Strategies for athletic success

The Malta Amateur Athletic Association recently held an eye-opening seminar, which had the theme ‘Strategies for Success’. The President of the European Athletics Coaches Association, Frank W. Dick OBE, gave a presentation which was described as amusing, anecdotal, challenging and inspirational. RAY ABDILLA gives a summary of this highly-regarded man’s thoughts on how athletes can be helped to achieve their goals and hears what is planned for the local scene.

Coaching has been Frank Dick’s raison d’être for decades, inspiring world-beating performances from some of the top names in sport - Daley Thompson, Boris Becker, Gerhard Berger and Katarina Witt. He is currently involved with Marat Safin, Ipswich Town Football Club and Jean Todt (Ferrari Formula One Manager). In business, he has helped develop a coaching culture in British Telecom, Unilever, Shell, Abbey National and Rolls Royce.

His expertise derives from years of detailed research into individual success and achievement. He combines this wealth of knowledge and experience into an informative and motivational approach to achieving long-lasting transformation of both individual and team performance.

Currently he is the President of the European Athletics Coaches Association, and a board member of the UK Sports Institute and Scottish Institute of Sport. Frank has also held the post of Chairman of the British Olympic Coaches Advisory Programme (1983 – 1994), and Director of Coaching for the British Athletics Federation (1974 – 1994).

As well as his stand-alone presentations, Frank has developed an exciting new approach to training and development for business through his ‘coaching’ methods. Coaching builds on the general desire for improvement and will inspire people to better business performance.

His two major publications are ‘Sports Training Principles’ and ‘Winning’, both classics in their fields.

His contribution to sport and coaching was recognised when he was awarded the OBE in 1989, induction to the UK Coaches Hall of Fame in 1999, and the prestigious title UK Sporting Hero by Sport UK in 2001.

Injuries, fatigue, high expectation and even hairstyles were blamed for Britain’s worst ever showing at the world athletics championships in Edmonton last year.

Jonathan Edwards won Britain’s only gold in the triple jump, while Dean Macey took bronze in the decathlon. Britain finished tied for 18th place on the medal table, one of eight countries that won two medals. At last year’s Sydney Olympics, Britain notched up its best track performance in years, winning six medals—including two golds.

"There was huge expectation because of what happened in Sydney last year," said Kelly Holmes, who failed to emulate her Olympic bronze in the 800 metres.

"But the people who feel the most disappointed are the athletes. When you are competing against the best in the world it’s not easy."

Frank Dick accused British athletes of putting commercial gain before personal performances.

"Athletes must not focus on being a commercial success rather than being a good professional," he said, after criticising athletes for dying their hair to get attention.

"Take hairstyles for instance. They’re all very nice, but why not paint it after you have won something and not beforehand?

"I often wonder whether we focus on the commercial implications before we do anything."

Meanwhile during the Malta seminar Frank spoke about the success in the younger age groups which is normally due to high ability/talent levels and premature receptiveness of the athlete to training compared with his or her peers. He also said that it is not usually a problem to create a good climate of motivation for this athlete during these years. Achievement levels are high; failures are negligible. They have not had to develop resilience to defeat, because there is very little opportunity to experience it and, therefore, no learning through it.

Frank said that the slightly lower ranked athletes in these age groups are normally less gifted in terms of ability/talent. They will train hard and may or may not gain maximum value from it. They have worked to help create a good climate of motivation – developing substantial resilience to defeat. They win more often than they lose, but unlike their more talented peers – they learn lessons through winning and losing.

He said that the scenario for these two distinct sections within a given age group is quite different as they progress from this subsequent, older, age groups until they eventually achieve senior/open status. Resilience to defeat, and with it determination to succeed next time, has increasing significance in establishing a positive (winning) motivational climate. The early achievers may have problems as "waiting to win" attitude slips towards a ‘fear of failure’.

Frank also spoke about the age groups, saying these must have their achievements put in perspective. A balance of win – lose situations is critical to affording opportunities for learning how to handle pursuit of competitive advantage in subsequent age groups – and eventually in the senior arena. The balance clearly must be positive – but little advances will be made in creating the right individual climate if the athlete has no experience of the negative end of things.

Injuries

He then spoke about injuries. He said that the coach should be aware of ‘structures of loading’ and ‘training ratios’ used. To be more specific, he said, the coach must review the recovery portion of the load.

The performance of an athlete in his or her sport is the product of a very complex and unique capsule. That capsule is the athlete’s lifestyle and all the factors which influence that lifestyle.

Those working with athletes in the junior development programme cannot possibly ignore a responsibility for helping them to establish a clear overview of the ‘capsule’ and management of its key areas.

Looking forward

Tony Chircop, President of the MAAA, who together with his committee organised the event said that the MAAA had felt the need to organise a seminar in search of strategies of success. However, before embarking on such a venture, he said, one needs to define what is meant by strategies and give an interpretation of the word success.

He asked if success meant the achievement of better results, such as faster times, higher or longer jumps. Or did it mean having more athletes, better-qualified coaches, better administration, modern facilities or equipment? All these aspects are intertwined, he said, voicing his wish that the MAAA was in a position to enhance each area in such a way that its efforts would be rewarded with the desired accomplishments.

Tony believes that the word strategy needs to be considered carefully. It implies a series of actions conducive to an aim or objective, thus insinuating that there has to be a period of time between the starting of the action and the results. These strategies may be of a short, medium or long term. With due respect to many, it would be a shame if the MAAA would design its strategies just to achieve success in, for example, the 2003 Games. Although these games carry a load of importance, it would mean a very short intervention with a short-lived success and perhaps also money down the drain. It will have to look much further than that.

He said that his first thought was about the formation of coaches. "Unless there are people who are in a position to propagate the technical and tactical issues of the various disciplines in Athletics, it will be very difficult to (1) prepare the young generation and (2) to enhance the performance of the practicing athletes. Thus, it is imperative for the association to cater for the proper formation of coaches."

The MAAA president also said that his association needs to keep developing the coaching sector with the objective that in a couple of years, it could have a cohort of qualifies personnel who would be in a position to give service to Maltese athletes. The Malta Sports Council is going to be in a position to give a helping hand in this matter. It is common knowledge that a number of associations provide coaching courses (although perhaps not on a regular basis) that emphasize the technical-tactical content pertaining to the particular discipline.

Meanwhile during the seminar it was revealed that a Star Track Athletics Summer Camp will be held between 8 July - 11 September – Monday, Wednesday and Friday (eight weeks – one week break for Santa Maria, from 8.30am to 1pm, for children aged eight – 12.

The price is Lm50 for one child and Lm45 for a second child. Tony stressed that the course is of interest to children interested in all sports, not only athletics, since every sport requires some running, throwing and jumping whether it is football, basketball or tennis. These skills form the mainstay of the Star Athletics Summer Camp programme. The MAAA said that it is not just developing the future ‘Mario Bonello’ (athlete) but also providing the future ‘Carmel Busuttil’ and ‘Gordon Asciak’. The activity covers all athletics disciplines from pole vault and hurdles to shot putt and sprinting. All the coaches are fully qualified and experienced athletic coaches who ensure that the emphasis is not only on fun but also on increasing skill and competency of all participants. Every participant will receive a certificate of

achievement.