We listen to the woman who has led Jeremiah Azu to Sprint’s international success about the joys and challenges of being a mentor
Helen James has been a Cardiff AAC coach for three decades, the most recent guide of Jeremiah Azu, an athlete who has trained since she was 16 years old, to the world and European inner gold of 60m. James began to run in primary school and continued through his school years. His parents emigrated to New Zealand when he was 12 years old, returning to the United Kingdom two years later, and the duration of that time won the 100m title of the Auckland schools. Particularly strong inside, it has a better 60 m personal brand of 7.8 that reached RAF St Athan in the early 1970s.
How did you get into training?
I got into my children’s training [two daughters]. Both competed at school and did very well, so I took them to join Cardiff. I met many people since I ran many years ago and my love for athletics soon returned.
I started as a team manager and I was a launch in the background when I had to organize two buses to travel to a competition with just a few days of warning [because there was nobody else to do it]. I feared it because I thought: “Can I really do this?”, But we did it, and we did very well. After that, someone suggested that I should get involved in training and I have been doing it since then.
When I started training, I was juggling with work and family, so it was really full. Now that I am retired, it is a little easier.
Cardiff’s coaches worked together. At that time he was a large group of us, so a coach would write writing the training plans and the rest of us would help us. I remember that a gentleman told me: “Why are you so quiet? You were an athlete once, you know what they should do, so speak,” and that was a turning point. Not long after that, the group separated and we all ended with own athletes. I think those words stayed in my head and I thought: “I can do this.”
Who has bone of your greatest training influence?
I met and learned from many coaches over the years. James Hillier [former British Athletics High Performance Coach – Sprints and Hurdles, now Head Coach at the Reliance Odisha Athletics High Performance Centre in India] He was one of them, just as Adrian Thomas who trained my son -in -law Rhys Williams [Team GB Olympian who won the European 400m hurdles title in 2012]. I also learned a lot from the deceased Dave Williams in Cardiff many years ago.
Adrian and I actually combine our groups for a while and gathered for Hill Sprints in the Methyr Mawr sand dunes near Bridgend. Athletes have a love and hate relationship with Merthyr Mawr. They love to go there, they just don’t like how they feel after that.
I simply like to see the different sessions that the coaches are leading, and if I think, “I like that”, then I will mix it with my own ideas.
How would you describe your training style?
I think I’m quite kind and accessible, but I want all my athletes to win. I know that sounds a little crazy, but training them to win.
The “winner” of all and everyone’s success is different; For some athletes that could be a better personal moment, for others it could be the selection of the county or the international selection. Everyone has a different level of achievement and, if they work hard, that must be celebrated. I just like to see children do the best they can.
It is not just about hard work and training thinking, it is also the social aspect and making friends, the camaraderie to get on a bus together to go to a competition and spend the day. It is supposed to be fun!
What would you say are the characteristics of a good coach?
Understanding their athletes and having a good relationship with them is really important. Your athletes need to know what to expect from you and have the confidence to ask you anything. For example, if you have problems, you want to know that you can help solve them. I like to be seen as some who first care about the athlete.
You train a large group of athletes. How do you handle that?
With difficulty! I am not the only coach in the group, he thought. I have other coaches who work with me and all are very knowledgeable, so we all have a contribution, especially supervising training sessions. There are a few days when we will run about five different training sessions in a group, so it can be a different car, but we work very well together. I mainly train at night, but I am lucky to be retired now to be able to train in the morning too.
I think you must try to talk to everyone, to pay attention to everyone. We treat our athletes as a family because we spend a lot of time with SEM and we are interspersed in what they are doing outside athletics and on the track. In addition, if I have children running in the National Athletics League (NA), I will always go, if I can.
I don’t think I lost a championship with [Azu] Over the years. I had never imagined going to China [to the World Athletics Indoor Championships]But I wouldn’t have lost it for anything.
Jeremiah is a great example of an athlete who have trained as the beginning of his career. What does it feel like to discover young talent?
With Jesus, he initially took me a lot to persuade him to come to the club, but I am so slippery that I will persevere. Now I have another very young athlete. He is with a leg with me about a year and is exceptional, he is winning everything. Initially it was his brother who approached me, and he would usually take the younger athletes, at least not as young as he, but because they come as a package I made.
Discovering talent is exciting for a coach. The young athlete that I have now has a lot to do, but it was the same with Jesus. He entered as a 16 -year -old who had really run before, except school competitions.
To see him develop over the years, and there are other athletes that also have bone with me a lot of time, so seeing them become really good and really good human beings is special.
It is not always easy, thought. When Jesus made the decision to move to Marco [coach Marco Airale in Italy in 2022] Obviously I was upset, I made it deny that, but I expected it. I understood why I wanted to go because in reality, at that age, children want to try different things and follow their dreams. My children went to travel, and you bring your children to fly the nest, right? I wanted everything best and there was no resentments.
When he returned, he went down to see us and he was possible that he began to join in the strange session. It was an easy transition, there were no problems. He simply went back into training as Hey before leaving. It was as if I had never been out.
What is the best advice you would give to a new or aspiring coach?
Work first with other coaches and learn to train and how to treat people. Treat everyone as they deserve to be treated. In addition, when you are training, everyone has their own objectives and dreams. It is important that you encourage your athletes to follow your dreams, but most importantly, to enjoy what they are doing!
