Run, Jump, Throw Workshop – Cork 6th, 13th & 20th of May 2019

Leevale HPC and The Cork Institute of Technology played host to Corks first ever ‘Run, Jump, Throw Workshops’ over the month of May, with every night full of enthusiastic and energetic coaches.

Twenty four coaches in total attended all the three workshops. These workshops were designed to introduce developmental coaches to the basics of some new events, ideas and coaching methods to be able to deliver appropriate sessions in running, jumping and throwing events back in their clubs. Over three consecutive weeks, the coaches participated and engaged in events such as high jump, endurance running, sprinting, long jump, hurdles and shot putt.

We had some fantastic and insightful coaches on all evenings. Tom Galvin of North Cork AC delivered on both shot put and turbo javelin, he was extremely informative on introducing the technical elements to our coaches and emphasised the importance of strengthening our athletes to prevent injury and drop out. Rosie Daniels, Exercise Physiologist with the University of Limerick and former National Champion in the high jump, provided the coaches with practical approaches whilst developing our juvenile high jumpers. Rosie provided the coaches with an array of drills to improve coordination, bounce and technique. Alan Mahoney of Leevale AC, discussed the mechanics of acceleration and the processes involved for speed development. Coaches had the opportunity to get involved in some of the technical elements and drills for sprinting, which will hopefully be reintroduced to their young athletes.  Shane Howard , National Long Jump Champion  and fresh off his win in Oordegem , Belgium demonstrated the long jump and introduced the mechanics involved in both running and jumping. Shane and Tom are involved with the Cork Youth Development Initiative run by the Cork County Board, an excellent programme which promotes the development of some of the technical events during the Winter months. Both men have first-hand experience of developing young athletes which was appreciated by the coaches. Lilly-Ann O’Hora introduced the technicalities of hurdles to our coaches and encouraged all coaches to use hurdles during their warm ups, cool downs and sessions for all athletes and events.

Feedback has been very encouraging with all coaches saying they found the workshops very relevant to their coaching and would like to see more of these workshops across the year. Coaches found the courses practical in nature as they got to take participate throughout the events and in some events athletes were involved in the workshops. We hope that these coaches will be encouraged to attend more of our coach education and upcoming workshops going forward and can take home the key messages to all their athletes, training groups and clubs!

For more information, please contact Lilly-Ann OHora on 0858060440 or lillyannohora@athleticsireland.ie.