Performance week

Coaching in the last few weeks has been amazing but the cherry on top of the cake happened in one day!

1 European Junior & 1 European Youth Olympic qualification achieved in Limerick, 15miler won in Cork & 5th place in Seville Marathon. Finally being nominated as one of the High Performance Coaches of the Year really made that weekend exceptional.

 Those 4 people from 4 different clubs, some from different sports are certainly some of the most talented athletes I have been working with. I have been asked many times by Performance Directors who coached Olympic Medallist and world champion like Chris Jones or Peter Banks to consider specialising. I have been thinking about it over the years and remember Steve Trew support in my career. His autograph on his book says “from here to the stars” and always thought if he believed in me like my athletes do and did, I have something in me which can help me to succeed.

One of my weaknesses as I have been told many times, would be that I care too much about my athletes. That they are young or older, with or without talent I always think I can get the best out of them. I believe practicing sports and learning skills and working hard is a life skill which brings strength and knowledge of what is required to succeed in life.

(above from swim Ireland February 2013 newsletter)

Sarah from 8th Junior European to 12th Senior European, we are working on getting that medal she dreams about. It does not mean she will get it, it simply means she is working toward it like all other swimmers at that competition. The same way Niamh Kilgallen is dreaming of getting a European Youth Olympic medals. They are two very different young girls. One is the toughest little girl you can come across, and can swim for ever at threshold pace. She has an engine which cannot run out of petrol and made of steel. Niamh has just that feeling with the water which amazes me. She does not realise her potential, and has the greatest positive attitude of all time. Nothing can make her sad as everything will make her better and stronger.

Barbara is just back from the Seville marathon with a new Pb of 2h37min14 and placed 5th. She has been working very hard, not just in training but in her professional life and as a mother. We have to work toward the qualification for the world in Moscow in August. The AAI standard been dropped by 10min compared to the International qualification standard and harder than some of the other big European countries. I emailed the AAI to understand the reasons, but been ignored for some reason. I would understand if I was giving out, but just thought 16 weeks before the world championship and asked female runners to run 10min quicker was quite a stretch. Barbara runs with her heart and has the ability to pace herself and feel the pace naturally. Her determination is her key to success.

James Doran has been training savage, with some tough “Seb’s session” which I wish nobody else to do. James is naturally built with some amazing body strength and some serious mental tenacity. He remind me of the “terminator” in the “mini me” version. He has a great athlete attitude and has that smart approach of what is needed to succeed and has a stopwatch in his head.

Being nominated as one the Swim Ireland High Performance coach of the year was a big surprise, especially during the Olympic year. I would think Bobby Madine would be the clear winner, with Sycerika McMahon’s results this year at European and Olympics. I would also look at Grainne results as well with Ronald Claes who was not nominated since he left for the UK.

Finally Lars Hummer is just arrived to look after the Limerick Centre and seems to be a very positive approach and great philosophy of the sport; I can’t wait to see what will come out from his program.
I have a few new kids on the block and developing their program, so hopefully we will have more to come for Ireland. Today I am extremely happy of my decision to only coach Irish athletes and cut on coaching international athletes abroad. Some thought I was mad (as usual) but again after making that choice after the 2004 Olympic Games.

Keep training but mainly keep dreaming. I never give my dreams up when I grew up.

Sebastien Locteau

First Published on Runireland.com on the 02/03/2013 & Edited on the 26/09/17