Last week we pointed out deficiencies in the “improved” McCain P10 Rankings site. Did we prompt them to announce their login scheme prematurely? As it stands we have serious misgivings. Click here to continue...

ABAC supports England Athletic’s road running initiative. Jim Cowan consulted. Click here to continue...

The McCain sponsored Power of 10 statistical  rankings service is slowing down after its re-launch in April. How slow can it get?. Click here to continue...

Following ABAC’s recent article on UKA’s changed and more onerous insurance conditions our NGB has now issued details of improved terms. Here is more information. Link here for the new details of Deductibles.

UKA has changed its conditions relating to insurance without informing clubs. Here is what you should know.

In the absence of any guidance from UKA or EA, ABAC has asked a specialist health and safety consultant with considerable coaching experience to prepare Safety Guidance for those leading training groups on the road or country. Club officers please note.

The discredited Foster Review of 2004 ignored clubs. UKA’s 2005 "Independent Poll" on athletics in England included Celtic Clubs to get the answers it wanted. Now there is to be a new study. It starts here.

On 2^nd January 2009 we listed the cash and investments held by various bodies running athletics in England. The AAA’s have just published their latest accounts. Have their results matched our predictions?

Huge sums have been wasted on the "development" of athletics over the last decade but with little to show for it. Here Charles Gains collects some startling facts about the decline of Cross Country.

In this, the last part of our interview with Jim Cowan, he looks at some of the most recent initiatives to move our sport forward and outlines his views on what should be done.

Here is Part 2 of the Jim Cowan interview which deals with relationships and structure of the sport

With participation in athletics falling we ask level 4 coach and Sport’s Consultant - Jim Cowan how and why the sport’s governing bodies have failed. Read Part 1 of our interview

While the number of active senior track and field athletes continue to decline (Best estimate down to c5000 in England) there are worrying signs that cross country is suffering too. Charles Gains comments.

In Feb 2008 Bill Laws produced 2 proposals for ABAC relating to Club and Competition structures. Part 1 on Clubs was put on this website on 7th February 2008. Here is Part 2 relating to competition proposals.

During 2006 an ABAC working party produced radical plans for a new coaching system for athletics. The proposal was finalised in Oct 2006 and sent by an Agency to all FTSE 100 companies requesting financial support. You can now read the ABAC proposal including details of mentor coaches who signed up to this scheme. Could these ABAC plans have influenced the latest EA proposals?

While the grass roots wait to see if new cash resources will be made available to them our NGB continues to promulgate the canard that they are immensely supportive of clubs. Tony Ward’s letter in last weeks AW points out a few home truths. Read it here.

England Athletics is putting in place new plans for athletics which will have a big impact on clubs over the next 4 years. ABAC officers report here on the latest meeting with two key EA players.

Predictably, Jonathan Grix’s recent critical review of the performance of UKA has evoked strong words from our NGB. Charles Gains leaps to the defence of Jonathan in this article

A new independent review of the Impact of UK Sports Policy on the Governance of Athletics in the UK is to be published in March. Here we summarise the highly critical conclusions

How will the economic downturn affect the latest grass roots funding proposals? Food for thought here.

Today’s announcement by UK Sport of cash cuts will hardly worry UKA. But could our NGB spend monies more effectively? Fred Stebbings gives his proposals for improving athletic performance.

With private sector 2012 funding £79 million below target, UK Sport will decide tomorrow where cuts will be. UKA has wasted huge sums. Jim Cowan highlights costly deficiencies in Government’s policies which have blighted the development of athletics. An expert’s report from the “coalface”.

What has ARC done for you? Here is their report on the first 18 months of operation. And impressive reading it makes.

As the economy plummets so too does the interest in school athletics. Some disturbing recent surveys are reviewed here. Read our comments.

England Athletics have announced a major restructuring involving scrapping the 9 Regions. ABAC cautiously welcomes this initiative. Read the details and our comments.

Charles Gaines has provided us with his views on planning the future for athletics based on historical evidence and analysis. Read his views on our P10 analysis.

We now have the last three years of performance statistics from UKA’s Power of Ten initiative. Can these provide a clue to what we may expect from our athletes in 2012? Read our analysis on athlete retention.

The poor performance by GB athletes in Beijing should result in a root and branch review of our sport. Jim Cowan, the well known sports consultant and ABAC officer gives his analysis of problems past and present.

When Mike Winch joined the main ABAC committee he set in motion plans to give coaches more say in the future development of their talents. These plans are now to be put into practice through ABAC. Read on.

How will the looming economic turndown affect sport? A recent Daily Telegraph editorial gives the clue. Read some extracts.

On the 8^th July ABAC officers had a constructive meeting with England Athletics managers led by new CEO Mike Summers. Here are the agreed minutes of that meeting.

In the last fortnight we have seen two articles dealing with the coaching of athletics. Somehow it is difficult to reconcile the two themes. On the one hand Tony Ward highlights the current problems while the England Athletics AGM report is bullish. We reproduce them here. Draw your own conclusions.

Sport England has just published its new 4 year plan. The new targets mean that England Athletics have the opportunity to change direction and create new initiatives.  We asked Charles Gains, a critic of England Athletics, to comment on their latest Progress Report.