The ISSF Academy has built a team of dedicated and experienced international shooting coaches and support staff to develop and deliver the Academy’s courses. Course tutors are themselves, graduates of the ISSF Academy and have worked as international coaches for many years. Course tutors Zeljko Todorovic and Kimmo Yli-Jaskari have worked as Academy tutors since respectively 1997 and 1999 and were joined by clay target tutor Kevin Kilty in 2009.
Details and enquiries on the ISSF Academy are always available to member federations and Academy students via e-mail at issfacademy@issf-sports.org
Dr. Kevin KILTY (IRL) - Shotgun Tutor
Kevin is the Head Clay Target Instructor with the ISSF Academy. Kevin completed his A-licence in 2008 and joined the ISSF Academy as the shotgun tutor in 2009. Kevin is certified as a coach tutor by Coaching Ireland, the Irish national coaching authority and holds an honorary doctorate for services to sport. Kevin has an international reputation as a coach educator and as an expert in High Performance coaching. He has worked as a successful medal winning coach as the head Trap coach of Finland.
Kevin was a coach during both the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympic Games and continued his Olympic work at Rio 2016 Olympic Games as Chef de Mission for the Irish Olympic team.
As an expert in High Performance systems, Kevin has represented the ISSF as a member of the Sports Development and Education Group of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).
He is also the author of many articles on shooting coaching and is a regular contributor to the ISSF News magazine.
Dr. Zeljko TODOROVIC (MNE) - Pistol Tutor
Željko is the Head Pistol Instructor with the ISSF Academy. He completed his A-licence in 1996 and since 1997 he has been part of the lecturing team of the ISSF Academy. He also works for the ISSF on IOC related development projects and is one of the authors of the popular IOC/ISSF Training Systems Development course. Zeljko holds an honorary doctorate for services to sport and is the Director of the ISSF Accredited Training Centre in Bar, Montenegro.
As an international coach, Željko was the National Pistol Coach for the Danish Pistol Team from 1990 until 2000. From 2004 to 2008, Željko was Director & National Coach of the French Pistol Team. From late 2009 until the 2012 Olympic Games, Željko was the senior advisor for the Italian National Pistol Team. Since June 2013, Željko has worked as the Olympic Pistol Coach for the Finnish National Team.
Željko has taken part in three Olympic Games; in Barcelona 1992, in Atlanta 1996, and in Beijing 2008. His athletes were multiple World Cup winners, multiple European champions, World champions, world record holders and Olympic medallists.
Mr. Kimmo YLI-JASKARI (FIN) - Rifle Tutor
Kimmo completed his A-licence in 1996 and has been ISSF Academy Head Rifle Instructor since 1999. Kimmo holds a Master’s Degree in Physical Education from Jyvaskyla University.
Kimmo started his career as a professional shooting coach in 1992, when a new training curriculum and system for junior shooters (rifle, pistol) was established in Kuortane Olympic Training Centre, Finland. Kimmo worked in the Finnish Sport Shooting Association 1988-2000 and as during his Head Coach period Juha Hirvi placed 2nd in Sydney Olympics 2000. During the years 2004-2009 Kimmo worked as a medal winning Rifle Head Coach for British Shooting.
Kimmo has taken part in three Olympic Games: in Sydney 2000 as the Head Coach of the Finnish Team, in Athens 2004 as a personal coach and in Beijing 2008 as a Head Rifle Coach of the Great Britain Team. After Sydney he started his own company in 2001 and worked for the Kuortane Olympic Training Centre as well as with other sports than shooting as a physical trainer and consultant. Kimmo worked also as a Director of Kuortane Olympic Training Centre from 2010-2012. In 2012 he was invited to work as a High Performance Coordinator in Target Sports for Finnish Olympic Committee where he still is stationed.
Mr. Claudio ROBAZZA (ITA)
Claudio is a Sport Science Instructor within the ISSF Academy and he is part of the lecturing team of the ISSF Academy starting from 2011.
He is an Associate Professor of Methods and didactics of motor activities in the Faculty of Movement Sciences, University of Chieti, Italy. He earned a master degree in Physical Education, a master degree in Psychology, and a PhD in Sciences and Techniques of Physical Activities and Sports. As a sport psychologist, he has been working with top-level athletes of different sports, including golf, archery, modern pentathlon, rugby, and he is currently involved with the Italian shooting team. He has conducted field-based studies in physical education, motor learning, and sport performance domains, and his primary research interest is in the area of performance-related emotions, performance optimization, and motor learning. He has published numerous refereed journal articles, and is the author of several book chapters and books. He is also an associate editor of Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and consulting editor of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology.
Mr. Goran MAKSIMOVIC (SRB) GUEST LECTURER
Goran is a highly respected rifle coach and is currently the national coach for Serbia. Goran also holds the distinction of being an ISSF A-licenced coach having completed his studies in 2008. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Sport & Physical Education in Belgrade, Serbia and is also a member of the Serbian Olympic Committee’s Rio 2016 programme commission.
Goran was a highly successful rifle shooter with a career spanning 1975 to 2000. He achieved the ultimate sporting accolade of being crowned Olympic Champion at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. He was also a three-time World Cup winner in all three rifle events and also a three-time European Champion. He holds the distinction of having competed at five Olympic Games between 1984 and 2000.
As a coach, Goran was the head coach for the Serbian National team between 2001 and 2005 when he moved to take up the position of head coach for the Greek National team from 2006 to 2008. He returned to the role of Serbian National Coach in 2011 and during his time as the national coach for Serbia he has attended two Olympic Games where his athletes won a Silver medal (2004) and a Silver and Bronze medal (2012).
Mr. Klavs Joern CHRISTENSEN (DEN) GUEST LECTURER
Klavs is a very experienced rifle coach. He completed his A-license in 1996. Since then he has worked 11 years as Head Coach in Denmark and 4 years as Head Coach in Sweden. Klavs has strong pedagogical skills and has previously taught at business schools in Denmark. In addition to sports coaching, he also has an education as coach from Performance Consultants / Portsmouth University in England.
He was part of the Danish National team for 14 years. He reached the final at the Olympic Games in 1988 (3x40) and won the European Championship in 1991 (prone). He ended his career early after winning silver at WC 1993 in order to focus on becoming coach and work professionally in shooting and performance development.
Klavs has coached World Cup winners, European and World Champions and he has successfully been in charge of talent development programs. In 2013 he started his own company, where he offers coaching, teaching and lecturing around High Performance, Talent Development, Mental Training and Execution of Goals and Strategies.