Junior & Youth Carded Athletes attend Educational Workshops

On Tuesday April 10th all the Athletics Ireland Junior & Youth carded athletes were invited to attend an educational day with workshops from the Irish Institute of Sport and Irish Sports Council in the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin.

The participants began their day with a workshop on 'Dealing with the Media' Ken Lynch from the Irish Institute of Sport delivered this session. Topics discussed included coping with media attention, attracting the right type of attention, how to respond if contacted by the media and the advantages and disadvantages of social media. This is an area which is relatively new to this level of athlete so they found it very advantageous to discuss before the season began in earnest.

Siobhan Leonard form the Irish Sports Council then gave a very practical talk on 'Athlete Responsibilities with regard to Anti-Doping'. Siobhan worked with the athletes to establish an understanding of their responsibilities under the Anti-Doping Rules of Athletics Ireland/Irish Sports Council and International Association of Athletics Federations. This included explaining how athletes can check their prescribed and over-the-counter medications, risks associated with supplement use, athlete responsibilities with regard to doping control, the whereabouts system and the role of the athlete in promoting clean sport. Siobhan adopted a very practical approach to this workshop and all the participants, both athletes and coaches felt they learned a lot!

The lunch break afforded the athletes an opportunity to either go for a training run or enjoy an active recovery session in the 'Aqua Zone' before enjoying a healthy lunch in the cafeteria of the NAC.

After lunch Ken Lynch held a workshop on 'Personal Performance Management', working with the athletes on creating a 'good' performance environment. This included looking at the traits of successful athletes, how they cope with adversity, managing expectations and dealing with the blend of education and sport. Ken has worked with many of our elite athletes for the past number of years and the young athletes found this a very interesting and beneficial workshop. It is planned to hold further workshops for these athletes and their coaches in the autumn.