Coach & Be Coached

Its been a hugely busy weekend for me. I flew to Ireland last Thursday and spent my weekend at the University of Limerick, in Limerick obviously, attending seminars, discussions and demonstrations all in the name of gaining my coaching qualifications. My track coaching qualifications that would be. And wouldn’t you know, I got them. Yes, yours truly is now a certified and qualified track coach. Athletes of the world beware.

The whole weekend has been the most fun, as well as the most challenging that I’ve experienced in a long time. I was pushed and dragged out of my comfort zone so often over the 3 days. There was public speaking, organizing, demonstrating, co-coordinating, communicating, thinking, planning, listening, administrating and controlling tasks to be performed and critiqued all under the watchful eyes of 30 odd people. Scary, very, very scary. But what a huge buzz and rush of adrenaline once I managed to complete each task, successfully.

One of the more fun challenges we had to take on was that of designing a training session aimed at 5-10 year olds. The session needed to be high in energy (cos seriously, what child isn’t), easy to understand (so language needed to be simple & explanations kept to a minimum due to the risk of boredom) and be able to hold their interest (cos we all know the attention span of a child can be short). But it also needed to be relative to the sport of track and field, so tapping into their use of speed, agility and balance was essential. We were then required to test our newly designed sessions on each other. Yes, grown ass men and women were out there rolling, tumbling, throwing, jumping and chasing each other around, all in the name of reconnecting with a 5-10 year old version of ourselves.
As an outside observer, it was a sight to behold, as a participant, it was an absolute blast. One of the highlights of the weekend.

Away from the academic side of things, I got the opportunity to catch up with athlete friends I had not seen for years. Those I had competed with at school level and those who I hadn’t seen since they held my hand and calmed my nervous as I waited to compete for Ireland at my first ever international.
It was so weird to sit down and reflect on the types of people we were all those years ago and rehash some of the funny, embarrassing, horrific, successful and down right disgraceful stories from past years of training, traveling and competing together. And no, I have no intention of sharing any of those stories. The slogan of “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” applies heavily within the context of track too ; )
But suffice to say, time and age has managed to reshape some into calmer, more mature versions of their younger selves, and for the rest of us, it has made absolutely zero difference.

Good times everyone, good time.




Filling our brains with coaching knowledge.

Socialising at the end of day one. Nicola & I were room-mates on many of my early trips with the Irish track team. She is one of the wildest, sweetest, most consistent and trusting friends you could ever have and I will say that life as Nicola's room-mate, was never, NEVER, dull.

Gary and I were on the same track team in college. Shout out to Waterford IT. And we've also lived and trained together at various points over both our careers. Boy does he have a few stories. Must always stay on Gary's good side.

Shot-Putter Sean. I have not seen Sean since we were about 17 years old. Apparently I broke his camera at an airport on the way back from a competition. I have no recollection of such an event. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.