As part of the club’s support for the Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD) of our Mini and Junior players, we will be running free sessions (paid for by the club) at Real World Fitness Nottingham over June, July and August. These sessions are for current members only.

Sessions will be provided for players of similar ages and tailored accordingly. Younger players will be doing circuit-style sessions focusing mainly on agility, balance and co-ordination. Slightly older players can expect more of a focus on technique in basic lifts such as squats, deadlifts and presses. All sessions aim to be fun, educational & inspirational!

All sessions will be designed and supervised by suitably qualified fitness coaches.

These sessions will be in high demand and can only be booked on a first come first served basis. Please contact Paul Shoebridge (Ilkeston RUFC Club Coach Coordinator) on 07917 003972 or pshoebridge@gmail.com to book a place.

Sunday 3rd June 1-2pm under 11s Max 15 participants
Sunday 10th June no session (presentation day)
Sunday 17th Jun 1-2pm under 12s Max 15 participants
Sunday 24th June 1-2pm under 13s Max 8 participants
Sunday 1st July 1-2pm under 14s Max 8 participants
Sunday 8th July 1-2pm under 15s Max 8 participants
Sunday 15th July 1-2pm under 16s Max 8 participants
Sunday 22nd July 1-2pm under 11s Max 15 participants
Sunday 29th July 1-2pm under 12s Max 15 participants
Sunday 5th August 1-2pm under 13s Max 8 participants
Sunday 12th August 1-2pm under 14s Max 8 participants
Sunday 19th August 1-2pm under 15s Max 8 participants
Sunday 26th August 1-2pm under 16s Max 8 participants

Real World Fitness
21 Little Tennis Street, Nottingham, NG2 4EL

These will run alongside the Summer Multi Sports Sessions being run by the club on Wednesdays at The Stute 7-8pm, Ages 8-15, Starting June 6th.

Long Term Athletic Development
(And how we support it at Ilkeston RUFC)
Q & As from Paul Shoebridge (Ilkeston RUFC Club Coach Coordinator)

Young players at Ilkeston RUFC are encouraged to play a minimum of three sports and to not specialise in rugby too early as it is a late-specialisation sport. Evidence shows that there is a correlation between sporting success in adulthood and multi-sport participation when young.

Supporting a child’s long term athletic development (LTAD) isn’t solely about playing a range of sports though. The type of activities that they should undertake differ depending on age.

Stages Of LTAD
Active Start
Until age 6, it is all about play and mastering basic movement skills! Children should be able to have fun with physical activity through both structured and unstructured free play that incorporates a variety of body movements. An early active start enhances the development of brain function, coordination, social skills, gross motor skills, emotions, and imagination. It also helps children build confidence, develop posture and balance, build strong bones and muscles, achieve a healthy weight, reduce stress, sleep well, move skillfully, and enjoy being active.

FUNdamentals
From ages 6 to 9 in boys and 6 to 8 in girls, children should participate in a variety of well-structured activities that develop fundamental movement skills and overall motor skills including agility, balance, and coordination. However, activities and programs must maintain a focus on fun, and formal competition should be only minimally introduced.

Learn to Train
From ages 8 to 11 in girls and 9 to 12 in boys, or until the onset of the growth spurt, children are ready to begin developing foundational sport skills. The emphasis should be on acquiring a wide range of skills necessary for a number of sporting activities. Although it is often tempting to overdevelop “talent” at this age through excessive single-sport training and competition (as well as early positioning in team sports), this can have a negative effect on later stages of development if the child pursues a late specialization sport. This early specialization promotes one-sided physical, technical, and tactical development and increases the likelihood of injury and burnout.

Train to Train
The ages that define this stage for boys and girls are based on the onset and duration of the growth spurt, which is generally from ages 11 to 15 for girls and 12 to 16 for boys. This is the stage at which people are physiologically responsive to stimuli and training; in other words, the time to start “building the engine” and exploiting the sensitive periods of accelerated adaptation to training (see chapter 6). Children should establish an aerobic base, develop speed and strength toward the end of the stage, and further consolidate their basic sport-specific skills and tactics. These youths may play and do their best to win, but they still need to spend more time on skill training and physical development and less on trying to win (process vs. outcome). Concentrating on the process as opposed to the result of a competition leads to better development. This approach is critical to developing top performers and maintaining activity in the long term, so parents should check with their national organizations to ensure that their children’s programs have the correct training-to-competition ratio.

This is an excerpt from Long-Term Athlete Development by Istvan Balyi, Richard Way, and Colin Higgs.

How LTAD Is Supported At Ilkeston RUFC

Put simply, and as stated, we encourage children to play a variety of sports, as well as working on fundamental movement skills. It is this second part, the work on fundamental movement skills that we are hoping to develop our work on in June, July and August 2018 with our sessions at Real World Fitness (RWF) in Nottingham. These sessions are designed, in part, to help players learn how they can develop these skills, as well as giving them a really positive first encounter with athletic development training.

What Will The RWF Sessions Be Like?

The first thing to say is that they will be safe. Images you may have in your head of young children lifting heavy weights and injuring themselves are understandable but unnecessary. Sessions will be provided for players of similar ages and tailored accordingly. Younger players will be doing circuit-style sessions focusing mainly on agility, balance and co-ordination. Slightly older players can expect more of a focus on technique in basic lifts such as squats, deadlifts and presses. All sessions aim to be fun, educational & inspirational!

Is It Safe?

In the past, weight training for children and adolescents received much bad press. Delicate bone developmental processes could be disrupted, leading to growth abnormalities, some experts said. It now seems that this concern was overemphasized. If children are given a well-designed and supervised program, trained in the essentials of good form and technique, and the weights aren't too heavy, few problems arise during workouts or in the longer term. There will be sufficient supervision to ensure that the inevitable fooling around doesn’t present safety issues.

What Are The Benefits?

Children may benefit in the following ways:
• Muscle strength and endurance
• Improved sports performance
• Physical fitness
• Weight maintenance
• Strong bones
• A fitness habit for future benefit!

The last one is our main aim. Who wouldn’t rather children developed a taste for exercising as opposed to games consoles?

Final Thoughts

Many people’s initial reaction to children doing gym work is to feel that it’s unsafe or of no benefit. Though this is a natural responses, it couldn’t be further from the truth. As long as the training environment and coaching is right then there are no more risks than a kick about at the park. We have read the research thoroughly: this is a good thing. If your child would otherwise be sitting at home doing nothing then why not bring them down and try it out?

If you’re still unsure, please feel free to contact me, Paul Shoebridge on 07917 003972 or pshoebridge@gmail.com