Get on your marks for TeamBath Speed School
18th March 2010A new TeamBath Tribe Speed School is helping talented young athletes to unlock the secret of increasing their pace and agility.
The weekly Speed Schools teach young athletes aged 12 to 18 a range of core movement skills that are fundamental to success in a wide variety of sports.
The Speed Schools have been developed as part of the relationship between Roper Rhodes and the Department of Sports Development at the University of Bath, which is now in its fifth year.
By the end of this year that partnership will have benefited more than 50,000 young people across and Bath and North East Somerset partnerships area – as well as hopefully many thousands more in the future.
The Speed Schools are based on helping young athletes to manage their own centre of gravity – something that is key to many successful sports movements including running, jumping, landing, stopping and changing direction.
Once this is mastered, it helps athletes to increase their top speed, strength, acceleration and deceleration, and improve their agility, flexibility and jumping ability. It will also decrease an athlete’s susceptibility to injury.
The Speed Schools provide a valuable foundation for a wide range of sports, such as football, rugby, tennis and others, and are also a perfect companion to specialist sports training.
Pete Ladlow, a Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Bath, said it is vital to get to grips with tools and techniques that help people to master their centre of gravity at an early age.
He said: “Too many elite athletes have never been shown how to perform these fundamental movement skills correctly, yet they are some of the most importance skills to possess to be successful in almost any sport.
“These important movement skills are all focussed around an athlete’s ability to control their centre of gravity,” he added. “Once my athletes have learnt how to control their centre of gravity, it has an instant impact upon their performances. They are faster and stronger than they have ever been before.”
The TeamBath Speed School takes place from 5pm to 6pm at the University of Bath Sports Training Village every Monday and costs £2.75 per person per session. For further information about the Speed School please contact TeamBath Tribe on 01225 386915.
The Speed Schools are the latest programmes being offered under the relationship between Roper Rhodes and the University of Bath’s Department of Sports Development.
After three years of focussing on the primary school curriculum coaching programme in partnership with Sport and Active Leisure and the School Sports Partnership, the focus is now on secondary schools.
The curriculum coaching programme is still going strong delivering to over 15,000 pupils per annum with local clubs taking the lead, a fantastic legacy to the project established by the funding of Roper Rhodes.
The secondary school project is focussing on the support to the identified gifted and talented pupils across the Bath and North East Somerset partnership.
Programmes, visits and sessions are being systematically organised for groups from Year 7 to year 11 providing a consistent level of engagement throughout this busy period in athletes’ lives.
In October, Year 10 pupils experienced a programme of performance profiling, goal setting and psychology delivered by current scholarship athletes at the University of Bath.
In December, year 8 and 9 pupils identified in individual sports experienced a day including the new speed school sessions now available at the University of Bath.