Centre may be excellent, but still no centre for excellence

ATHLETICS:Irish athletics is facing into another long winter without a proper indoor running facility, writes IAN O'RIORDAN

IT’S 40 years ago this week since Bob Dylan released his 10th album, Self Portrait – the one which famously prompted Rolling Stone critic Greil Marcus to begin his review with the line: “What is this shit?”

Sometimes honesty really is the best policy, although I have to say I’ve grown quite fond of Self Portrait over the years. Like a lot things in life, it just took time to be fully appreciated.

Maybe the same could be said about the new M9 motorway, which is now open for traffic thanks to the overall Government investment of €1.519 billion. That seems like an absurd amount of money to me, even if it does mean we get to bypass Bottleneckville, also known as Thomastown.

But no wonder Vincent Keaney has been out dancing on graves recently. Some people are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore.

Actually I was thinking of Charles Haughey myself this week, when I took a quick detour cycling home from the Irish Times Building to view the completed Convention Centre Dublin – as it’s known – on North Wall Quay.

It certainly looks the part, and, given its apparent economic importance to the city, may well prove excellent value at a mere €380 million. Although that same €380 million would be more or less enough to fund all the governing bodies of Irish sport – rugby, soccer and GAA aside – for the next 10 years.

The convention centre has been a long time coming, too.

Back in 1987, it was Haughey, as Taoiseach, who staged a press conference at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, surrounded, I’m told, by most of his cabinet. With typical pomp, Haughey unveiled the government’s long-promised plan for a then National Convention Centre, which after a feasibility study costing well over one million of our dear old punts was finally approved for the Dublin docklands.

It would include the similarly long-promised indoor sporting arena, which would finally give Irish athletics the indoor track it desperately needed.

Although I wasn’t there, my father was, and as I’ve been told many times, he was so overcome with a sense of déjà vu that he stood up in front of the assembly to ask whether he’d see this indoor track in his lifetime, to which Haughey cynically replied: “How old are you, young man?” – prompting all-round laughter.

My father is not a young man anymore, although, unlike Haughey, he is still hoping to be around to see this indoor track in his lifetime.

In more recent years, I have witnessed two more government promises for a proper indoor track: in 1999, I stood in Santry to hear Jim McDaid, then Minister for Sport, unveil grand plans for an indoor track, to be built adjacent to the athletics stadium, yet no stone was turned; and in 2004, I heard another Minister for Sport, John O’Donoghue, buzzing about his great new venture at Abbotstown, which would, eventually, boast an indoor sporting arena.

Still, we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past, as F Scott Fitzgerald would say.

Anyway, on first inspection, the Convention Centre Dublin reminded me a little bit of a similar facility I visited in Madrid, which acts as a multi-purpose venue, and staged the 2005 European Indoor Athletics Championships.

Perhaps with a little extra thought the convention centre might also have housed an indoor sporting arena – to go with the 2,000-seater auditorium, the 4,500sqm of exhibition space, banqueting facilities for up to 5,000 guests, etc.

Instead, Irish athletics is facing into another long winter without a proper indoor running facility.

But perhaps there is some consolation here in that the convention centre, in one of its opening events, will today stage the 10th National Coaching Forum. Organised by Coaching Ireland – the body formerly known as the National Coaching and Training Centre – the theme of the forum is “Playground to Podium”, and if the message here is put into practice, then the future of Irish sport can only be brighter.

Among the guest speakers is Istvan Balyi, of the Canadian National Coaching Institute, whose expertise is in the area of long-term athlete development.

Last night, Balyi gave me a sneak preview of his presentation, and explained why he thinks Irish sport, like most other countries, is still putting too much focus on early specialisation.

“As soon as we start to train, we train to win,” he says. “But it takes that 15 years to get to the elite level. And early specialisation is not the best way to go. You have to be diversified early on, trying all sorts of sports, and having fun.

“You need to develop all sorts of skills and fitness, before you start specialising.

“The new buzz word here is ‘physical literacy’, and by that we mean fundamental movement skills, and sports skills. Because that is the foundation for lifelong physical activity, and also for excellence.

“There is also too much competitive nature in sport early on, no doubt about that. Because if you don’t have the proper system of competition you are breaking the athletes, and that happens in most of the team sports around the world.

“What we have now, we are superimposing adult schedules on young athletes. It’s insanity, doing the same things over and over, and expecting different results. Because kids are not miniature adults.”

Coaching Ireland have lined up an impressive array of speakers for today’s event, including football manager Brian Kerr, boxing coach Billy Walsh and Gary Keegan, director of the Irish Institute of Sport.

The final presentation of the day will be delivered by Henry Shefflin, and, given his very recent experience of Kilkenny’s All-Ireland hurling defeat last Sunday, he’ll perhaps have the most honest message of all.

Because even in losing last Sunday, even in leaving the field after just 13 minutes when his injured knee unfortunately gave way, Shefflin reminded us all that just being part of All-Ireland final day is something you really can’t put a price on.