Selfless club coaches really running the show
Whether it’s an elite runner putting in the miles or a recreational runner, it’s always a pleasant sight. If I’m driving, I even get tempted to give them an encouraging beep! I walk my dogs near home and on certain days, at certain times, I see the same group sessions week in week out, taking place under the watchful eye of club coaches. The pure simplicity of running is one of the sport’s greatest attributes. People turn up, run together and go home, happy after their training.
At the moment in Ireland, there are over 320 clubs in villages, towns and cities across the country. The biggest club in Ireland is Galway City Harriers, closely followed by Kilkenny City Harriers. All Irish elite athletes must be grateful for the club athletics scene in our country.
As a child, I was fast and a teacher advised my parents to let me join a club when I was six. For a few years, I ran for the local club in Douglas, St Columba’s AC. While running for Douglas, my parents drove me all over Cork city and county to race. I tried all the disciplines and I settled on running the 100m and 200m sprints, the long jump and racing with my friends in the relays. I never played any GAA but I have trophies for running on GAA pitches all over Cork!
There was such a family aspect to all these Sunday afternoons, everyone with their picnics and rugs to mark their patch. Parents and supporters equipped with radios tuned to “the match” and everyone getting to know the regulars from other clubs. It could have been the setting for an Irish sitcom, there were always the entertaining pushy parents and some public wailing from the losers!
At my wedding, my dad even told a story about one of these races I ran as a child. I was leading the race but when all the other runners turned left to go around the bend I kept running straight. I ran to the end of the pitch and waited there. When my dad walked down he realised that I had ran straight to where they were giving out the trophies, I didn’t have much time for the actual race, I wanted a shiny trophy! St Columba’s closed and my parents let me join Leevale AC — the start of a new experience. I went from training and racing on GAA pitches to training and racing on a real track. Leevale was a much bigger club and based in town.
The move to Leevale was great and my time there gave me the basis of a career in track. When I first went there I’d never jumped hurdles. I got the opportunity to try the event with hurdles coach Seamus Power, who is still coaching in Leevale. Alongside the hurdles, I trained as a sprinter with John Sheehan. From both of their coaching, I became a really good athlete.
When I was starting out in athletics, being a member of a great club was a huge asset to me. I never raced any distance further than 200m. John Sheehan could identify I was purely a short sprinter and even though the club had a tradition of distance runners, he never pushed me towards that. He had the ability to see where my talents were and focused on developing those.
I may not have had the opportunity to learn to hurdle if Seamus Power wasn’t a coach at Leevale. I wasn’t great when I started but with coaching, I learned how to hurdle really well. I worked on my speed and technique all through my teens, though at the time I never thought of it like that. I went training to the Mardyke because it was so much fun and I went to the competitions, as I loved to compete, even if there were less shiny trophies and more medals.
Club athletics is key for high performance athletics. Clubs are the breeding grounds for future athletics stars and co-ordinating these clubs are dedicated volunteers. Whenever I’m home in Cork and go to the track I see so many people who are coaching or helping out. People give up a huge amount of their time as volunteers in athletics and they keep the sport alive. It’s important to pay tribute to all of these volunteers without whom club athletics couldn’t function.
Sometimes I train in brutal conditions but every now and then I try to remember there are lots of coaches out in the same conditions holding a stopwatch, shouting out splits, purely for their love of the sport. When I was younger John and Seamus were out in all sorts of weather, helping me to become a better athlete. In recent years, it’s been Sean and Terrie Cahill.
Every athlete on the Irish team has come through a club structure. They have gone from being a kid who joined a club, to someone who has worked their way up to national and international level.
This weekend Leevale will host it’s annual outdoor competition.
It’s the first opportunity athletes have to put down markers for the upcoming track season.
There will be events on all weekend with the senior athletes racing on Saturday and the juvenile athletes on Sunday at the Cork IT track. In the past few seasons, the club has grown this meet into a great event. People travel from all over the country to race at it.
As the days start to get longer and the outdoor season starts to come around, hopefully there will be even more out running.
There is a saying that sometimes it takes a village to raise a child but I believe it takes a club with great people to raise an elite athlete.
