From the 2nd to the 7th of October the IBU again gathered eight female and ten male coaches from 15 different countries for the IBU Coach Academy’s First Level Coach Education held in Östersund, SWE. It was the second course for the year.

It was attended by our very own Damon Morton and Lucy Glanville, both former IBU athletes with Lucy representing AUS at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and Damon representing AUS at the 2017 IBU World Championships.

Lucy is currently gaining international experience as a full-time coach at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic XC Skiing and Biathlon venue as part of Team Soho’s Development and Competition level programs. Damon has been invited to lead AUS Development Programs over summer, when for the first time ever AUS will offer training sessions over the holiday months of December and January.

The IBU Course was held at the Östersund Skidstadion in Sweden, where IBU World Cups in Sweden are held. Its facilities are of the highest standard with food, and accommodation provided to ensure the attendees were able to focus on soaking up the teaching.

The week was packed with great lessons, ranging from theoretical inputs about long-term athlete development, biomechanics in shooting, communication, and leadership to practical implementations of range procedures, endurance training methods, skating technique, and many more.

The course was led by IBU Educators Wolfgang Pichler, Jonas Johansson, Johan Hagström, and Ola Ravald. They were in charge of conducting all practical lessons about shooting and skiing. The program also included high-level experts in the fields of conditioning, physiology, and biomechanics:

In March 2023, the third and final week of the First Level Course will be held in Poland, at their brand-new biathlon venue. Here, the coaches will go on snow for the practical lessons and switching the ski rollers for cross-country skis. The program will add further important aspects of biathlon such as performance diagnostics, nutrition, psychology, and is the final combined theory/practical of the year long course.