Sprints Coach Mentoring Programme

Athletics Ireland’s new Sprints Coach Mentoring Programme will commence this coming weekend December 8th and 9th  at the Sport Ireland Institute , where world renowned Belgian sprints coach Jacques Borlee will lead a weekend of learning and discussion for a select number of Irish sprint coaches.

The Sprint Coach Mentoring Programme aims to support the learning and development of Irish sprint coaches over an initial two season period up to Tokyo 2020.

The programme will provide strong guidance and support by internationally successful and experienced coach mentors through the provision of theory and practical workshops, group discussion forums together with one to one mentor sessions. Coach mentors will also lead group coaching sessions for coaches and their athletes.

In the 2018/19 season alone the selected coaches will have the opportunity to participate in six programme sessions including three programme weekends and three mid-week evening workshops, strategically placed throughout the season. It is envisaged that on completion of the programme, coaches will be better equipped to continue to guide the positive progress of our country’s leading sprinters.

As the Sprints Coach Mentoring programme is Athletics Ireland’s investment in the future development of the Irish sprints community, this programme is being offered free to a limited number of Irish based sprint coaches.

National Sprints Coordinator Daniel Kilgallon said “ While this programme provides Irish sprint coaches the opportunity to learn from leading international coaches , it also offers the opportunity to learn and collaborate with other Irish coaches on the programme. We look forward to welcoming Jacques Borlee to Dublin this weekend and look ahead to a productive series of sessions planned for the programme over the coming months.”

High Performance Director Paul McNamara said “It is a key strategic goal of Athletics Ireland’s High Performance Programme to shift a greater proportion of our resources into supporting coaches and coaching. A significant step in actualising this strategy has been the successful appointment of a full-time Sprints Coordinator in 2018, which has greatly enhanced our capacity to engage with and support the Sprints coaching community. This initiative, which will be replicated across the other event-groups in due course, is a strong endorsement of Ireland’s sprints coaches to further progress the upward trends in Irish sprinting to truly world class standards.  Daniel deserves immense credit for his meticulous and exhaustive work in putting this programme together in the short time since his appointment, while the response from our leading sprints coaches has been hugely encouraging.”

Information on the programme including the schedule for 2018/19, selection criteria and selected coaches can be found HERE.