I just got some news from someone in the track world in Britain about the lastest going on’s.
Dave Collins have invited some of Britain young aspiring hurdlers to come and spend a week training and attending sessions by Mrs Olijas (Stan Olijas’s mum/coach). Apparently she is suppose to be a good coach. She would be based somewhere in Britain for a week.
The only problem is that Our man (Mr Collins) have not spoken to or consulted with most of the coaches to tell them about either inviting someone down or what the coaches feel. He wrote directly to the athletes and mentioned that they can bring their coaches down with them. This is optional for the athletes I have being told.
As an fan I am not looking forward to 08 O’s as there does not seem to be any structure to all this stuff that I am reading.
Most importantly Dave Collins is showing he is seriously out of his depth.This man does not seem to know what he is doing at all.
Is it me or is Collins wrong to interfere with not just the athletes training but also a complete disrespect for the coaches? I would have thought he should have given them more of an option initially.
If I was one of those coaches I would completely loose the plot,
Can any British coaches on this forum confirm this story?
:eek:
It is TOTALLY WRONG to go behind the coaches backs but yet it’s typical of how administrators arrange direct access to athletes for their own advantage. Collins has GOT TO GO. (If there was any doubt left anyway)
All administrators want to drive a wedge between athletes and coaches to strengthen their positions.
Coaches are the first to recognize BS when they see it and the disruption of the coaching bond keeps coaches from having enough power to get their way.
Athletes are promised money etc- and are usually not around long enough to recognize that they’re being played.
I havn’t heard about this, though i would be interested as I always like to see what coaches are doing. Question is, what are you going to do with 10 people you don’t know who are either in season and hence need to stick to the current game plan or out of season and hence arn’t in shape to do anything anyway.
Although I understand the argument of the athlete not wanting to get out of the “comfort” zone during normal training, this isn’t necessarily a good thing and this is the time (in agreement with the coach, of course) to take on board certain advice -certainly by competition time it’ll be too late (note: not sure what you mean by in-season here…).
If during off-season, get a tape of yours and ask for advice on what you (and your coach, of course) need to work on -better than nothing, I guess.
As you say, always interesting to hear others!
PS There is no point in discussing whom you need to contact first and/or at the same time…
If this were a matter of inviting athletes and their coaches to a planning session, that’s one thing, but, this is billed as a TRAINING session with a new and unknown coach, outside the presence of the existing coaches who have no knowledge of the agenda.
This happened to me exactly once. A Canadian hurdles coach got hold of my best young hurdler, Mark McKoy, in my absence, and had him run over hurdles of varying distances and heights. He fell and tore a knee ligament and was out for the year!
To add insult to injury, there was an annual coaches meeting where I was told I should turn Mark over to work with the same hurdles coach! (By now I was seething!)
Then, another coach complained: “Why that Mark NcKoy did nothing this year. Why was he carded?”
Gerrard Mach tried his best to diffuse the situation, telling the idiot vault coach: “First, through the incompetence of one of our coaches, Mark missed his whole year and now you want to punish him twice!”
I had another suggestion: “Why don’t you shut your fucking mouth and stick to your own sorry event and stay out of my business before I come over this table and rip your fucking head off and piss down you throat!”
Hahaha! Enjoyable as always, Charlie! I bet he/she didn’t enjoy it as much…
In that case, I guess, the PS in my last post was more important than the post itself…
Point of note, this situation is not an isolated one in British Athletics (though not sure this one is anything to do with Collins):
In November, ship 10 coaches and athletes (3 coaches I think, coaches of some of these athletes not included) off to Holland to do some work with Rens Bloms coach (pole vault). Itinary of the trip is as follows:
Thursday: Travel
Friday: Technical jumps session with video analysis
Saturday: Various lectures about training aspects and psychology
Sunday: Competition
Monday: Travel back
I personally have tried to present just the facts as I know them, anyone have an opinion?
Having read your post I dont understand what you mean that I dont think this has anything to do with Collins. Are you talking about your post or the case in this thread.
My point is that 18 moments down the line from this guys appointment, he has shown he has no business doing the job. A lot of his decision and terrible appointment have proved ill-thought. Appointing a not so good Javalin coach (John Thrower) who was in charge of throws in Britain for many years (and look at the state of that at the moment) to look after sprints is got to be the worst decision he could have made. How on earth can he critique what the coaches are doing with their athletes when he does not understand the first thing about sprints. The results show Britain has being pants in the sprints, something that not happened for a long time.
Take one look at Kelly Sothertton throw the Jav and as a spectator I feel like asking for my money back, so you cant say his good at Jav as well from that account.
Giving marks to athletes what else can you say and employing a guy that has no interest in coaching on a day to day in Linford is another blunder. And if my post at the begining of this thread is right it shows he does not and dont want to understand what makes greats and athletes.
I read on one of the forum in England that appearently Thrower brought Collins into UKA: Old Boys Club it sounds like
I think PV was just asking about the relevance of performing full technical training (actual vaulting) at this stage in the season where most people won’t have vaulted for ages so any technical feedback will hardly be relevant because the vaulters will not be prepared for the technical work anyway.
