Ilse has been a Sports Teacher all her working life and first got involved at Bolton Harriers in the early 1990s as a parent helper when her son Stephen had joined the club. The coach at the time encouraged her to do some coaching courses in her own right and 5 years later Ilse got her own group at the Harriers and has been here ever since.
Ilse coaches sprinting, hurdling, long jump, triple jump, high jump and javelin to a group from 10 years of age to early 20s. She has a great knowledge of all things running and field sports. Tuesday and Thursday evenings are on track. Wednesday evening is long and triple jump. On a Sunday morning she focuses on sprinting in the Summer and circuit training in the Winter.
Coaching achievements
Ilse coached her own son Stephen Hemming to medals for the Greater Manchester schools team in sprinting and jumping.
She presently has high hopes of Rebecca Weekes in the 400m hurdles who has narrowly missed out on the England schools team and is mounting another challenge.
In addition Ilse maintains that every single group member that has stayed with the group is a coaching achievement. If she has helped develop a lifelong love for athletics in a member she is very happy with that.
What the athletes say
“I think that Ilse’s training sessions are fantastic. They have a lot of variety and help me to improve my athletic skills immensely. I also think that she is an amazing coach and she is very understanding about any conditions that may prevent us from training to our maximum ability. I like that Ilse is very organised as it means that we can get started with the sessions straight away. Overall I really enjoy training with Ilse and I wouldn’t want to train with anyone else.”
:I have known Ilse for many years and am so grateful she has been my coach. Ilse is so dedicated and passionate about athletics. She is kind and caring and does her absolute best to change and adapt sessions to cater for everyone’s abilities whilst working to further develop their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Ilse strives to pass on her knowledge and love of sport to all her athletes so they too can learn and become as passionate as she is.:
How Ilse describes her role as coach
To get the maximum out of the group. Obviously not everyone has the same attributes and talent but I try to make them the best they can. My task is to design sessions to cater for the group at that given time. It is no use asking the impossible. I push them hard but not too hard. Health and safety is important and we want to avoid injury as much as possible. They must enjoy it and want to provide their best efforts.