KarlOShaughnessy.com

The London 2012 Olympic Games are now over. It felt a bit like a family or friend’s wedding you’ve been looking forward to for months and Today feels a lot like that moment when suddenly the house lights appear to be coming on at the Reception and it’s time to go home! Over in a flash! There is no doubt I’m suffering Olympic withdrawal symptoms today as a result.

Looking through the web stats on KarlOShaughnessy.com I can only assume that many of you have shared a similar excitement & enjoyment of the Olympic Games over the last few weeks with readers of this blog in particular coming from many of the successful nations at the Games - Great Britain, USA, China & Jamaica to name just a very short few.

As a proud Irishman, I was delighted to see my Country represented with great effort, guts & determination by all the Athletes who wore the green in 2012. In particular, our new Olympic Gold Medalist in Boxing, Katie Taylor really caught the imagination of the whole country and even Sports fans from further afield. Her magnificent performances aside, her great personality and dedication to her sport shone through in every interview she did.

As many of you will also know, Katie is also a very talented footballer and has represented the Republic of Ireland at Senior Women’s level. I’ve seen her play on numerous occasions and have always been impressed by her ability on the field. I don’t know Katie personally but I have coached many players who do and I have never heard a bad word said about her as a person or indeed as a player. The feedback is that she’s a consummate professional at everything she does.  I am not surprised by this assessment.

Needless to say, her success will hopefully inspire the next generation of female athletes in Ireland whether it be in Boxing, Football or indeed any other Sport. Katie has done the country proud with her Sporting endeavours and as a nation we are thrilled to share in her success.

The other aspect of Katie Taylor’s Olympic adventure that really impressed & inspired me was the work of her Father, Pete Taylor, in the role of Katie’s coach. I know little about boxing coaching and did not see any footage of Pete Taylor coaching in a training environment but I was hugely impressed with his match day coaching (so to speak). He was calmness personified during every fight his Daughter fought and his positive reinforcement during each round was delivered in a confident & effective manner. His coaching style spoke volumes. It showed a coach who had led his athlete through the rigours of preparation for a major event, had completed the hard work and could concentrate on just helping & advising his athlete to glory.

There are many Football coaches who could possibly learn something from this. The hard work is always done in training. The correcting of techniques & tactics are done there also. Match Days for me, particularly with young players are about performance for the athlete and help, advice & encouragement from the coach. It was refreshing to see such an accomplished display of this coaching style in the biggest event of both Katie & Pete Taylor’s sporting life - Athlete & Coach working together effectively. There appeared to be no shouting, rage or aggression just cool, calm and collected coaching advise. It was a privilege to witness it and to ultimately see it result in such marvellous success.

To say that the Games have left me inspired to become a better coach and to help the future development of my sport is a major understatement. A fantastic 16 days of elite sporting action may have come to a close but the opportunities are only just beginning for the next generation of young athletes. As coaches, it’s our role to help them achieve all of the success they are now beginning to dream of…..we need to buy into these dreams.

All the best

K.