AGM REPORT ITU High Performance. Prepared By: Robert Taaffe ITU HP Director

Transcription

1 AGM REPORT 2016 ITU High Performance Prepared By: Robert Taaffe ITU HP Director Date: 25 th June 2016

2 25 th June 2016 Dear ITU Members, On behalf of the ITU please find attached my report on ITU High Performance [Kyorugi]. At our last AGM I became part of the ITU Board, with the post yet undefined. A short while after this it was requested that I take up the role of ITU HP Director. Below please find my commentary on ITU High Performance since our Previous AGM. I welcome any comments, queries or observations from ITU Club Coaches to robert@sd-tkd.com or from ITU members during Q&A at the AGM. Sincerely in Taekwondo, Robert Taaffe ITU High Performance Director robert@sd-tkd.com A Look Back Since Last AGM 18 th July Major Events a. Junior Europeans 2015 Daugapils, Latvia 2 athletes selected Results - 5th Place Conor Deery, 2nd Place Jack Woolley b. European Olympic Qualifiers Istanbul, Turkey 2 athletes selected Results - 9th Place Conor Grassick, 3rd Place Jack Woolley c. -21 Europeans 2016 Bucharest, Romania No athletes sent No seeding, no ranking points d. Senior European Championships athletes selected Results - 17th Place Conor Grassick, 9th Place Jack Woolley e. Summary of Positions Achieved at Majors 1 P a g e

3 Junior Europeans 2015 European Olympic Qualifiers European Championships -21 Senior European Championships Conor Deery 5th Jack Woolley 2 nd 3 rd 9 th Conor Grassick 9 th 17 th Table 1 Major Events Results Since Previous AGM 2. International Ranking Events a. General i. Since our last AGM there has been modest attendance of senior athletes to G ranked events. Senior athletes from Stamullen, Peak Performance, Junsa, SDTKD, Ayrfield Academy have participated. In total 7 athletes have participated in senior divisions with the below standings achieved. The terror attacks in Paris last year did have an adverse effect on G participation for those in attendance from Stamullen & SDTKD. Unfortunately due to injury some planned attendance at events was impaired due to injury late last year. Should there be any clubs that have students who you feel should be attending it is recommended that you coordinate with your local clubs or academies to ensure they get the exposure & extra training required to attend. b. Congratulations: i. Well don t to Jack Woolley / Conor Grassick and their support teams on their medal wins. c. Summary of Positions Achieved in G Ranking Open Events 2 P a g e

4 Polish Open G Israel Open G Russian Open G Serbia Open G Croatia Open G Paris Open G Moroccan Open G US Open G Canada Open G Euro Club Championships G Fujairah Open G Dutch Open G ETU Presidents Cup G Spanish Open G German Open G Austria Open G Greece Open G Jack Woolley 3 rd 2 nd 1 st 5 th 2 nd C 1 st 2 nd 1 st 2 nd 2 nd 9 th 2 nd 3 rd 2 nd 2 nd David Murphy 17 th 17 th Conor Grassick 17 th 33 rd 17 th 5 th 3 rd Hayley Nolan Sarah Purcell 9 th 9 th Chloe Aboud 9 th 17 th C i Claire Toland i i C i Conor Deery 17 th Planned attendance, but could not participate due to : C = Cancelled i= injured Table 2 Summary of Positions Achieved in G Ranking Open Events [G events only applicable to senior divisions] 3. International Events a. It is refreshing to see the increase in participation of juniors & cadets attending international events alongside the senior G1 events, and elsewhere. Clubs attending various international events; Stamullen, Peak Performance, Ilyo, Sport, Champion, SDTKD, Baldoyle, Ayrfield, Extreme. It would be my opinion that exposure of children and developing seniors who have a high performance interest to these events will greatly assist their future development. b. Some performances of note would include Junsa s Conor Deery s bronze at the Dutch Open, Gold for ben Kelly of Stamullen ay the Quest Open and multiple medal successes for Emma Cahill of Baldoyle. c. Coaches are advised to monitor both and for upcoming easily accessible events in the UK which are on every few weeks with good quality opponents and good structuring. 4. Local Events a. National Championships 2016 i. Excellent attendance of athletes ii. Poor officials contribution overall, more clubs required to be active. b. Meath Championships i. Excellent attendance of athletes. 3 P a g e

5 ii. Poor officials contribution overall, more clubs required to be active 5. ITU National Development Training Sessions a. These training sessions that have been running on a monthly basis throughout this year have gathered good momentum, in particular in the cadet / junior divisions. Most recently this session has been fragmented into delegate work groups with guest coaches, S&C, Sports Psychology, Nutrition. b. To assist the momentum of these sessions, it is requested that any clubs sending students: i. Ensure a coach or senior representative from your club is in attendance to collaborate with the groups, and give attention to any student who may need your assistance. These sessions are not only for athlete development, but also coach development. ii. Ensure you send students who you feel should be there. Sessions are targeted at intermediate advanced with international ambitions in all age categories Pee Wee to Masters Games. iii. Please ensure your students do not leave sessions early without prior agreement. 6. ITU Inter Club Training Sessions a. Grass Roots i. Many ITU Clubs and Academies have been coordinating on inter-club training sessions for all levels including grass roots. If any clubs wish to gain access to any sessions please contact your local club or info@taekwondoireland.ie for assistance in identifying local clubs who may be available to coordinate. 7. Paralympics Ireland a. Both President Fleming & I attended the recent AGM to continue networking with PI. Whilst there is no Paralympic Taekwondo classified athletes currently participating in the ITU, with 4 years to the Tokyo games this may be an opportunity to positively explore and bring attention to Irish Taekwondo, whilst ensuring the inclusiveness of WTF is promoted. Through my club I managed to secure a grant for promotion of Para Tkd, which may or may not yield any athletes, however it is a strong attempt to tap into any athlete resource, positive exposure and possible indirect funding to Irish Tkd as a result. 8. Road to Rio Documentary a. The first episode of this RTE documentary featured ITU's Jack Woolley, and also depicted some of the ITU's grass roots athletes, advanced athletes & coaches. There was only about 8 minutes of tkd in the documentary after many months of filming, but I hope all would agree it spoke volumes and will potentially increase the popularity of the sport for all of our clubs. Thank you Master Fleming for the assistance. 9. ETU Coaches Licence 4 P a g e

6 a. Qualified Coaches now increased to 11 ITU Coaches. Coaches should observe the expiry date of their licence, the first batch of cards are due to expire this year. There has been no details issued about refreshers courses to date. b. Whilst this course is a pre-requisite to coach at G ranking events & major WTF events, it is recommended that this is very useful for any Kyorugi coaches to upskill their knowledge, and for international athletes to gain a coaches / referees perspective on the game. c. Should there be interest within the ITU, it is intended to request that an edition of a future ETU Coaches Course could be hosted in Ireland. With the first batch of licences due to expire, there will be many Coaches who may need to travel again. Expression of interest will be sought on attending upcoming ETU Licence coaches course, which hopefully can be hosted locally. d. ITU ETU Licenced Coaches Name Club 1 Bobby Enright Peak Performance 2 Brian McKenna Chi Stamullen 3 Stuart Russell Junsa 4 Robert Taaffe SDTKD 5 Niamh Buffini SDTKD 6 Dylan Leonard SDTKD 7 John Kelly Sport 8 Leslie Leonard Sport 9 Alan McGowan Sport 10 Derek Reid Champion 11 Anas Belmaati SDTKD 10. Positive Irish Taekwondo Promotion a. From travelling in recent times it has become apparent that the many Irish athletes & coaches participating at events & seminars abroad is putting Ireland in a very good light with networking and developing strong international relations. I would urge clubs to take advantage of this and expose any applicable athletes to events abroad to continue this and take advantage of our good international standing. In recent times this has given rise to international visitors to Ireland and invites to other countries for athletes. 11. Coordination with Sport Ireland / OCI a. Master Fleming has continued to take the lead with dialogue with these bodies. I have attended meetings and presented to attempt to gain assistance from bodies. Master Buffini was requested to take up the position of HP Liason Officer and has had greater direct dialogue with the SI, who offered assistance and access to the Irish Sport Institute facilities to one athlete. It is hoped that in time this will be available to more. A brief update from Master Buffini is appended to this report. b. There was no major funding to the ITU from the above bodies with exception of modest administrative allowances. There has been no direct personal funding 5 P a g e

7 allocated to any athletes, however this is continually being addressed and we are hopeful that this will improve. 12. International Training Camps a. There has been no ITU designated training camps. In recent times coaches of high level and development students have been attending their own camps at their own discretion to assist the development of their students. 13. Digital Enhancements a. i. The ITU has engaged the services of for the preregistration of all students for: 1. ITU National Development Training Sessions 2. ITU Seminars 3. ITU Poomsae Events b. i. An upgraded ITU website is now live c. i. Kyorugi sparring events will continue to be entered through the usual d. Online Payments System i. The Memberful online payments system is under review due to difficulty in coaches paying for batches of individuals for events. Payments direct to the ITU bank account will suffice in these instances. The Memberful system will remain for simple one off payments. 6 P a g e

8 A Look Forward 14. Major Events a. European & World Events i. Requests of interest have been issued to the ITU mailing list and consideration will be given based on the ITU selection criteria. ii. -21 European Championships 1. Due to the location of this event in Chechnya and advices from the Department of Foreign Affairs we are not following up this event with interest. iii. Cadet European Championships th September Romania 2. Expressions of interest have been requested from ITU Clubs iv. Junior World Championships 1. November- Canada 2. Expressions of interest have been requested from ITU Clubs 15. WTF Grand Prix a. This year being an Olympic year, the WTF decided that there would be no. Grand Prix Series, only a Grand Prix final. Usually this event is only a top 8 invitational, but I am hopeful and suspect that it may be opened up to top 16 or 32 which may give rise to Irelands first attendance at this G8 event. 16. Universiade a is a Universiade year, scheduled for Taipei City. The Univerisade is a G2 event and highly recommended for any athletes meeting Student Sports Irelands Minimum Criteria. This event caters for Kyorugi & Poomsae. Any clubs who may have athletes with an interest please contact the ITU at info@taekwondoireland.ie World masters Games a. This major multi-sport event for over 35 s will be held in Aukland, New Zealand in 2017 and has divisions for Poomsae & Kyorugi. This event caters for Kyorugi & Poomsae. Any clubs who may have athletes with an interest please contact the ITU at info@taekwondoireland.ie 18. International Ranking Events a. It is likely that from 2017 onwards the 60 point max Olympic point collection per year will be reduced to 40. This in theory should give developing nations a greater ability to collect and contend with high profile athletes after Rio. I suggest coaches identify ANY student who may be born in 2002 or earlier NOW who may have what it takes to challenge for Olympic qualification. If any clubs need any guidance and direction on this I would be delighted to share ideas and lessons learned in this area. robert@sd-tkd.com 19. Local Events 7 P a g e

9 a. In September there will be a 2 day tournament in The Arena, Tallaght for both Poomsae & Kyorugi. The Irish International Open / Korean Ambassadors Cup event will be a festival of Tkd in Ireland and I urge clubs to get registrations online NOW to attract international visitors, and please ensure every club is supported by officials representative of their team size. I also suggest clubs get their entries in now to gain commitment of students before the summer and any lag that may occur in September. Hosts SDTKD have managed to secure a grant from Failte Ireland, and the ITU once again has secured support from the Korean Embassy. The only 'uncertain' item in the planning is clubs Referee / Judge support. Officials will be a pre-requisite for teams entering. b. Any ITU clubs hoping to host an event please contact info@irishtaekwondounion.ie with details so it can be reviewed for support and added to the calendar. c. Due to the great attendance at this years National Championships, the next edition will be held at a similar time next year in January / February. d. The Meath Open Championships will be running in its usual slot around March National Development Sessions a. These monthly sessions coordinated by Master Russell are planned to continue and be further refined to the needs of the athletes. Other Contributions 21. Update from Master Niamh Buffini ITU HP Liason Officer a. Irish Institute of Sport i. A Services Provision has been awarded to one non funded athlete since March S&C being the primary focus and the other services being X2 contacts until September. ii. Niamh Buffini is the lead S&C coach, while working along side the S&C coach in the IIS under a coaching mentorship scheme. iii. This service is restrictive as the level of agreement cannot be fully established until post Olympic games. iv. Post games the service level will be revisited. We hope to have secured at least two more slots for athletes services. b. ITU National Development Sessions: i. The HP committee have also secured a services outside of the service level of the IIS incl. fully qualified Sport Psychologist, S&C Coach and Nutritionist once a month during the developmental sessions. 22. Update from Master Stuart Russell ITU National Team Director Insert paragraph here 8 P a g e

10 HP Operating Structure President Martin Fleming HP Director Robert Taaffe HP Liaison Officer Niamh Buffini National Team Director Stuart Russell Sports Ireland Olympic Council Student Sports Ireland National Coaches Coaches Academy / Club Coaches Visiting Coaches Athletes Tournaments Training Positive ITU Contribution 9 P a g e