As part of International Women’s Day, UKA has spoken to Marina Armstrong, one of the UK’s leading 400m hurdles coaches and coach to athletes including Olympian and World Championships relay bronze medallist Jessie Knight. Marina has recently been chosen as a lead coach for the European Athletics Networking Project

How did you get into coaching in the first place and did you set out to be a coach at Olympic level?

No I didn’t. Although I had been educated in athletics and I also competed at a reasonably high level myself, I never really wanted to be a coach but I ended up at the track as one of the parents and from there on I got involved. In 2005, there were three girls at Epsom and Ewell Harriers who asked me to help them to achieve better results in 400m hurdles. They were in their last year of school and I thought it would be for a year and I’m still here!

Well that’s good! …and clearly some of your athletes have done extremely well, so what are key skills you need to coach at that level? What have you acquired or what did you have that has helped athletes to get to that level?

Partly it happened organically and partly it is my nature to raise the bar higher and higher every year whatever I’m doing. To become a coach at any level it’s attention to detail and desire to learn. I always say to the athletes that, if I ever say ‘I know it all’. they should find a different coach.

Talk to us about being athlete-centred. When you are coaching several individuals, how do you ensure that you are athlete-centred with all of them?

I have a generalised programme with athletes that they get every month and it’s pretty much the same for everyone. Their aims are slightly different. They all have different needs even in the same training session. Some come from speed, some come from endurance, some need to work on their biomechanics, so it’s the same programme but addressed differently to the need of each athlete.

They will all have different personalities too so it’s not just about differentiating the technical elements but the approach too?

They all have different personalities but I’m lucky that I have a very good squad. They support each other and they support me. I support them. We all work together. It doesn’t matter how good an athlete is, the training partner doesn’t have to be the one who is running the same times as you or dragging you round the track. The training partner could be the one that helps you to come to the line when you are full of lactic.

You have created a very supportive culture. Is that something you have done organically or intentionally?

That is always what I wanted and I’m very selective of who can join the group. It doesn’t have to be a high performing athlete, it could be a county level athlete, as long as they fit into the group and they are prepared to work hard they are very welcome. We work very hard.

So how do you look after yourself as a coach? How do you balance your life with other commitments in life.

Well like we all do. We all have other jobs these days and hobbies and you just make time for it. You’ve got to love it. I get more energy from the squad than they probably get from me when I coach them. We all give and take. If someone doesn’t have a good session, we all come out a little bit down and we look at how we can improve. Having said that, we rarely come out negative from the session, they always conquer it.

At the World Championships, last year, out of 78 athletes, seven had a female coach. What advice do you have for female coaches out there who have ambition to coach at your level?

I don’t quite know why we have an imbalance at the high level. I don’t feel that I’ve been treated any different from any of the male coaches but maybe I don’t notice. Maybe I have blinkers on and concentrate on what I do best – coaching. I’ve never been treated with disrespect at any level.

I personally believe a coach is a coach whether they are female or male. It takes time, it takes a lot of preparation, and it takes research. Whether you are a male coach or a female coach, it takes the same amount of time the same desire, the same drive. I don’t have summer holidays with my family, we don’t go out for dinner very often because of my coaching. If we go away, it needs to be in September! I give an awful lot to this sport but you need to be prepared to do that and have the support of your family. Not everyone has the same level of dedication or support.

And final, what are your aims for 2023?

It’s the same as every year, we had a successful year last year as every athlete ran a PB, which is my aim for every athlete in the squad to improve at whatever level, whether it’s making a championship, a final, a semi-final, improvement is always the aim.