News
South Wales Hurdle Workshops
13/04/2023 00:00, In Blog / Club Notice Board / Track & Field /
Over the month of March, to further assist athletes and their coaches with their preparation for the Summers competition season, three separate Hurdle workshops took place.
South Wales Hurdle Workshop
On March the 25th, the second South Wales Hurdle workshop took place at Swansea Athletics track. The aim of the session was to further upskill athletes/coaches in the event along with bringing the hurdles community together. On the day, over 30 athletes and 10+ coaches were in attendance. The session for the athletes was led by coaches Mike Guest and Steve Boyles along with a coach education session led by Wynford Leyshon.
Darryn McAtee, Newport Harriers said following the workshop;
‘It was an excellent day at the Welsh Athletics hurdles workshop in Swansea. Seven athletes from my hurdles group attended, from U15 to Masters 65, and each took away a positive experience and cues about their individual technique. From a coach perspective, I picked up tips on how to tweak my training sessions, and it is always good to swap ideas with coaches from other clubs.’
Hurdle Clinics
With a focus on grassroots and development, Hurdle clinics were carried out with clubs Cardiff Athletics and Newport Harriers, kicking off the new initiative over a three-week period. With the aim of working with clubs and to nurture an individual focused approach to value, support and develop new coaching assistants and coaches in our grassroot athletics environment, there was good uptake with 10+ coaches taking part in the sessions and with athletes who were also trying the event for the first time.
Derrick Stephenson who led the hurdle clinic at Cardiff Athletics added;
‘One of the challenges I found was ensuring that both the young athletes and coaches received appropriate level of information, especially as this included Sprint coaches, as well as an Endurance coach and some athletes interested in entering steeplechase races for the first time. Leading the clinics encouraged me to review my coaching methodology, and as a result, I`ve thought about some steps I can take to improve my own coaching of hurdles.’
Thank you to all those who took part and we hope the workshops were enjoyed by all athletes/coaches and we hope to further refine them over the coming months.