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December 2009
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Record numbers attend European Athletics Coaching Conference in Glasgow |
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04.11.2008 |
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Yannick Tregaro, the coach of 2004 Olympic Triple
Jump Champion Christian Ollson, above, was one of
the key-note speakers in Glasgow
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The largest ever conference gathering of athletics coaches
in Europe assembled in Glasgow over the weekend to hear that Scotland has been
selected to host the annual European Athletics Coaches Association (EACA)
conference through to 2012 and potentially through to 2014.
An opening address from Dr Frank Dick OBE, EACA President
outlined the conference theme of ‘Learning Faster' and highlighted three main
lessons for Europe from the 2008 Beijing Olympics in terms of ‘beyond winning',
‘the reality of the journey' and ‘the winning difference' - a timely note given
the margin of winning victory by Great Britain's Lewis Hamilton in claiming the
FIA Formula 1 world championship title just 24 hours later.
A series of four keynote presentations throughout the
weekend was launched by Clyde Hart, coach to 400m legend Michael Johnson. In this he explained how his coaching
philosophy had been shaped by his experiences visiting Europe - "the coach
always striving to be better through using what works; taking on board the
ideas of others and shaping them to develop these on the track - which is on
our lab, while using the athlete as the ‘number one learning tool'."
Clyde commented, "You don't
get to be a good coach without being a good thief" and in answer to his own
question ‘Are we coaching any smarter than we were 25 years ago? Well,' he
continued, "we only have a bigger vocabulary!"
Clyde finished with a challenge to all
delegates "There's no such thing as peaking - if you can't see the top (of the
performance), how do you know where the peak is?
Yannick Tregaro, coach to Swedish jumps stars Christian
Olson, Kajsa Bergqvist and Emma Green outlined the importance of the carefully
structured Swedish athlete and coach squad approach from 1996 in developing
inspired and motivated athletes to underpin subsequent international medal
success. In this he stressed the
importance of creating the best environment and culture possible among athletes
and coaches. Yannick highlighted the
importance of the athlete gaining a true ‘feel' for their event before they
start to train too hard for it. "With every new athlete I start to coach," he
concluded, "it is the start of a long journey to find out how best to coach
that athlete."
Fresh from huge success in directing the development of the
new coach education framework in China
leading towards huge successes for his country in Beijing, Bingshu Zhong, reviewed the 18-years
of actions and resultant structures that today underpin Chinese coaching. A hugely evocative and educative presentation
identified the crucial and bold steps to success in professionalising the
coaching role including key themes of ‘training before employment, training
before promotion and training before attending competition' A fundamental
vehicle for an effective programme delivery was identified as the establishment
of teaching centres and networks for high-level coach training.
The final keynote given by Ken Porter, former Oxford
University Head Coach and now a Director with the Ottawa Lions in Canada reviewed
a truly practical example of how learning from what you are doing and making
appropriate changes has a huge impact on club and coaching success. Key interventions over a period have led to
the ‘Lions' becoming the foremost track and field club in Canada - all based on
the ‘4-C's' philosophy of:
Collegiality - anything is possible if no-one cares who gets
credit
Community - involving all those who could be, should be and
might be involved in the club
Coaching - coaches are valued and only coach (in pairs)
Competition - any sport worth doing is still worth doing,
even if badly!
In conclusion Ken stated, "Clubs need to look at themselves
and firstly identify their role within the sport and secondly with their
members."
The success of the conference was recognised by EACA in
making a special award to conference organiser, Ewen Cameron, scottishathletics
Education and Development Manager.
Reflecting on the whole event Ewen commented, "scottishathletics firmly
believe that coaching underpins everything in athletics and the fact that
Scotland will be the home of the EACA annual conference for the next few years
is a clear statement of our intent."
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