Sprint, Jump, Throw!

It has been a busy but exciting couple of months in Coaching & Development in Athletics Ireland. We have welcomed a number of new members to the team.  Shane Aston, in a joint venture in IT Carlow, will divide his time between IT Carlow and the counties of Carlow and Kilkenny.  Gerard O’Donnell will team up with Colette Quinn in an initiative partnering with Dublin City Council. They will focus strongly on the theme of participation and promote athletics to a whole new audience in the DCC area.

Dermot McGranaghan will soon be taking up the RDO position in the North West region and will be seeking to build on the good work of his predecessor Paul McKee.

The coach education programme has been progressing with pace throughout the autumn.  The Level 2 course in Athlone Institute of Technology has been the recent highlight.  There are 65 participants across the four disciplines-speed, throws, endurance and jumps. This is an in-depth course and the participants have demonstrated great enthusiasm thus far.  The course will finish in early December and we look forward to their progress in 2019.

This has been a busy year and the team expect to complete over 65 courses with almost 1000 participants before Christmas.  These coaches are helping the young athletes progress in clubs throughout the country.

Looking forward to 2019, we hope to roll out a new series of workshops to clubs.  The ‘Run, Jump, Throw’ series has already been piloted and the feedback has been very positive. This programme will assist coaches develop expertise across the events as the title suggests.

“Coaches are aware of how to ignite passion and motivate people. They have an energy that is contagious and know exactly how to get their team excited”- Brian Cagneey (Author of The 7 Laws book series)