as head throws coach at one of the major sports clubs
(SC Motor Jena). When she was appointed to lhe position,
Swiss-born Jdrg Probst has been an athletics enthusiasl
for as long as he can remenber. He has been competing
in the discus and shot put for well over 25 years. ln 1 991
he moved to Australia, where he studied psychology,
philosophy, and law.lnspired by his coach Denis Knowles
he took up coaching in 2000. Some of his athletes have
won medals at state and national level in the discus, shot
put and javelin. Jorg is a knowledge consultant and he
lives with his wife and three children in Sydney.
We are asking ourselves constantly: how can we keep our
athletes in the sport? How can we recruit more suitable
young athletes who can "make it?" What are we doing
wrong, where can we imProve?
We might think of the highly organised and successJul
East German sports system as having been vastly superior
in many respects, parlicularly in talent identification and
developing athletes to world class level. But somewhat
surprisingly the coaches there asked themselves the very
same questions all the time. They, of course, also had
the political imperative to worry about, as the reputaiion
of the entire nation depended to a large degree on the
country's international sporting successes.
A 1982 paper by a female East German throws coach
provides a fascinating insight into her struggles to find
suitable talents via the so-called second pathway (that
is, fostering young athletes who were not accepted into
a sports high school as children - the normal pathway in
the GDR), obtain adequate suppotl, and hold on td these
talents over the years as she tried to lead them towards
world class level.
Developing athletes via lhe second pathway
The coach presented her conclusions in relation to the
identification and selection of teenagers for the shot put
and discus throw based on a good 1 1 years' experience
after 1 2 years as a coach at a spotls high school, her brief
was to build up a lhrows group from scratch.
She visited various high schools and technical colleges,
and carried out testing on apprentices. She was able to
identify a number of potential athletes, although this wasn't
easy. She was not only looking for specific anatomical
and physiological qualities. She recognised that at that
age the teenagers already had to possess the necessary
attitude towards high pedormance sports, because it was
too late to develop that, or drum it into them, at this late
stage. ln fact, her star athlele, who eventually became an
almost - 21m shot putter, didn't possess the necessary
physical attributes, but the coach was so impressed with
his will to succeed, his confidence, and his attitude, she
felt compelled io take him on, although it wasn't easy
for her to convince the authorities that he was a suitable
candidate. This example demonstrates that things were
not always as black and white as we tend to believe, and
certainly nothing was simple or easy: Three years into
her term the coach received a further written demand
from the authorities, asking her to take on three male
and three female shot putters into her training group. So
she undertook further extensive identification effofts at
various schools in the area, but lhe exercise was not at
all successful.
Most of the eight athleles the coach selected and who were
accepted into the sports club over a three year period, did
not "make it." Five of them she had to let go again: one of
them simply lost interest, one had committed a theft, one
left the programme because his father had other plans
for him, and two didn't show sufficient improvement and
lacked the psychological abilities necessaryforthe rigours
of high perlormance sport. She concentrated her efforts
on the remaining three athletes of this "batch" (there
were oJ course other aihleies in her group). One of the trio
always lacked the confidence io make it to world class
level and abandoned her career in 1979. The two others
turned into respectable throwers, a 62m discus thrower,
and as previously mentioned, a 20m+ shot putter.
The coach concluded in her paper that although she
agreed that high expectations were necessary, they
 should not be so high as to discourage the athletes. She
also recognised that the best physical attributes, great
motivation and will to success would lead nowhere if
the necessary self-belief, pafticularly in competition, was
missing.
She recommended that when recruiting adolescents, the
personality and the psychological abilities ofthe candidates
were a prime consideration, as the prospective athletes
already had to possess a high level of confidence. But
they also had to be given the opportunity to compete often
because they didn't have the experiences of success like
young athletes who had been in the sports school system
since childhood.
Fufther, club officials (who decided whether to accept
athletes into their club, which was by n0 means a
given) should support these athletes better by judging
iheir abilities according to training age and give them
realistic goals to achieve, as well as supporl them in their
professional education.
ln her opinion, athletes who achieved 50m in the discus
and 16m with the shot should receive special attention
by the federation, so that for example they could be
absolved from the otheruise compulsory 18 months
military service.
She also recommended that special criteria should be
developed for athletes who join the high-pedormance
program via this second pathway. 0verall the coach
believed that the selection of potential world class
athletes via the second pathway was crucial to ensure
that the GDR could maintain its dominance in athletics,
and coaches and the selected athletes require more
suppoft t0 better exploit this talent pool.
Athlele development Australian style
After briefly summarising this GDR coach's experiences
I would like to add some of my own thoughts in the
hope of sparking some debate. The emphasis in that last
sentence should be on the word "hope" because usually
even the most provocalive comments elicit no response
whatsoever. and the debates we should have never take
place. which raises another question: what are we afraid
of? I would like to think that if a GDR coach can express
her views so candidly in a paper that was reviewed by
a high-ranking coach within the East German Athletics
Federaiion, and presented at a three-week national
coaching conference where the best coaches in the
country would have been gathered, I would hope that we
in the so-called free world should have sufficient courage
to speak our minds openly and discuss the problems that
no doubt do exist, and tackle them collaboratively.
What are we doing in our current Australian context to
encourage athletes to join the spoft later, or what are we
doing for the probably few who choose to join the sport
later, and show talent? The answer is probably:very litile,
if anything.
It can hardly be denied that our competition system is
completely geared towards early developers. Obviously,
this is the easy way. But what are we doing for these early
developers?
The theory seems to be: Chuck the kids into Litile A's as
s00n as they're out of their nappies, then hope for the
best over the next 1 0-1 2 years. lf they're tucky they might
come across a good coach, they might be accepted into
a sports high school, and if they're not sick of Athletics
by 1 7 or so and they show the necessary talent, which
invariably means ceftain performance standards, then
they are chosen into an institute or M program, and a
couple of those might actually progress to senior level.
Basically, our system is a sieve that favours early
developers. But we will always be facing disappointment
when even those pafticularly talented athletes who could
very well succeed at world class level are lured to more
lucrative sports, the most recent example being Jamal
ldris.
These are some of the questions we should ask ourselves:
what are we doing to make our sport attractive as a career
choice? ls our system supporting our athletes adequately
to allow them to be world class athletes whilst facilitating
their professional development? Are we sufficiently taking
into account psychological factors when selecting athletes
into our various talent programs?
It seems the emphasis is purely on performance when
we are selecting athletes. lf you achieve a ceftain
performance you will enjoy at least some suppoft,
regardless of physical and psychological attributes. You
will qualify to g0 to World Youth Championships or World
Junior Championships if you meet the pedormance
criteria, regardless of your attitude.
Bui what about those who more or less narrowly miss
out because they are late developers but display great
aptitude from a psychological point of view, have a passion
for the sport and have that cedain fire in the belly?
We have a great talent pool, we live in a country with a
great spofiing culture, but many might be sick of doing
the same sport since they've been five years old at exactly
the age they should only be starting to hone their skills
and perhaps specialise. Why might kids and adolescents
become sick of athletics?
Well, let's have a look at your average Little A Saturday
morning or Friday night session, and l'm aware that l'm
generalising here, as not all clubs are the same, but the
following is based on my observations and accounts
from "little athletes" I have coached. Kids spend most
of their time waiting their turn; when it comes to field
events, the unlucky ones receive some no doubt well-
meant but most likely misguided demonstration from one
of the parents on how to "do it" before they have their
three jumps or throws and off they go to the next event.
This takes place week after week. Those who are good
enough (entirely performance based), usually the early
developers, might get some extra misguided instruction,
often from a parent, unless the club has access to one of
the relatively few qualified coaches (in comparison to the
masses of kids who parlicipate) Kids have to prepare for
school competitions in the winter months, and for Little A
competitions in the summer months. ls all this fun? When
does training for general athleticism and coordination and
proper skill development take place?
By the time they are in their best learning age kids have
already excelled at acquiring poor technique, which
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hinders their furlher development, and they've never done
the groundwork. ln general, the Little Athletics approach
produces athleies without the athletic foundations. The
lucky kids are those who play other spotls. But I will
develop this thought, including recommendations on
what Little A should offer, another time,
I just want to finish with this assertion: as a small nation
we have incredible success on the world stage. But this
success is not the result of some clever and sophisticated
athlete development system. This success occurs despite
our current system. lt is created by the few and small but
determined and fruitful coach/athleie teams who defy
all the odds. But there might not always be another Dani
Samuels/Denis Knowles or Steve Hooker/Alex Parnov
coming along to save the daY.
For our sporl to flourish we need to create real depth, real
competition at a much higher standard, which will kick
off a positive cycle. But this requires us to change things
drastically.
tf you would like to comment 0r read the GDR coach's
paper in full (either in German or in translation, including
slme very interesting annexures), please enail me at
j p robst@oze m ai L co m. au.
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