Sports
Course in train for Track &Field coaches
Participants of the Track and Field coachingcourse going through their paces.
Teaching the IAAF Coaches Education andCertification Level 1 course currently being held at the TrumanBodden Sports Complex are, from left, Mr. Roy Thomas, Cayman'sCoach Kenrick Williams, and Mr. Daniel St. Hilaire.
A track and field coaches course is currentlybeing held at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex.
The International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) Level 1clinic is designed to prepare coaches to teach all disciplinesof track and field and to coach efficiently at junior level. Thecourse also gives Coach Kenrick Williams the opportunity to gainhis instructor ranking, qualifying him to teach in this programme.
Called the IAAF Coaches Education and Certification System (CECS),the programme comprises three levels. Course Director, DanielSt. Hilaire calls Level 1 the most important. Having conductedCECS courses in Africa and Asia, he points out that track andfield events, particularly running events, are where the world'sathletes compete equally.
Level II specialises in an event area, like throwing or sprinting,and is designed for national senior coaches, and the first LevelIII courses, designed for national head coaches, will be offerednext year.
The local two-week course began on 15 November. About 20 dedicatedparticipants, including one from Cayman Brac, and PE teachers,members of the CIAAA, and police, fire, and immigration officersfrom Grand Cayman, are meeting in the early morning from 6:15to 8:15am and again in the late afternoon, with most working afull day at their jobs in between.
CECS Level I requires 66 units of practical and theoretical sessions.Participants listen to lectures, learn techniques and coach youngathletes during practical sessions on the field.
The IAAF and Olympic Solidarity have sponsored the course. Theinstructors include Mr. Daniel St. Hilaire, a Canadian nationalcoach specialising in sprints and jumps, Mr. Roy Thomas, a Jamaicansenior level coach whose expertise is in throwing, and Coach KenrickWilliams, a local, whose teaching skills are being evaluated forhis instructor's ranking.