Published: Thursday, 19th March, 2009 11:30pm

Coaching conference prepares to kick-off

by Ally McGilvray

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Action from Gala Hotspur v Tweeddale Rovers last weekend. But, after recent criticisms of football in the Borders, can the coaching conference help kick local sport into the 21st Century?

FULL-TIME is approaching for sports enthusiasts across the Borders aiming to register for a coaching conference in Peebles next weekend aimed at kicking sport in the Borders into the 21st Century.

Former Scotland (football) manager Craig Brown and Hearts players Lee Makel are among the keynote speakers at the inaugural 'Scottish Borders Coaching Conference 2009' at Peebles Hydro Hotel on Sunday, March 29.

The course will also include workshops on athletics, cricket, hockey, swimming and cycling.

However, the deadline for applications - which can be downloaded from www.sportborders.org.uk - is Wednesday (March 25).

The format of the conference will be to have three keynote speakers in the morning giving talks on the Theme 'Working with Talented Athletes – the Role of the Coach' and also have six sports specific workshops in the afternoon.

Senior Sports Development Officer for the Borders, Dougie Anderson said: 'We are delighted to announce that we have former Scotland International Football Manager Craig Brown going to give a talk on "Creating Winning Teams".

'We also have as a keynote speaker, Dave Clark, Head of strength and conditioning at the Scottish Institute of Sport for almost a decade. His career highlights include coaching Sir Chris Hoy when he won Olympic Gold in cycling, Beijing 2009 and also Campbell Walsh when he won Silver in the canoe slalom in Athens in 2004.

'Our third speaker is Doug Frost from swimming. Doug is currently the Head Coach of the new British Swimming Intensive Training Centre (ITC) in Stirling. In his career he has coached countless elite Australian swimmers including Olympic medallists Ian Thorpe and Kirsten Thomson. Frost coached Thorpe from 1997 to his triple gold medal performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.'

The format in the afternoon is for the Coaches to go into their specific sports for workshops.

The conference will conclude with a question and answer session from all our guests where coaches will have opportunity to interact and gain knowledge from a wealth of coaching expertise and experience in various areas of sports coaching.