Coaches from around the world join first day of international seminar

The Rio 2016 Global Coach House, an event aimed at enhancing the training of Brazilian coaches, was officially opened this Tuesday 9 August. The opening ceremony was led by John Bales, President of the International Council for Coaching Excellence, who expressed his satisfaction with the 2016 edition of the Global Coach House. "The coaches will have the opportunity to learn from the experience of other professionals. It is a great learning experience for everyone".

According to Professor Fernando Marinho Mezzadri, Deputy Director of the Life Sciences Division of the Federal University of Paraná and Coordinator of the Sports Intelligence Project, the investments made in the training of these professionals are not yet at the optimum level for the development of sport.

Fernando Mezzadri also commented on the importance of sports in the education of young people. "In Brazil, high-performance sport begins at school, and we must think about coach training not just for high performance, but also for the education of children in sport," he said.

The morning section of the seminar was closed by a panel on Perspectives from Coaches, with a talk by Marcos Lerbach, a volleyball coach with 39 years of professional experience, 33 of which in the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBV). "Coaches are the fundamental seed for the development of sport. Without good coaches, there are no good athletes," he said while exemplifying the importance of coaching for athletes to achieve top-level results. Lerbach also addressed the evolution of Brazilian volleyball from the 1970s to present day, as well as all the path that made the sport a story of success in Brazil.

During the afternoon, the panel discussion on the needs and perspectives of athletes was attended by Brazilian athlete Natalia Falavigna, taekwondo world champion (2005) and Olympic bronze (2008), and by the counsellor of the Finnish Olympic team. The panel on Overtraining was presented by Dr. Randy Wilber.
In the last section of the day, participants attended a workshop on "Serial winner coaches: repeating success at the high level", presented by Sergio Lara-Bercial, from the International Council for Coaching Excellence.