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Dawes dazed by career
curve Six short years ago physical education teacher Andrew Dawes returned from a teaching holiday in Britain to contemplate a career change. He started by looking for work in sports administration and ended up with a job at NSW Wheelchair Sports. Within three years he was Head Coach of the Wheelchair Track and Road Squad and personal coach to paralympians Louise Sauvage and Greg Smith among others. Recalling the timing, Dawes expresses amazement at how quickly it all came pass. 'When I started there was no track program and little information, just a few research articles around. Ninety per cent of the information I gathered came from the athletes themselves. I had no idea how they even propelled the wheelchair.' Dawes says he watched, looked and listened and started helping out at club coaching evenings. Within 12 months a squad emerged and things became a little more serious. 'I thought, "that's great, but now what do we do_" I have vivid memories of those first few months where I was wondering what the hell I was doing there. Every now and then I had a real buzz when we had a break through. 'I was made assistant coach for the 1996 Australian Paralympics team, not due to anything I'd done in particular, but because I'd shown commitment. It was an honorary position.' He went on to complete his Level 2 coaching certificate and in 1997 he was employed by an Academy of Sport-funded program. And the learning curve continued. 'I had to come to grips with the fact that it's not rocket science and think of coaching these athletes as another form of human movement. 'It's more similar to cycling and harness racing than to
athletics. The mechanics, the drafting and the tactics are closest to us.' |
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