Friday’s Multi-Event Group proves to be a big hit

16 young Harriers (U13/U15) had a fantastic training session on Friday evening at the Ayrshire Athletics Arena. For the first time this year the weather has been very welcoming, which possibly helped to make this training session a very  good preparation for the upcoming West District next weekend.

I personally was very impressed about the latest development of the youngsters as we had again numerous PBs in jumps and throws. In the high jump we had for the first time three athletes , Laura Wilkie (PB), Cara Baillie and Evie Bartl (PB), who all jumped over 1,40 m. This was a big step up for Laura, who only recently still struggled to jump over 1.25m and it seems that this height will give her more confidence in her own abilities. Evie had an excellent jump over this height which is worthwhile watching as it was technically very well executed. (watch video clip here)  Last week’s training session where we used the springboard to practice the flight and bar clearance phase appears to have done the trick..

In the throws we had three athletes Kayleigh Duff, Eilidh Gardiner and Morgan McKenna, who all threw well over 6m and Lauren Greig with even over 7m. Eilidh also recorded a new PB in the javelin,  first time over 14m. The javelin was led by Hannah Bartl and Joanne Lyon (new member). Joanne has been kindly helping in our group for the second time  and her previous experience as a successful javelin thrower will be of great benefit to our youngsters.

 

This Friday saw also two newcomers to our group David Stark and Jamie Neilson, who were keen to get some practice jumps in before the West District Championships. Both David and Jamie had a number of good jumps surpassing the 4m mark.

 

 

 

 

 

It is obviously nice to see  athletes achieving new PBs but it as  rewarding to hear how athletes are able to understand why certain jumps are throws  went well or not so well. Self analysis like “I was too close to the bar” or “I did not get my hips as much round at the shot as I should have”, are very satisfying to me as a coach. Showing me that at least someone has listened and learnt something during my sessions; and that’s what is all about on a Friday, learning new skills and learning from good and bad performances.

Generally, it is a pleasure to see our youngster showing such an enthusiasm and eagerness for wanting to train, learn and develop. Apologies to any athletes, who achieved a great performance today which I unfortunately missed to capture on my ipad. This leads me really to my resume for today. It’s getting at times difficult to coach simultaneously at the high jump, long jump, shot put, javelin, hurdles… or in simple terms we could do with more helpers to help our youngsters to develop even further. I had mentioned previously that this group offers an excellent opportunity for any level 1 coach (or in fact any other coach interested in coaching field events) as the groups are fairly small and there is a great satisfaction to be gained as all attending athletes are 100% committed to learning athletics skills. Previous experience not really required as mentoring can be provided on the job, this also relates to any parent willing to help out at our Friday multi-event group.

Let’s keep the momentum going! When has this recently been at Kilmarnock Harriers that we had  3 female athletes U15 jumping over 1.40m, four U13  athletes throwing well over 6m or 7m and two boys jumping well over 4.00m in the long jump. The motto is not what Kilmarnock Harriers can do for your kids but what YOU can do for Kilmarnock Harriers!!