By Fg Off Charlie Todd

Having had 4 successful training weekends so far this season, the idea of a full training week seemed a natural progression. As the traditional warm weather Overseas Visit had been replaced by a Combined Service Tour this year, a week at RAF Cosford offered athletes the chance to take time out of work to focus on some serious preparation for the upcoming matches during the Summer.

The week commenced with Paul Wilson coaching on Sunday. Paul ran a number of sessions including; weights, core, abs and some throwing technique and his expertise proved invaluable, setting us up with a wide variety of sessions to try out later in the week.

On Monday morning Flt Lt Greg Dunson joined the group to offer his experience in hurdles and sprinting. The drills and exercises we carried out were of great benefit, not only to hurdlers but to all athletes. The focus was on core strength, posture and general athletic stance to carry through to any event.

Tuesday saw us tackle a stretching session involving ‘partner-stretching’. We swapped stretching ideas and showed each other how to increase developmental stretches by using some yoga stretches and a partner. We also learnt a little bit about general sports massage to be able to help each other loosen off after some tough sessions! We were very lucky that Rudy Farquharson, an ex Flt Sgt, from the English Institute of Sport could come along on Tuesday afternoon. He ran long jump, high jump and sprints sessions and the knowledge Rudy passed on to athletes in these 3 events was superb. Everybody gained a new perspective on their training and competitive performances, to take forward into the season.

The mid week point saw us split into our respective event groups and complete some technical sessions. We also did plyometrics, more drills and weights before meeting Emma Kingzett, a sports nutritionist from Lucozade Sport, at lunchtime. She gave us a relaxed, informative talk about nutrition and hydration and then carried out some testing to assess our own hydration levels. This involved urine tests and a pre training weigh-in to give us a bench mark. After our afternoon session and the post training weigh-in, she was able to tell our sweat rates and levels of hydration, or more accurately, de-hydration! The afternoon was a great help in focussing on the other important elements of sport that we sometimes forget as well as the chance to take advantage of some great freebies Emma provided! A swimming session in the evening turned into a play in the pool for the boys and a good chance to relax!

Thursday was the final day of training and the last chance to train together with athletes carrying out event specific training in the morning. In the afternoon Sgt Andy Hughes came to the track to talk to us about putting together a training programme and provided us with some new ideas. It was good to have yet another input from a valued coach.

The whole week was fantastic; whether it was training sessions, cinema outings, meals out or drinks, everyone got involved and had a thoroughly enjoyable time throughout. Every athlete put 100% into their training and hopefully learnt a few new tricks. A huge thank you must go to every coach who gave us their time and expertise. We really appreciate it and will put all the hard work into practice this season-

…WHEN WE WIN THE INTER-SERVICES!