IAAF International Coaching Conference

The IAAF International Coaching Conference was held at the IAAF Accredited Training Centre in Debrecen, Hungary on 8-9 March. This event followed the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics and the inaugural meeting of the IAAF Coaches Commission, which took place in conjunction with the Championships.

The opening of the conference was attended by IAAF President Lamine Diack and IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai, with the presence of IAAF Coaches Commission Chairman, Igor Ter-Ovanesian, IAAF Council Member and Development Commission member Cesar Moreno Bravo and the director of the IAAF Member Services Department (responsible for the IAAF Development programme) Dr. Elio Locatelli.

In his address to the conference, Lamine Diack stressed the importance of coaches in the Olympic movement and to Athletics: “Coaches are an integral part of the Olympic Family and Athletics Family.

“They are our youngsters’ first contact and have an essential role to play . We want our Member Federations to have the possibility to develop and that means providing coaches with the proper facilities. We have to organise; we cannot have good coaches in difficulties.”

President Diack looked back to his own time at school when: “I was obliged to be an athlete. Everyone did sports, all sports. I played soccer, ran, jumped, then became a long jumper when they saw that I was good at it. I eventually became the French champion in long jump.”

His knowledge of coaching is one of experience too, as he coached first a local football team and then went on to become the national coach for Senegal.

He reiterated the importance of coaches in the development of Athletics and the commitment of the IAAF to supporting their work: “We are engaged with you to make our sport great; we are beside you to work together, we are with you all along the way.”

The presence of participants from over 40 countries reflected the quality and variety of the lecturers: Agoston Schulek (HUN – EAA Vice President); Yannick Tregaro (SWE - coach of Christian Olsson, World Champion indoor and out and equal-holder of the World Indoor record in the Triple Jump and Kajsa Bergqvist – previous 2-time World Indoor Champion in the High Jump); Evgeny Trofimov (RUS – coach of 2004 World Indoor Champion and World record holder in the Pole Vault Yelena Isinbayeva); Frank Attoh (GBR – coach to Sudan’s Yamile Aldama, Silver Medallist in the Triple Jump at 2004 World Indoors, since her arrival in England from Cuba); Ales Skoberne (SLO – coach to Jolanda Ceplak, World Record holder indoors at 800m, silver medallist in Budapest 2004); Driss Ouajou (MAR – Moroccan national coach and formerly coach to Hicham El Guerrouj); Kenth Andersson (SWE – Athletes representative); Dr Karoly Piko (HUN – Member of the IAAF Medical and Anti-Doping Commission).

Just as varied as the list of participants were their approaches to the coaching process, ranging from the extremely intensive approach of Morocco to the much more ‘humanistic’ approach of Yannick Tregaro: “Athletes make their own decision and come to training of their own free will…. they have to have fun”; to the very analytical techniques of Ales Skoberne and the very technical with Evgeny Trofimov (perhaps understandable with the nature of the Pole Vault).

Yannick Tregaro came to coaching almost by accident, following the death of his own coach, Viljo Nousiainen. Determined to keep the spirit of Nousiainen alive, Tregaro took over the group and has kept it going for 7 years now, with great success, as he counts Christian Olsson and, more recently Kajsa Bergqvist among his protégés.

Tregaro has built a team and this is for him an essential part of an athletes success: “We are a team of strong individuals, with each taking responsibility for the others and giving each other support. Being in  such a team helps to keep you focused.

“Respect is an essential part of the coach-athlete relationship and an inherent part of our philosophy, everyone in the team respects everyone else in the team; we respect one another’s differences.”

This sort of thinking pervades all of Tregaro’s coaching as he stresses the importance of the way the athletes feel  - and the coach too: “Your motivation (as a coach) affects the athletes. They have to enjoy training, they have to feel good. This gives the whole group positive energy.

“I like to think that life is like a frame: in the perfect frame, the picture is complete, there is no space. What we have to learn is that when the frame is full and we want to do something else, then we must stop trying to do too much; likewise, if the frame is empty, we need to do more.”