UKA May Dump Collins

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Collins running on empty as UKA steps up search for a new chief coach
STEVEN DOWNES

Dave Collins’ time as chief coach at UK Athletics could be running out. It is understood that when UKA’s governing board held an emergency meeting two weeks ago, Collins’ future was discussed.

The UKA board - which had no representative from Scotland at the meeting - was discussing finding a successor to Dave Moorcroft, who resigned as chief executive last month.

Now, they want to replace Collins as a matter of urgency, and it is understood that the board wants to recruit Charles van Commenee, who coached Denise Lewis to Olympic heptathlon gold in 2000. The new chief coach would be tasked with turning matters around before the Beijing Games in 2008 and then improving Britain’s track performances in time for London 2012.

Collins’s appointment in January 2005 was a shock. Although the Edinburgh University psychology lecturer had some experience working with elite athletes, he had never had any direct coaching experience.

It now seems that he got the job because Van Commenee and Keith Conner, the former triple jumper who is Australia’s head coach, both pulled out of consideration late in the day.

“We were within hours of making an appointment when our two top candidates dropped out,” one senior source told me this week, indicating that Van Commenee’s decision to return to work in his native Holland had thrown UKA’s plans into total disarray. “Collins wasn’t even second choice.”

Since then, Collins has presided over a series of below-par performances by Britain’s athletes.

Among some of his blunders have been: not going to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games to watch the home countries’ athletes perform because he had more pressing administrative work to deal with; a daily ‘school report’ on each athlete’s performance at the European championships in Gothenburg which was released to the press before it was discussed with the athletes; appointing alleged drug cheat Linford Christie to a high-profile coaching role for Britain’s up-and-coming sprinters; revealing in a BBC Radio interview that “more than 70” of Britain’s athletes had missed two out-of-competition drug tests.

Collins has lost the support of many athletes, not least Paula Radcliffe, who this week described him as “disrespectful” and “unfair”. Her criticism is doubly damaging: not only does she remain Britain’s most respected runner but her father, Peter, is the head of England Athletics and has even been tipped as an outside bet to replace Moorcroft.

This article: http://sport.scotsman.com/athletics.cfm?id=1373552006

Last updated: 16-Sep-06 00:58 BST

Comments Add your comment

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Well he has the hardest job in athletics (apart from us coaches of course!) and I think some of the things they are doing are good. To pull him now is like never giving him a chance but hey if it stops people compaining :slight_smile:

As for not going to the CWGs well it would cost a arm and a leg and what would he do there? Probably what he did at the Europeans = give people scores out of 10 and upset them.

I don’t think things are going to get better fast even if they change him. Lets wait and see.

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When someone on the inside trashed him that severely (“he wasn’t even second choice”), they’ve already cut the legs out from under him. His job is now virtually impossible as anyone tasked with something by him they disagree with will simply stall till he’s gone.
Paula Radcliffe trashed him and her father is head Athletics. Hmmm.
Anyone know why Connor didn’t want the job? Looking for something higher up?

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Translated as whoever is in charge is on a hiding to nothing

Is Collins that bad? :confused: From the limited info I have seen it looks like he has a tough job and isn’t getting the support from the board he should as comments like that above completely undermine him.

Are some of he terrible things he did so bad or is it a case that he isn’t pandering to egos from both athletes and administrators? :cool:

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Yes he is totally undermined- but he started down that road with a blame game towards the athletes with BS report cards without talking to them first before going public with criticisms. It is my opinion that such assessments should ONLY be for the athletes’ ears and should NEVER be made public. his job is to improve the circumstances that have made the bad performances possible. Calling athletes screw-ups doesn’t cut it as an explanation because in a truly competitive environment those people won’t even be on the team!

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Did he realease them or were they leaked?

Totally agree with your post.

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For the records the score cards was always proposed to be done for the press.

My take is when he came onboard a lot of people said he was a track men. I dont think you have to be a track man by the way. for a man in the army (supposedly) he forgot the basic rule of surrounding himself with the good right hand man. His appointments have be “criminal to say the least”.

Firstly he appoints a Javelin coach (John Thrower) as the sprints manager (By the way this man used to be incharge of the Throws for Donkey years and look at the state of that now in Britain). He appointed a jumps coach to look after throws. His argument is these guys dont have to be experts in the field they are managing because they are managing the performance athletes on the lottery. My question is, britain dont have any performance athletes so what are these guys managing. Thrower should have being sacked as he was part of the old school) not given a job he does not know any thing about.

Finally he has just appointed a series of coaches and half of them dont even have a squad to coach, this would include the great Linford, a man that has no shame taking money to be a coach or is it mentor, sorry coach, he is famous for seeing his old athlete train once a week. Every body know Linford is a celebrity coach and Ron Roddan has been doing the work, so why appoint him and pay him (allegedly 50k a week) when you want to pay other coaches that are bursting their balls 25k a year.

I dont think Collins would be missed. As an arm chair fan I just want the athletes to do well so I dont keep on watching dross on the box

A lot of people that said he didt know track at the start are now are saying I told you so.

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If the “score cards” were proposed for the press for years, then stupid people have been around there for- well- years. It’s a shockingly stupid idea if it’s to help the press shit on athletes! Believe me- the British press need no help doing that!
Cronyism? Surely not! Of course, this is the state of affairs everywhere. in Canada, they had an Oly Champ and two World Champ medallists turned down for the High Performance director’s job cause they “didn’t have enough experience in the field”. The guy they hired was already in the office with nowhere else to shuffle him and his only credental was a degree in Town Planning. It’s the kind of insider bullshit that leaves Nick Macrozinaris and Anson Henry without carding support while jokers who arent as good, now or ever, and havn’t improved in years keep theirs.
I have no problem with the apt of Linford as a mentor to athletes (Liason to agents, meet directors, etc, so they don’t get ripped off along the way).
Somehow doubt your figures though. If you are right, then, of course, it’s madness. There should be some means of getting the records of pay packets cause it’s public money. Anybody got the exact figures?
I smelled trouble comming though when I heard about the athletes’ cntracts that spelled out all sorts of obligations for the athletes but only vague hints at what the federation was supposed to do.
No one has put the board’s feet to the fire over hiring Collins in the first place if they didn’t want him. Now they’ll have to pay him off to take a walk.
You mention the army with the idea of surrounding yourself with a good right hand man. All well and good, but the British army had a long and sorry history of getting the idiot sons of the rich in the officer corps.
Another way to look at the appointments you referred to is: The way a bureaucrat can look smart and in control is to surround himself with incompetent people who are clearly out of their depth.

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The figures are right the jobs were advertised at 25-35 (but there were willing to pay more for the right experince) your last paragraph althoght harsh is true. It shows that him and his cronnies have not done their research well before embacking on some of his crazy decision.

Keith did not get the job as they did not like his outspoken manner,Remeber Keith did still have a job in Autralia and the UKA job would have brought him back. Holland offered charles a job while UKA were still pissing about making a decision that was clear to everyone. The papers and the people in the know said he Charles was the best man for the job but he was not an ass-licker. He knew performance how to coach (Denise Lewis) how to plan, prepare and organise and he proves that while he was in britain as he used to be the manager of the jumps and multi events from 99-04.

To show how messed up the search for the right man was, After a year of advertising the job they didt have any of the final 3 selected. Collins was not one of the final 3. hes was selected out of the blue 2 months after extensive criticism. The point is if he had originally applied for the job and was not in the last 3, does that mean they went back to their pile of rejects to select him? WOW

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I meant what they’re paying Linford for his job.
Is it coaching rather than advisor?
Your last question is a very good one and makes you wonder how far the rot extends. Is it too late to dust off Andy Norman??

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Supposedly 50k a year. Who knows what his role entails, first he was a mentor, then a coach, then a mentor then an advisor? Paula Radcliffe questioned Linford’s mentor role and then Collins started to back track?

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And there lies the paradox. Call for top 8 in the world and expect people to rise to the challenge. Yes it is good to have standards and try and get people to take it seriously but there is only so much tallent. Most people train part time and are never going to make it because they want to get careers at the same time as do athletics. Also some just don’t have the coaches etc to taper for compeitions correctly so they get low scores in the championships that they were not ranked on. Also you have to do an APP (athlete perofmrance plan) where you get scored on a lot of different things including quality of coaching, where you train, access to resources, dedication etc. Just by being in the wrong place you are going to score poorly and concequently you may find it hard to improve but if you are ranked 100 in the world but best in the UK do you give up your life to move and try and reach 75th? Or do you stay and just contribute the most you can to your country?

As for the “half performance managers/coaches not having squads” the problem is that if you are a perofmrance coach you can’t coach mules “otherwise you are wasting public money” - so the pool of tallent you are allowed to work with is limited. Show me a gorup that has 7-8 world class athletes under one coach. I can think of Tony Lester (well not any more) and Michael Afilaka (Sp?) and thats about it. So how are they going to get such a squad?

As for Collins, well from the stuff i have heard him say he “knows” performance sport. He isn’t an idiot but at the same time I think he underestimated what the press do to people in that position. So some of the decisions he made while perhaps not as pc as usual (more peformance orientated) may have been a good idea in theory were political suicide.

As for the coaching thing. Well what he doesn’t know is “training” - specific to athletics. But he knows “coaching” in the general sense - as he used to lecture and in the marines/rugby or whatever it was. Now we could argue about this distinction but based on all the Sports Coach UK/UKA Pathways I have done they separate coaching skills form training skills so at least they are being consistant.

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Your talent arguement is the first problem. If you don’t have a three group system (A or top, B aspiring, and C beginner), first your chances of developing top athletes is severely limited, Second you have already written your departure date because the talent you do have now will get older and you will have no one new in the pipeline.
As for expectations. That’s a funding and support issue, not a talking point to the press. Nobody smart will give a shit what you say about your “expectations”, only what you are doing to make it happen!

The arguement about Mulesreminds me about sales issues in the Insurance industry. Managers there couldn’t care less how many people you speak to, only how many sales you make! What’s wrong with a group having a few “mules” if you get enough “jewels”.

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50k a year, what a waste, I would think any coach should have athletes of all level like Charlie said. Why are some of thes guys being paid the money if they dont have any body to train. They cant be left to with the remit of going to form a squad. If you also look at some of Collins appointment I have being told that he seems to have given the roles to the coaches that currently train the athletes he perceive as top8 or top 3 in 2008. i THINK YOU ARE RIGHT IN THE mentioning lester and afilika but I am not right in saying one of them is being paid a lot of dosh working for UKA to coach in lester and the other a another in voluntary coach like miilions of volunteers are british sport.

A lot of the coaches Collins have invested in have not done very well this season and the results been very weak, hence benjamin has left and so is the other 400m runner tony has. In any other work of life, some body would ask why a lot of top athletes are not doing well? especially where most of their coaches are being paid to bloody coach.

top 8 or top 3 you need a strong structure backed by brilliant coaches. If Collins does not learns that he might not be in a job for top long

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High profile former athletes? Athletes listen to individuals such as Colin Jackson, Sally Gunnell, Linford etc - they have been there and “got the t-shirt”.

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Does everyone (anyone) agree with the concept of the need for A, B, C groups in each training center?

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Yes I do completely agree becos I would think part of these guys wanting to be a good coach would be to cater for athlete of all ages.

This would mean preparing different work for different athletes of different age group. Similar to what you did all those years ago, numerous records and top performances with differenr athletes of different gender and age. As you said if coaches out there dont agree with it they would end up with old average athlete because the chances is that kind of a coach would not be very successful anyway.

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Well it makes sense and it prevents the problem of getting junior internationals with loads of problems and then having to spend the first year sorting them out.

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If coaches want paid positions, they’d apprentice and help with the center coaches as a way ahead. That way the groups can be managed. Now they just parachute in from God knows where!

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BUT BUT BUT But but but . . . that would mean co-operating with another coach :eek: