Coaching

When I joined the club in 1957 there were a couple of good club distance running coaches bu they retired or left the area and the need was great. The Committee took the initiative and called a Special General Meeting in the Hunter & Currie Halls in Whitecrook and several club members agreed to go on up-coming coaching courses and the matter was dealt with. The current situation in the club is interesting. There is a shape there that needs to be encouraged and developed. First the nature of the need needs to be assessed. So
What do we have already? Phil and John are covering the endurance groups and are well capable of giving advice to any endurance runner in the club whether or not he or she is a member of their group. However the day seems to be coming when they will need some assistance with another coach covering the events.
On the track, Donald Macleod covers the young sprinters. What other possibilities are there for track and field? To my knowledge, Bobby Bell is changing his job and wants to come back from late August/September to work with throwers, particularly in shot, discus and hammer. Even if he is not coming along, we need a throws coach and the only likely candidate that comes to mind is Colin Gray. Whether he would want to do it is of course the nub of the thing! For the jumps, Donna Campbell is able to coach the long and triple jumps but where will we get a high jump coach from? Are any of the seniors able to help in this event? Megan Reid can and wants to coach hurdles. Sprints? Well, the two Ross brothers (Paul and David) have been doing some work with the young athletes for the past three or four weeks. The knowledge and experience is there and they could maybe encouraged to make a lonmg term involvement.
All those mentioned who are not already club members should be encouraged to join the club and then encouraged to do the coaching course appropriate to their event. That leaves javelin, high jump and another endurance coach to be found.
If we came from three coaches to 16 qualified coaches in the 1980's why can't we make similar progress in the 21st century?