The Italian Athletics Federation – FIDAL – and the IAAF Member Services Department organised a coaching symposium in conjunction with the 10th IAAF World Junior Championships in Grosseto on 11-12 July.
Co-chaired by IAAF Member Services Director Elio Locatelli and Fidal’s Luciano Baraldo, the symposium covered all aspects of athletics coaching for younger athletes, with keynote speakers from around the world and was attended by over a hundred participants.
Among the speakers, Roberto M. Malina of Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas spoke on the ‘Growth and Maturation of Adolescent Athletes in Track and Field’ and presented data on the comparative morphology of athletes participating in different sports and among athletes specialising in specific disciplines in athletics.
The technical director of the Italian youth teams, Angelo d’Aprile introduced the participants to the youth project launched in Italy three years ago and concentrating on helping the development of athletes and coaches by using a central partnership controlling the planning and conduct of the athletes’ programme.
Spain’s Jose Garcia Grossocordon reported on the RFEA’s 15 year-old programme of promotion and education in youth athletics. The programme involves local government agencies who refer talented youngsters to the RFEA.
Locatelli, his colleague Abdel Malek El Hebil (MAR) and Logbe Anthony Koffi from Ivory Coast for their part presented various aspects of the organisation of athletics in the African countries, detailing the IAAF programmes on the continent since 1991, with the CECS and TOECS programmes, the development of regional centres and high performance training. The programme has shown its fruits with Africa winning 29 medals in the Sydney Olympics.
El Hebil presented the Moroccan programme for athletics: 16 regions organise and detect talent, with 5000 coaches in 300 clubs involved in the programme for a national budget of six million dollars that have produced 12 Olympic medals in the past 12 years and 14 World records in the middle and long distances.
Koffi spoke of the Ivorian project ‘My road is my stadium’, which was the source of 75% of the national athletics team, with youngsters participating in competitions on the streets of the country.
Igor Ter Ovanesian gave an expose of the organisation of athletics in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country has some 300,000 athletes aged between 7-14 years. In time, this number will be whittled down to around 1000 juniors followed by 300 full time coaches . £,000 professional coaches are involved in the whole project nation-wide.
Nicole Silvaggi (Italy) spoke on strength training for young athletes and how to differentiate the programmes for youth and senior athletes. Scientific data support the possibility to introduce strength training from as young as 14 using varying loads. She also examined the different considerations for male and female athletes
Patricia Djate Taillard presented the French programme to spot young talents and develop middle and long distance runners. This involves a partnership between the FFA and the 32 national leagues, with the FFA providing assistance in in training control and the medical and social areas.
Finally IAAF RDC San Juan director Lenford Levy and Fitx Coleman (Jamaica) presented the reality of athletics in the Caribbean with Jamaica as a model. Success there is guaranteed by the school sports organisation and the quantity of local competition at all levels.