I first met Bruce in 1989, when I attend a hurdle workshop at St.Albans, he was running as the National Coach for this area, where I also encountered my first meeting with Sally Gunnell and Colin Jackson. At that time I had just passed my British Athletic Federation’s (BAF) Club Coach exam in Sprinting, Hurdling and Relays. At the conclusion of the workshop I asked Bruce for his assistance with a talented young female sprinter I was coaching, and he agreed to meet me with her.
He watched me coach the athlete and asked me “what’s the problem”, and I explained that I did not understand why she was performing so well, so he asked to see her training programme, which he studied, and her competition history which he also studied, “well” he said “its because you are doing everything right”. We agreed to meet in a month’s time so he could see my plans for her winter training, and to watch me do another training session with her, and what was to follow I was totally unprepared for. At the end of the session, we returned to discussing the athlete’s performances, and he announced “she is competing at a national standard and you are not qualified to do that as a Club Coach, so I am enrolling you on the Senior Coach Course in December at Twickenham …….. AND bye the way, I have a job for you”.