Esa Peltola | Coach Mentoring Program

Esa Peltola has dedicated his life to the pursuit of excellence in combining knowledge of sport science and coaching to benefit both athletes and coaches, making him the perfect candidate for Athletics Australia’s Coach Mentoring Program. 

Peltola recently returned to Australia after a 16-year stint overseas and has wasted little time in swinging into high performance action - taking Australian coaches Andrew Murphy, Melissa Logan and Jamie Green under his wing. 

“It’s a good opportunity for me to pass my experience on to the younger generation of coaches,” he said. 

A revered sprints and hurdles coach who began his coaching journey at the age of 15 in Finland, Australians may remember Peltola’s name from his work at the Australian Institute of Sport and coaching 100m national record holder Patrick Johnson. 

From a young age, Peltola sought the guidance of Finnish national coaches who he viewed as innovative and encouraging which assisted in hatching his successful coaching career – and now he is returning the favour in Australia. 

“I’ve been involved in a lot of informal coach mentoring, but I like that this is structured because at the end of the program we can see how it works and what the things are that we need to improve,” he said. 

“They are all in a different stage of their coaching career, but they all have huge potential. We have had really good first meetings and I am really pleased with how it has started.”

Such is Peltola’s passion for athletics that upon visiting the Australian Institute of Sport in the late 1980’s, he described the facility as the “Disney World of sport” – migrating to the country just years later in 1992. 

Working in talent identification at the AIS before moving into a national sports science and medicine role, Peltola led the charge in athletics for over a decade at the mecca for sport – including through the iconic Sydney 2000 Olympics. 

“We did sport science research but needed to transfer it into practice and into the language that coaches and athletes would understand,” he said.

“Some of the feedback forms they use today for sprint coaches are the ones we prepared in the mid 1990’s. For me it was the first time I could apply my expertise in both sport science and practical coaching.” 

Now involved in mentoring coaches responsible for Olympians such as Rohan Browning and Sarah Carli, along with Paralympians Eliza-Ault Connell and Sam McIntosh – Peltola says the principles remain the same regardless of the events. 

“It’s not necessarily always about the details of coaching, it’s more about how you manage the whole coaching task and how you use other expertise around,” he said.

“It’s important to see the athletes of the mentee coaches are developing and improving, and to see that the mentee coaches are hungry and curious to develop themselves. I can give what I have but it is important to enhance and facilitate how they are going to advance their careers in terms of lifelong learning.”

Holding a high performance role at a Sports Academy School in Doha from 2004-2018, it is great to have Peltola back in Australia and assisting the next generation of coaching through the Coach Mentoring Program. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 19/12/2021