Wayne, I must apologies I used the word “volunteer” loosely and obviously you have interpreted it that way. The use of “volunteer” was more in line with the fact that TBA does not pay these people nor do the sponsors for there time and efforts, this cost must be borne by us the bowler who when it all boils down to it are the ultimate beneficiary of there efforts and knowledge anyway. Remember user pays and you get nothing for nothing! They do all there work as “volunteers” but have the right to charge a fee given their HP2 coaching status. Sorry if I was not clear enough on this.
What I should have said is that these 3 people are among the most highly credentialed people we have in our sport and have probably spent many thousands of there own dollars to achieve these credentials. To suggest or even expect them to pass on any of this knowledge for free is ridiculous, would you or anyone else work for a minimum of 23 hours over a weekend plus do all the set up work that goes along with preparing for a 2 ½ event for free. Acquiring knowledge does cost a lot of money and once acquired that person should be able to charge a fee for passing that knowledge onto others, isn’t that what your doctor, dentist, motor mechanic or other professional person does.
Lets also remember these people all work in the bowling industry, it is there livelihood. Do we want these people to follow Chris Batson overseas where there acquired knowledge is passed onto other countries who are willing to pay them what they deserve to be paid for their efforts and services? Which, in turn will allow these countries to surpass us with their newly acquired level of skills and knowledge acquired from people we basically turned away because we did not want to pay them for their services and knowledge.
Whilst I see you offer coaching services for free, that is your choice but you cannot expect your doctor, dentist, electrician, motor mechanic or any other professional person you deal with who has also spent many thousands of dollars to learn there profession to charge you nothing for their time and effort in assisting you, why would you expect these 3 people to pass on their knowledge and train bowlers to be better bowlers for nothing.
TBA sets out a fee schedule for coaches on their website and as mentioned previously in this thread the fee charge equates to a fee much less than the hourly or daily rate that TBA suggests a HP 2 coach should be charging. Not to mention the hourly rate at a bit over $28 per hour includes a ball (which if you don’t want you can on sell to recoup or even ask for a price to participate excluding the ball), apparel, lineage and food.
Is this where the problem lies? With our sport being so expensive to play week in week out that the training and development to assist bowlers to become better bowlers is expected to be or should be free. I don’t know, all’s I’m saying is that surely the 3 people and others with similar qualifications should be and are entitled to charge for their time and structure a fee for their time into the overall cost of these type of events. If this then creates a point where a certain number of people need to participate for the event to run, then so be it. As I’ve said in previous posts it’s as cheap as when you look at the hourly rate you will be paying these 3 coaches and compare it to the hourly rate TBA allow them to charge for one on one coaching. I think Jason Doust summed it up when he said we’ll pay $650 for 2 new balls but won’t pay that when it comes to learning how to get the most out of them.
I’m aware money is a huge issue for everyone and perhaps a way to make things better and easier for those willing to participate in these type of events is for TBA to become more involved in scheduling by setting up a rolling 12 months schedule where certain times each year and every year coaching courses, Super schools, training camps will be done and even go so far as to provide an indicative cost. That way people firstly know what’s happening when and where and approximately how much so if they want to attend a super school and its set down for November and its approximate cost is $600 we are all aware of it now with plenty of time to save for it. TBA can also factor in that HP 2 coaches and presenters are all over Australia so events can be scheduled in each state to save traveling costs for the participants. Big job, YES, acheivable, YES.
Poiter, change of dates to May is definite, if interested contact whoever from off the form and put your name down.
my apologies for the essay
Shoey
