Statements are often made about ‘identifying talent’ as a means of addressing the imbal- ances in the demographics of the players in the top representative teams. Politicians in particular make innuendos about coaches and administrators being selec- tively biased in their choice of certain players, at the exclusion of other players, hence slowing down transformation. However, what they fail to consider when making these statements is that a coach depends on a winning team for the longevity of his job. Therefore it is disingenuous to think that a coach will place his or her job in jeopardy by not selecting the best players who can contribute to a winning team. Attributing the lack of transformation to the coaches and administrators is simply a cunning way of taking the focus off the real source of the problem. The real source of the problem has a wider context than merely being the bias of coaches and administrators. The real source of the problem can be attributed directly to the inequities that exist from childhood in different regions of the country. Preparation begins at preschool, where the child should have access to healthy adequate nutrition and an opportunity to develop fundamental motor skills. If these basic conditions are not provided the child encounters a hurdle which persists through to adulthood. The talented sports stars who represent our nation do so because they have well-refined skills and have had the opportunity from a very early age to develop and sharpen their skills. The development of motor skills is sequential – if any layer of development is incomplete, the next layer will be affected. There are windows of opportunity in which skills are developed, and if these opportunities are bypassed, the chances of developing them at a later stage are limited. A recent study of the fitness of South African children has shown that children from poorer areas under-perform in tasks of physical performance compared with children from more affluent areas. 1 The differences can be attributed to the smaller size of the children from poor areas as well as underdeveloped motor skills. In this particular study the differences skills were noticeable in grade 1. The most important training ground for skill development occurs at school. Until such time as all the schools have similar facilities and opportunities to participate in physical activity, our children will always have a range of developed skills which will persist through to adulthood. Suffice to say, it is highly unlikely a talented child coming from a deprived background will ever be able to compete equally with a talented child who has had an opportunity to develop his or her talent fully. There are many studies which demonstrate this. To excel in high-level sport it is essential to implement a long- term athlete development programme. 2 This type of programme considers and caters for the unfolding need to develop skill. A well- constructed long-term athlete development programme reduces the advantages that early maturation might have, 3 and results in a much larger pool of talented adult players from which the national team can be selected. Surely it is time that the political decision-makers faced the facts and addressed the problem of lack of transformation on the sports field by focusing attention on schools and ensuring that facilities in the poor schools are upgraded to match the facilities in the schools from more affluent areas. Failure to do so will ensure that the situation we currently have will persist into the next generation. Shifting the attention and blame to the coach and sporting federation is a cheap shot which exposes their ignorance and lack of understanding of the principles of talent development. Sustainable changes are beyond the influence of the sporting federations, and remain firmly with the government, in particular the Departments of Education, Sport and Health. If the long-term athlete development model was understood and embraced by these departments, the concern of having national teams which do not represent the demographics of the general population will be a thing of the past. This brings us to the contents of this edition of the journal. The concept of the long-term athlete development model is discussed with reference to rugby. The procedures adopted in South Africa are compared with the procedures of Australia and New Zealand. In addition the abstracts and posters presented at the 4th Clinical Sports Medicine Conference – Injury Preven tion and Protection of the Health of the Athlete, 13 - 15 Oc tober 2010, Cape Town, are published in this edition. This edition also includes a paper which shows that the elite athletes drink much less than the recommendations suggest. Apart from making this finding this study also shows how important questions can be answered by substituting a large budget with a creative research plan. There is also a practical evidenced-based article on pre-participation screening for rugby players (‘BokSmart: Pre-participation screening of rugby players by coaches based on internationally accepted medical standards’). This paper was one of the papers commissioned by BokSmart. More excellent practical papers on injury prevention, rehabilitation and training for rugby can be found at www.boksmart.com. Finally, Dr Maaki Ramagole co-ordinated the development of the SASMA position statement on managing athletes with disorders of sexual development (DSD). This document will serve as a guideline for managing disorders of sexual development in future and will avoid a repetition of the unpleasant situation we experienced last year. There are many interesting articles in this edition – we hope you enjoy the read! Mike Lambert Editor-in-Chief 1. Armstrong ME. Youth fitness testing in South African primary school chil- dren: National normative data, fitness and fatness, and effects of socio- economic status. PhD thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009. 2. Vaeyens R, Lenoir M, Williams AM, Philippaerts RM. Talent identification and development programmes in sport : current models and future direc- tions. Sports Med 2008;38(9):703-714. 3. Malina RM, Brown EW. Growth and maturation of football players: implica- tions for selection in youth programs. Insight 1998;2(1):27-30. Lack of transformation in sport and the long-term athlete development programme A topic which is receiving much publicity as I write is the banning of 5 skinny models from participating in the Madrid fashion week. Madrid’s regional govern- ment imposed the rules ‘to protect the models as well as teenagers who may develop anorexia as they try to copy underweight catwalk stars’. 1 They used a body mass index of 18 as their cut- off value. The ‘anti-thin’ move has been criticised in Paris and New York, two of the world’s leading fashion centres. However, in Italy the move was supported by the mayor who intimated that she would like to apply the same rulings when the fashion show moves to Milan. The motive for imposing the ban is noble, as the ‘skinny trend’ is not showing signs of abating. A recent report by the British Medical Association identifies a link between the images of ‘abnormally thin’ models that dominate television and magazines, and the increase in cases of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. 2 The incidence of anorexia is at an all-time high with predictions of 0 - 5% of all females having eating disorders. While eating disorders were previously usually regarded as a female syndrome, the situation is changing with a steady increase in the number of men being diagnosed with eating disorders. A recent estimate predicts that of the 60 000 people with eating disorders in the UK, 10% are male. 2 This trend can most likely be explained by the contemporary lean, hungry look of male stars. To get a snapshot view of changing body beautiful images of different eras one only has to compare the ‘hunks’ of the 1960’s movies (i.e. Sean Connery as James Bond) to modern day hunks to see how the masculine image has changed. Marilyn Monroe, with her curvy body shape in the 1950s would probably be regarded as too fat for a leading role 50 years later. While the organisers of the fashion shows should be complimented for taking a bold stand against their skinny, unhealthy-looking models, they can be criticised for the way in which they have gone about it. Using a body mass index of 18 as a cut-off value is inappropriate and may penalise some models who live normal healthy lives. Instead of this approach the organisers should establish a structure that evaluates the health status of the models including their eating, sleeping and substance abuse habits and make decisions accordingly. The information on how to do this is available; it just needs to be applied. This third issue of the journal for 2006 has 4 interesting papers. The first paper by Professor Mars and colleagues examines the cooling of skin, subcutaneous fat and muscle with an icepack, at rest and after short-duration exhaustive exercise. This study produced some interesting results with important clinical applications. The next paper by Ian Cook examines the accuracy of different types of pedometers. It is well known that people who use pedometers are encouraged to be more physically active, so therefore there is great value in making pedometers available to the general public. However, the enthusiasm to make and distribute pedometers has exceeded the concern about their accuracy. This study addresses this point with a comprehensive research design. The results make a valuable contribution to the literature. The third paper, by Dr McHardy and colleagues from Macquarie Injury Management Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, is a clinician’s perspective of the modern and classic golf swing. This paper is relevant to sports physicians, biokineticists and physiotherapists and provides a clear analysis of the different types of golf swing and their possible link to injury, particularly lower back pain. Finally the paper by Dr Draper and her colleagues describes the state of the fitness industry in South Africa. This comprehensive study gathered data from 442 facilities around the country. The data provide an important benchmark for the state of the industry and will make a significant contribution to the development of perceived weaknesses in the industry. Mike Lambert Editor-in-Chief 1. Milan fashionistas fear Spanish skinny model ban. news.yahoo.com/s/ nm/20060914/od_nm/italy_models_dc (accessed 18 September 2006) 2. The changing shape of the model. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/769460.stm (ac- cessed 18 September 2006) Skinny fashion – a role for sports medicine? SAJSM VOL 18 NO. 3 2006 57 EDITORIAL pg57.indd 57 9/21/06 12:15:22 PM editoriaL 54 SaJSM voL 22 No. 3 2010