was at two more races last weekend – they were in the Borders at Jedburgh. One was an ultra marathon and the other a 10,000m as part of their Festival of running. Again, there were no Clydesdale Harriers running. There were however runners from two other local clubs. Although the races were at a distance and the former not for most club runners, it is becoming an almost inevitability that there are no Clydesdale Harriers in open races. The situation has been coming for some time and the new Committee really has its work cut out in tackling the problem. For it is a problem. It is almost been accepted as regular practice for the club. The recent County relays is an example. There seems to be no plan to tackle the issue other than Jim Wright’s Development Plan put forward some months ago and commented upon by some former members such as John Maclachlan who came across Jim at the table in the Shopping Centre. I make the following comments for discussion.
First, athletes need to know what they are training for. They need to know in advance what their races for the season are. Second, coaches are often said to be people who work backwards. I believe both of these. As a coach of middle and long distance runners, I would tell the younger age groups, U15, U13, what their races for the winter were. The obvious championships where we would look for them to turn out were the short relays in October, the County, District and National Championships in the second half of the winter. The parents of the U17’s would be spoken to at training evenings and asked what other commitments the athletes had and whether they would be available for the three or four nights a week training that they would be asked to do. If they were, fine, if they were only abailable for two or three nights then that would affect what was put into their training. The Under 20’s? I’d meet them with their parents in their own homes and discuss the yearplan for them and take it from there. Don’t tell me it can’t be done – I did it. I also received the Participation Coach of the Year and the Conbtribution to Coaching award from Scottish athletics.
Of course, I have not mentioned the coaches yet. They have restrictions on their time and that has to be borne in mind. Former British Mastercoach Jimmy Campbell used to start his address to brand new coaches by writing on the blackboard holding the chalk sideways the word DIVORCE and saying that “This is what you are heading for if you do it properly!” He was half joking – or maybe three quarters. Iain Robertson, probably the best Scottish coach I’ve ever seen said that you could only ever coach three seniors properly at any one time. Didn’t mean of course that others could jot join in the sessions. Because of what is involved, all the coaches in the club have to be working together. We, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, used to meet four times a year – at the start of the winter, at the start of the new year, at the start of spring and at the start of the summer competitive season. We met in each other’s houses – in Emily Hardware’s, Davie and Agnes Gibson’s, Bobby Bell’s, Billy Hislop’s etc. The purpose was to make sure that we were working together and to sort out who was doing what event. Co-operation between coaches is important.
Communication within the coaches group matters greatly, communication with the athletes matters. And communication with parents is also crucial. There are at times disagreements between coaches and parents which could be avoided by simply keeping them informed as to what you are doing with their children. It is, more often than you might think, possible to rope parents in to help with the coaching at night.
I mentioned targets earlier. Right now, and remembering last year when there was not a single age group team, male or female, running in the national I would suggest that turning out four runners in each age group at the National Championships at the end of the season and working towards that. Even if for some runners it is only a stage towards a summer season of track running, it is an important stage. Tell the runners that this is what they are aiming for and how they will get ther as well as giving them a note of the races on the way for them to pass to their parents. Start the athletics dialogue with them.
That’s enough for now. Maybe more than enough.
