Last weekend 61 athletes attended the anti doping workshops conducted by Siobhan Leonard from the Irish Sports Council. Two workshops were held in the University of Ulster and one at the House of Sport. Siobhan covered testing procedures, information on the new WADA list, supplementation, and athlete rights and responsibilities. Feedback from the athletes was that they found the workshops interesting and informative.

Sports Scientist Declan Gamble has been spending some time at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff. This has been organised through UK Sport as part of their career development programme.

The Irish Women’s Hockey team, which includes 8 SINI athletes, are currently in Argentina in the final part of their build up for the Olympic qualifier in New Zealand in March. Sally Bell is assistant coach to the team, who have a tough series of matches against Olympic champions Holland and current world champions Argentina.

Next week sees the Indoor Athletics Championships taking place at the Odyssey on Saturday and Sunday. A number of athletes and staff will be involved in the event which last year was a huge success.

Last week 29 potential coaches attended an Australian Level 1 Strength and Conditioning course at SINI. The course was organised by the GAA with those attending coming from the county structure. The next course will be organised by Sport Belfast on Sunday 15th and Saturday 21st February. While most places have been booked anyone interested should contact Shane McCullough on 02890 270340

Next months newsletter will include an update on the new facilities planned at the University which will house the Institute services. Watch this space!!!

THE TOUGHEST OF ALL ATHLETIC EVENTS- THE 400M?

There is much debate within the sport about which event is the most gruelling. In my experience the 400m is the killer event in terms of training and racing. Some of the carnage you can witness in an ill judged race up the home straight is often hard to watch! Looking at the faces in the attached photo we come to realise how difficult the demands of the event actually are…. From left to right, Donna Frazer, Katherine Merry, Vicki Jamison and Alison Curbishley. Here the ladies are pictured after winning a European Bronze medal in the 4x400m relay in 1998. The future looked bright for four athletes in their prime, but unfortunately like many others in this tough event the road ahead has been arduous.

Whilst Frazer and Merry went on to finish third and fourth in the Sydney Olympic final, their seasons have been punctuated by injury and only a handful of appearances between them since Sydney 2000. Both Jamison and Curbishley have had even worse luck with injuries. Niggling injuries meant that both tried to convert to 800m, however even then injury stepped in to retire Curbishley from the sport completely.

The event places so much demand on the energy systems, and the muscles and joints are strained to limit almost constantly throughout the year. Even Michael Johnson’s amazing world record ended with an ice pack strapped to his thigh due to an injury picked up in the last 20m! Looking through the top British and Irish males the story is a similar one. David Grindley one of the best young talents to emerge from the British Isles had his career ended in his early twenties. Who can forget Derek Redmonds father carrying him to complete the 400m with a pulled hamstring? Roger Black’s injury nightmares are often forgot due to the excellent finish to his career.

SINI athlete Paul Mc Kee has had a recurring hamstring injury since Sydney, and his main rival in Ireland, Tomas Coman has barely got out of the blocks in the last couple of seasons. However (touch wood) this season will see the re-emergence of Vicki Jamison. Following an excellent base from last season, and the support of biomechanist Ronald Holder, Jamison is gradually getting back to the top. This years aim being to make the British 4x400m team for Sydney as well as gradually re-introducing hurdling to her programme with the aim of medalling at the next Commonwealth games at her best event. With the back up of the Sports Institute team she will hopefully be able to alleviate many of the recurring injury problems in this event.

THE IRISH INDOOR ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIPS, ODYSSEY ARENA, BELFAST, 14/15TH FEBRUARY.

Athletics action returns to the Odyssey arena for the second time this February, with a host of International stars competing against our local athletes. Thanks to the back up of magnificent sponsors we are able to host the event for the second time. Last years event was a success on the track and hopefully larger crowds will turn out to support the athletes this year, if the event is to continue to build in stature.

British number one James Mc Ilroy will attack his 1500m personal best, whilst Paul Mc Kee and Paul Brizzel will finalise what event they are competing in closer to the time. Zoe Brown will be buzzing after her tremendous leapt of 4m12 in Sheffield last weekend, and further progress may result in the roof needing to be raised! SINI athletes Anna Boyle, David Shields, Elaine McCaffrey and Dermot Donnelly will also hope to be in record-breaking form.

Tickets are available from the Odyssey Box Office.

IRELAND'S INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S HOCKEY IN ARGENTINA

Ireland’s International Women’s Hockey team are currently in Argentina to play 7 Internationals and 3 Exhibition matches in their final Olympic Qualifier preparations.

Sally Bell the High Performance Manager for Hockey at the Institute is the assistant coach and is with the squad in Argentina. Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Phil Moreland is also there to keep track of the teams fitness. Ruth Wood-Martin has been assisting them with nutritional advice. The entire SINI women’s squad are taking part in the training camp.

To find out more about how the women are progressing in Argentina click here to be directed to the Irish Hockey Association website

ULSTER REPRESENTATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL AGE GROUP PANELS

‘ On a good team there are no superstars. There are great players who show they are great players by being able to play with others as a team. They have the ability to be superstars, but if they fit into a good team, they make sacrifices; they do things necessary to help the team win. What matters is how they perform and play together.’

At this stage in the rugby calendar the various International panels are assembled - Youth, School’s, U19’s, U21’s and the Senior XV - for their respective forthcoming campaigns. From a ‘Provincial’ perspective the numbers represented in each squad from Ulster, indicate the strength of rugby here in comparison to the other Irish provinces.

The following age group players from Ulster are currently preparing to test their skills against the very best.

Irish Youth - Compete in the Home Nations tournament to be held in Belfast during April.

Ireland Schools - Compete against Wales, France and England.

Ireland U19’s - Compete in the Under 19 World Cup to be held in Durban, South Africa during March/April.

Ireland U21’s – Compete in Six Nations and U21 World Cup in June.

In addition to the above the following players were selected to play for an Irish Presidents XV to play against the U21’s at the end of January.

We wish all teams every success and in particular the Ulster playing and coaching/management delegation.

Ten SINI players played this year in the McKenna Cup Competition. Paul Doherty who is in his second year of the SINI programme made his debut in the National League at centre half forward for Antrim. This follows an impressive run with Antrim in the McKenna Cup. Conleth Moran also stared in the half forward line for Derry against Kildare and Louth. Many of the SINI athletes are on their county panels, most notable being, Leo Meenan who joins his Killyclogher teammate Dermot Carlin on the Tyrone panel as they bid to retain their All-Ireland title. Meenan replaced Dooher in Tyrone's National League clash with Fermanagh.

The CPD programme draws to a close with one seminar left for this period. Heart Rate Monitoring and Programme planning (Wed 18th February). As Performance Analysis was the up and coming technology used during last year the new Polar Team system for Heart Rate Monitoring is being adopted and tried by coaches at the cutting edge for the current season.

CHANGE FROM ACE PROGRAMME TO PERFORMANCE LIFESTYLE

SINI’s Peter McCabe explains changes associated with one of the athlete services.

Q - Why the change in the first place?

A - The ACE UK programme has been licensed to the UK from Australia since 1999 and the decision was taken that it is the right time to end this licence agreement and create a UK based programme.
The programme had been developing well in the UK and we are now in a position to become a world leader in this field. It gives us the flexibility to develop the service as we see fit.

Q - So, explain the change in name?

A - Most athletes and coaches see the need to attend to the lifestyle issues they face but some didn't realise this is what ACE advisers could help with. The name Athlete Career & Education led many athletes and coaches to think that the advisers were only there to help get the athletes onto a course or find them a job.
A Performance Lifestyle is what all athletes should be aspiring to achieve.
They all have different aspects of their life they need to fit into the training programme. The advisers will be able to help them do this.
Performance Lifestyle will fit much more naturally as a service offered by the Home Country Institutes and will be integrated in with all of the other services; sport science, sport medicine etc.

Q – Will this change the work that you do?

A – Not significantly as here in Northern Ireland there has always been an emphasis on trying to help athletes integrate lifestyle requirements whilst they are still competing. In addition the service tries to assist athletes to manage the many transitions that occur during their sporting career; entry onto and exit off a performance programme, injury/illness, change in location, change in status and so.

All of the advisers across the UK will offer assistance to athletes in three key areas:
1. Lifestyle Support
2. Education Guidance
3.Career & Employment Advice

Whatever specific advice or assistance an athlete needs under any of these headings will depend on the individual's circumstances. Athletes can arrange confidential individual sessions with me at the Sports Institute and I also work with Performance Directors to deliver lifestyle management activities around an annual programme or training camps.

Q - Do athletes really need a service like this? Will it have an impact on performance?

A - We have many successful athletes who say that it does! The key to the service is that it helps to remove many of the distractions that could have a negative impact on the athlete. For example, many athletes worry about being left behind in their careers or courses - advisers can help them plan to cope. In addition a common way that the advisers help is with athletes who just can't fit everything in and so the quality of their training suffers. Time management is a vital skill for athletes, especially for those trying to balance their sport with a job or study or family commitments.
Living the life of an elite athlete is a difficult one - everything from meeting the demands of the media and sponsors to how to eat the right food needs to be planned and carried out to a high standard. This all contributes to getting the focus on sporting performance absolutely perfect.

The official re-launch of ACE, as Performance Lifestyle was at the annual conference of all UK athlete advisers on 4th-6th February.

The outing provided Declan with an excellent opportunity to interact with and share knowledge with other sport science professionals working in the UK Sports Institute environment. Professional links were also established with sport science academics from the two universities.

The highlight of the trip was the core conditioning session with the GB elite disability swimmers. This session provided a challenge to the strength and conditioning coach to develop and implement a core-conditioning programme to cater for a diverse range of disabilities. After some trial and error, however, each of the swimmers were able to manipulate the exercises to suit their own capabilities.

The inspection of the facilities was also highly beneficial as we are in the process of designing the sport science facilities for the new Institute building.