NEWSLETTERJULY 2015

Above all else, sport at its heart is about participation. It is about choosing to take part in a recreational undertaking that provides you with enjoyment, improved fitness and a release of endorphins unachievable in most other pursuits.

In an athletics sense, the range of achievements available to those who decide to be involved are myriad. It could be a new personal best in your chosen event, selection to a school, club, state or national representative team or simply the ability to get off the couch and run five kilometres.

Accredited Athletics Coaches can be involved in each and every available outcome as well. Some work to ensure the selection of their athletes to national team, while others work in schools or at clubs alongside students and budding athletes.

There is also ample opportunity for coaches who are interested in working alongside the more-than-a-million strong group of people who identify as recreational runners, taking part in events ranging from parkrun in their local area to the City2Surf in Sydney and Tough Mudder across the nation. It is the experience of these coaches, and their athletes, that we will focus on in this edition. The Coaching Insight details the hard work of middle and long distance coach Tim Crosbie and his commitment to a running squad of more than 200 athletes, including the IAAF World Championships bound Sinead Diver, our feature athlete. Diver is a mother-of-two who commenced

running to stay fit and, together with her coach, they have shared a journey to her selection for Australian representation.

We have also detailed information on upcoming Level 3 IAAF Coaching Courses that will be offered by Athletics Australia. Expressions of interest to attend these events have been numerous, so be sure to register quickly if you wish to take part.

In a separate attachment to this publication, you can also download complete details for the upcoming Australian Track & Field Coaches’ Association National Coaching Congress. This flyer details all you need to know about the three-day event and Athletics Australia, together with the Australian Institute of Sport, are proud to be supporting the congress.

I would also like to take this opportunity to extend a thank you to all those Accredited Athletics Coaches who provided feedback on the first edition of this publication last month.

The Athletics Australia Coaching Development team were thrilled to hear that so many of you enjoyed the contents, and we look forward to working alongside you as a national coaching community to continue to improve the ways in which we communicate and interact with you all.

Jill TaylorNational Coaching Development ManagerAthletics Australia

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IAAF Level 3 Coaching Courses

Athletics Australia are delighted to offer two opportunities for coaches to be involved in both the IAAF Level 3 Throws Coaching Course and the IAAF Level 3 Sprints, Relays & Hurdles Coaching Course in the coming months. Details for both events are as follows:

IAAF Level 3 Throws Course20 September – 3 OctoberGriffith University, Gold Coast

1 POSITION LEFT - REGISTER FAST!

IAAF Level 3 Sprints, Relays and Hurdles Course30 October – 11 NovemberGriffith University, Gold Coast

This is an exciting step forward for Athletics Australia, providing coaches with a worthwhile opportunity to upskill their knowledge in the delivery of coaching these two broad event groups.

The IAAF Level 3 Coaching Courses are an Introduction to Performance Coaching. They takes coaches to the next level of skill acquisition and move them through to planning and implementing effective annual training plans.

Entry for the IAAF Level 3 is granted to active Level 2 Advanced Event Group Specific Coaches and Level 3 Accredited Athletics Coaches, preferably with previous education in the chosen event group.

To register your interest, please submit a full resume containing coaching qualifications and experience. It is expected that coaches undertaking IAAF Level 3 would be coaching athletes over the age of 15.

Excitingly, the Australian Sports Commission has also made available a limited number of Women Leaders in Sport Grants for

the IAAF Level 3 coaching courses. Female coaches can receive up to $1,000 to go toward course fees and travel expenses, where your principle place of residence is over 200km from the Gold Coast.

COURSE COST: $660 AUD including GSTThe course fee covers the course, course resources and morning and afternoon teas only. It does not cover accommodation, travel, meals or other incidental costs.

TRAVELTravel to the course is at the expense of the participant.

The course will commence at 11:00am on the 30 October. Flights will need to allow you to be ready to sign in at 10:45am at the Gold Coast City Athletics Track at Griffith University. The course will conclude at 3:30pm on 11 November, with flights bookings recommended for after 4:45pm.

Please refrain from booking flights until your course attendance has been confirmed by Athletics Australia. ACCOMMODATIONAthletics Australia has reserved apartments in Southport, close to Griffith University, providing some options for shared accommodation. These apartments have been secured for $1,188 for the two weeks and can accommodate up to 3 people.

If you would like to share accommodation please indicate this in your expression of interest and we will endeavour to assist participants with sharing options.

Your expression of interest can be emailed to aac@athletics.org.au

They must be received by Athletics Australia by Wednesday 31 August 2015.

For more information, please contact Kylie Italiano in the Athletics Australia Coaching Department on (03) 8646 4550.

As the countdown to Beijing 2015 continues, Athletics Australia, with thanks to David Tarbotton, is celebrating our rich history of success at the IAAF World Championships.

It all began with ‘Deek’ in the marathon at the first world titles way back in 1983, with seven other athletes combining for a further nine gold medals at the pinnacle able-bodied event hosted by the IAAF.

In this edition of the Accredited Athletics Coach newsletter, we honour the women and men who have done the green and gold proud on one of the grandest stages of all.

AUSTRALIAN HONOUR ROLL: Women IAAF World Champions • Cathy Freeman (VIC) 1997 400m• Cathy Freeman (VIC) 1999 400m• Jana Pittman (NSW) 2003 400m Hurdles• Jana Pittman (NSW) 2007 400m Hurdles• Dani Samuels (NSW) 2009 Discus Throw• Sally Pearson (QLD) 2011 100m Hurdles(Note: Benita Willis also won gold at the 2004 IAAF World Cross Country Championships)

CATHERINE FREEMAN: 400m, 1997 & 1999Freeman’s remarkable success at the IAAF World Championships was a gradual thing. She initially travelled to the 1991 Tokyo-instalment, where she was a reserve for the 4x100 metres relay. Two years later at the 1993 championships, she graduated to the semi-finals of the 200 metres, and by 1995 she was running her specialty, the 400 metres, just missing a medal in fourth. She didn’t come home empty handed, however, anchoring the 4x400m relay to a bronze.

With the Sydney Olympic Games now just three years away, she was terrific at the 1997 World Championships. Going into Athens, Freeman led the world rankings, but after placing third in her semi-final she was drawn in the challenging lane one for the final. It was a close fought race as Freeman led at the 200m and 300m marks before withstanding a hard battle to the line from Jamaican Sandie Richards and American Jearl Miles-Clark. She won by 0.02 seconds in 49.77, winning the first ever 400m title from the inside lane. She celebrated her biggest win with both the Australian and Aboriginal flags.

In 1999, Freeman returned to the track after a truncated 1998 season due to injury. In the lead up to the world championships in Seville she had won all her 10 races and in the semi-final, running 49.76, indicated she was ready for the defense of her gold medal. In the round-of-eight she ran 49.67, her fastest time for two years to win.

JANA PITTMAN: 400m hurdles, 2003 & 2007A report of the 400 metre hurdles championship race in 2003 described Pittman’s win as ‘the biggest upset so far at the IAAF World Championships’. Recent world record breaker, Yuliya Pechonkina of Russia, was beaten into third place by Australia’s 20-year-old Commonwealth Games champion and it was a famous result.

Pechonkina had been the clear favourite, more than a second faster than anyone else had run in the year. In the final she looked set for a sub-53 second time when she faulted at the eighth hurdle, remaining ahead at the ninth but slowing. Pittman was closing in and caught the Russian with 30 metres to go to win in a personal best of 53.22, making her the youngest ever world or Olympic champion at 400m hurdles.

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A CELEBRATION OF AUSTRALIA’S WORLD CHAMPIONSA retrospective piece by David Tarbotton

The next few years were tough for Pittman. Just 17 days before the Olympic Games in Athens she had knee surgery but still managed fifth place. In 2005, after a promising season, she withdrew from the world championships with a stress fracture in her back. In her absence, the woman she beat in 2003, Pechonkina, took the title. Things improved in 2006 where she defended her Commonwealth Games crown.

Pittman’s build up to the 2007 event was also far from smooth. There was a pregnant pause when she gave birth in December 2006 to son Cornelis. She resumed training shortly after but was again halted with plantar fasciitis, missing 10 weeks preparation, but by July was running well in Europe ahead of the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka.

In Japan, one of her main rivals would again be Pechonkina. Pittman ran a superbly controlled race from lane five to lead the defending champion to the line in 53.31, a season’s best.

“There is some truth to them saying that mummies come back strong. As a mummy you can do anything – there were three of us in the final today,” Pittman said.

DANI SAMUELS: Discus Throw, 2009Producing one of the biggest surprises of the IAAF World Championships in Berlin (GER), Dani Samuels clinched the title in the discus throw, the first global discus title for Australia.

Samuels entered the competition with a personal record of 62.95m from 2008, but her coach Denis Knowles analysed her potential.

“I knew that she (Samuels) would have a chance to medal, though I did not think about the gold. When there were throws of 64 and 65 metres by two others I thought that is was going to be difficult to surpass them, but the bronze medal was always in reach,” Knowles said.

Then Samuels improved her personal best to 64.76m in round four and took third for the moment.

“Throwing 64 metres was fantastic for me, because then I was relaxed and that helped further improving in the next round. I knew that maybe there would be a chance to even win gold here.

But everything would have to really fit perfectly together – and it did,” Samuels said.

Samuels with a dramatic 65.44m throw in the fifth round took the title. It was her second personal best on the soggy evening. Her win saw the youngest ever world discus champion join an elite group of a dozen athletes to have won the world youth, world junior and world championships titles.

SALLY PEARSON: 100m hurdles, 2011Pearson’s 100 metre hurdles win in Daegu at the 2011 World Championships was described as ‘flawless’. It was the equal fourth fastest in history and broke a 24-year-old championships record.

Pearson had made her world championships debut, way back in 2003 when as a 16-year-old she ran in the 4x100m relay. She first hurdled at the 2007 World Championships where she progressed to the semi-final. The next year she hurdled to silver at the Beijing Olympics.

As the favourite for the title it looked like in 2009 she would climb to the top of the podium. But a torn disc in her lower back - not known at the time - was a massive handicap, restricting her to fifth in the final. Pearson makes no secret of the heartbreak of that race and it being the lowest point of her career.

“I went into those championships really defeated. I hurt my back two or three weeks beforehand. Then, my mind beat me,” Pearson said.

But two years on Pearson’s blistering pace and composure over the hurdles saw her win Australia’s first global title 100/80m hurdles title for 47-years.

“I just wanted this so badly. I’ve been focusing on that race for about a year now, making sure I got everything right,” Pearson said.

The huge disappointment of not even winning a medal at the last Championships two years earlier was finally erased from her mind. And as the year wound down, it was no surprise Pearson won many awards, but possibility the greatest was being honoured as the 2011 IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year.

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AUSTRALIAN HONOUR ROLL: Men IAAF World Champions• Rob de Castella (VIC) 1983 Marathon• Dmitri Markov (WA) 2001 Pole Vault• Nathan Deakes (VIC) 2007 50km Walk• Steve Hooker (WA) 2009 Pole Vault

ROB DE CASTELLA AO MBE: Marathon, 1983It took many years for the IAAF to decide to conduct their own world championships, but since the inaugural championships in 1983, it has grown to become one of the world’s leading sporting events.

Australia sent a large team of 29 athletes to Helsinki (FIN) with Rob de Castella one of its best hopes in the marathon. In the lead up he had won three major races, Fukuoka (1981), the Brisbane 1982 Commonwealth Games and Rotterdam (1983), but the marathon is one of the most unpredictable events and it really depends on your performance on the day.

On the final day of the 1983 event, the marathon was held and de Castella was the favourite. The racing started around 26km when three Africans and ‘Deek’ opened up a 100m gap, before being quickly rounded in by the 30km mark as the pack now numbered 20 athletes.

“I was very surprised that there were so many guys up there for so long. You couldn’t relax because there was so much chopping and changing, you had to really concentrate,” de Castella recalled.

Only Ethiopian Balcha went with de Castella as he moved to the front on an uphill section at about 35km. De Castella struck again with 3km to go, running on to win by 24 seconds in 2:10.03. He remains the only non-African distance winner in championships history.

The 1983 world championship was a very different race to his three previous wins in Fukuoka, Brisbane and Rotterdam.

“Helsinki was a technical race for me in terms of strategy. I employed a series of surges to break the field initially and then to break the Ethiopian Balcha, and went on to win fairly comfortably,” de Castella said.

Post retirement de Castella has contributed enormously to athletics and sport. He was the AIS Director from 1990 to 1995 and now works extensively alongside his charity, the Indigenous Marathon Project.

DMITRI MARKOV: Pole Vault, 2001The 2001 men’s pole vault was considered a wide open event after the retirement of six time world champion, Sergey Bubka (UKR) and the injury to defending champion Maksim Tarasov (RUS). As a result, for the first time in World Championship history, the gold could go to an athlete who is not from a former Soviet country.

Ironically, though, two of the contenders were a Russian (Dmitri Markov) and a Belarusian (Victor Chistiakov), now competing for Australia. In his first competition for his new country, Markov finished second at the IAAF World Championships in Seville (ESP) in 1999 and in doing so posted a new Australian record of 5.95m. His personal best, a magical 6.00m, was set while still competing for Belarus.

In Edmonton (CAN) in 2001 Markov successfully negotiated the qualifying round with a clearance at 5.70m. But disaster struck after the qualifying when he hit his foot on a table in his hotel room, aggravating an injury he had picked up in Germany two months earlier. After the final Markov revealed the dramas he had endured to compete.

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“My foot was sore,” he admitted, “I spent ten hours yesterday and another three hours today just icing it,” Markov said.“I remember him the morning after he had kicked his foot, he could not stand,” Brent Kirkbride, Australian team physiotherapist, said.

With strapping and injections, he took to the field for the final with a strategy of minimum jumps.

He passed the first two heights and used only five jumps to win his first world title at 5.95m before continuing onward into the stratosphere with a 6.05m clearance, a height unprecedented in World Championships history. Markov then directed the bar to be raised to 6.10m, but it was not to be with none of his attempts close.

NATHAN DEAKES: 50km Walk, 2007He had won Commonwealth gold medals and Olympic medals but in Osaka in 2007, Nathan Deakes walked away with victory in the 50km walk.

“This is what every athlete dreams of,” Deakes said.

“It is a great feeling, records are to be broken, but nobody can take from you away the world champion title.”

The temperature was already in the high 20s at shortly after 7am when the walkers left an eerily empty Nagai Stadium after four and a half laps around the track. Deakes led them out of the stadium with the lead pack.

After being positioned well throughout the race, Deakes put in a decisive 5km between 35 and 40km, as the heat around him caused carnage. The iron man Deakes was now in the lead by 39 seconds. Once Deakes had taken the lead his victory never looked in doubt. He maintained his relentless pace slowing slightly in the last 10km, although never more than his challengers.

As he approached the stadium Deakes gave a thumbs up sign to Aussie fans at the side of the course. By now he was sure of the gold and the grimace of pain and sweaty concentration he’d shown for the last 10 kilometres turned into a smile.

The Australian, who has been preparing for the World Championships in Italy, entered the stadium in a winning position. He crossed the line in 3:43:53, his face streaming with tears.

“I had my plan and executed well,” he said. “I will remember forever the feeling when I came into the stadium and it was clear I was the champion. It was quite emotional. I think it was my tenth 50km, so it’s a great jubilee.”

STEVE HOOKER: Pole Vault, 2009You would have thought that Steve Hooker, as Olympic champion in the men’s pole vault and world number two outdoors in the season, would have fancied his chances of taking gold at the World Championships in Berlin. But the truth is, he did not.

Hooker reacted with disbelief at his ‘luck’ in winning after a remarkable sequence of events. It all began with a thigh injury suffered at the Australia team training camp in Cologne 12 days earlier, which had him rating his chances of contesting the final at only 50-50, and then left him grimacing in the qualifying round.

“I think potentially at these championships the gold is out of my reach,’’ Hooker said, after qualifying with just one jump. He was in obvious pain as he limped away from the mat.

Two days later he had the final and not knowing how his body would cope, he waited until the bar was raised to 5.65m. Still uncertain he continued to wait, until the bar reached 5.85m and he took his first attempt, narrowly missing it. With his competitors, Romain Mesnil and Renaud Lavillenie, who had come in at 5.50m, clear at 5.85m and 5.80m respectively, Hooker gambled and took his second attempt at 5.90m, and cleared, taking the gold with just two jumps in the final.

“Luckily for me, prior to this injury, I had done such fantastic training that I knew what great shape I was in. There was one specific training session in Leverkusen before I got hurt where, on the pole I jumped on today, I jumped 5.90m and so I knew I had it within me. I could go out with the confidence that I had the right pole and I had the right run-up. If I could just get down the runway it would be enough,” Hooker said.

“I was out there for an hour when everyone else was warming up and I was sitting around through that, so it seemed like a very long time. But, in a lot of ways, it probably worked in my favour. The French boys were very tired, I think, by the end and that probably just cost them a little bit. I was lucky I had this aggressive strategy but even more lucky that it paid off.

“There are three people who need a lot of recognition – that’s Shane Kelly, my physio, who I borrowed from the AIS, Adam Castricum, the team doctor who has definitely helped out a lot, and Alex Parnov, my amazing coach, who together with me came up with this radical, ridiculous plan than somehow has come off.

“It’s a mental battle that you have to fight with yourself and you have to convince yourself that you’re ready, you’re ready to pick up a massive competition pole that’s going to throw you nearly six metres in the air. You’ve got to convince yourself that you’re ready to do an aggressive jump with the stands very close in – and you’ve got to be prepared to take that risk.

“It has been a very, very challenging couple of weeks. I’ve tried to be as honest as possible with everyone throughout the process. Every day it has been a question of whether I jump or not and trying to sleep at night wasn’t the easiest thing. The people around me have made smart decisions and that’s what got me through.”

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Next month, Sinead Diver will make her Australian Flame debut in the marathon at the IAAF World Championships.

Coached by Tim Crosbie, who provides the Coaching Insight later in this newsletter, the below athlete feature details the journey of a recreational runner turned elite performer.

Sinead now has her sights set on the IAAF World Championships, but the reason for her success is much simpler – she is a good runner that has worked alongside her coach to achieve a goal that she never expected.

Jake Stevens explains.

It’s incredible to believe that just five years ago Sinead Diver (VIC) had no idea how successful her running career could be.

Yet at 38 years of age, Diver will be heading to Beijing (CHN) for the IAAF World Championships next month, joining Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games representatives Sarah Klein (VIC) and fellow debutant Julia Degan (NSW) in the famous 42.195km race.

Having only raced the marathon once before, Diver’s success story from a recreational runner to professional athlete is a remarkable and inspiring journey. Diver’s running career began after the birth of her first child, mainly for fitness purposes. When on maternity leave she was invited to fill-in a running team, and Diver’s ability was quickly noticed.

With some good early times, it was realized she had a lot of potential as an athlete, and began to train seriously under her newfound coach, Tim Crosbie. Before too long, Diver was making waves in domestic competition, coming second at the Victorian Track 5000m Championships in 2011, and then again in 2012.

“Running turned out to be a talent that I didn’t know I had. When I started properly timing myself and comparing that to other people, I thought ‘yep, I might be alright at this,’” Diver joked.

“I always knew I was a good runner, but I didn’t know anything about the running scene or racing or anything. It has been Tim who told me everything I know about running now, and he’s been with me for the whole journey – it’s been great.” Under the proper guidance, it was Diver’s 2012 season that really saw her improvement rise. She was the first Australian in the Sydney Half-Marathon (which doubled as the Australian Half-Marathon Championships), and also claimed the gold at the 10km race at the Melbourne Marathon Festival.

In 2014, Diver was prominent throughout Athletics Victoria’s XCR series, winning multiple times, and being crowned as the 2014 Champion Female Winter Athlete at the conclusion of the season.

From there, Diver has since moved on in great strides, partly due to her self-proclaimed natural ability and fierce mental strength.

“I guess I do have a natural ability, but I also train very hard to be as good as I can be. I’ve given this pursuit everything and I’m a very focused and determined person, I put a lot into it,” Diver said.

SINEAD DIVERFrom recreational runner to marathon starter at the IAAF World Championships

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“When I put my mind to something, I give it 100%. It’s definitely one of my strengths, it’s a good thing to have with distance running, because running the marathon is very much about mind strength as physical strength.”

Having only her 2014 Melbourne Marathon time to base her exact time off, Diver admits her selection to the World Championship team came as a massive shock.

“I feel quite lucky to have made the team because of my inexperience, so I am a little bit nervous about the fact I have only raced one marathon, but I don’t think it really matters, as it’s probably something I’d be naturally nervous about anyway.” Diver said.

“But that initial run went well for me, so based on that I’m pretty confident I’ll be okay. And I love longer runs anyway. Longer the better.”

Despite that inexperience, Diver feels as though the marathon may be her pet-event.

“I think I get the best out of myself in the marathon. I enjoy the half because you can do more of them in a year, because it doesn’t take as long to recover or to build up for one, but I think racing the marathon is where I get the most out of myself.” Diver said.

As she prepares for the big race come August, her children Eddy and Dara, aged 5 and 1, are only just beginning to understand Mummy’s achievements.

“Eddy knows I have an important race coming up in China, and he’s been asking whether he gets to go, he’s pretty excited about it,” Diver said.

“We were recently up at the Gold Coast and he’s getting to understand racing a bit more. I didn’t get a medal in that one so he was questioning me about that.” As for her expectations for Beijing, Diver is simply happy to have been given the opportunity to compete, and thankful she was able to discover and foster her extraordinary talent.

“I can’t wait. I’m really excited but I get butterflies in my stomach every time I think about it. I’m really looking forward to it.” Diver said.

“I want to do the best that I can and represent Australia well so I’ll do everything I can to give it my best shot.”

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COACHING INSIGHT: TIM CROSBIE

Tim Crosbie is an Accredited Athletics Coach with Athletics Australia, boasting a qualification of Level 3 Middle & Long Distance.

An avid believer in the ability of all people to become the best they can be as recreational runners, rather than ‘athletes’, Tim has seen his Crosbie Crew become a force of the Victorian athletics community. It boasts a membership upwards of 200 and regularly welcomes very large numbers to group training sessions at ‘the Tan’, Melbourne’s iconic running trail around the pristine surrounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

In more recent times, Tim has encountered a new challenge, one of guiding the IAAF World Championships bound Sinead Diver to her debut start with the Australian Flame in the marathon at a major international event.

The challenge has been one that both ‘runner’ and coach have relished, and today Tim provides coaching insight into balancing the needs of a very large squad who simply want to improve in their own personal goals. It’s not always about a performance outcome, but instead about being the best you can be within the boundaries you individually set for yourself.

When asked to outline my philosophy on coaching Recreational Runners, the song ‘Blurred Lines’ springs to mind because this comparatively new area of coaching grapples for methodology, meaning and in some ways respect.

Do we follow traditional middle and long distance theories, incorporate ‘boot-camp’ type group management or simply scale back all acquired coaching knowledge and deliver vanilla flavoured coaching for the mass audience?

And just as Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams found themselves in hot water over breach of copyright with their smash hit, this approach is not inventing a whole new raft of training systems, but rather modifying and adapting those that have come before us from multiple sources.

Recreational Running – what does it mean?So what exactly is a Recreational Runner? Just take a look around you at the diversity of Australian culture and community and you’ll get some idea of what the world of recreational running entails.

While the running boom of the new millennium has spawned mass participation road events and an eager clientele, some 1.6 million Australians if the Australia Bureau of Statistics is to believed, don’t neatly wrap this component of the sport up and call it recreational running. You have to throw in trail runners, ultra-runners, ‘couch to 5kay-ers’, adventure racers, participants in Tough Mudder, triathletes and those who simply just want to shed weight or keep fit. It’s then that you get close to a more complete definition.

As you can imagine, dealing with this level of variation, both in terms of ability levels and choice of event, presents a challenge that is both the bane and the delight of a recreational running coach’s life. Picture writing the program of a novice 5km parkrun participant training twice a week, and in that same week guiding

another runner towards an Australian Championship over 100km and you get an idea of what it’s all about.

Coaching the Recreational RunnerIn practical coaching terms, not much actually separates guiding a novice runner to their first 5km event and a shot putter to the Olympics. Basic fitness components, gradual conditioning, skill acquisition, maintenance routines and the principles of specificity and reversibility are central to both. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two would be the use of terminology – the words we use and associated imagery are powerful tools.

In general a softer turn of phrase is used when dealing with people who may lack confidence, have body image issues or simply feel they don’t belong in the world of fit people. Call a new runner an ‘athlete’ and they are likely (if capable) to run a mile in the other direction. They no more consider themselves, or associate with the word athlete than someone playing kick to kick is an AFL footballer. So out with ‘athlete’ and in with ‘runner’ - but not ‘jogger’ as this as we all know is an outsider’s term for what we do!

Taking this further let’s not frighten them with ‘speed’ sessions that may require running an anaerobic threshold at 87% of MHR, but rather lets tempo for 20 minutes at your perceived 10km race pace.

Starting to get it? The art of coaching in this area requires gentle persuasion, reinforcement of the positives and the setting of realistic goals based on individual circumstances.

But don’t think we just end up molly-coddling a bunch of softies, the goals and ambitions most recreational runners set for themselves require dedication and perseverance to achieve. Those without some level of grit won’t get past session one or two. The coach’s role therefore transcends that of physical preparation and into the realms of psychological conditioning and empowerment. Athletics coaches across the country know exactly what’s going on here.

The group, the squad, the pack or whatever shape it takesPerhaps a key point of separation from track and field and recreational running is the potential for the group size to expand remarkably. Local tracks are busy places with vibrant squads across many disciplines centred on their hard working coaches.But it would be rare for any track to have one squad of over 120 eager participants doing the same session, at the same place, at the same time. For a growing number of recreational coaches, this is the weekly reality of their situation.

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Coping mechanisms are obviously required to manage this level of engagement. Can 120 people actually do the same session effectively? Well, depending on the actual session and the facilities available, the answer is most definitely yes.

And will 120 derive a training benefit from the session? Once again the answer is yes provided the session is managed in a way that provides the opportunity for each individual to run their required distance at their preferred speed.

More commonly though the recreational running coach will be dividing runners according to training objectives or ability, or both. Given the variability discussed earlier, will an ultra-runner be doing the same session as a novice 5km runner? Most likely not, but there can be some common ground.

Social animals require social fitness opportunitiesAs with track and field disciplines, it is important to understand what drives and motivates the individuals you coach. There is no doubt the same key drivers exist - improvement in performance, skill acquisition, goal driven outcomes and social interaction. It’s perhaps the weighting attached to each of these that differs between a recreational runner and an athlete.

Whilst the endorphin rush of a great performance or tough session is palpable and a great stimulus for continued involvement, the social engagement with others sharing the same journey is perhaps the greatest motivator for the recreational runner. Most are not aspiring to the heights of elite performance, rather chasing personal goals of time, distance or simply reaching a finish line. To do so in a mutually supportive environment is the key to success for any recreational running group.

The lines get even blurrier – elite performance and the recreational runnerSix years ago a 30 something female wearing long tights, a running jacket and the obligatory iPod wandered in to my running group on the recommendation of a friend. Within a few months she was gone again and like so many transient runners unlikely to come back.

In 2010 she returned after a trip home to Ireland, the reason for her absence, then by mid-2010 the training was consistent. A modest win over 10k at a local fun-run sparked something for the runner and coach alike – she was actually good at this running thing.

Having never run at all aside from an occasional treadmill session, Sinead Diver took the sport up aged 31 in order to keep fit. Roll forward to 2015 and she takes her place in the Australian Flame team having been selected to run the marathon at the IAAF World Championships.

Sinead’s story is unique but not unusual. For females in particular we are witnessing the rise of a talented bunch of mature women who have had no, or very little, exposure to athletics in their youth. For many, recreational running has opened the door to a sport accepting of their circumstances and need to juggle the multiple responsibilities of people in the real world – family, work and social commitments.

As a recreational running coach, having a Sinead Diver land in your lap is both the source of great delight but also poses a series of questions and doubts.

To hand over or share the journey?A question that many developing coaches ask themselves no doubt - am I equipped technically, have the necessary time and understand the international scene sufficiently well to provide the best opportunities for the runner? Or should a more experienced coach be sourced to guide the next stage of the journey?

Fortunately dealing with an extremely well organised person such as Sinead has made my task easier, but it has certainly been a learning curve for both us as we move from local and domestic competition to the big world of international athletics. Critical to this has been building the ‘team’ that all high performers require – most importantly a supportive family, great training partners and the ability to tap into experts in various fields.

Mutual respect for each other’s role moving forward has also helped us build a robust system and environment for Sinead to develop, and as they say, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Heading towards Beijing this recreational runner come elite performer and her coach are experiencing the usual speed bumps along the way, but so far so good.

Back in context of how Sinead fits in to our broader group of 200+ runners in the squad.

Does her training vary dramatically from others? No. Sinead’s training follows the same training principles of the group and remarkably her weekly mileage is below that of some others. Does she participate in big group sessions? Yes. Sinead does not place herself above the group that enabled her to thrive. Will this change as her ambitions and opportunities increase? I doubt it. Sinead is firmly planted to the ground and oozes quality.

So to quote Thicke and Williams – ‘no more pretending, cause now you’re winning’ - has lead this runner and her coach on a line that although blurred at times, now has clear direction and purpose.

BRING ON BEIJING!

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Distribution List

The Coaching Department is fortunate that we are provided access to innumerable coaching articles and current research documentation. We have created an opportunity to share this information with Accredited Athletics Coaches.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please email jill.taylor@athletics.org.au and we will add you to the distribution list.

Summary of Upcoming Events

Accredited Coach Education CoursesAthletics Australia has all coaching courses throughout Australia listed on the Athletics Australia website.

To view the complete Coach Education Calendar, please visit here.

Kids’ Athletics & Sporting Schools – Book in for the upcoming upskilling programsTo register please click on your chosen course via this link.

USEFUL CONTACT INFORMATION

ACT Mary Schumacher development@actlaa.org.au

NSW Lisa McConchie lisa.mcconchie@sealglobal.net

Glen Howell glen25_howell@hotmail.com.au

NT John Bowden development@ntathletics.org.au

QLD Daniel Rowe daniel.rowe@qldathletics.org.au

SA Adam Didyk coaching@athleticssa.com.au

TAS Athletics Australia aac@athletics.org.au

VIC Kylie Italiano kylie@athsvic.org.au

WA Sharon Brown info@waathletics.org.au

National Coaching Development Manager Jill Taylor jill.taylor@athletics.org.au

Coach Accreditation Administrator Lynne Evans lynne.evans@athletics.org.au

Coach Development Administrator Kylie Italiano kylie.italiano@athletics.org.au

For further information about Accredited Coach Education Courses, please contact your state provider listed below: