Liz McColgan: “Teaching is about creating life abilities that make a distinction to individuals”

Former 10,000m world champion and Olympic silver medallist talks about her journey from athlete to mentor

Former world 10,000m champion and Olympic silver medallist Liz McColgan is coach to daughter Eilish, the reigning Commonwealth 10,000m champion and a number of British record-holder. She can be a coach at Doha Athletics Membership, which she arrange when she moved to Qatar in 2013.  

McColgan additionally works as Director of Sporting Academy Programmes at Qatar Basis and is answerable for creating its Creating Pathways Programme. Launched as a part of the Basis’s FIFA World Cup legacy plans, the Programme – which contributes to Qatar’s 2030 imaginative and prescient to reinforce and construct girls’s sports activities participation – goals to encourage ladies aged 12-16 to play sport, highlighting the significance of train, vitamin and general wellbeing. 

How did you get into teaching?

My coach Harry Bennett [at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers] died once I was 17, so I coached myself for just about all of my profession. I in all probability knew much more about coaching than different athletes round me on the time as a result of I actually delved into what endurance operating was. I’d go as much as individuals like George Gandy and Harry Wilson and ask questions, they usually’d be actually supportive and useful.

The primary particular person I coached was Collette Fagan. She gained a European juniors 5000m bronze in 2001, simply earlier than I retired myself. Working with Collette made me realise how a lot I loved the problem of making an attempt to suit a programme round another person and determining get the very best out of her. I knew it was one thing I wished to do.

As I progressed by means of my retirement, Eilish was coming onto the scene. She was 11 or 12 when she first obtained requested to race cross nation by her PE instructor and he or she beloved it. She’d solely been operating about 4 or 5 months once I ended up teaching on the membership and really rapidly I developed a extremely good group [at Dundee Hawkhill Harriers].

I later determined to begin up an “elite” membership which I funded myself. I used to be very lucky that we ended up with a variety of nice children, together with a few of the greatest younger distance runners within the UK on the time. 

Who was your best teaching affect?

My most important affect was Harry. Once I was younger he’d throw books at me to learn like The Loneliness of the Lengthy Distance Runner, or books on coaching and the science behind the game. 

Once I was coaching he’d say: “Why do you suppose we’re doing this session?”, so he was educating me all alongside and I discovered an terrible lot. I feel the premise of all my teaching comes from him and the trial and error we went by means of once I was youthful.

I do know endurance inside out now. That’s not solely as a result of I’ve examine it, however as a result of I participated in it and self-coached myself to the very best stage. That doesn’t imply it’s a must to be a runner to be a superb coach, however if you’re a runner and also you’ve achieved what I’ve achieved I feel it provides you a little bit of an edge. You might have a greater understanding of the way it feels once you’re completely knackered and also you’re requested to do one other rep and also you suppose: “I can’t do it”. You understand how to work by means of that psychological course of since you’ve been by means of that your self. 

From a training perspective, what have been your first impressions once you moved to Doha and the way have issues modified since then?

I’d given some motivational talks in worldwide faculties and I rapidly realised there was an actual hole available in the market for teenagers wanting to participate in athletics. A variety of children wished to run however there have been no alternatives for them, so I created Doha Athletics Membership. 

There’s a variety of expertise right here, and now that funding is being put in place to develop the Creating Pathways Programme we’re in a extremely good place. We’re creating after-school golf equipment which result in sporting academies. We’ll then expertise ID ladies who’re eligible to compete for Qatar nationwide groups and associate with the federation to develop girls-only (elite) hubs with age-appropriate teaching and improvement. It’s a holistic method that features mentorship and creation of girls’s-only competitors. A variety of it’s about eradicating obstacles. 

We’re additionally creating the area’s first elite girls’s sports activities academy – a sports activities facility for ladies, run by girls – by revamping the Training Metropolis Stadium [built for the 2022 World Cup]. By creating the Creating Pathways Programme we’re getting ready athletically-gifted ladies for its opening in 2027.

We’re even going into universities; there’s a bunch of girls who would have beloved to be on a programme like this however they didn’t get the chance. We wish to deliver these older ladies again and assist them get teaching {qualifications} or to change into referees and umpires. 

You’ve obtained to have a place to begin, and the place to begin is now. What we’re making an attempt to do is construct participation so that everybody can see the advantages that come from sport. Not everybody can get a gold medal, however everybody can profit from being energetic, particularly socially.

As soon as we get the degrees of participation and we’ve obtained protected and fit-for-purpose locations for ladies to coach and play sport, then that modifications what they convey to future generations by way of what’s acceptable, how good sport is for you, and what you will get out of it. You’ll finally have fitter, more healthy and happier ladies coming by means of and over time, by means of higher numbers, you’ve obtained extra of a chance to discover a higher commonplace of athlete.

For a coach who loves being trackside, how do you navigate the challenges of distant teaching with Eilish?

It really works nicely, though I admit that I do miss the attention contact. I really like watching an athlete like Eilish, it’s like poetry in movement when she strikes as a result of it’s easy. You may also see if you could change issues, for instance if she’s drained. Working remotely, you miss that, however the good factor working on-line with Eilish – and it doesn’t work with all people – is the superb quantity of knowledge she provides me. It’s simply clicked, possibly that’s as a result of I’m her mom as nicely, however the quantity of knowledge is fixed and it really works. 

Eilish can be so in-tune along with her physique we all know if she’s obtained a sniffle two days earlier than she’s obtained it. We’ve labored a lot collectively we see the warning indicators earlier than they arrive. The one factor I’m lacking is definitely seeing her operating and that’s the place Michael [Eilish’s partner Michael Rimmer] is available in; he sees her operating, they usually ship a variety of movies which helps. Expertise makes on-line teaching a little bit bit simpler.

Do you ever conflict, and as a guardian and coach how do you handle that?

We don’t all the time agree. I didn’t need her to do the Europeans [last summer] and I didn’t really suppose she ought to go to the Olympics, however she’s an grownup along with her personal thoughts. 

Teaching through the years can be like a mentorship and also you’ve obtained to take heed to your athlete. Eilish wished to do 4 Olympics. I used to be like: “Why does it matter?”, nevertheless it mattered to her and I needed to respect that. I knew that she wasn’t in PB form. She hadn’t raced and generally you want races to click on. She understood all that, nevertheless it was necessary to her to be there and he or she deserved it. She’d run the time and he or she’d been chosen by proper. Now she will say she’s been to 4 Olympics and he or she’s the primary Scottish monitor and discipline athlete to attain that, so I’m happy with her.

Individuals have completely different motivations and objectives. Eilish is completely completely different from me. If I couldn’t run my greatest and get a medal I wouldn’t go, however that’s not Eilish, she’s extra emotional, she’s obtained extra empathy, and he or she cares about issues in a approach that I in all probability wouldn’t. As a coach it’s a must to help that. All of us went to Paris to help her and he or she ran nicely. She was additionally there for Megan [Keith], which was a pleasant finish to her Olympics.

How would you describe your teaching philosophy?

I don’t suppose you’re a born endurance runner. I’d say sprinters are born, however I feel you’ll be able to develop a extremely good way runner through the years by means of exhausting work in the event that they’ve obtained the fitting mentality and want. Once I’m athletes I by no means search for the quickest individuals, I take a look at how they transfer and their headspace as a result of generally you simply have to be that little bit cussed to be a superb endurance runner. 

What do you get pleasure from most about teaching?

One of many best children I ever got here throughout was Graeme Oudney. I noticed him lately and to see him because the particular person he’s now, having labored with him for thus a few years, was actually particular. 

Some athletes simply have a spot in your coronary heart and also you all the time bear in mind them. That’s what evokes me with operating, it’s not simply in regards to the coaching, it’s in regards to the particular person and the journey they’re on. 

That’s what I get pleasure from now. You see ladies who’re so glad to run as a result of they’ve been given the chance to run, not as a result of they’re nice at it however as a result of they wish to do it. Some coaches lose sight of what teaching is. It’s not about gold medals and successful large races – don’t get me incorrect, it’s superb when that occurs – however that’s not what teaching is about. Teaching is about creating life abilities that make a distinction to individuals, whether or not that results in them being an Olympic champion or operating a Race for Life. That’s why I coach. 

What’s the very best piece of recommendation you’d give to a brand new or aspiring coach?

Coach for the fitting causes. Develop your ability set, study what your occasion is about, and be very sincere and direct in regards to the capability of your athletes and what you suppose they’re able to. Keep in mind that the recommendation you’re giving to somebody might change their lives, so ensure that it’s the fitting recommendation.  

» Subscribe to AW journal right here, take a look at our new podcast right here or signal as much as our digital archive of again points from 1945 to the current day right here