Coaches Corner

The following article by Drew and Hayley Harrison was first published by the UL Communications and Marketing Department in May 2017. It is several months since Thomas Barr stunned the nation with his performances in Rio, coming 4 th in the Olympic 400mH final and breaking 48 seconds for the first time. Six months on and we are back to our normal routine working by day and coaching athletes on evenings and weekends as we have done for the last 22 years at the University of Limerick. In sport, the challenge to set the bar ever higher is always a priority. We believe that the key to success lies in optimising the total training environment for the athlete; this includes ensuring good facilities, equipment, proximity and quality of accommodation, quality of the training squad and the quality of the support structures around the athletes. A key element of the high performance environment is coaching. Coaches play a pivotal role in setting and monitoring all aspects of the training e...

This is Part II of the Shane McCormack presentation on Sprint Development including case studies on three athletes including Phil Healy.

Irish badminton player, Scott Evans, tweeted this article about the Danish way of creating champions. Denmark is the mecca of Badminton in Europe and Scott moved there in his teens to immerse himself with the best coaches and players in Europe.   The article is by Nicklas Pyrdol and he introduces the Danish model of not just producing great athletes but also great people. He says  "let’s face it, medals are for the very few, so the rest still has to be able to get a good life.". He lays out the 6 simple aspects of how they do it. The part of becoming better together reminds me of points made on the recent discussion on coaching here  on the Jumping The Gun site. Irish athletes David Campbell and Ciaran O'Lionaird talked about their experiences and how athletes working together will yield greater results. However, the relentless pursuit of success mentioned by both on the same podcast would seem at odds with the Danish model of being more rounded and h...

This is Part I of a presentation that Irish sprints coach, Shane McCormack, gave at a Kilkenny City Harriers organised coaching night in Kilkenny earlier this year. Part II will include case studies on three athletes that Shane has coached or still coaches.