Latest news with #coaching
The Sun
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Andy Murray reveals next career move and reveals he will snub ‘harmful' new role
ANDY MURRAY is loath to step into TV punditry work just yet – as he does not want to annoy Jack Draper with his words. Muzza, 38, hated it when he was playing and former British tennis stars, some who had nowhere near his same level of ability or talent, gave him advice. 2 2 Now retired and at a loose end following the dissolution of his coaching gig with 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, the Scotsman could earn decent money working for the BBC. The two-time Wimbledon singles champion is conscious of appearing in front of millions and saying something that current British No.1 Draper, 23, disagrees with. Asked by GQ magazine if he feels the need to stay in the public eye, Murray replied: "I'm not thinking daily that I need to tweet something or somehow remain relevant. "That's why I'm much more interested in the idea of coaching because I feel like I'd actually really be helping someone. 'Whereas with punditry, it can be harmful. If I go and work at, let's say Wimbledon, you start getting asked questions about British players like Jack Draper. 'I know when the British ex–tennis players would talk about my tennis and what I should be doing. 'Because you respect them, you listen to what they're saying – but it's not always the same as what your coach is telling you. 'What the pundits are saying could be wrong. "They're not right all the time, and when you're young, it's quite conflicting. 'So I'd be more inclined to do coaching, because I think punditry is quite an easy gig. 'You can just throw stuff out there. People love it if it's a bit controversial, but you don't actually have any skin in the game.' BBC's Wimbledon TV comms team will be revealed on Monday.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Banahan leaves before World Cup as Scotland add two coaches
Assistant coach Matt Banahan has left Scotland two months before the Women's Rugby World Cup. Head coach Bryan Easson admitted he is "disappointed" at the exit of Banahan - who has moved on to another coaching opportunity - but thanked him for "kicking on" the attack team during his Miller, who worked with the squad during the 2021 World Cup, and Steve Shingler have joined Easson's staff as assistant most recently led the Scotland men's Under-18 team at the Six Nations and rejoined the women's programme earlier this Scarlets fly-half Shingler joins on secondment from PWR side Trailfinders, where he has been assistant coach for the past England winger Banahan said he is "incredibly grateful" for his spell with Scotland but said the chance of a new coaching role "closer to home was too good to turn down".Easson said: "This does now present an exciting opportunity to reset and refresh our coaching team."We welcomed Steve into camp during this year's Six Nations and we were really impressed by him then. "We have several players at Trailfinders, including some of our key attacking players, who have a fantastic relationship with him already and know what he's about which will give us a smooth transition."Ross has bedded back in with us really well, we've had a brilliant few weeks as a group with him so far. We've worked together for a long time, and he did a great job with us at the last Rugby World Cup. "I think he's a brilliant addition to the group, he knows the players and the players know him which helps too."
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Lions diary: A relaxed Johnny Sexton, Dostoevsky and questions of identity
Monday Johnny Sexton's a crowd puller. Upstairs in the University Club in UCD, the phalanx of cameras and mics are tested and checked and when he walks in, the room instinctively leans forward. Outside, students sit around on the grass eating braised sesame tofu and ramen, taking the cool air from the Main Lake at O'Reilly Hall, unaware that Lions coach Sexton, in his official Lions lounge attire, is kicking off the tour. Scotland lock Scott Cummings is also here along with Ben Earl, the England backrow. Earl is into Fyodor Dostoevsky, a colleague whispers. A frenzied search on Google for Earl and Rugby and USSR suggests it might be true. Mum: industrial retail CEO. Dad: solicitor. Education: Comparative literature Queen Mary University. It leaves out – Profession: human wrecking ball. READ MORE Sexton, the coach, smiles a little more and appears less tense than Sexton the player, and especially Sexton the captain. He says rugby suits him more than Sexton the businessman. He is here, he says, because Andy Farrell asked him. For the former Irish outhalf and captain, he's happy that tracksuits and mentoring have replaced Ardagh's bottle and can mountain. Assistant coach Jonathan Sexton with head coach Andy Farrell. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho 'It's hard to contribute because you're sitting in a room with people that have 20 years, 30 years' experience in the industry. Whereas that's me now – I've had 20 years' experience [in rugby],' he says. Nobody dares ask Earl about Dostoevsky, terrified he might talk about morality, freedom, faith, and the human condition through the lens of existentialism. Tuesday Which one is Felipe Contepomi, a young girl asks no one in particular. The sun is blazing down on the balcony at Old Belvedere and the Argentinian players look iridescent perspiring in the heat haze. At their base in the Radisson Hotel, they climbed out of the plunge pools set up in the garden and ambled in their budgie smugglers back into the hotel. Go Los Pumas! Today though, the blue sky and warmth spark off a brief personal reminiscence of glorious Nice and the last Rugby World Cup. Three weeks of belly up in the Med, occasionally drifting out to sea from La Promenade des Anglais, watching orange EasyJets low in the sky, wheels down coming into land. There is a drone or two in the air at Belvo, one of them peering directly down on a scrum on the far pitch. An answer comes back to the girl. Felipe's the one in the peaked cap. Small groups of people sprawled around the side of the pitch have turned up to watch. Inside, the former Irish Lion Ollie Campbell is the image you cannot fail to see turning from the bar to walk down the stairs. An eight-year Irish career but just 22 caps. Two Lions Tours, the first in 1980 to South Africa and in 1983 again to New Zealand. Seven Lions caps there. Former Ireland player Ollie Campbell. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho This is, after all, Ollie Campbell Park and the picture is of Campbell in that famous kicking pose. Are there any other images of him not of the follow through after the kick, the boot of his straight right leg at shoulder height and the long striations of muscle and tendon. The drones come in to land as the players stream off the pitch. Felipe, now 47 years old, picks up his little boy and grabs a ball. It is 20 years since he was top scorer with Leinster in both the 2005–06 Celtic League and the Heineken Cup. It is seven years since he was appointed as the new backs coach for Leinster, succeeding Girvan Dempsey, who moved to Bath. A colleague points towards the entrance to the grounds at a house which backs on to the club car park. Matt Doyle used to live there, he says of the likable Irish American tennis player who sadly died less than five months ago. There's history in these grounds. The takeaway is some Matt, but more Felipe kicking ball with a little boy in the warm summer wind. Wednesday Team announcement day in Aviva Stadium. Andy Farrell and Maro Itoje walk in through the door to the media auditorium, the Lions coach in blue, the team captain in red. Farrell holds a fixed semi-smile that gives the Rugby League Man of Steel an amiable, big softie head. The Lion's secondrow, Itoje, looks like a mature student who could be finishing his PhD. Note to self: How looks can deceive. The pair sit at the top table. 32 journalists, 10 cameras, nine microphones. Itoje sits on Farrell's right. The table is covered in Lions livery with large lettering of the tour message. There is always a tour message, an aspiration. 'WE GO BEYOND.' Maro Itoje and head coach Andy Farrell. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho 'It's the best of the best,' says Tommy Freeman of the squad during his interview. 'It's the best of the best,' says Tadhg Beirne when he arrives. 'We want to be the best version of ourselves,' says Farrell at the top table. 'We want to be the best version of ourselves,' says Beirne. Off-pitch the Lions are on message. That or they have been listening to double Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington from last year's Olympic Games. 'Everyone wants a gold medal, but I just want to be the best version of me,' said Kellie. Up in troubled Ballymena, the Lions team news may have been triggering for former captain Willie John McBride, who travelled on five Tours during the 1960s and 1970s and was 'bothered' by the non-native players Farrell selected in his squad. Bundee Aki, the only Irish back to play Argentina was born in New Zealand. Tighthead Prop Finlay Bealham and replacement winger Mack Hansen were both born in Australia. Scotland prop Pierre Schoeman and Scotland winger Duhan van der Merwe were born in South Africa. Scotland centre Sione Tuipulotu is Australian-born while England fullback Marcus Smith was born in the Philippines. James Lowe, Jamison Gibson-Park, the list goes on. The 1974 Lions trip had 'one in, all in' on the call of '99″ from captain Willie John resulting in the battle of Boet Erasmus Stadium. It is now 2025 and Willie John has been metaphorically 99ed for his views. Note to self: what goes around comes around. T h ursday Burgundy Thursday. The Aviva pitch is laid out perfectly like a Michelin star restaurant table. At the bottom of the stepladders by the pitch side hoarding sit four rugby balls on a large white towel. On top of each ball four smaller white folded towels have been carefully placed. All sit beside a stack of yellow bibs and more rugby balls organised in a row. Early signs of OCD at the first Lions captain's run to take place on a Dublin surface. Burgundy tackle bags bearing the Lions logo of the four unions are gathered up by Simon Easterby and taken to the goal area. Former England scrumhalf Richard Wigglesworth and Andrew Goodman (Beasterby, Wig and Goody) space them for the players' arrival. A terribly desolate place, this stadium when devoid of bodies. The echoes tell you nobody is here, an empty cathedral. But there is something about Aviva's size from the pitch that compels you to stand and aimlessly gaze up to the terraced seating. That is existential. BIL the mascot. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho Then the players break out of the tunnel for 'The Captain's Run', a quaint exercise where accredited journalists stand at the side of the pitch for 15 minutes watching unusual things take place like Garry Ringrose deliberately throwing a pass to Tom Curry, or Henry Pollock breaking from the group with a four-foot cuddly lion called BIL (British and Irish Lion) and chucking him on a table at the side of the pitch. The England flanker is the youngest and responsible for BIL's safekeeping. 'This is basically your new girlfriend,' captain Itoje told Pollock. Just what a 20-year-old wants to hear. Itoje knows. He was BIL's former boyfriend as the youngest player on the 2017 tour. On the pitch injury-hit Irish prop Tadhg Furlong is doing his twisting runs from under the posts. Lovely hurling. James Ryan appears to be sitting it out and no sign of Jamison Gibson-Park. The vibe is upbeat, something like 'WE GO BEYOND'. All that's missing is Joe Schmidt's ghost rising from the West Stand.
National Post
4 hours ago
- Sport
- National Post
Up Close: Meet Roughriders receiver KeeSean Johnson
Article content Article content Any game-day superstitions? Article content 'Since I had children, I have to talk to my children before I go out there and play, before I leave the locker room … That's who I do it for, obviously. That's what I strive for is to give them the best life. Article content 'I talk to my mom, talk to my dad. Me and my mom, we say our prayer together; me and my dad, we talk ball together. Article content What would you be doing if you weren't playing football? Article content 'If wasn't playing football, I would probably be coaching or probably helping somewhere with the youth, doing something in that form. Article content 'That's always something I enjoy is spending time with younger kids and being able to give them something positive and showing them a positive role model. Article content 'Growing up in a tougher area, obviously you see different things, and you can still, you know, the sky's the limit. You can do whatever you want, whatever you put your mind to. No one tells you no other than yourself.' Article content 'No, my mom worked so hard to take that stress off of me and just let me and my brother be kids when we were kids and let us focus on school. Article content Article content 'She worked really hard. That was something that she always took pride in, working really hard and making sure if we do good, we get things that we want. And that's what I kind of try to throw into my kids now — as long as you do what you need to do, I can provide for your life and take stress off you to have you focus on what you what your goals are.' Article content Article content 'I'm pretty good at bowling. I can say that. I got into that when I was in Philly. One of my teammates, him and his mom took it really serious. Article content 'I went with them one day and it was like, 'OK, I'm not good at bowling, like at all.' And then it's kind of just, the competitor in me, started to just go, ended up buying my own balls and figuring it out. And now I'm pretty good at bowling. Article content 'When I'm back home, me and my boys, we tend to have a day here and there to go out and bowl.' Article content What else should people know about you? Article content 'I'm very competitive. I don't like losing. Losing is something that's not in me; I could take it, but it's not in me. Article content Article content 'I don't like losing; don't like being wrong. I like to go out there and I try to do my best to be right. I try to do my best on the football field. Article content 'In life, there's obviously ways that you can be wrong and learn different things, but on the football field, I try to do my assignments (and) make sure I know my assignments.' Article content
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Race director and athletics coach banned for life over inappropriate relationships and racist language
A prominent race director and coach has been banned from athletics for life after a UK Athletics disciplinary panel found him guilty of multiple breaches of the coaches' code of conduct, including inappropriate relationships with his athletes and using racist and misogynistic language. Chris Barnes, who ran the popular Podium 5km series of races, admitted all nine charges against him, which also included bringing the sport into disrepute and using inappropriate language. Barnes was found to have had an intimate relationship and to have sent a series of explicit images to one athlete between March 2019 and January 2021 while acting as her coach. He also admitted to having had an intimate relationship with another athlete between February and June 2020, having not told her was married. Between September 2013 and August 2020, Barnes also admitted he had made inappropriate remarks during conversations over Facebook Messenger. They included remarks such as 'it's simple tomorrow I'll just blame the pakis for losing our license' and, when discussing whether he would be captain in a football match, saying: 'yep in a game against blacks and browns' … 'with a brown ref'. Barnes also admitted to being obsessive over body weight and telling athletes what they could or could not eat. One one occasion he told an athlete they were not allowed to purchase food. This led to an argument in which the athlete was told: 'This is why your parents don't want anything to do with you.' He pleaded guilty for making comments about one female athlete in August 2022 that included saying: 'she's a fucking heifer' and 'she's blown up'. The case was heard under UK Athletics' Disciplinary Rules and Procedures, following an independent investigation into breaches of the UK Athletics code of conduct for coaches. UK Athletics confirmed that Barnes has been permanently banned from participating in any capacity in the sport of athletics within Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 'This includes any roles involving coaching, the organisation of events, and any other activities governed by the UK Athletics competition rules or the rules of World Athletics,' it added. UKA's chief operating officer Tom Solesbury said: 'This was a very serious case, and we are satisfied that the outcome reflects the gravity of the behaviour involved. It demonstrates that regardless of your role or position, if you are active in our sport and your conduct falls short of the standards we expect, we will act to address it. 'The vast majority of coaches in our sport uphold the highest standards and make a hugely positive contribution to athletics – and we owe it to them, and to everyone in the sport, to ensure a safe, respectful and supportive environment for all.'
