Since the Olympic Games, which capped a season that saw just about everyone in Trackspeed1 UK set huge personal bests, Olympian James Ellington has elected to go to pastures new, World Junior finalist David Bolarinwa has moved on to another coach, and former international Andrew Matthews has failed to return to training without any contact whatsoever. Add to that the retirement from top level athletics of Jason Hussain and Ed Harrison, and the top end of the squad of 2011-12 has been demolished.
"I don't have all the answers," said John, "but this cannot continue. I've been in this game over 36 years, and I'm sick to death of being used and dumped by athletes chasing a non-existent holy grail.
"Coaches need a union or representative body - with legal clout - to look after their interests when it comes to working with athletes of a certain level. The sport needs to professionalise itself in this respect, or it will begin to haemorrhage expertise, which it can certainly ill afford to do.
I really do wish James all the very best
"First of all, let's be very clear here about James Ellington. He's decided to go to an American coach UK Athletics have hired at Loughborough. I'm told he has a cracking track record with sprinters at world class level, and I understand James's desire to train with the best. But it is still devastating for a coach to lose a top international like James, especially after a 14-year association. And to have him leave after getting him to his first Olympics is especially galling.
"First of all, let's be very clear here about James Ellington. He's decided to go to an American coach UK Athletics have hired at Loughborough. I'm told he has a cracking track record with sprinters at world class level, and I understand James's desire to train with the best. But it is still devastating for a coach to lose a top international like James, especially after a 14-year association. And to have him leave after getting him to his first Olympics is especially galling.
 |
| John Powell with James Ellington, at the World Championships, in South Korea in 2011 |
"Poaching is rife in athletics"
"David is another situation all together. Poaching is rife in athletics now, even with coaches employed by the governing body. More athletes changed coaches this autumn than probably ever before - it has really been musical chairs.
"I have no direct evidence of poaching, but a sack load of hearsay and plenty of circumstantial material doesn't leave too much to the imagination. I have listened to what some athletes tell me has gone on with, especially young impressionable individuals having their existing training regimes questioned by so-called senior coaches. It is completely unethical and rips athletes away from programmes that are working perfectly well for them.
"The thing is, if the boot were on the other foot, I would be so embarrassed. Think of the pressure you are under to ensure your new charges actually deliver and improve. And of course in a lot of cases they don't. But hey, you've got a star-studded line-up in your squad, so you are a super-coach aren't you!
Short-listed for Olympic Head Coach
"The point is, what incentive is there left now for an ambitious coach like me to carry on? I was hugely flattered to be short-listed and interviewed for the Olympic Head Coach position recently. I knew I was faced with a massive challenge, but I felt my application matched the ambition I had held for many years up to that point.
"I would be the first to support a strategy of links with coaches from abroad to learn and develop both our athletes and coaches, and I have to say the England Athletics National Coach Development Programme is an excellent stepping stone toward that end.
"But to import them and then expect athletes to permanently leave their current coaches, who in any cases could be delivering pretty good results already, is a fundamentally flawed policy. These guys need to work with our guys - athletes and coaches - and help us to learn and improve on the job.
"I'm afraid the assumption that coaches employed by the governing body are the best around and should therefore inherit by right all the top athletes is about as stupid and naive as it gets!
Nobody improves when they leave
Suffice to say no sprinter that has left my squad has ever improved more than a couple of hundredths, if that. I suspect David may be an exception as he is still a developing young talent, but of course that will be to the credit of his new regime won't it!
 |
| John Powell with David Bolarinwa - three European Junior medals, one gold, plus reaching a World Junior final inside 12 months was not good enough for the athlete who also became one of the fastest ever British juniors over 200m this year! |
No regulation or control
The thing is, there is no regulation, no control, and so athletes are in many cases allowed to treat coaching resources with sometimes complete contempt. I have gone full circle this summer. One minute I thought we were going to inherit some really positive additions to the squad; a few weeks later the top end of my squad had left instead!
I know I'm not the only one, but it's getting worse, this year exceptionally so. I give everything to athletes under my tutelage and always will for as long as I'm in the sport. I have spent tens of thousands of pounds over the years and dedicated a massive part of my life to the good of my squads. Perhaps I need - at last - to just understand that they will take, take, take, until it suits them, and then throw it back in your face.
Passionate and ambitious
"Many may see these words as those of a bitter or poor loser still hurting after yet further departures that follow a trend now spanning over three decades. Some more informed readers may, however, recognise them as an expression of despair from an individual phenomenally passionate about his sport, hugely ambitious to achieve for his athletes within it, and who has a pretty reasonable 'track' record of success over a sustained period of coaching at international level.
"One thing is clear though. If the current trend continues, at some stage, in the months or years to come, the chasm between elite and development coaching will have become so large, irreparable damage will have been done to our sport."
It's not just athletes who often fail to acknowledge the freely-given work of coaches. Officialdom considers coaching and coaches a captive pool of money, as they fart around, changing the regime, instigating new programmes, inventing new courses we have to go on if we wish to "progress" up the ladder.
ReplyDeleteThere are very many useful seminars, given by top International coaches, which are free; these are necessities for our coaching to improve. The courses for “progressing” up the ladder have to be paid for by the coaches. If they were really for the good of athletics, they should be free.
Just to round it off, when many athletes start to achieve their potential, there have been far too many cases of the hierarchy’s in-crowd coaches’ creaming off. Ludicrously, nine out of ten of the poached athletes deteriorate when they leave their “nest”. This poaching must be stopped and replaced with good mentoring. The in-crowd coaches may lose kudos, but British Athletics will most likely explode, instead of imploding.
Make Money Online without any Investment, Just Click the Website and Start Earning
ReplyDeletewww.jobzcorner.comv