Author Topic: Seriously. (Read 7659 times)

Locky · « **on:** January 06, 2012, 12:31:41 AM »

A long long time ago I tested the water to see who was interested in making bocking a serious sport. A lot of emails went back and forth but nobody was really willing to help with the leg work.

In the past 12 months parkour as formed an association and is now a recognised sport. I'm not suggesting bocking can do the same, we're just not big enough yet. But we can start putting things into place and see how things go.

I guess what I am asking is if there is anyone else out there that is willing to get involved?
Note, there is a difference between being interested and being involved. Idle by-standers are great to proof read a document but not to write the book

So if you are serious about bocking and up for it then let me know please.

Joe Legg · « **Reply #1 on:** January 06, 2012, 01:30:56 AM »

I am here till the end. I'm in the middle of making some tutorials and a new video to start 2012 off. If theres anything I can do to help you out locky just send me a message.

01273maxim · « **Reply #2 on:** January 06, 2012, 08:20:57 AM »

You could advertise on face book and even maybe on bus station sides. You could also every weekend get 5 closest people to that area to go round town handing out leaflets.

Locky · « **Reply #3 on:** January 06, 2012, 10:36:36 AM »

Actually this is more about developing the sport. Putting procedures into place, good practice and building qualifications for bockers and coaches. It's not as boring or as hard as it sounds but it needs people willing to get up and do it with me rather than just say yeah thats a good idea.

spawnyb · « **Reply #4 on:** January 06, 2012, 11:10:41 AM »

Hi Locky,

I would be willing to invest some time and whatever else in helping out.

Obviously when it comes to the physical side of bocking I may not be the most experienced and best placed, but I do have experiance with procedures, marketing and training etc that may be useful.

If all else fails I'm sure I could have a big input on what NOT to do.

Joe Legg · « **Reply #5 on:** January 06, 2012, 01:27:23 PM »

Quote from: Locky on January 06, 2012, 10:36:36 AM

Actually this is more about developing the sport. Putting procedures into place, good practice and building qualifications for bockers and coaches. It's not as boring or as hard as it sounds but it needs people willing to get up and do it with me rather than just say yeah thats a good idea.

been looking into coaching and helping the sport. the problem is i dont know where to start. I'm looking into getting a gym and helping people learn.
But I dont know anything about the official stuff.

Locky · « **Reply #6 on:** January 07, 2012, 04:47:01 PM »

Does anyone know of a website we might be able to use to plan and organise (initially just discuss) this further?

I did know one but I dont have it saved but I'll see if I can remember it. I dont want to do it on here or facebook, I was thinking something where we can put documents together and where each of us could edit them and also discuss ideas. :/

spawnyb · « **Reply #7 on:** January 07, 2012, 08:10:45 PM »

The only one I know of is Skydrive, part of the Windows Live stuff.

If you have a windows live account you can log in then upload or edit docs. There's a blogger or instant messenger for discussions. Haven't used it myself, but have heard it works ok.

Unless you have a hatred of microsoft?

XDvandalDJ · « **Reply #8 on:** January 21, 2012, 12:40:39 PM »

We're exactly are you registering it as an official sport? Is it something limited to your country or worldwide? If it's the latter I'm down to help anyway I can.

Locky · « **Reply #9 on:** January 21, 2012, 01:47:22 PM »

It's a UK problem. Basically Sport England are a government division responsible for all sport activities. They decide which organisations become the national governing body and only then will they recognise and support the sport.

Until we reach that stage, proper development in this country is not going to grow much more than it is already.
So I'm proposing we start an association. It might be slow and long term but we can start to form procedures for learning and good practice and actually look at developing the sport in a much more structured way. Its quite boring but we might as well if we want bocking to ever be taken seriously.

Steddy · « **Reply #10 on:** January 24, 2012, 06:13:37 PM »

to be honest i respect what your trying to do and would be a really good thing if bocking was taken seriously, but to be honest i quite like the idea of bocking not being well known. it makes it feel unique and special. if you see someone playing football or on a skateboard you dont really think about it but if you see someone bocking, its a whole new experience

Joe Legg · « **Reply #11 on:** January 24, 2012, 06:28:52 PM »

I do t think it will spoil it . I think it will be better. it will get it know like parkour/skateboarding/bmxing. It will make it easy to have events and to get sponsored. It will also bring in a more competitive crowd that will really push people.
Right now there's no aim, just fun.

Locky · « **Reply #12 on:** January 24, 2012, 10:01:22 PM »

Yeah this isnt about bringing bocking to the masses. I dont think we're in danger of that happening anytime soon. This is really just about slowly putting a structure in place so the sport can actually be recognised and start some sort of formal development.

There are lots of unusual sports that still do this so I can only see it being positive.

Jason · « **Reply #13 on:** January 25, 2012, 08:44:11 PM »

I Think on the whole it is a good move Locky

Must say I do like the untamed rebel side of being not a real sport and a minority

but it can lead to a sport stagnating and becoming undesirable

So we do need some type of governing body (even if we chose to ignore it sometimes)

I must say that I don't have much time due to work and other hobbys but I will help if and when I can

Jason

SNuD · « **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2012, 03:49:27 PM »

At the moment all the things being mentioned about bocking not being well known, makes it feel unique and special minority sport etc. etc. are all good. However, they do lead to limitations, booking gyms is a good example. Apart from the few most of us have bad experience of gym managements not wanting us in there because of “Health and Safety” This actually means they fear the unknown! This situation is only going to get worse as we slowly sink under the ever growing mass of Safety red tape.
We have a golden opportunity here to ensure the sport isn’t smothered in inappropriate rules and regulations while presenting a mature thought out approach to faceless people who want to stand in the way of anything fun.
By setting the standards ourselves we have the say as to what is acceptable and good practice, things we mostly do now anyway, and then, when presented to bureaucrats will give us a credibility we can’t get by any other means.

God this is all so serious!

Locky · « **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2012, 04:18:36 PM »

I am serious and don't call me Shirley.

BitLord83 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 26, 2012, 05:05:02 PM »

Quote from: Locky on January 26, 2012, 04:18:36 PM

I am serious and don't call me Shirley.

Good one.

Joe Legg · « **Reply #17 on:** January 26, 2012, 05:58:27 PM »

so what would people like from a association ?

what would help you in powerbocking??

Hilly-of-the-Marshes · « **Reply #18 on:** January 26, 2012, 06:06:54 PM »

Something to help get gyms for a start

Locky · « **Reply #19 on:** January 27, 2012, 12:53:25 PM »

Well I wasn't going to post this publicly yet because it can easily just lead to different things with various opinions posted and end up one big mess but after talking to Joe a bit yesterday this is ONE of the directions this sort of thing could lead to.

Hilly mentioned "help get gyms". While there are some gyms that welcome bocking, for most of the bocking community it's hard going. Most leisure halls are worried that:

Bocking is dangerous
It could damage their floor and mats
Do you have insurance (PLI)

All three of these could be the hurdles anyone of us need to find a solution for.

Any other sport that takes place in a leisure centre has a few things we dont:

A National Association (often with an umbrella insurance policy for all it's members)
A Governing Body (which the association becomes)
A Coaching Qualification
Rules or Discipline for the sport/game leading to Banding Achievements
Good Practice Guides

With these in place, a leisure centre can look at the sport and immediately see things are being done in an organised, structured and most importantly SAFE manor.
Without any of these, we are basically a bunch of cowboys hiring a sports hall to do with as we please. This is the reason most gyms run a mile from us.

About 2-3 years ago I asked if anyone was interested in helping me put together an association. A few showed interest and there was a fair amount of talk done by email but nothing happened and most of those members no longer bock anymore. But I'm still here, and the reason I have brought this whole topic up again is because even if I'd started to put stuff together on my own, sure it would have taken me a lot longer to do but 3 years down the line in 2012 we'd be here with something either in place or at least heading that way.

I'll be the first to admit it - this process is boring, it's mostly all paperwork and narrowing down peoples ideas to something we all agree on and put in to place. That's the reason most people lose interest….but I still believe it's worth doing and maybe if I had stuck at it on my own 3 years ago a lot more people would be able to book their local gym without a problem.

acroair · « **Reply #20 on:** January 27, 2012, 01:02:07 PM »

I am sorry locky , but clive in lincoln tried all this years ago! as he could see the potential for the sport to grow, but nobody wanted to help him! as it wasn't certain peoples idea .

thus i am well on the way with fulfilling the criteria for the certain agencies , as will take the sport to the next level , maybe have a centre of excellence ( in lincoln ), as its already been assessed for this .

Locky · « **Reply #21 on:** January 27, 2012, 01:50:13 PM »

It was mostly me and clive who were discussing in the emails years ago.

What are you sorry about?

Jason · « **Reply #22 on:** January 27, 2012, 08:44:15 PM »

Yep I remember You and Clive trying to get something started a while back Locky

I think it fell because the whole sport was too young then and a lot of the people that bocked were the sort of people that don't conform well to structure (A bit like me

)

There are more people now that are thinking of it more as a something that could get them into trouble if it goes wrong rather than a way to rebel against "The Man"

I for one would be very happy to pay a yearly fee to belong to something that provided me with insurance and someone to contact for support when things need sorting like Gyms, Councils and Police

So if I may make a suggestion Locky (Feel free to say no or modify it

)

Would you be willing to look into how hard it would be to form something along the lines of a National Club that we could all join for an (Initialy) token fee of say £1 (which you could use a phone money to find out where we go from here)

At first it would be only an "I belong" type thing but at least you would get an idea of potential membership and could approach insurance companys to find out how much we would have to pay as a group

At least this way it would be worth peoples while to join as they would then be covered even if it cost £30 upwards a year I think most parents would be happy just to know they won't get sued if "Little Jimmy" falls on someones dog

Jason

Locky · « **Reply #23 on:** January 27, 2012, 11:21:12 PM »

I think that's probably jumping ahead a bit. Whenever things like this come up as soon as someone mentions money then it all kicks off.
I'm simply suggesting that as time ticks on, we might as well start putting something together - even if we = just me.

The way an association works in sport is that you cant really join it individually. It needs to be your club or group and this all comes down to the structure needed for these things. When I was talking to Joe I came up with the idea of having a national club for the rogue bockers to be part of and anyone else that doesn't have something in their region going on.

Each club would then have the option of joining the association and then become affiliated to it. That alone would add some credit to their own club.
I suppose there is a charge for each club to do that but we're not at a stage to even dream up costs at the moment. Everything would be non-profit in any case.

Think of Karate. You start karate, learn a few moves and I think you start with a white belt or orange belt in karate. That karate coach needs to have that club affiliated to the karate association or he's not gonna be able to give people these grades. Without it, he'd be a lone agent and could only dish out his own grades so he'd invent a pink with yellow stripes belt….and sooner or later people are going to realise that its not worth anything and find someone who is affiliated.

So at this stage I think we just need to talk about how could we develop a coach qualification and what sort of grading system would we want and could work with bocking. And that might not be as simple as taking a list of tricks and putting them into a few categories because you might be missing things like getting up unaided or learning to fall or something else that I might never do or know about.

This all sounds like a ton of crap and I personally dont have a need for this since I've already structured my club to tick the boxes we need to operate in but I do believe this is the way forward to answer the problem Hilly said and so many like him suffer.

The Welshies are going on a UK Tour later this year and we're going to visit some places where there are only a few bockers, maybe even just one and we're gonna bring bocking to that town in a big way. Even if it's just for that day and I think that will hopefully bring more people to the sport and we're not talking thousands here, just more so people are not on their own and keep this sport alive and jumping.

SNuD · « **Reply #24 on:** January 28, 2012, 04:13:06 AM »

I think your right in that it’s too early to set up a funded association. As a starting point, may be a titled national association to which Individuals, groups or clubs could be “affiliated” to. This association would only need, at this stage, a set of suggested sensible and mature guidelines that affiliated bockers are asked to follow. A logo/name that can be added to any letter, documentation or groups website to show affiliation. An association webpage with these guidelines and aims etc. listed for anyone to see. (This could be produced as a single html page and hosted on groups websites, there are enough of us around) as long as the page was accessed via a link and was truly independent, i.e. no groups logos/name with the possible exception of perhaps a plain membership list. This in it’s self would give some credibility and cost nothing.
To start all we need is to draw up such guidelines that are agreeable, or no one will follow them, but must sensible and achievable to have the desired affect.
I’m more that happy to get involved in the paperwork as we already have similar documents we use for our members coming out in public or to gyms with us.

News:

Author Topic: Seriously. (Read 7659 times)