Coaches Corner

  In the Derek Evely 'Shovelling Shit' article from 2013, here , there is one bit that stood out for me and I keep referencing back to. Evely talked about the factors of a successful program and the sequencing of those factors. The factors are: Coaching Excellence Quality Sports Medicine Access to Warm Weather But he warned against putting the cart before the horse and building a centre without these factors already in place. "Do not kit out a Centre with support and medical staff and then try to figure out who your coaches are going to be.  All the bells, whistles and support staff expertise can really help but only if driven by a coach who knows what to do with the information harvested from such tools. Without this, it is all a waste of money…money that could be better used for a coach’s salary". Now most coaches in this country will have little or no access anyway to the bells and whistles of a formal support structure or centre, but they ...

There is a lot of chatter on social media at present regarding the great success we are seeing at underage level and how we can ensure these great young athletes and their coaches are navigated through the post-junior years. Three articles in the past week have touched on the point. Cathal Dennehy, writing in the Irish Examiner on Saturday, link here , said "At some point, though, the association needs to dig deep into its coffers and appoint a full-time director of coaching, and it has to be someone of international repute, one whose results speak louder than a powerpoint presentation that can easily fool a boardroom". Along similar lines, on his RTE Sport blog, link here, David Gillick said "I think Athletics Ireland have an opportunity now to look at that talent and think: how do we nurture that? Is it a case where someone comes in and tries to manage it to the next level? Perhaps, because we always have talented juniors but the key is what happens to them...

Some great insights from coach Roddy Gaynor. "one basic principle however when it comes to applying a coaching method to a specific athlete, just ask ‘does this make sense’?"   Q - What is your background - as an athlete, as a coach? My background in competing dates back to the 80’s. Overall, I won 7 national titles from Schools through to Senior level. Winning the senior outdoor 800M in 1982 was something of a breakthrough and I went on to gain a number of senior international Irish vests. My best over the 800 was 1.48. I was a graduate of the US collegiate system and made All-American on three occasions at NCAA Div 2 level. The US experience was very much an eye opener as a young aspiring athlete. Having not been beaten as an Irish secondary school student for two years, to being completely off the mark against senior collegiate athletes was somewhat devastating.   I was released from scholarship at the University of Arkansas after one year and I was very fortun...