Corrections and Apologies

Maybe it was RSI of the typing finger but the first paragraph of the bit below was dire - I'll do it again! Here goes.
"With the long (and getting longer) delays about the track in Clydebank, the summer is not too far away and thought will have to be given to facilities for our young athletes to train at. It was noticeable that ...." now read on!

There is also of course the matter of club championships. The arguments for having them in April are that it gives the athletes a chance to get some competition before the Leagues start, it lets the coaches see what cover there is for the field events and encourages the young athletes into competition early on. The arguments against the end of the season are that the athletes are tired after a long summer, that many are on holiday and that the schools are back in again! Some clubs have their championships in September, and the other DALAP cluubs give their championship based on only four events included in the DALAP Championships which seems kind of unfair to me! When are we having our championships is the third big item that needs to be looked at before summer the others being coaching numbers and training venues

Facilities

Withe the long and getting longer delays about the track in Clydebank, the summer is nto far away and thought will have to be given to facilities for our young athletes to train at. It was noticeable that at some of the indoor meetings this year our young athletes did very well in all running events and the shot putt but they were not so good at even attempting the high jump or in some cases the long jump. The field events in particular need attention. Scotstoun and Kelvin Hall are available but on most evenings the field events facilities are booked by existing coaches and groups by 6:00 pm. Even if the coach can't get to the HJ at KH in time, then some of his/her athletes arrive at about 5:00 pm and take over until the coach arrives. To use these facilities you would have to be there at a good time such as Friday at 5:00 when pretty well all field events are free. Mid afternoon is usually OK at Kelvin Hall - on Tuesday this week there were only Johnathan Farrell, Cameron McLeod and Ross Cannon training on the track, Lorna Willliamson on the circuit area and a wee boy and his Daddy doing long jumps in long trousers and brogues! Most folk can't make these sort of times though and anything nearer home would be valuable. For field events a school Games Hall or Large Gym would be OK if we had access to the equipment. We used to use the Clydebank HS Games Hall on a Saturday for HJ and Hurdles (you could get three hurdles set out along the one wall with the HJ taking uop the rest of the area). Could the club negotiate with the two local schools for such access? Weekday evening or Saturday morning. Or we could do a deal with West Dunbarton for longe5r access of an evening - if you are a working person you would find it hard to get to the venue in time to do a session and get the equipment away before 8:00 pm. Either they extend their hours as Bob Burness suggested or get access to the equipment on a night of our own. Both of these would require action by the club Committee rather than an informal arrangement because as we saw last year the WDAAC Committee wantes such an arrangement.
Finally there is the option of a Blitz on field events. In the 80's we had three 'come and Try' Throws days at Clydebank High School - in fact they were not come and try days, they were training days offered free of charge to all local secondary schools and we did a fair bit of recruiting by this means. The key to the success was that the coaches were top Scottish specialists - we invited Hugh Murray (Helensburgh) to teach discus, Norrie Griffiths (East Kilbride) for the javelin and Gerry Taylor (Garscube) for the shot with Eddie Taylor (Shettleston) doing the supervision and working with anyone who wanted to do the Hammer. We could invite some of these people along for the day, pay their expenses and hire the school for the occasion. Our own athletes could go along and develop their own skills. These ar some suggestions but what I am really flagging up is the need for some action on the field events and facilities front in the immediate future - the track season is about a month away and we are in three leagues!!!
And really finally - what's the situation with Clubmark?

Coaching in the Club, Part Two

If you haven't already done so, have a look at the last post first. It has always been the same in my time in the club - where do we get the coaches? At the end of the 50's concern was expressed at Committee Meetings about lack of coaching for all events, especially field events, so the Committee called a special general meeting to discuss the topic. There was a good turn out in the meeting in Hunter and Currie's Halls in Whitecrook Street and the Secretary had collected as much as he could from the SAAA/SWAAA on the various courses, etc. The result was seven club members (all practising athletes at the time) volunteered to go on the first coaching course which was at Jordanhill, another group agreed to go to some regional development days and bring back what they could and a group went on a training weekend at the club's expense. That worked well enough and the coaches were all existing club senior members, men and women. In the 1960's when we lost so many women and girls of a very high standard to the short lived club of champions Western Ladies AC, the coaches were initially me and Ian Cameron (both racing members at the time) and we recruited two former athletes and four parents to do the coaching.
So what's the point then? The point is that we have two good coaches at present in Phil and Donald. First, they cannot cover all events; second, they cannot cope with all age grouos in the one group or with their own one pair of hands.
The two sources of supply are current athletes, former athletes and parents. Teachers used to be a good source but that dried up after the teachers strikes in the early 90's.
If it is agreed that the two coaches need help, where and how is the issue to be addressed? It is down to the club - either the Committee should as part of a wider club development plan take note of the situation and decide on what action to take and how to tackle the problem or the athletes/parents/existing coaches should make sure that the appropriate coaches are in place for the summer season. The coaches could well come from among the parents themselves - when West Dunbarton AAC started up, many of the coaches were parents who had no background at all in the sport.
Of course if you are going to ask senior athletes or coaches to commit one night a week or even two sessions a week, then there has to be a support structure in place for them. You cannot do what they did to Ian Leggett in Livingston - he did the Level One course on tha Sunday and was given 30+ athletes to himself on a Tuesday! He chucked the coaching on the spot. And quite right. If there is any interest in this, then I will suggest what kind of support new coaches could get next week!

Coaching

There was an excellent article in the Herald last week by Doug Gillon about coaching. He quite rightly says that the UK and Scottish Athletics gverning bodies have been guilty of neglecting the education of coaches for at least twenty years. As one who lived through it I an vouch that the coach education system in the recent past has been undirected, difficult to find out about and guilty of a serious dumbing down of the coaching qualification. In the late 80's and early 90's w had no fewer than sixteen coaches in the club: three Senior Coaches (now level 4),five Club Coaches (now level 3) and nine Assistant Club Coaches now level 2) plus many parents helping out when appropriate. As a result the club was flying - number sven in Scotland while VPAAC was fifteenth. But regardlss of the qualifications the status of coaches was higher - that's what made people want to take it up. Where did they come from? here were two main sources - athletes who wanted to teach other young people how to do their event, athletes whose competing days were over and parents. The two who led the superb women's and girl's league team were Emily Hardware (Lynn's Mum) and Agnes Gibson (Heather's Mum) and they were helped by Liz McAusland (my daughter), Julie Govan (High Jump coach Scott Govan's daughter), Lynn Cowan (Colin's sister) and Jenny Keir (their friend!) and every one of the five had their quafication - Emily and Agnes were what would now be level thre and the others level two. As far as the men were concerned the main coaches were Scott Govan (Mark and Donald's Dad) who coached High Jump and hurdles, myself, Bil Hislop (Sprints coach), Bobby Bell (throws), David Gibson (Pole vault), Hugh McArthur (everything but mainly middle distance) and several others, including Peter Halpin and Derek McGinley, making it one of the best coaching squads in the country. The question is could we do it again? The next post will address this one.

Indoor League Match

Congratulations to the Under 20 Men for qualifying for the finals of the indoor league match, which is due to take place on the 14th March. Good luck guys for the final.

Full results detailed below:

Under 11 boys

Steven Kane ran the 60 metres in a personal best time of 10.72 secs and also took park in the 600 metres where he was timed at 2 mins 19.7 secs (a pb by over 5 secs) Well done to Steven.

Under 13 boys

Andrew Hunter had an excellent run in the 60 metres in a time of 8.7 secs, where he was placed 1st of 16 athletes. He also took part in the shot put, where he threw 6.92metres, to be placed second overall. Well done Andrew, keep up the good work.

Lewis Hay ran in the 800 metres, where he was timed at 3.11.2(a pb by 6.2 secs)

Tony Gallacher had an impressive run in the 200 metres where he ran a pb of 31.3 secs. He also jumped 3.01 metres in the long jump.

Under 15 boys

Connor Ewing ran well in the 800 metres to be placed 5th overall in a time of 2.34.9 and also competed in the 400 metres where he was timed at 68.5 secs.

David Campbell competed well in the 60 metre hurdles where he was timed at 12.77 secs(pb). He also took part in the 200 metres, running an excellent time of 29.8 sec (pb)

Under 17 men

Lewis Wood was timed at 10.10 secs in the 60m and 32.7 in the 200m. He also threw 7.28m in the shot put.

Tony Dolan competed well in the 800 metres to be timed at 2.32.0. He also competed in the 400m where he ran well to be timed at 70.3 secs.

Under 20 men

In the 60 metres Jonathan Farrell was placed 3rd in an impressive time of 7.33secs and also competed well in the shot put throwing 8.58m.

Peter Bowman ran well to be placed 1st in the 800m, timed at 2.09.8 and also had a good run in the 400m (57.2 secs)

Cameron McLeod competed in the 60m hurdles in a time of 11.91secs and also ran well in the 200m in a time of 24.4secs. He also competed in the triple jump (10.55m)

And not to forget the girls,

Under 11 girls

Caitlin Stewart participated in her track debut, where she ran well in the 60m and 600m to be timed at 12.02 secs(pb) and 2.31.0(pb). Well done to Caitlin.

Under 13 girls

Rachel Campbell competed in the 60m to be timed at 15.41 secs.

Ciara Devaney ran well in her first 800m to be timed at 3.12.1(pb). Ciara also ran in the 200m to be timed at 36.7 secs.

Under 17 Women

Diane Nicholson ran well in the 60m to finish in a time of 9.21 secs and in the 200m (31.7 secs)

Claire Reid also competed well in the 800m, finishing in a time of 2.45.4 and in the 300m running 49.0 secs

Please note if I have missed any performances, please click on the junior link, send me an email and I will publish them as soon as possible on the blog.

Again well done to all the athletes who competed on the day and good luck to the under 20 men in the finals.