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Igor Kopecky has been a coach and athlete for the past 35 years, and is currently the technical director for BC Diving and the South Surrey White Rock Diving Club. Igor has coached at the World Cup, World Series, South American Championships, Commonwealth Games, World Junior Championships and the Pan Am Games. He states that his experience in the Masters of High Performance Coaching and Technical Leadership (MHPCTL) program has had a significant impact on how he currently works with athletes, coaches, parents and the sport system at large.
Igor says that as a result of having completed the MHPCTL degree, “When I plan training camps and meet with the PSI and Via Sport, not only do I now have the language, but also the experience in studying the framework and methodology behind successful sport systems. This confidence and experience is definitely helping me work in our diving community in BC.” Prior to the MHPCTL, Igor was a diver on the Canadian National Team. He has coached for the Canadian National Diving Team and recently he for the Peruvian National Diving team where he took the team from zero to becoming South American contenders.
Igor undertook the MHPCTL program while he coached in Peru. He states that although there was strong comradery in his cohort, the program was challenging. He explains that there “was definitely a lot of independent academic work that required writing long papers. However, it was a good exercise and impacted my thinking. The process seemed to make me analyze and absorb material leading to more nuance and understanding even as I rushed to make a deadline. This reflection and testing of ideas by reviewing studies, writing about them and presenting them were for me what the program was about.”
