By now you may have read in the press that the plans for the formation of England Athletics has been accepted, with the exception of the athlete membership scheme. The AAA’s will retain their title to organise the AAA championships. This will be effective from April, when a regional office will be set up to manage its own finance, coaching, development, admin. Etc. Meanwhile the staff at UKA will be run down to compensate for the switch in organisation.
This plan was discussed at the County coaches
meeting on 10th September and was evaluated again at a Sports
Partnership meeting held on 31st October to assess how we are
meeting the criteria. The majority of the points are already in progress, but
it would be worthwhile giving a reminder on the issues that affect coaching.
Level 3 and 4 coaches should
be doing some mentoring of other coaches, and if this is not the case, can you
please try to arrange something. This can actually gain you licence credits.
Similarly, level 1 and 2 coaches should be looking for and asking their peers
to be their mentor, to advise them, not to coach them.
Communication: I can only do
so much, and then I rely upon word of mouth. It will help if you have the
Internet, to check out a few local websites. www.essa.net
for English Schools, www.southwestathletics.com
is pretty obvious, as is ukathletics.net and for statistics try freespace.virgin.net/williams.green
and finally, www.cornwallroadrunning.co.uk
is not just about road running but carries lots of information about athletics
in Cornwall. Next month I shall bring you some more useful websites
A successful event, but still not enough coaches turning up to discuss the future direction of the sport in the county and perhaps learn something new from the guest speakers. At least ours worked out, whereas the Sports Partnership Coaching Conference failed from lack of numbers.
The workshop at Pencalenick school was well
supported by the Moorhaven Athletic Club (look it up on a map. I’ll give you a
clue; it is in the south east of the county). Sadly none of our English School
representatives were there; all for valid reasons, but the outcome is a race
being held on 6th November, with others planned for the future, and
the discipline will be in the South West league next year as a point scoring
event; so look to it and consider some of your athletes taking a serious view
to the art of walking.
The subsequent race held at Boscawen Park on 6th
Nov attracted 10 entries for the 4.1 mile course which was enjoyed by all and
won by a couple from Plymouth. All participants were in fact road runners and
thought it complimented their running. Bev Pearce is planning some more races;
so don’t be afraid to give it a whirl.
Following on from last year’s specific winter
training for the 2012 squad we have extended the idea to an additional County
squad to encourage any athlete over 13 who achieved a grading standard to get
in some event specific training during the winter and hopefully move up a level
by the end of 2006. This also applies to under 13’s with a grade 2 standard.
More information is attached analysis, out of which it looks to me as though
lots of middle distance runners are concentrating solely on cross-country
during the winter, whereas it might be worthwhile if those in the lower
echelons of the event concentrated more on track training to boost their summer
performance rather than be consistent ‘also rans’ over the country. Believe me,
I’ve been there, so I am not picking on cross-country.
In one year I moved from being a good club runner to
an international, and I am convinced it was due to circuit training. Of course
that was a long time ago, but the principle remains the same, so why not come
along to Grampounds Community Centre on 20th November, 1.30 to 5.30
(£10) and learn more about it
25-40 YEARS OLD
Apparently this is the heaviest population density of the county, so we should really be targeting them. Road running is doing a fine job, but there must be lots of people in the county who think that track and field is only for schoolchildren, and likewise, others who think road running is for the super fit, so maybe a few ideas on how to attract more of them into the sport would not go amiss. ANY IDEAS?
IDEA’S A few ideas were bandied about at the Sports
Partnership meeting to raise interest and awareness, including an athletic quiz
(Christmas maybe!), a discussion on rules, nutrition, etc.
ASIC DAY
Asics are holding a gait and technical day at
Cornwall Running Store on 19th November where they will give free
advice. Unit 6D Bass Park Road, Trenant
Industrial Estate, Wadebridge. 9.30-5.30 pm
Argos is selling a pack of six plastic collapsible
(this means squashable) marker cones at £4.99. They are red and about
30cm/1foot tall. You may have to order them Ref 072/7895 Pop Up training cones
This is gradually beginning to happen as we have a
visit from George Eccles (Exeter) to coach javelin to the county and 2012 squad
and an invitation for our javelin throwers to go to Brickfield, Plymouth on 26th
for a coaching day with Garry Frost and a protégé of Wilf Paish (Tessa
Sanderson’s coach)
The man made responsible for raising standards of British Athletics was reported in the Telegraph to have said, “Maybe we’ve got to work younger athletes harder. Maybe we’ve got to work them smarter. Maybe there is a need for more attention to strength and conditioning at an earlier age.” Haven’t I been pursuing 2012 and county class athletes to do just this?
If anybody makes a last minute decision to go to
Melbourne, Australia I have £150 in travel vouchers which they can have
providing they book before 31st Jan and used the named booking agent
from which there are a variety of travel agents available
BMC
Steve Woodfinden is in negotiations with the British Milers Club to run a coaches workshop in Cornwall. If you don’t know about it by now and are interested, please call Steve on 01637
CORNWALL COLLEGE BIOMECHANICS LAB
Claire Atterborough, the Head of Department for
testing and biomechanics at Cornwall College Pool, apologised for not getting
to the coaching forum and is now planning to have a test evening at the lab. on
Thursday evening 8th December at 7.15pm. The lab is attached to the
weights gym near the new artificial playing field. Access is along the
Portreath road past Pool Secondary School, exactly opposite the double mini
roundabout to Carn Brea. It would be voluble to have some athletes there,
especially middle distance, and of course coaches. If you are interested,
please let me know so that I can book a place for you.
ATHLETIC DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Because of the uncertainty of the funding situation
in the short term, the Sports Partnership have decided not to appoint another
development officer for the time being, therefore Mo Pearson will be doing one
and a half day’s of Jacky’s job, which obviously means there will be a
reduction in development, but that is no reflection on Mo. Applications and
information about coaching should be directed to Mo on 01872 324395 or
m.pearson@cornwallgov.org.uk
LAST WORD.
Aim for the sky and you hit the trees. Aim for the trees and you hit the ground
Tony Lett 01209 891101 tony.lett1@btopenworld.com