The Athletics Ireland Coaching & Development team was awarded an Erasmus+ Sports Mobility grant via Léargas for coach shadowing in 2023.
Hangout with High Jumpers which is a group of volunteer High Jump coaches were instrumental in building on the links they fostered over the years to bring Irish High Jump Coaches to Stuttgart in Germany and Gothenburg in Sweden on a coach shadowing programme. They got to watch and learn from their European counterparts in terms of coaching philosophy & pathways, High Jump coaching techniques and programmes.
In 2024 Athletics Ireland was successful in applying for another round of Erasmus+ funding, building on the success of the High Jump Coach Shadowing programmes they returned to Sweden this time focusing on Jumps. These mobility programmes have been instrumental in developing our coaches. 18 coaches and 5 athletes availed of these innovative sports mobility programmes from Erasmus+. From 1900 – 1920 Ireland won 12 Olympic medals, 8 for Jumps, we are attributed with inventing the Triple Jump.
We can already see the rewards these grants are bringing to our Jumps community. For the first time ever, Ireland had 3 finalists in the European U18 High Jump with Conor Penney making the men’s final and Tara O’ Connor & Siún Quinn reaching the women’s final.
Athletics Ireland are extremely grateful to our German and Swedish Jumps coaches who generously offered our coaches the opportunity to spend time learning from them, sharing their knowledge and passion for our sport. Both in Germany and Sweden the natural and engrained emphasis on coach collaboration is something all our coaches have taken home with them and hope to grow here in Ireland.
