2020 - 2021
I’ve been chatting recently to a few rugby coaches about the season ahead and how they are planning. In normal times, there are the year on year assumptions that are so much a ‘given’ that they barely register in people’s minds: that there will be an equal amount of home games as there are away games for instance. But what if there are is no guarantee of any games at all? How can meaningful preparation happen then? The answer is to train when you can and as hard as you can, so that when games are allowed, they are as prepared as they can possibly be. That’s all a bit depressing though as it takes huge mental strength to prepare for something that may not even happen this season! I honestly believe that, like many others in the charity sector, we are actually in a healthier position than that. For sports teams, it is all very binary: Either the fixtures can be played, or they can’t. For us however, we know that we can deliver our services - it’s just that they may be adapted, or on a different time scale than originally intended. All of us involved in School of Hard Knocks, whether in governance, office support or delivery are determined to demonstrate the same ‘growth mindset’ that we encourage in those that we exist for. At this moment in time, we may not be certain what fundraising events we will be able to put on in 2021; nor are we able to say with any sort of certainty that we will soon be back to delivering our normal ‘in person’ programmes. That said, we can confidently say that in the season ahead, we will:
It’s been weird watching pro sport without the fans present but I know they are still out there! One of my biggest hopes for the season ahead is that you will stick with us, keep supporting us and think about how you can help us drive forward our mission.
Ken Cowen, CEO