By Michael Sharapoff (Athletics New Zealand Coach Development Manager)
Athletics New Zealand held their Coaching Conference at The Trusts Stadium in Waitakere from 12 – 14 November 2010.
The conference was well attended with 72 attendees, and sponsored by NZOC, Olympic Solidarity and The Trusts Charitable Foundation.
Athletics New Zealand staff played a major role in presenting Athletics NZ initiatives that support the national coaching programme. This covered medical team support, sport planning, team management roles and selection process, coach framework, coaching programmes, coach development, and performance funnels.
The key note speaker was Kevin Ankrom, Athletics New Zealand High Performance Director.
Kevin’s presentation outlined the performance plan through to London Olympics 2012, focusing on the goals and the initiatives to achieve the goals. Kevin also talked about the potential of forming high performance hubs to deliver on the outcomes leading to Rio 2016 and beyond, which will focus the future direction of all performance coaching in New Zealand. Kevin was supported by Michelle Kiesanowski, High Performance Coordinator, who presented on performance services and the development of the IPP process, that now contains a Sports Plan and a Service Plan for athletes and soon-to-be coaches. This will offer quality individual performance plans with targeted resourcing from Athletics NZ.
Athletics New Zealand can offer coaches a pathway at all levels of the framework. Our best coaches need to be at the community level of the sport.
Over the past year, Brent Ward has been working within the Silicon Coach “The Zone” product, an online video analysis tool that can be used as an online discussions forum http://thezone.siliconcoach.com/. Brent gave a demonstration on the usefulness of this product and the benefits it can offer to coaches. Athletics New Zealand is running a pilot with 75 zones being used with targeted coaches and athletes; we hope to develop this into a national programme in 2011.
For the remainder of the conference the conference was split into two coaching streams: Community and Performance.
The Community stream (targeting athletes aged 5 – 14, 75% of Athletics NZ membership) was an opportunity for coaches to hear about best practice models from around the country. This included presentations from: Alan McDonald - Waikato Bay of Plenty – How to build a club programme; Lorne Singer – Athletics Southland Run Jump Throw Programme; Warren Ogilvie – Sport Waitakere; Waitakere Club Development programme. Michael Sharapoff then had a workshop on strategy on developing a coaching programme.
The Performance stream (targeting athletes aged 19+, competing in Black Singlet meets) had presentations from the Rio 2016 coordinators. These included: Middle Distance – Maria Hassan; Walks - Tony Sargisson; Horizontal Jumps – Lance Smith; High Jump – Ed Fern/Brent Booker; Combined Events - Andrew Maclennan; Shot/ Discus – Matt Dallow; and Sprints/Relays – Brent Ward. All the presentations are on the coaching website.
Day Three was more of a practical day with the following practical workshops:
Drills on Shot Put: Technique and specific Conditioning –Didier Poppe
Run Jump Throw–Michael Sharapoff
Introducing Youngsters to the Triple Jump - a practical skills session – Lance Smith
High Jump – Ed Fern
Developing a Distance programme – Maria Hassan and Craig Motley
IAAF Kids Athletics practical – Catherine O’Sullivan and Jarrod Adams
Javelin – Debbie Strange
Pole Vault – Terry Lomax
Relays – Brent Ward
The conference wrapped up with group activity. All coaches thought about where on the new framework they sit: Fundamentals, Community, Development or Performance strand. The question was then posed: “What do coaches in your strand want from Athletics New Zealand?” and then prioritised. Here are the top five requests:
Fundamentals
More people teaching correct fundamentals in schools
Community
Club operating manual, document templates, online
Local contacts to Athletics NZ, schools and clubs
Each club needs to know who the regional facilitator is and what they do
Continue to fund/provide regional facilitators/club and coach development
Access to local coaches who can help our coaches learn
Development
Realigning NZ Secondary Schools; spec for hurdles and to March/April
Communication and Marketing; IT more easy and accessible, EoI’s not user friendly
Professional Development; peer-to-peer, learning sessions
International speakers
Equipment
Performance
List of regional coaches
Mentor assistance
Access to latest research
Professional Development
Event specific workshops
Conference Presentations
Listed here are the presentations delivered for the 2010 Athletics New Zealand Coaching Conference. All available online
Athletics New Zealand Performance Plan 2010 - 2012 - Kevin Ankrom
Athletics New Zealand Performance Services - Michelle Kiesanowski
Athletics New Zealand Coaching Framework - Michael Sharapoff
Athletics New Zealand Rio 2016 - Terry Lomax
Athletics New Zealand Performance Funnels - Kevin Ankrom
Athletics New Zealand Teams - Nadine Fromont
Waikato Bay of Plenty - How to build a club programme - Alan McDonald
Athletics Southland Run Jump Throw Programme - Lorne Singer
Sport Waitakere Club Development programme - Warren Ogilvie
Coaching Speed - Andrew MacLennan
Developing a Middle Distance Programme - Maria Hassan & Craig Motley
Introducing Youngsters to the Triple Jump - Lance Smith
High Jump Video - Ed Fern
State of the Nation workshops with Rio 2016 coordinators
Distance - Maria Hassan and Craig Motley
Horizontal Jumps - Lance Smith
High Jump - Ed Fern/Brent Booker
Pole Vault - Terry Lomax
Combined Events - Andrew Maclennan
Shot/ Discus - Matt Dallow
Sprints/Relays - Brent Ward
Sprint Hurdles - Joe Hunter
Conference Handouts
Athletics New Zealand Coach Development Framework 2010
Coach Development Framework Matrix - One page example
Athlete Needs vs. Coaching Framework
Developing your Personal Development Plan
Athletics New Zealand Performance Coach Programme
The 2010 conference was an opportunity for Athletics New Zealand to present the pathway forward for the coaching programme.
My initial two years in the Coaching Manager role has brought me to some key observations:
· Club development needs to be a priority focus alongside coach development; the two are inherently linked.
· More resource needs to be directed to the Community strand of our sport if we are going to make progress. Seventy-five percent of Athletics New Zealand members are under the age of 14.
· Event group development should be focused around the findings of the Rio2016 State of the Nation reports:, working with each event group on its identified needs for developing capability and capacity.
The 2010 conference was successful. It provided an opportunity for Athletics NZ to explain the future programmes and an opportunity for coaches to give feedback. I look forward to starting to develop new opportunities for coaches. |