Coaching is offered at other times both on a regular basis by qualified centre Coaches and as the form of special clinics by visiting coaches. It is up to families how much or how little they wish to be involved in the coaching on offer.

Some important things for parents & athletes to remember about coaching:

• Little Athletics is about fun, participation and competing against your own personal best.
• Coaching is about learning technique and improving yourself because you want to.
• Children are not mini-adults when it comes to training. You cannot just use a watered-down version of an adult training program without risking long term injury to the athlete or burn out.

There are different stages of development with children. Physical ability and maturity need to be considered within these groupings:

• Under 10 – train for fun
• 10-13 years – learn to train (1 or 2 training sessions a week + 1 competition)
• Over 14 – train to compete (2-3 training sessions a week + 1 competition)

The improved performance takes work and not a magic wand. You can’t expect to improve with a couple of weeks of training before a big competition. It takes 6-8 weeks to start getting real benefits and a couple of years if you are really serious about your potential.

Athletes do not start to reach their full potential until around 18 years of age due to growth and maturity. With the physical pressures and changes of growth, overworking an athlete will reduce their ability to grow and develop as well as risk injury.

Children should not specialise in a particular event. As they grow and develop an event that they may prefer or be good at in their younger years may not be the same event they perform better in as they get older. Injury and burn out are also a risk.

Weekly Coaching

For information on coaching times and days, please refer to weekly Facebook notice or email at admin@cablac.org.au