idea: Electronic racewalking newsletter & racewalk news website
Info: The grass roots needs to know what is going on. They need to know what information and assistance is available, and where it is. They need to know what ideas are being considered by the powers-that-be, or by other groups. They need to have a way to express there opinions. The newsletter should be a summary of information that is available in more detail on the web. The mailing list for the newsletter should include everyone interested in racewalking. There might be a need for newsletters restricted to specific groups as well.
Idea: update the existing USATF Racewalk website
Info: update the USATF Racewalk website so the contact list is current, so the athletes list is current, for the bios for the athletes are current, so the standards are easy to find. Add a link to the calendar section so that all racewalks in the USATF calendar are easy to find.
Info: as additional information is created to help grow racewalking, add a section to the USATF website to hold the information.
Idea: Build/Publish/Update a long term plan
Info: Have the USATF Racewalk Committee publish a set of tactical objectives so that the people in the grass roots can start implementing things. Even agreeing that the items on this list would be a start. Having a more carefully thought out list with broader input would be even better. But -- don't spend a lot of time gathering more information. Put down what you have, add a little bit of value by categorizing things, and publish the list. The plan can/should evolve as time goes on.
Info: waiting for USATF to provide significant additional funding for racewalking means we will be waiting forever. We need to lay out our own plan ... with nice small baby steps that can be taken by a lot of grass roots people, and start.
Action: this document could be used as the starting point for such a plan, with the national committee or others evolving the plan overtime. -- Bruce Leasure & all the contributors to this document
Idea: Use ideas from successful national walking programs
Info: Understand how the successful national walking programs work, and borrow ideas from them that apply to the current state of our society.
Info: One place with a successful development program is Australia. It starts with kids, but it doesn't rely on the schools. The program is called "Little Athletics", and you can find out quite a lot about it by Googling that term. Little Athletics here is a nationwide club-based system and involves tens of thousands of kids from under 6 to under 15. A massive "institution" that's been going on here since it's inception in 1963. All events are involved barring the Pole Vault and every kid is encouraged to try each event, which most do. Near every LA Centre has a walk and that involves kids from under 9 to under 15.
Info: The US has that same type of set up with our Junior Olympic program and clubs.
Info: do something like this brainstorming session to discover what needs to be done. Contact past, current, up-and-coming athletes, parents, coaches, spouses, event directors, clubs, and anyone else you can think of as potential sources of ideas and needs.
Idea: keep track of what we try, and if it succeeds or fails
Info: try to build into the implementation of each idea a way to tell if how successful the implementation was. This is useful because you want to direct the limited resources, both people and money, we have into the programs that have the biggest result, or you might want to look at an implementation that is not working as well as hoped, and try to repair it so it will work better.
Info: Use one of the web tools for building custom photo calendars, and some selected pictures of US racewalkers in action, and sell them to ourselves, our friends, relatives and to the general public on the web. It would not generate a lot of money unless we got lucky and it struck someone's fancy and got publicized. But, it would raise some money, and when you don't have much money at all, even a little bit makes a difference.
Submit the idea to the yahoo group racewalking or e-mail to Bruce Leasure. Please put "Brainstorming" in the title of the post or e-mail so it is easy to find.