ATHLETICS: The guiding hand
12:00pm Saturday 4th February 2012 in Latest Sport News By Owen Houlihan
Malcolm Arnold at the University of Bath training centre, with European U23 400m hurdles champion Jack Green going through his training routine
MALCOLM Arnold could probably be forgiven if he wanted to put his feet up at his Broughton Gifford home, or spend more time indulging his hobby of racing rally cars.
Instead the 71-year-old is to be found overseeing some of Britain’s athletics elite at the University of Bath’s regional performance centre.
It is estimated upwards of 70 medals have been won by athletes under Arnold’s steady hand – a record of achievement that would tempt many to sit back and reflect with satisfaction.
Not Arnold, whose coaching career is rapidly approaching the mid-point of its fifth decade.
“You love sport if you do it for that long and I just enjoy working with young people who are very talented,’’ he said.
“It's better than working for a living.’’ A glance through the alumni and current members of Arnold’s training group reads like a Who’s Who of track and field.
Colin Jackson (world, Commonwealth and European 110m champion and a former world record holder), Jason Gardener (2004 Olympic 4x100m relay gold medallist), Canada’s Mark McCoy (1992 110m hurdles Olympic champion) and 1972 Olympic 400m hurdles John Akii-Bua all made their mark under his tutelage.
Now current world, European and Commonwealth Games 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene and 2008 Beijing Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist Tasha Danvers are blossoming under his guidance.
After being the head coach to the Great Britain athletics team at the Atlanta Olympics of 1996, Arnold expected to wind down his coaching commitments when he arrived in Bath in the late 1990s.
“I’d had enough of the politics and the bureaucracy and got out and came here,’’ he added.
“I just really came for a couple of years, until Colin Jackson retired in 2003. Then Jason Gardener asked me to help, then another athlete and another. You can't escape!’’
Currently a group of nine, ranging from Greene and Danvers to up and coming European U23 400m hurdles champion Jack Green, European junior sprint hurdles champion Lawrence Clarke and top British female junior Ashley Hensby, benefit from his knowledge as national hurdles coach for UK Athletics.
The facilities and athletics itself may have changed during his 43-year career, but his way remains a simple one.
“Top-class sport is a hard, relentless game and when I was a student at Loughborough, learning to be a physical education teacher, it was a hard, gruelling course,’’ he said.
After starting as a PE teacher, his experience included a four-year stint in Uganda before a 20-year stint as Wales’ national coach.
As for the Arnold ‘method’, he added: “I’m pretty laid back about things. Your archetypal coach is one who jumps up and down and bellows but when you work with athletes like these, it’s very much a partnership.
“My ultimate admiration is for the Premier League managers. I just don’t know how they deal with 30 multi-millionaire egomaniacs.
“These athletes have egos too, but in small numbers you can deal with them and they are well disciplined and driven and don’t go into the areas that other sportsmen have. They keep a very good lifestyle.
“A bit of ego is necessary. If you haven’t got one it's a qualification to disappear out of the sport. They know where they want to go.
“Once upon a time, a really talented person could just be talented and not train much and win at the highest level.
“But now, forget it. You have got to be incredibly talented and competitive and want to work.
“If they don’t, they are out, it's as simple as that.’’
With the London Olympics rapidly approaching Arnold, who was presented with a lifetime achievement accolade at the 2011 UK Coaching Awards, will have few opportunities to slow down in the coming months.
Not that he does in his spare time anyway.
“I have two rally cars and I’m a member of Devizes & District Motor Club so I like to do that when I can,’’ he said.
“I did the Fat Albert Stages at Keevil last year. I’ve been doing it for a long time and I enjoy it, even though I probably only get out five times a year.
“When I’m sitting on the start thinking ‘what the hell am I doing here’ I know how these guys (his athletes) are feeling.
“The only difference is that they are successful and I’m not.’’
British athletes can handle the Olympic pressure
THE expectations of a nation will be on Team GB competitors at next summer’s Olympics, but Arnold has no truck with the notions of pressure or medal targets.
From his own Bath camp, world champion 400m hurdler Dai Greene is touted as a potential gold medallist, with all the media and commercial interest that goes with it sure to arrive with a vengeance in the coming months.
“I think a home Olympics can be an advantage and a disadvantage,’’ said Arnold.
“The advantage is an obvious one, in that the support for a British athlete in any sport will be there.
“But there is a downside as well. Things like the media wanting to intrude, which you can understand.
“They are pestered all the time. Dai didn’t understand that until he became world champion. Everybody wants a chunk of him.
“He has sponsors and contracts with Nike but you just have to balance it, so they have got to be quite skilful with that.’’
Many of Britain’s track and field stars will up sticks to Portugal before the Games, getting away from the spotlight for last-minute training.
It could be seen as an attempt to escape the expectations at home, but Arnold said: “To me, pressure is a media-invented word.
“These guys are born to deal with it, otherwise they wouldn’t succeed. It’s part of the job. We’ve gone through all the scenarios as coaches and they (the athletes) have had a meeting to explain what’s what, where they’re going and sports psychologists speaking to them. It’s all well prepared.
“When Lottery funding came in there were medal targets introduced which is stupid really.
“We achieved our medal target of seven medals in (last year’s) world championships.
“But it could have been four with a bit of misfortune and with a bit of good fortune, it could have been 10. On such things, these matters hang.’’
