Dr. Wolfgang Ritzdorf

DR. WOLFGANG RITZDORF (GERMANY)
RAISING THE BAR WITH HIGH JUMP EXPERT

Dr. Wolfgang Ritzdorf (Germany) will be joining the high calibre line up of keynote speakers for the 2011 edition of the International Festival of Athletics Coaching (IFAC). Wolfgang’s reputation speaks for itself: he has been the personal coach to six female athletes who have personal bests of over 1.90m as well as the jumps coach to three decathletes with bests of more than 8000 points. As a former National Coach of Female High Jump in Germany, Wolfgang spent several years working with Olympic Games gold medallists Ulrike Meyfath (Los Angeles, 1984) and Heike Henkel (Barcelona, 1992). As well as being internationally renowned for his coaching expertise, Wolfgang’s research work is equally celebrated. He has published numerous articles and research papers, including prominent papers into the research of strength training, reactive strength training and the long-term adaptation of top junior athletes.

This will be Wolfgang’s first visit to Glasgow, and he is looking forward to working with coaches from across Scotland, the UK and the world who will be attending the IFAC conference in October. “For me, conferences like IFAC are an essential part in any coach’s development. In today’s world, as coaches, we can no longer work in isolation and we need to develop networks in order to advance. To be a successful coach we need to access all information, from all sources and then make our own strategy from all of this – and IFAC is an ideal opportunity to do this and advance as a coach.”

Wolfgang is currently a senior lecturer for athletics at the German Sport University Cologne and Director of the IAAF World High Jump Centre, where World Championship (Berlin, 2009) high jump finalists Kabelo Kgosiemang (Botswana) and Eike Onnen (Germany) are based. Wolfgang will be leading several practical workshops as well as his keynote speech discussing the ‘Challenges of Coaching the Jumps Events.’ Working with the world’s top high jumpers in Cologne, Wolfgang is familiar with the challenges of coaching the jumps events, “to take high jump as an example, we have several major challenges in this event. High jump compared to the long jump and the triple jump, has several different technical variations and models, the challenge here is identifying a model to fit each athlete.”

As well as being internationally renowned for his coaching expertise, Wolfgang’s research work is equally celebrated. He has published numerous articles and research papers, including prominent papers into the research of strength training, reactive strength training and the long term adaptation of top junior athletes.

Dr. Ritzdorf was a key member of the biomechanical research team at the World Championships in both Rome (1987) and Athens (1997). His work at the IAAF has also included co-authoring the IAAF’s official guide to teaching athletics, “Run-Jump-Throw,” and his role as an IAAF lecturer since 1992.

Dr. Wolfgang Ritzdorf will join former GB high jumper Dalton Grant to present a special high jump clinic supported by the Glasgow 2014 Legacy, followed by a discussion on the ‘anatomy of competition: the tough decisions.’ Delegates of IFAC 2011 will be joined by Glasgow’s and Scotland’s top high jumpers and their coaches for this special workshop. Ritzdorf believes this special workshop with Dalton Grant (Olympian, European Champion and Commonwealth Games Gold medallist in High Jump) is an excellent opportunity for both coaches and athletes. “This is an outstanding opportunity for athletes to meet a true high jump legend. It is particularly interesting for coaches and athletes to share the experiences from Dalton’s career, and understand the different perspectives between athlete and coaches.”

Dr. Wolfgang Ritzdorf at IFAC 2011
Wolfgang Ritzdorf will present the following at IFAC 2011

Fri 28 Oct 17h00-18h00	Keynote: “the challenges of coaching the jumps events”
Sat 29 Oct 10h30-11h25	Technical Training – “developing reactive strength”
Sat 29 Oct 11h30-12h25	Technical Training – “general jumps practices”
Sat 29 Oct 13h30-14h25	Technical Training – “developing reactive strength”
Sat 29 Oct 14h30-15h25	Technical Training – “general jumps practices”
Sun 30 Oct 10h15-11h45	Glasgow 2014 Legacy High Jump Master Class – “high jump clinic” followed by athlete discussion “anatomy of competition: the tough decisions” with Dalton Grant