England Athletics International Jumps and Throws Conference 2023

England Athletics was delighted to host its two-day International Jumps and Throws Conference 2023 on March 25 and 26 at the world-renowned Loughborough University.

• Download the England Athletics International Jumps and Throws Conference 2023 programme (PDF 10MB)

Our conference, themed ‘Coaching the Adaptable Athlete’, featured a packed schedule of world-leading coaches and specialist practitioners across a range of fields, the aim being to benefit coaches, leaders, and athletes not just in jumps and throws, but across all event groups.

Our speaker presentations, practical sessions, and workshops, split over two days covered a wide range of topics, offering fantastic learning and development opportunities to improve technical, tactical, and psychological understanding of how to coach in athletics, track, field, and other sports. Delegates heard from our amazing line-up of speakers featuring elite-level coaches and athletes, strength and conditioning experts, and leaders in sports psychology, including: Dr Áine MacNamara, Elliott Newell, Herbert Czingon, Dr John Kiely, Dr Alison O’Riordan, Yannick Tregaro, Stefan Holm, and Steve Backley.

The 2023 conference formed part of the England Athletics Talent Coach and Athlete Development Programme.

Delegate Katie Lambert told us: “The event was massively successful. As a young coach it was very beneficial to be surrounded by the best coaches in the country, along with the coach of a world champion. I not only took away new technical knowledge, but also how to develop and track progress in athletes. The final talk about how to apply this new technical and psychological knowledge into coaching sessions was very useful and gave tangible strategies to incorporate these techniques into coaching. Overall, it was not only a very useful event, but very enjoyable.”

Delegate Shadine Duquemin, noted:

“The 2023 International Jumps and Throws conference was a great opportunity to network with like-minded coaches from around the world. The opportunity to share best practices and discuss ideologies with some world-renowned coaches is rare. I am looking forward to the next one.”

Another attendee, Scott Simpson, British Athletics World Class Programme Head of Field and Combined Events, stated: “The line-up of speakers was truly world-leading and huge kudos to both Darren (Ritchie) and Nick (Ridgeon) for the work put in to assemble such a group. The theme of the conference was perfect, and the sessions included met the aim really well. There was also a great blend of theoretical and practical components. The evening event was fun and engaging, and Elliott Newell’s contribution was a nice touch.”

Closing keynote speaker Elliott Newell, said:

“I think a real strength of this event was that the organisers not only thought about putting on great content, but also thought about how the attendee’s would engage with the content. My role as thought disrupter was a great idea, and I really enjoyed helping the attendees make sense of what they’d heard and how they could use it to progress their coaching.”

Speaker Nathan Ott, commented: “The 2023 International Jumps and Throws Conference was a resounding success. The organisers did a fantastic job of engaging many leaders in the industry and cultivating a great learning environment. Development of the sport is made possible by events like this.”

Speaking after the conference, Darren Ritchie, Event Group Lead for Jumps and Combined Events at England Athletics, said: “I would like to thank everyone who attended the weekend.” He continued,

At a conference event like this, something special happens. Not only do we get the opportunity to meet other coaches and practitioners across the world, but the face-to-face engagement between the sessions is unique to that event. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and appreciated the energy the speakers and delegates brought to the event.

“One of the aims of the conference was to create environments and opportunities for coaches to learn, network and grow, and I liked to think we achieved that.”

Nick Ridgeon, Event Group Lead for Throws at England Athletics, summarised: “This was the first time England Athletics has organised a conference using the innovative hybrid approach. The hope was to improve the accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability. We were able to live steam the keynotes to coaches all over the UK, Europe and even had delegates from the southern hemisphere. It’s vital England Athletics keeps evolving our approach to providing development opportunities to our coaching community and we hope all of those in attendance both in person and virtually gained a huge amount of knowledge which they can apply and inspiration that can fuel their coaching practice. We also hope that the connections made with those they met at the conference will strengthen and they can continue to stay curious about their development and collaborate with each other.”

Conference speaker overview

• Dr Áine MacNamara – presented on performance behaviours of elite athletes, their characteristics and traits and how we set up our coaching systems and behaviours to the develop these.
• Dr John Kiely – presented on current research around adaptation and training principles and considering new lines of research in this space.
• Elliott Newell – performance coach and psychologist – presented on the highlights and key messages from the weekend.

Event specific presenters:

• Steve Backley OBE – Retired javelin thrower, serial medallist, and Olympian. Formerly held the world record, and his 91.46-metre throw from 1992 is the British record
• Mark Chapman – England Athletics Talent Event Lead for Discus
• Herbert Czingon – Former head of jumps, national pole vault coach, Switzerland
• Stefan Holm – Former Olympic champion, high jump
• Dr Alison O’Riordan – Director of AOR Sports Consultancy
• Paulo Oliveira – Department of Biomechanics of Sports and Performance at the Portuguese Athletics Federation (FPA).
• Nathan Ott – head throws coach at Pennsylvania State University and coach of the 2022 women’s hammer world champion Brook Anderson
• Yannick Tregaro – World-renowned jumps coach, Sweden

Session information

Presenters and breakout sessions