On Her Majesty’s not so secret service

Coach Kimmo Yli-Jaskari is charged with putting Britain back on the shooting gold standard

print this

Finnish marksmen (and women) have won medals in three consecutive Olympic Games. Hence it is not particularly surprising that there is international interest towards the Finnish coaching methods.
     
Kimmo Yli-Jaskari, who acted as the head coach of the Finnish Shooting Sport Federation until the year 2000, is a good example.
      At first Yli-Jaskari was invited to Great Britain to run an education programme for shooting coaches, but in 2004 he was named the head coach of the British rifle shooters.
      In the Beijing Games it was still too early to expect success, but for the 2012 games in London the British expect their young shooting talents to have matured into medal-winners.
      In his coaching philosophy Yli-Jaskari does not believe in amateurish mentality or community efforts in top level sports. “An athlete who aims for success has to be a full-time professional. The same goes for the support team, coaches and others”, he says.
      “Before Beijing we managed to turn only one of our British shooters into a full-time professional. The others were students or had a day job. In the future we have no other choice but to get more full-time shooters, that is, if we want to aim for success in London”, Yli-Jaskari believes.
     
Yli-Jaskari lives in Nurmo, Finland, with his wife and three children. Because of his coaching duties in the UK, Yli-Jaskari travels around 160 days per year. His official duties have included, for example, conducting 6- to 7-day training camps for his protégés.
      “Most of the training camps have taken place in Germany. In Britain the shooting range fees are so high that it makes more sense to train in Hannover, where there are several shooting halls to choose from. In general, one can say that the training conditions in the UK are worse than for example in Finland.”
     
The continuation of Yli-Jaskari’s employment in Great Britain until the London Olympics will be decided upon next month. “The decision-making over the new Olympiad’s arrangements within British Shooting has taken unnecessarily long”, says Yli-Jaskari.
     
If the British cannot produce a satisfying offer, Yli-Jaskari will not run out of work.
      “The International Shooting Sport Federation ISSF has already offered me a job as a salaried full-time developer of the ISSF educational system and as a practical instructor. Some of the training would take place at the Kuortane Sports Centre in Finland.”
      “But so far I still feel that coaching is my calling”, Yli-Jaskari concludes.


Links:
  British Shooting
  ISSF

Helsingin Sanomat