OBN Performance

📈 It’s a very busy time of the year for me as a coach, some clients and coached athletes have big goals and races coming up.

🇪🇸 𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗙𝗘𝗢 𝗩𝗜𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥 𝗖𝗔𝗕𝗘𝗗𝗢
gets his third race of the season underway today in Castellon, Spain. A 2 day Junior race in Spain with his new team for 2024

🇮🇪 𝗗𝗘𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗟𝗢𝗡 𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗔𝗟
5 coached athletes will be lining up at the Des Hanlon Memorial National Series Race tomorrow in A1/2, A3 & Junior. Also best of luck to my current team in what is essentially their home race in Carlow! Great group of riders. I’m currently awaiting surgery before returning to racing hopefully in the future, missing the action.

🇮🇪 𝗥𝗔𝗦 𝗠𝗨𝗠𝗛𝗔𝗡 & 𝗚𝗢𝗥𝗘𝗬 3 𝗗𝗔𝗬
Two big races follow on the Easter weekend in Kerry and Wexford respectively with a number of coached riders lining up with their teams. will be tackling Ras Mumhan again in prep for Ras Tailteann with heading for Gorey 3 Day also in prep for Ras Tailteann. Also a big well done to Philip O’ Connor a past coached athlete who has been selected for the Irish National Team for Ras Mumhan.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗧𝗛 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗢𝗙 𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗧𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗 & 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 𝗦𝗨𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗬 𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗚𝗨𝗘
The following weekend some youth coached athletes will be tackling the youth tour of Scotland and the Surrey League.

Lots more to come 💪

Thanks to my local club Shannonside cycling club for the support for this years Ras Tailteann which starts 17th May. Also big thanks to my team Dan Morrissey - Primór by Pissei who’ve provided great support in races this year.

Looking forward to racing with the newly launched Midlands Racing Team for this years Ras. A great group of strong riders from the surrounding midlands league clubs also not forgetting all the sponsors who have helped put this together and Jim Maguire from SSCC for managing the team. After missing out on last years Ras my aim was to come back and work hard over the winter to get back in shape for this race after 5 years away from racing. Most of the work is done but there’s still more to do before May 17th💪

The MIL RÁS race team at tonight's launch. Graham O Brien second from right.

On the rivet



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Looking forward to the next step in my academic and professional career which will be the Master of Science in Sports Performance.
While finishing my honours degree in TUS in June I was also in the process of completing an additional qualification in Technological University Dublin to become an accredited NCSC Strength and Conditioning Coach. This, along with my final grades in TUS now allows me to pursue the MSc Sports Performance in University Limerick which I aim to commence this year.

My aim was always to pursue a career in Sports Performance due to my ongoing involvement in sport at elite level.

One piece of advice from my own experience is, if you want to get into a Masters course which may not be straightforward from your current honours course then always look at gaining additional qualifications along the way. For example, if you’re doing a level 8 course in sport which gives you a business degree (sports management/development) then going into a sports science masters is not realistic and you can’t expect to be offered a place ahead of someone who has a sports science background or even understand the material that will be covered. Rather, focus on building your academic resume with additional qualifications in the sport science area while doing your best in your honours degree. That will then help you greatly when you apply and go for your interview for your masters. They all add up and get you to your next goal. There’s always more than one way and if you want it enough you’ll do it 😉

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 - 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀
There’s a good amount of research in many of the high profile sports in Europe (football, rugby and athletics) in to the correlation between success at youth level and whether it translates to elite level.
In cycling, there are fewer studies due to the scale of the sport not being on the same level as football but nonetheless there are still many good studies out there relating to this topic. Plus importantly, plenty of evidence from recent times (< 10 years) suggesting a stronger correlation between youth success and indicators for future success.

Above is , the popular Danish winner at the Donegal 3 day in 2015 as a junior and a rider who carried through to the elite and pro ranks of the sport with continued success. Now starting the Tour De France this week. Mikkel was a standout rider at underage level. You don’t find them too often. However, a good example of a cyclist who had continued success at the top level in youth cycling up to currently as a professional.

If you want to read more on this topic, then follow my latest blog post via the following link below on the website (zndcoaching.com) where I go further into this interesting topic 👨‍💻

https://www.zndcoaching.com/post/indicators-for-future-success-in-cycling-success-at-youth-level-versus-success-at-elite-level

Indicators for Future Success in Cycling: Success at Youth Level Versus Success at Elite Level As a coach I encounter many youth riders with aspirations to progress to be a professional cyclist. I also meet parents who have the same aspirations for their son or daughter. This is common among all sports at youth level, many youth athletes aspire to reach the level they see their heroes compete...

Fire in the belly 🔥


📸 Donal Kelleher