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Colin Jackson: What does athletics mean to you?

Dave Collins: There's a purity to it. Sometimes it's not about the winning. All you can do is your best on the day, against the opposition, and look to improve next time.

CJ: It's that belief that keeps you going and gives you that little bit of motivation isn't it?

DC: Oh for sure, and at whatever level. It takes you through the days when it's really hard work.

CJ: Athletics is something of a feeder sport in that it loses a lot of its potential stars to other sports. Do you think that makes it important for the whole nation and every sport?

DC: Oh for sure. The disciplines of athletics are so fundamental to everything else you do. You're going to have to be a good runner before you go and be a skeleton bobsleigh star. It's a good starting point where you can try things out. Not everybody can go and do track cycling but they can go and run and they can go and jump, and that's a good starting point.

CJ: You're head of athletics, you're the person that gets everybody to perform. How do you do that?

DC: What I've got to try and do is put a structure in place that helps you guys to perform. It's the athletes who are the most important people because they're going to go out and perform. The coaches are the second most important people because they help the athletes.

Then there's a whole army of backroom people who are trying to make that happen. It's a fantastic success story for me to see one of our athletes go out and win. It's a fantastic success story for me to see an athlete go out and do their best.

It frustrates the life out of me when you see someone who's got all the things they need and they're not getting there because of things they're not doing or, even worse, because of things we're not doing.

CJ: Do you look at the grassroots right through to elite level?

DC: That would be absolutely impossible - I'd need eight arms. I focus on the top bit, the world class performance bit. I have the three levels of World Class Podium, World Class Development and World Class Talent.

We look at people as young as 15 or 16-years-old who we think can get to the podium or to the top eight at a World Championships or Olympics, and that's what I do. There's a whole group of people working in the levels below to feed the youngest talent through.

CJ: Every sport seems to have a drop-off point at 14 and 15-years-old. How can the sport of athletics keep hold of its youngest talent?

DC: You're absolutely right. I think people drop out of sport at that age because, all of a sudden, they don't want to look silly. They're conscious about loosing, they're conscious about not looking good, they're conscious that their mates aren't doing it.

The people who stay with sport all the way through are often people who might not be as physically talented as other people, but they've got this bit of determination, and they've got the drive to keep training all the way through.

I'd like to see coaches and teachers working with the children at younger age groups so that they're movement literate. It's difficult if you're not movement literate. If you work when you're young and you're physically active, you've got this vast array of skills to build on. If we don't get people movement literate, why would they do things that make them look silly?

CJ: How do you intend to develop successful athletes in the future?

DC: We've got a kind of curriculum that we're putting into athletics called the 'five rings model'. The idea is that if you're going to make it to the top, you're not going to necessarily be 100% in each of these, but you're not going to have a weak suit.

You're going to have the good technical/tactical model. You're going to be able to hurdle well, able to shot-put well, able to run efficiently, but you're also going to have the right physical conditioning so you're fit enough to take the training load.

Aside from that they've got to have the right lifestyle and the right support structures. You can't party hard and play hard - you have to make choices. You have to make decisions in exactly the same way as if you were studying and doing exams. If you don't get enough sleep and eat well, you're not going to be able to perform.

And finally you've got to have the right sort of attitude. If you've got that it'll make a lot of these things happen. The people who get to the top are very often the people who've got this collection of skills - the characteristics of developing excellence, and very often that makes up for weaknesses elsewhere.

CJ: Why do you think kids should get involved in athletics?

DC: It's great fun. If you get these five rings you can use them all over the place. If you've got good movement skills you can dance and look good. If you've got the right mental skills you can apply them to any challenge that you meet: meeting people, being able to speak in public, being able to pass exams. What we're talking about are transferable competencies. Things that people have got that they can take somewhere else.

CJ: Although many people think of athletics being solo you have to work well with other people don't you?

DC: I think you have to form partnerships. You have to work with other people. Consider yourself - when you were competing you probably had an address book yeah? In your address book there was a doctor, there was a physio, there was a masseur, there was a biomechanicist, there were some guys you talked to about strength conditioning, there were some other athletes and other coaches that you exchange ideas with... Fair?

CJ: Yes

DC: So anybody who's successful at anything does it through a network and does it through a series of partnerships. You need partnerships to progress, and if you don't progress, you start to go backwards.

CJ: How much responsibility do you want the athletes to take for their own performance?

DC: I couldn't understand it if they weren't responsible for their own performance. I'm interested in someone who's got their eye on that long game. Someone who's got their eye on 2008 or 2012. Of course you take responsibility for it, and of course you need help from people, but you are in charge. That's the beauty and that's the challenge.

CJ: How important is confidence?

DC: Confidence is generally important if you want to be a competitive athlete. If you're not confident then, when the pressure comes on, the little doubts will start playing, the little gremlins. Confidence is also important when you're growing up.

Around 13 or 14-years-old you get particularly worried about what other people think of you, about what your mates think of you. Confidence is absolutely crucial in keeping people engaged and involved.

It doesn't matter if they're not winning, so long as they're confident they're progressing they're happy, we're happy and the sport will be happy.