Becky Lilley first met the national athletics coach, who is responsible for taking athletes to the Common Wealth Games (CWG). She then sat down with each individual athlete to discuss their PB’s, SB and their programmes to date. This allowed her to identify initial weaknesses which were apparent in their present programmes and she went on to amend them in preparation for the CWG. In her next session she sat down with the national coach to discuss ways in which progress could be aided leading up to CWG. This included ways to create various programmes and how to implement them before the games in order for their athletes to see their progress and thus peak at the right time. Using her own athletic experience, having been in the sport for over ten years, she introduced British ideals, for example, strength and conditioning, which have led to an increase in medals. Becky explained that there were “aspects of a programme which would be the norm in UK but are vacant here” and she was “shocked to see athletes attending training four weeks before the international competition who didn’t have a comprehensive programme in place”. Ms Lilley highlighted the importance of a personalised programme saying “structure and encouragement is necessary so they are able to see their progression and remain motivated”.
Matt Guy, coached the boy’s U18’s football at the OYDC. The head coach, who is the ex Zambian international coach, allowed Matt to draw on his four years of coaching experience and take the session on his own. The group was formed of high performance players who would feed into the Olympic and national team, some of which already have had trials. He started with a fitness session concentrating on reactions, speed and agility. This led onto Plyometric training where he taught how to successfully use low contact with floor, jumping, hopping and other explosive material. The challenges he faced were that they needed extra work on spatial awareness and the impact that movement has on the game. Therefore he went onto expand on technical aspects such as dribbling, passing and heading – touch related drills and on tactical aspects explaining different areas on the pitch. The impact was evident when the boys played a game the following Saturday and Matt could clearly identify the drills he implemented in coaching. He said “ their play demonstrated spatial awareness, movement and support, which led to a fantastic header and a goal!”
Rianne Hunt coached Hockey to girls aged between 10-16 years of age who did not have much experience. This began by teaching basic skills of hockey, which Rianne establish during her nine years of training, which focused on how to hit and pass. Rianne was asked to lead the session as the girls wanted and needed a female coach who could demonstrate to them that a female can be successful in this sport. The challenges she originally faced were that they were unaware of basic hockey skills and thus she had to start from the very beginning with the language barrier too! However Rianne explained the impact “was huge because initially they did not respond well but by the end of first session I could see their own progress and they asked me to return!” At a subsequent match she could clearly see the girls using the skills that she had previously taught.
Matt Dochniak coached the U12’s boy’s football. He took two sessions where the head of football, who was the ex assistant for the national team, left him with sole responsibility for the group. He taught short passing and moving and then set the boy’s the target of five passes before a goal was scored as they previously struggled to pass the ball around as a team and were just kicking it with no direction. His intended impact was to drill in the importance of passing. Matt said it did “change the way they think about football, rather then just running around, it introduced direction and technique”.
Kelly Mullings used her nine years of netball experience to coach a group of girls aged between 12 and 20…in one session! Originally bad organisation of the session was a struggle but Kelly adapted and met her new demands well. Firstly she worked on fitness, which included reaction time with the ball, coordination, incorporating footwork, good ball handling skills and explosive strength via plyometric training. Secondly she introduced agility and speed using cones which players had to dodge around. She introduced new components which the students were unaware of and also provided a crash course in fitness for the coaches which they can build on. Kelly’s coaching has such a positive impact on the group, as she explained “they improved so much…the second day I could see the benefits for the athletes”. Despite having such a wide age group and varying level of abilities she overcame this by adapting and changing her drills to suit every level and age simultaneously.
The sessions at the OYDC will continue whilst the IDEALS team are in Lusaka. The staff at the centre were very impressed with the students and they have all been invited back to hold further sessions in their sports.
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