The pride of Wales at the recent
Athletics World Championships in Berlin did not rest uniquely on the shoulders
of David Greene and Rhys Williams: while the Welsh hurdlers faced their 400mH
opponents on the track, three other Welshmen were taking part in an initiative
organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to
group together 50 coaches from across the world deemed by their home governing
bodies worthy enough to be nominated to jointhe aptly named “World Class
Coaches Club”.
Sean Power (former Director of Athletics at UWIC),Scott
Simpson (current Director of Athletics at UWIC) and Egryn Jones were selected by UKAthrough a very competitive process
to attend this exclusive series of workshops, seminarsand conferences aimed at sharing
and improving coaching skills and enhance the sector’s knowledge base. “We had
to make our case to go, presenting our coaching CV,an essay and proving we were the
most suited to gain a place” says Sean Power, who is a coach at UWIC, “it has
been a very intensive learning experience but also an unique chance to see
World class athletics in a privileged position.” And, having sat with the
judges and timekeepers beside the finish line as Usain Bolt smashed yet another
World Record in the 100m, Mr Power’s position could have hardly been any
better.
“It has been a highly rewarding
experience” says Mr Power, who specialises in horizontal jumps and as such was
able to benefit from seminars involvingsporting
legends like Lynn “the Leap” Davies. The Coaches Club’s activities also
involved event-specific meetings and focused question & answer sessions
with professionals like Loren Seagrave, who in Berlin helped jumper Dwight
Phillips to World glory and was previously behind Donovan Bailey’s sprinting
successes.
The opportunity for the Welsh
coaches to contribute building the way forward in athletics, however, was not
limited to the World Class Coaches Club. After the conclusion of the Berlin
Worlds, the trio was able to attend the IAAF World Coaches Conference, to which
the majority of the coaches of the athletes involved in the World Championships
participated; in the words of Power, “a fantastic occasion to have an informed
discussion at elite level.”
As the trio returns home after
this experience, they will be able to meet Welsh Athletics’ new Head of
Coaching John Dagata. The newly appointed American coach, who is due to take up
his post at the beginning of September, is one of the exponents of the overseas
school of coaching, distinguished for its knowledgeable background – one of the
aspects that impressed Power the most in Berlin. “Abroad, full time pro coaches
and the background from which they come, make the difference. We have to set a
blueprint for developing coaches in the UK and close the huge background gap we
are now suffering from.”
Dagata’s appointment is one step
towards the solution to this problem.
