Winter training for our youngest athletes.
Posted by Nobody on 4 October 2018
For several years our winter training for our young athletes had moved to Highbury College, but last year this venue was unavailable and with no alternative venue in the near vicinity we remained at the Mountbatten Centre. The move does allow us to avoid the worst of the weather but more importantly avoids the goose droppings. The Brent geese descend in great numbers each year and create one unhealthy mess. At present with a great deal of building work taking place in or around the Mountbatten Centre they have yet to arrive, but the building work is due to finish very shortly.
This year we have booked Priory School, Fawcett Road, Portsmouth, PO4 0DL. We have used this facility before for Startrack courses so are familiar with the venue. Parking is available in Rugby Road (first turning on the right, past the school when travelling south. It is an 8 minutes drive from the Mountbatten Centre. For those travelling from Fareham direction it takes the same time.
Being indoors has some great advantages; it allows the coaches to work on those fundamental movement patterns that underlay all sports, in a way that can't be as effectively coached on the track, much easier to communicate with the group, and individuals, when not scattered around a 400m track. We are not having to keep athletes moving for the sake of keeping warm, when the danger of practising poor technique becomes an issue. It also allows the athletes to practice Sportshall events in the proper setting.
