Independent schools have always been relatively clear about the position of games. For more than 150 years, the sector has agreed that games should play a central role in the life of these schools, that participation should be compulsory, and that competition with other schools is an integral part of this programme.

Team games in particular have enjoyed unquestioned primacy, based on a Victorian belief that they developed "character", and that they were an essential part of education. Wherever British education was exported, games went with it. Initially to the Empire, and then to the developing world....

Would you rather be remembered as a great team mate, or a skilled technician? A "top man" or a top passer? A hardworking and selfless team man, or an individual prodigy?

When Stephen Covey articulated the concept "Begin with the End in Mind", he established a methodology that allowed short term strategies to be examined against long term aims. And exposed that these are often inconsistent.

Most games coaching is clearly built to deliver technical outcomes. Skills, drills, warm ups, conditioned games and cool downs feature prominently. UKCC coaching...

Strength and conditioning coaches are rapidly becoming the latest must-have accessory for school sport. Their impact is evident. Emulating the elite game, players are getting bigger, stronger and faster. Schools without this specialist resource are deeply conscious of a shortcoming, and mobilising a campaign to redress the omission.

Athletic conditioning is, however, the fairy on the top of the tree. The bigger issue - the tree itself - is the culture of health and fitness within a school. This is where the biggest gain is possible, though it is less public. Its impact might go far beyond...