When England Athletics’ East Midlands region were struggling to put on relevant programmes for road runners in the area, who did they turn to?

Was it the all knowing, highly paid endurance coaches in UKA’s employ? No.

Was it their own club and coach development staff? No

Was it the much talked about Road Running Leadership Group? No.

It was none of the above. England Athletics in fact turned to ABAC’s Jim Cowan and engaged his company, Cowan Global Consulting to design and run a series of workshops for road runners in the region.

Jim is among a number of experienced coaches who both UKA and EA have steadfastly refused to engage with over recent years, UKA even declined Jim’s offer of FREE workshops outlining his experiences in Kenya and Morocco and of a FREE rewrite of the much maligned Level 3 Phase 2 course.

What has caused this about face? We do not know but given the workshops were “extremely successful” (England Athletics’ words not ours); we sincerely hope this is the start of a process to engage those previously kept at arm’s length by our NGBs.

Unfortunately, true to form, although announcing “the project achieved everything we wanted it to” England Athletics will not be repeating the workshops either in the East Midlands or elsewhere in the country, instead returning to the very programmes which were failing and led to their initial request to Jim to suggest something different.

ABAC Comment. England Athletics’ present senior management seem to more open minded than their predecessors. Openly engaging with ABAC officers is a step forward and follows a number of ground breaking articles by Jim Cowan published on this site. Over recent years ABAC has been active in attempting to counter many of the organisational changes inflicted on our sport following the discredited Foster review. Many ABAC proposals have been covertly adopted over the last year (and will be listed in our fourth year annual review) but this is the first time an overt acknowledgement has been forthcoming. May it continue.

England Athletics full press release:
 

 11.May.09 East Midlands London Marathon Team workshops yield successful results

Four workshops were held at various venues around the region to engage road runners from all corners of the East Midlands.  The programme offered an enjoyable, educational and sociable series of workshops, linked to local road races and supporting various charities. At the same time it enabled England Athletics to develop new partnerships within the region.

The four workshops were run by Jim Cowan from Cowan Global Consulting and covered topics such as, planning your training, lifestyle matters, nutrition & hydration as well as presentations from PUMA on footwear, a physiotherapist and a session from Paul Evans giving advice for the race day itself.

The workshops were extremely successful with 20 road runners signing up to the project over the winter.  Each runner received kit from PUMA in return for raising money for a charity of their choice.  In total over £3000 was raised!

Jude Brand, a road runner from Leicestershire said, ‘I thought the workshops were fantastic.  I learnt so much from all the presenters and the kit from PUMA was a fantastic surprise!’

For the runners who actually ran the London Marathon all of them improved their times from previous years.  Steve Moore CCSO in the East Midlands said, ‘the project achieved everything we wanted it to.  Raising standards of road running and engaging runners in the East Midlands were the key objectives which were achieved with very positive results.  The project also enabled us to strengthen partnerships with local race organizers and an opportunity to work with key partners such as Cowan Global Consulting and PUMA.’

England Athletics is looking to follow this project with introducing endurance Flying Coach opportunities within club sessions again giving advice to road runners but more importantly working with coaches and group leaders to strengthen and broaden knowledge and skills within clubs.

Click here for more info on the Flying Coach scheme, or contact your local Club and Coach Support Officer (contact details available at www.englandathletics.org/my-area)