Rotary Club of Stirling meeting of 7/4/17.
President Alan Rankin welcomed our speaker Graeme Thompson to the meeting. We were reminded of the sponsored walk along the Fife coastal way on the 18th June 2017. The charity film night is now on Monday 15th May when the film will be Sully, and the primary school quiz is on Saturday 22nd April, 2pm in the Logie theatre.
Graeme Thompson our speaker was involved in managing Rugby League for UK Sports until July 2014 when he came to Stirling to work with Sports Scotland as performance director for Curling. He is not actively involved as a player in either of these sports, leading people to ask him, what do you actually do? His role is in management, for instance appointing coaches who once in post have complete authority in their own field. In choosing a candidate, apart from technical knowledge, Graeme looks for an ability to relate to the team members. As part of his overall responsibility Graeme has recently taken a party of curlers to the venue for the next Olympic games in China. This allows them to familiarize themselves with the facilities and lay out of the venue and to identify any problem areas which it might be possible to modify. Curling at this level is very stressful for the players, the match lasts two and a half hours, and although the trainers are present they are allowed very little contact with those on the ice. In addition, the players are miked up so that any discussion can be heard by the other team, making careful previous planning of tactics essential.
Graeme identified three important areas, technical, tactical, and good relationships within the team.
The vote of thanks was given by Crawford Gordon. The next meeting on 14th April will be the AGM combined with a business meeting. Visitor's host Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson