from athletics Northern Ireland Forty five coaches from throughout Northern Ireland and Ireland attended the ANI/UKA Coaching Conference on Saturday 11th December at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown.
Eight speakers from UK Athletics attended to present their knowledge and experience on various topics. The overall theme of the conference was ‘Planning and Developmental Athletes’ Coaches had the opportunity to network with each other at lunch time and after the conference.
Kevin Tyler (Strategic Head of Coaching and Development) gave a very informative speech on ‘Practical Running Mechanics for Young Athletes’ this was followed up by Derek Evely (Director of National Performance Centre) who spoke on ‘Planning for multi skilled Young Athletes’ followed by the third key note speech from Richard Wheater (Head of Coaching for England Athletics) Richard commented on how open and friendly coaches in Northern Ireland are which is very positive and encouraging for coach development.
Five other event group coaches presented these coaches included Sprints – Martyn Jones and Graham Pilkington, Jumps – Carol Jackson, Throws – Malcolm Fenton and Endurance – Andi Drake and each coach related their presentations to the Planning theme.
Athletics Northern Ireland is encouraging coaches to undertake their own coach development and learning. Overall positive feedback came from the coaches and therefore Athletics NI is hoping that there will be another conference next year which can be built on from this year.
A big thank you to all the coaches who attended and to the speakers who presented from UK Athletics. Merry Christmas and I look forward to working with you all in the New Year.
Vicki Kennedy
Presentations from the Conference are available here to view & download- more to follow!