New High Performance Director for AAI

OWinter

Looks like AAI is taking its cue from the Guards and have appointed an insider - one of the boys for the job.

So that's Irish Athletics stagnating for another few years so.

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/news/paul-mcnamara-appointed-as-director-of-high-performance-of-athletics

RayCun

Who would you have appointed?

OWinter

Coming back to the Garda analogy, I would have looked outward for someone who hasn't yet been institutionalised.

I'll throw a name out there, Steve Magness.

RayCun

I very much doubt Magness is interested in moving to Ireland, and besides, the job is high performance director, not endurance coach.

Wasn't the last high performance director hired by looking outside?

pconn062

I know very little about him, apart from a little about his time as an athlete. Hiring from outside wasn't exactly a success so he deserves a chance.

Slow_Runner

The problem with hiring from the outside is it costs a lot of money to attract anyone of any calibre. Unless you have a benefactor ala FAI when the hired Trappatoni you don't have many options open.

average_runner

OWinter wrote: »

Coming back to the Garda analogy, I would have looked outward for someone who hasn't yet been institutionalised.

I'll throw a name out there, Steve Magness.

Give the man a chance. How much do you think Magness would of cost?

Next you be looking for Jose or pep to manage the Irish soccer team

jamule

average_runner wrote: »

Give the man a chance. How much do you think Magness would of cost?

Next you be looking for Jose or pep to manage the Irish soccer team

Nah fook magness, alberto is the man. Sure it wpuld only take a few quid and some pharmacy vouchers to prise him away from nuke

youngrun

OWinter wrote: »

Looks like AAI is taking its cue from the Guards and have appointed an insider - one of the boys for the job.

So that's Irish Athletics stagnating for another few years so.

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/news/paul-mcnamara-appointed-as-director-of-high-performance-of-athletics

Why do you think it would stagnate?

pconn062

Cathal Dennehy's analysis. Interesting to hear contrasting opinions of current elites.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/exinternational-mcnamara-to-take-top-job-in-new-direction-35577790.html

"He's fair but firm," said one 2016 Olympian of McNamara. "His attention to detail is superb, a good guy who will have the athletes' best interests at heart."

Others believe he is under-qualified for such an important position, with one Olympian, speaking under the condition of anonymity, describing it as a "cheap and safe move for AAI but not good for athletes or coaches".
Another international medallist claimed McNamara would be "useless" in the role.

OWinter

pconn062 wrote: »

Cathal Dennehy's analysis. Interesting to hear contrasting opinions of current elites.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/athletics/exinternational-mcnamara-to-take-top-job-in-new-direction-35577790.html

Cheap, safe and won't rock the boat or the incompetent AAI gravy train.

Ideal.

RayCun

the gravy train? :rolleyes:

and you expect people to take you seriously?

Peterx

From that Cathal Dennehy article the final lines are the relevant ones

"right now it's too early to say if it's the right move. The least we can do is give him a chance"

The least we can do is give him a chance.

As for the athlete quotes - you only have to look at any discussion board to see how easy it is to get two contrasting anonymous opinions...

If your opinion of a man in a new position is worth sharing than adding your name to your opinion really would add weight to the opinion.

RayCun

interview with newstalk - doesn't say much

RayCun

http://www.newstalk.com/Platforms-to-Podiums:-How-to-get-the-most-out-of-Irish-Atheltics

More interview, more interesting

Joe_ Public

RayCun wrote: »

http://www.newstalk.com/Platforms-to-Podiums:-How-to-get-the-most-out-of-Irish-Atheltics

More interview, more interesting

A lot of that makes sense to me, how much of it is achievable is another matter of course.

I'd be inclined to think if I was a young talented junior, aspiring to be world class or podium level, I'd be busting a gut to get to Abbottstown to avail of the facilities and whatever coaching network I could find there. Surrounded by top-class facilities, service providers and engaging with elite athletes from all different sports on a daily basis. It's almost a no-brainer for me really.

RayCun

It's a difficult question

On the one hand, it would be great if all our international level pole-vaulters moved to Dublin, had a single coach (me!), and trained together in Abbotstown all the time.

But it's not a realistic expectation if
Not many of our pole-vaulters are getting funding, so they can't necessarily afford to move to Dublin
They don't expect to be professional pole-vaulters, they are fitting this in beside their careers and education, and those things might not be based in Dublin
If they don't have a good pole-vault coach already, or have a coach that agrees they have reached their limit, they might be happy to be coached by me. But they might want to stick with their existing coach. Or work with some other coach, who isn't me:(
(why am I the pole-vault coach? Because to hire a full-time big name coach would cost more than Athletics Ireland have, so they had to lower their sights)

So it might be more straightforward to set up a single coaching group with a paid coach, maybe that's not going to work in all cases, so you have to figure out how to support the existing part-time coaches.

youngrun

Perhaps it should be more of a Centres of excellence model as building blocks . Groups training and coaches meeting at key cities and towns around the country. Abbottstown, Santry, Cork, Galway, AIT, Sligo, Marydke/CIT etc for example . Groups, squad sessions , regularly at all levels. Development, Juniors, Seniors, marathon mission etc and rotate . the new HPD has done the RDO route and knows the basics, it just needs to be done at a higher and bigger level.

Tombo2001

Looks like a good appointment to me.

We have a lot of caliber particularly in mid distance running, stands to reason that this can translate into a high performance director.

Enough of our athletes have gone on to be high performance directors overseas; is there a reason why they shouldn't do the same here?

Tombo2001

youngrun wrote: »

Perhaps it should be more of a Centres of excellence model as building blocks . Groups training and coaches meeting at key cities and towns around the country. Abbottstown, Santry, Cork, Galway, AIT, Sligo, Marydke/CIT etc for example . Groups, squad sessions , regularly at all levels. Development, Juniors, Seniors, marathon mission etc and rotate . the new HPD has done the RDO route and knows the basics, it just needs to be done at a higher and bigger level.

Does this not happen already?

Tombo2001

RayCun wrote: »

http://www.newstalk.com/Platforms-to-Podiums:-How-to-get-the-most-out-of-Irish-Atheltics

More interview, more interesting

This part is interesting:

The National Sports Campus in Abbottstown, while not entirely accessible to all athletes in the country, has signalled the country's intentions to develop High Performance athletes and offer them a viable option of completing their training within Ireland.
"Our very best athletes intend to build their own systems around themselves. We need to see who will benefit from those facilities out in National Sports Campus.
"Who can base themselves there? Can we build groups to work together?
"I would like to think some of our very best guys can base themselves there and our second tier of athletes and coaches can work around those guys to build functioning groups working in tandem."
These "functioning groups" would involve having a distributed network of performance services spread out into different regions.
This would allow athletes to travel to universities or third level institutes around the in order to access the facilities to train.
"Practicalities from day-to-day life will prevent a lot of people from basing themselves in Abbottstown. We need to work around the athletes other than vice versa."

One small question mark around this. Is there a 400m track in Abbottstown?

Joe_ Public

Tombo2001 wrote: »

This part is interesting:

The National Sports Campus in Abbottstown, while not entirely accessible to all athletes in the country, has signalled the country's intentions to develop High Performance athletes and offer them a viable option of completing their training within Ireland.
"Our very best athletes intend to build their own systems around themselves. We need to see who will benefit from those facilities out in National Sports Campus.
"Who can base themselves there? Can we build groups to work together?
"I would like to think some of our very best guys can base themselves there and our second tier of athletes and coaches can work around those guys to build functioning groups working in tandem."
These "functioning groups" would involve having a distributed network of performance services spread out into different regions.
This would allow athletes to travel to universities or third level institutes around the in order to access the facilities to train.
"Practicalities from day-to-day life will prevent a lot of people from basing themselves in Abbottstown. We need to work around the athletes other than vice versa."

One small question mark around this. Is there a 400m track in Abbottstown?

Morton Stadium is part of the National Sports Campus so there was no need to build another track.

Tombo2001

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Morton Stadium is part of the National Sports Campus so there was no need to build another track.

Its part of the website.

Its not part of the Abbotstown campus, unless they mean in a virtual sense.

To get from one to the other on public transport would take two or three hours.

Joe_ Public

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Its part of the website.

Its not part of the Abbotstown campus, unless they mean in a virtual sense.

To get from one to the other on public transport would take two or three hours.

I'm not 100 per cent but think there's a bus that runs almost directly from Abbottstown to Santry, open to correction on that.

The sports campus runs Santry, again open to correction on that but that's my understanding anyway. Not sure how ideal it is, but probably makes economic sense at the moment not to develop another facility when there's one not so far away.