Monday 10th December saw Queen’s Park Harriers, the 100th club to complete the England Athletics Club Run programme, being put through their paces in their final coaching session at the Willesden Sports Centre in North London, NW10 3QX, with England road racing international Dani Nimmock and Nick Anderson, England Athletics’ Marathon Event Group Lead.
Sophie Barnard, President of Queen’s Park Harriers, says; “It has been fantastic to be part of England Athletics’ Club Run programme. The whole club has benefitted from help with training and club development and we’re honoured to be the 100th club and have Nick and Dani visit us to mark this celebration. Queen’s Park Harriers is a grass roots club that welcomes runners of all abilities, from kids to joggers to fast, promising runners so it’s really inspiring to meet elite runners and coaches.”
Over 40 people attended this training session and were able to gain an insight into Dani’s training regime and pick Nick’s brain to improve their running skills. Dani adds; “It’s a real honour to be invited to be a guest at the 100th celebrations of the Club Run programme. As someone who has come up through the club environment I have always valued the importance of the club training environment and the volunteer coaches and the massive part they play in athlete development. What I love about this programme is that offers support to club members as well as leaders and coaches in a really practical hands-on way.”
Club Run is free to participating clubs and provided clubs with three coached sessions with one of the thirty experienced coaches to support the volunteer coaches, leaders and club members in road running clubs competing at distances from 5k through to marathons.
Since launching in spring 2017, over 600 coaches and leaders and over 4,000 club runners have benefited from these free coaching sessions as a service offered through their affiliation to England Athletics. Clubs small and large, urban and rural, with and without facilities have benefited from the programme. Sessions have taken place in all weather, from the winter snowfalls to the heat wave of the summer, at a variety of locations up and down the country, from seafronts, to town centres, parks, tracks, industrial trading estates, moorland and farm fields.
Other running and athletics clubs wanting to access this coaching support can contact England Athletics via roadrunning@englandathletics.org to register their interest for 2019 sessions. Participating clubs have reported wide reaching benefits of England Athletics’ Club Run in helping individuals towards achieving personal bests, facilitating small changes to enhance club night training structures, motivating and inspiring leaders and coaches to progress their coaching qualifications and learning, club and team competition success, and an increased attendance at club night training sessions:
- 73% reported a direct improvement in performances as a direct link to the Club Run sessions
- 73% reported that leaders or coaches had either gone on or were following up on coach education or coach development workshops as result of Club Run
- 86% reported having made some small or larger positive change to the structure of the weekly programme or club night session as a result of Club Run