Appointment of Head Coach

Dear Members

With the silly season almost at an end and 2011 just around the corner now is the time to start planning (if you haven’t already done so!) for the coming triathlon season, to set personal goals for the year ahead, and to set out a training regime which will allow you to achieve those goals.

Thanks to the work and dedication of all previous Piranha committees we now have an excellent structure in place in terms of the quality of coaches available to us and the number and range of training sessions orangised each week for all members.  The committee is conscious that in order for members of the club to progress we need to retain, but also attempt to improve upon the current structure.

James Hoare, as the club’s training officer, has been working very hard to ensure that you, as members of all levels and abilities, have access to the best possible coaches.  With this in mind, and after careful consideration, the committee is delighted to announce the appointment of Elena Maslova as Piranha Head Coach for the coming year.

Read on for more info …

Elena will start as Head Coach on 4 January 2011, and has been given a clearly defined role by the committee, with her duties and responsibilities being set out in the Head Coach Terms of Appointment, a document that is available for review should any member wish to do so (please email Jason Milne through the site and a copy will be sent you a copy).

As mentioned earlier the committee is anxious to retain the current structure, and merely wishes to improve upon it by using Elena’s knowledge and experience to get the best out of the training time we have available to the club.  While she will be overseeing the club’s training for the year from a strategic point of view, she is also there to offer advice and assistance to all members, and we would encourage everyone to consult her with training questions and queries – she is currently working at the highest level of the sport with Triathlon Ireland, and we are very excited to have her on board for 2011.

It is also important to stress that all decisions in relation to Elena’s appointment have been made in accordance with the Piranha Club Constitution; all were made openly, with complete transparency and always with the best interest of the club in mind.

The thinking behind Elena’s appointment was to engage someone with the requisite triathlon experience, along with the coaching pedegree to oversee and advise on the clubs overall season-long training programme, to assist members to get the most out of the limited amount of time we have to train.

Her duties and responsibilites will include:

• Structuring all training sessions into monthly training programmes for members of the club (all levels of ability, from beginner to advanced);
• Developing and maintaining strength and conditioning recommendations for members of the club (all levels of ability, from beginner to advanced);
• Developing, implementing and maintaining periodisation of overall training objectives in conjunction with the clubs existing coaches;
• Ensuring that all existing club coaches are aware of, and understand fully the concept of training periodisation, specifically for the sport of triathlon;
• Ensuring all training sessions are appropriate for the level of ability of all members;
• Monitoring and reviewing training programmes on a monthly basis;
• Conducting monthly meetings with all coaches and members of the training committee;
• Developing and maintaining lead test days for each sporting discipline once every eight weeks;
• Analysing test results and monitoring athlete and overall club progression;
• Attending and leading two run training sessions, one bike session and four swim session every month;           
• Be available for discussions with athletes/members when necessary;
• Establishing recommendations for pre-race mental preparation;
• Establishing a strategic plan for the club for the Triathlon Ireland club championships;

She will also be assisting with up-skilling and utilising members who wish to get involved in coaching, with a view to improving the quality of coaches within the club.

For those of you who don’t know Elena, she hails from Russia and got involved in competitive sport at the age of seven when she joined her local ski club.  Within a few years she was ranked in the top three at the Russian National Championships and as a result was awarded a scholarship for the Olympic Biathlon Training College in St. Petersburg.  In her fifth major international competition she won three gold medals for Russia at the Muju-Chonju (South Korea) Winter Universiade in 1997.

After being chosen to join the Olympic team in 1996 she won numerous national titles as well as several medals in individual and relay at European Cup and World Cup events.  Unfortunately, due to an injury in 1999 she was forced to take a break from competing.

She moved to Ireland to further her education and in 2004 started to compete in triathlon.  She won the Triathlon National Series title four years in a row (2007 to  2010) and in 2009 won the National Championships in all 3 distances – Sprint, Olympic and Middle/Half Ironman.

Elena has a first class honours degree in Sport Science from Saint Petersburg State Academy of Sport and is currently working with Triathlon Ireland as a High Performance Assistance Coach.

We are very much looking forward to working with Elena in 2011.

Happy New Year from the Committee.