Young sports people in Oxford get expert support

Excelsior Athletic Development Centre comes to Oxfordshire.

Easter saw the first Athlete Support Day of 2014 for Oxfordshire athletes, with 5 different sports represented. 

We got moving with some gymnastics. This challenged most of the athletes to try something unusual to them. All rose to the challenge, throwing themselves into the movements and having fun. 

Having warmed up they then paired up to assess one another, they looked at how well an athlete can perform basic movements that are required for all sport, this enabled them to know what to look for and feel how they move themselves. 

The day consisted of 4 main topics:

• agility
• injury management
• power
• recovery.

Agility: specifically the  need to be able to brake before working on acceleration. We need to be able to do this in all directions. Whilst accelerating forwards with no cues is easy, doing it under pressure or having to brake is where most sports people struggle.

After introducing a reaction cue before the acceleration we quickly found everyone moving backwards to go forwards (the false step) so then addressed this. 

Having worked hard on agility they spilt into groups and looked at what injuries they know of and how we can manage them if they occur, going through PRICE principles. 

Power was the next topic, after discussing how we can improve power we went through building a solid foundation, where we challenged the athletes again to get out of their comfort zone. 

We finished the day talking about recovery methods and then going through some exercises they could use after training or playing. 

It was a fantastic group to work with and Matt and I agreed they had all worked well and improved in different areas.

• Excelsior Athletic Development Centre 
• PRICE guidelines for injury treatment