Daley Thomson at Scotstoun

I'm surprised at how few club members go to any of the events organised by outside bodies (ie outside of Clydebank!) to do with athletics. Club members always used to go to hear good speakers talk about sport - Cyril O'Boyle went to hear Forbes Carlisle, coach of the two Konrad twins in the 60's, speaking in the Library Hall and he also went to the many events organised by the Lomond Roads Cycling club. In the beginning we always had a number of people at the Annual International Conferences at Moray House in Edinburgh - all very practical and with useful content as well as being good opportunities for networking with other coaches. Sure, there were times when somebody tred to grab an athlete from another club but these were seldom and easily knocked back.
In recent years I have had coaches from other clubs - Ron Morency, Jimmy Bryce, Eric Simpson, Jimmy Campbell, Doug Rimmer and several others do sessions with some of our guys: where did I first meet them? At coaching conferences. I used to work on the old maxim that the athlete should not be restricted by the coach's limitations. I also thought that athletes who didn't know much about their event weren't much use - they needed to be exposed to other ideas than mine, they needed to learn to ask the right questions (ie what is the plan for the year? What does the coach/parents/other athletes expect me to do? etc).
This weekend there is what looks like an entertaining and informative session at Scotstoun on Saturday afternoon: it lasts from 2:00 - 3:00 pm and the speaker is Daley Thomson - Google the name if you don't know about this double Olympic Decathlon champion - with the chairman being Migel Holl, new chief executive of Scottish Athletics. I met him at a talk Don Macgregor gave at Inchyra Grange a couple of months ago and was very impressed. he is very fit and youthful looking, a member of Ochil Hill Runners and very approachable. So this is a chance to hear one of the real GB Olympic greats and also to cast an eye over the man who is maybe the mmost influential in Scottish Athletics right now.
Details are now on the Scottish Athletics website - right at the top of the front page! - have a look and maybe wander along on Saturday.