At a busy time of the year with coaches coming off the back of the IAAF World Championships in Moscow and preparations well underway for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade it was pleasing to see so many coaches committed to sharing experiences and interacting with one another.
Fourteen presenters, six world class coaches and six sports science and physical practitioners shared their knowledge over the two-day event.
The opening keynote speech was presented by Professor Yannis Pitsiladis of Brighton University who spoke passionately about the application of sports science to improve training.
He emphasised how science was playing a bigger role in endurance running and encouraged coaches to accept this.
His research included working with athletes in Kenya and Ethiopia and his findings enforced the benefits of training at high-altitude.
Chris Jones talked about how he had worked with Fionualla Britton to redress power and speed issues and create a team approach around her to enable the careful monitoring of progress.
He explained how both athlete and coach had learned to trust the methods they were employing.
This work was picked up by Charlie Pedlar and Nathan Lewis of Orrecco.com in their presentation on biometrics and the way Orrecco works with coaches and athletes to optimise recovery.
Neil Cronin gave a detailed account of the structure and functioning of muscles and tendons.
He also related these structures to the mechanics of endurance movement and offered ways in which coaches could use the information to tailor their training sessions.
Norman Poole gave a well received account on his experiences working with a number of athletes and taking them from an amateur to professional status.
Tomasz Lewandowski presented a detailed workshop on the progression of his brother Marcin Lewandowski. He also gave a presentation on day two looking at the holistic approach of training middle distance runners.
Dave Sunderland spoke about Lynsey Sharp’s preparation for the London 2012 Olympics, dealing with the challenges her and her coach faced while getting ready for the most important competition of their lives.
Jenni Banks covered the specifics of coaching wheelchair athletes and in particular the successes enjoyed by Hannah Cockcroft.
Neil Black described the team approach that surrounded Mo Farah’s final preparations leading into the 2012 London Olympic.
Martin Rush closed the conference with a short speech recognising the challenges that European endurance coaches and athletes face in a highly competitive world where access to endurance running is very easy.
He clearly outlined his belief in Europe’s ability to be successful at a world level through continued sharing of knowledge and development of coaching networks through events like the 2013 European Endurance Conference.