By Fg Off Charlie Todd

Mar 13 and 14 saw the fourth Training and Standards Weekend held at DCAE Cosford. With the season drawing closer and the first indoor match already under our belts, the focus was to steer towards event specific training, whilst still carrying out some conditioning work.

About 15 athletes arrived on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and the work began. The group carried out a joint warm-up led by Flt Lt Rob Barker-Davis. This included dynamic stretches and some great drills; beneficial to every event. We then split into separate groups with the throwers heading outside to work on javelin technique. Runners and jumpers remained combined indoors to work on further drills and technique. After a well deserved lunch, we continued event specific training, this time with the jumpers in the pits under the expert supervision of Chris Berry getting to grips with Long and Triple Jump. The distance runners tackled a thorough session of drills and a short but sharp speed session with Flt Lt Ben Trapnell. Inside, our civilian coach, Paul Wilson, catered fantastically for our throwers and also a few injured athletes- providing an extra session of abs and core for them- certainly not the easier option!

Saturday’s training ended with Paul running a weights session, just to finish us all off! We learnt some excellent exercises and Paul’s expertise gave us the chance to double check important techniques. Everybody ventured to the local pub that evening for a meal and a few medicinal beverages! A good evening was had by all and, as always, a great opportunity to swap ideas and have a good catch up.

Sunday morning (at least those who were allowed to stay despite it being Mother’s Day!) was another excellent training session, with the various events doing individual sessions. Yet again, this training opportunity proved extremely useful and fun.

We are already looking forward to the Training and Standards Week at DCAE Cosford on 25-29 Apr 10. The line up of coaches and other informative sessions will offer a wide variety of expertise to learn from. The week will count as Duty and travel will be funded- all the more reason to take advantage of the opportunity and come along to train with us! Please send Coaching Sec Charlie Todd a Query to book your place soon.