15th Novenber session was a road run orientated fartlek session.

This comprised of a 10 min warm up game and a 45-50 min session.

The warm was changed from the usual one. I decided to use a games aprroach to warm up the athletes and “rise their motivation levels” in this cold time.

The game comprised of tig, however the athlete who got tug must perform a dynamic stretch then can rejoin the game. the tigger remains the tigger for 2min then the last person they tig becomes the new tigger.

After 6min I noticed that they were all having fun, however not all were doing the dynamic stretches. Thus I ended the game and explained that we needed to do more dynamic stretches with probing questions. This provided useful as they were aware of why we did them and they now all now what a dynamic stretch is.

For the last 2min of the warmup they performed dynamic stretches focusing on their legs and shoulders, ready for the run.

A brief drink break was introduced while giving information on  the upcoming cross country event and LWAC nominations.

Main session:

The athletes were asked if they wanted to road run or stay on the track. The athletes that stayed on the track did pyramids 50×3-70×2-90-120-90-70×2-50×3, with Linda Ellis Head Coach.

The athletes that went one road run, with Mark Thornton Level 3 Coach and myself, did Jog and walk efforts. This is an intorductory aerobic Fartlek session. This involved jogging for 10 min and walking for a min or 2 depending on how the athletes felt with the pace.

The route involved going down hills to work on their deceleration control and uphill to focus on thier power and stregth development.

I was aware that some athletes are more areobically tuned than others and the pace had to be adjusted to adapt for all athletes. The athletes that were not challenged on the road were asked byself how they were pyhsically feeling and if they were fine, which they were, they were asked to join me for one lap around the cycle track of 1000m.

This insured them that they were gaining more from the session and that if they stay at this level they will be moved up to the more advanced runners in the spring/summer time, Dave Humberstones Middle distance Group

Future Coaching Points:

During Warm ups ensure more praise is given and more encouragement to positive behaviour

When bad behaviour is shown, have more understanding on how to solve the problem.

This will be shown with further research in the management section

After a conversation with the head, it was concluded that the planned session was not approprite as they had a competition on Saturday 10th. Thus the session got changed to 6 x 150m instead of the fartlek session planned.

However it is agreed that the fartlek session can be done on Thursday 15th (tommorrow). Thus session 2 will now be the fartlek session. Also due to having the hall available next week, tuesday; a bleep test (Multi Stage Fitness Test) will be put in place.

Coaching:

Overall I enganged with the athletes during the whole session and promoted a positive attitude towards individual achievements. I created a fun atmosphere by asking the athletes which dynamic exercises they wished to do, for instance (Wheel Barrow). This is great as it enables the athletes to use their arms and core to achieve balance. Not all achieved this, so it will continue to the next session.

During the 150m all athletes participated and represented near pefect technique. This was pointed out to them and to celebrate we had a game of bulldog (positive behaviour management).

At the end of the session I asked them what aspects they enjoyed and which ones they didn’t. This will be reflected in the next session on Thursday.

Injuries:

Two participants had an injury from last week, which was noted. They were infromed if they feel any pain to stop and inform us to prevent further injury.

Weaknesses:

I noticed I didnt involve the assistant coach much, thus next session i will brief them on what the session will entail and ask for the to take an active part.