Australia's Para Taekwondo coaching team recently gathered on the Gold Coast for a coach development and strategic planning weekend, bringing together coaches from across the program to sharpen their skills and map out the next phase of Para Taekwondo in Australia.
The weekend was made possible through a Para Coach Development Grant funded by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). The grant aims to deepen coaches' knowledge of the high performance para environment, helping to build coaching capability and grow Para Taekwondo across the country.
The sessions were led by Lúcás Ó'Ceallacháin, who draws on his experience as an international rugby player, high performance wrestling coach and coach developer with AusTriathlon, and Dr Nicole Hannan, a 2004 Olympic volleyball player and multiple-time World Tour beach volleyball player. Through a series of development exercises, they helped the coaches bring their ideas together and plan how the future of Para Taekwondo may take shape.
The group also heard from Dan Atkins, who shared insights on developing para athletes from his work in triathlon, where he has coached athletes to multiple Paralympic and World Championship medals.
Dr Alex Lascu led a session on skill development and training design, drawing on her work with Boccia athletes at the Queensland Academy of Sport. Her session helped coaches not only build better skill development sessions, but also rethink how they work with athletes to unlock their potential.
A key outcome from the weekend is continuing work on a gold standard set of frameworks to guide how Para Taekwondo programs are built in Australia. Coaches held robust discussions on what needs to be in place to keep the current country-first, athlete-first approach strong for the long term, so athletes get the best outcomes wherever they train and grow within the sport.
Coaches described the weekend as a valuable experience that helped them better understand their own coaching and how they can grow, and as a refreshing chance to be part of such a positive coaching group.
Australian Taekwondo thanks Ben Exton for organising the weekend, and all presenters and coaches for their time and contribution. We look forward to seeing this work bring out the best for Australian Para Taekwondo.
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