Coaching Excellence Seminar, Mackay: 5 June, 2022
June 5 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
$150
Sunday, 5th June presents as a tremendous opportunity for those in Mackay for the 2022 Oceania Athletics Championships (7-11 June) to listen and learn from an international expert on coaching in Frank Dick OBE.
Frank will discuss a framework of critical coaching qualities to ensure the production of High Performers in the World Arena:
– Clarity
We are in a unique cycle of 5 back to back World Championships (3xWA; 2xOG). In addition, there are WA Indoors, Relays, Cross Country and Road Running. We need to refine Strategy to achieve sustainable success in the World Arena while medalling in the short to medium term. Clarity of goals, values, roles & responsibilities, progress/effectiveness measures and communication are part of this
– Curiosity
A winning culture is founded on a learning culture. “Probably the only sustainable competitive advantage we have is the ability to learn better and faster than the opposition.” We need to learn on the move; so learning as we coach. This means constantly seeking learning opportunity; being brilliant in basic principles; testing your preparation (red teaming and pre-mortems); forensic hot and cold debriefs; feedback is critical, not criticism; revisiting learning for retention and retrieval
– Courage
It’s not just about doing things better but doing them differently and doing different things. We must be willing to break the mould. We cannot know everything so know what you know; know what you don’t know and know someone who does. We cannot guess our way through the coaching process or we make athletes victims of our limitations. In pushing beyond the edge, we will fail sometimes but fail fast and learn faster
– Connection
We are not intuitive team players in Athletics. We are individuals and that’s why we chose Athletics. We compete with each other as athletes and as coaches. That’s what we are there for. But if coaching is to grow and if we are to learn better and faster, then we must work together to do so. We must cooperate. So what we are about is “coopetition”. Connection is not only about creating effective relationships, it is also about our capacity to connect ideas, to find analogy, to tell stories.
– Coaching
Athletes make excellence happen; coaches make excellence possible. For us to do so, there are some things we can be taught; there are other things we can only learn. We can be taught the Science of coaching in book, lectures, courses. We learn the Art of coaching through experience. As Vern Law suggested “Experience is the cruellest of teachers: she gives you the test first and the lesson after” we must be comfortable being uncomfortable with this. The greatest part of our Art is the ability to make right decisions, often under pressure. So having a mentor or coach’s coach to ensure we learn through experience is pretty important
– Commitment
If losing doesn’t hurt, winning doesn’t matter. Results are things over which we do not have total control. Performance is something over which we have total control. So it is performance that is the focus; the athletes’ and our own. A clear strategy is critical to this in applying our technical and people skills from finding the edge of advantage and eliminating errors to anticipating, creating and adapting to change and leveraging uncertainty
About Frank Dick
From 1979 to 1994 Frank was the British Athletics Federation’s Director of Coaching, where he was widely acknowledged as and remains one of the outstanding sports coaches and coach mentors in the world. In this position Frank led the British Athletics team into its “golden era” with Olympic gold medallists such as Daley Thompson, Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. Frank was Daley Thompson’s personal coach from 1982 onwards.
More recently, Frank has help assist in achieving some impressive results as part of his position as, High Performance Director at SASCOC (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee) where he was the consultant to South Africa’s top coaches and athletes at the Rio Olympics and Paralympics. RSA achieved 10 medals with 2 Gold, 6 Silver & 2 bronze. Four of those medals were won in athletics, Franks area of expertise.
Since 2016 Frank has worked as a strategic planning consultant as part of the England Senior Rugby Team with Head Coach, Eddie Jones.
Frank is currently President of the European Athletics Coaches Association and Chair of the Global Athletics Coaching Academy , World Athletics Coaching Body.
His expertise derives from years of detailed research into individual success and achievement. Frank combines this wealth of knowledge and experience into an informative and motivational approach to achieving long-lasting transformation of both individual and team performance.
Frank is the author of four major coaching publications: ‘Winning Matters’, ‘Sports Training Principles’, ‘Winning’ and ‘Winning Lines’, all classics in their fields.
In 2011, Frank was awarded an Honorary Professorship by the National Sports Academy of Bulgaria in recognition of his influence in advancement of coaching in Europe. This followed an Honorary Doctorate by Loughborough University for his contribution to coaching and coach development.
Frank’s contribution to sport and coaching has been recognised in being awarded an OBE. In 1989, Frank was inducted to the UK Coaches Hall of Fame in 1999 and was awarded the prestigious title “UK Sporting Hero” by Sport UK in 2001.”
“Frank brought a professionalism to the management of the team that we had never had before or have had since.”
Sebastian Coe, Running My Life
Seminar Details & Information
Date: Sunday, 5th June, 2022
Seminar Time: 10:00am – 12:00pm
Venue: Central Queensland University
Building 2
92 Sydney Street,
MACKAY QLD 4740
Contact: 0475 443 334
Registration closure: Wednesday, 1st June, 2022
Cost (inc tax): $150
Refund Policy
Notification of withdrawal in writing up to 1 week prior to workshop date – Refund minus 20% administration fee.
Notification of withdrawal in writing less than 1 week prior to seminar date – NO REFUND
Seminar Schedule
9:45am: Doors Open
10:00am: Seminar commences with Detailed Presentation
11:00am: Interview with Scott Goodman
11:30am: Q&A