Fast Twitch Athletics - One Year In

Hi all, Fast Twitch Athletics has been operative for just over a year now and I thought that passing this land-mark occasion would be a good time to reflect and highlight some growth and success the business has achieved.

Youngstars Athletics

The first week of Youngstars had just 9 children and ran over two nights, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It’s been great to see that since then an additional day of coaching has been added on a Tuesday and there have been over 50 children attending training over these three days! A lot of the new children came from St Ann’s, City of Lisburn and Orangegrove athletics club recommendations as they are still at capacity, and I am incredibly grateful for all the clubs and coaches who have supported Youngstars. It’s also superb to see some of the Youngstars children have become members of these local clubs and I'm very happy to see Youngstars Athletics being able to provide an opportunity for kids to train in athletics and to also help boost the number of members in these well recognised clubs in NI. 

I’m hoping to also get T-shirt and tracksuit jackets made for Youngstars athletics as well, but I think this might be something i’ll offer after Christmas when there are even more children training regularly. Jack, Caitlin and Laura have been a great help in coaching over the past year and I’m excited that another coach, Emma, will be helping out on a Tuesday night from September onwards. I’m still trying to find the best coach/day/ time combination for the endurance group and this is also something I hope to have sorted by January  so i’m excited for the upcoming months of kids’ athletics!

A social distancing group photo of some of the Wednesday group.

Senior and Development Coaching

The Senior and Development coaching has continued to grow successfully as well. Recently, I made a junior group for sprinters, jumpers and hurdlers that train twice a week at the Mary Peters track and it’s great to see that out of the 10 spaces I had available, there are 8 athletes attending the training.

It’s been a hard season for all athletes to have a consistent training schedule and then to try and compete, but one of the senior athletes, Lauren managed to find a lot of success in the short competition window and picked up a bronze medal in the 200m at the Irish Senior Championships and also win the 100m and 200m at the Northern Ireland Senior Championships. Next year will be a very big year for all of this age bracket as there are so many competitions to try to qualify for; European Juniors and European U23’s Championships probably being the most important ones for these guys. 

I will also still be coaching for Athletics NI on their Youth Academy and Event Group Sprint and Jumps programs and I'm looking forward to the new term starting in October.

Other Stuff

With support from Offaly County Council, I will also be coaching a small group of university students in Dublin from October onwards every Tuesday and this is something I am very excited about and will hope to grow in the future. I’ve been trying to upload some of the more interesting stuff on my Youtube page, so check out some of the highlights below!

That’s all for now and I hope to keep updating you all with success and growth from Fast Twitch Athletics in the future. If you aren’t already following the socials I use for regular coaching information then I have attached links to them below. 

Thanks for reading,

Adam

Summer Update

Hi guys, It’s been a while since I sent an email out to everyone so I thought now would be a good time to update you all on how the past few months have been going and what I hope will happen in the upcoming months.

Youngstars

Before the closure of the Mary Peters Track in March, Youngstars had two sessions a week with roughly 20 children taking part. As of this week, there are 35 children signed up and there are three run, jump, throw sessions a week as well as one endurance session on a Saturday. This week we are moving back to training on the track as I am now allowed to block book out training sessions. The sand pits are now also open to more than one household per sand pit so we should be able to start jumping again also. I really appreciate the local clubs suggesting my athletics coaching as an alternative for the summer until they get back to training in September, and i’m also incredibly grateful for all of you who have recommended me to your family and friends. Hopefully we can continue to grow and help as many children get involved in athletics as possible!

Some of the Thursday group seeing how far they can run in 5 seconds!

Senior and Development Coaching

All the international and senior athletes I coach are getting ready to start competing in the upcoming weeks with the first competition being at the Mary Peters Track on Thursday the 25th of July. Most of the guys were disappointed on our 4 week Florida training camp being cancelled but I think we may have dodged a bullet missing that trip! Competitions are a little scarce but thankfully there should be enough in Dublin and Belfast to allow the group to compete and better their personal bests. Next year will be a big year for everyone as all of the major events have been pushed back 12 months and next years preplanned events will still go ahead. My guys will hopefully be preparing for the; European indoor championships, World indoor championships, European U23 championships and if Irelands female relay team qualify for the 4 x 100m then there may be a chance for some NI representation there also.

13/06/2020 30m - 50m fly 20m PB of 2.07s

Other Stuff

Next week I will also be starting an athletics group for junior athletes, the coaching will be for 13- 17 year olds and the training will be more specialized for sprints, jumps and hurdles.  I am also hoping that in the future this can create a pathway from the fundamental athletics I coach all the way up to the international level I work at. If you know anyone that might be interested please send my information their way.  

Speak soon guys and enjoy the rest of your summer!

Adam

Christmas Update

Hi Guys, As we are approaching Christmas and the New Year I figured that this is the best time to update everybody on how things are going, closures and when training will be starting again.

Youngstars

Since I last spoke to you all the Youngstars numbers have increased for the Wednesday and Thursdays sessions, which is awesome and there are also roughly 5-6 new athletes planning on joining in January. We had a few people use the referral discount which was also good to see. Next week will be the last week of Youngstars before we take a break for Christmas. The last sessions will take place on the 18th and 19th of December and training will start again on the 8th and 9th of January. We will mix training up a little in the new year and I am thinking of introducing small hurdles and shot putt into the session to add some variety. I’m saving high jump for the summer, as the conditions don’t accommodate for safe training at the moment.

Senior And Development Coaching

Most of the older athletes are well into their preparations for the upcoming indoor season which commences with a sprints and hurdles competition at Ulster University, Jordanstown on January 11th 2020. Following this competition there will be a jumps and throws competition on the 18th at the same venue. Below is a video of one of my U23 athletes, Lauren Roy practicing accelerations as she will be racing this indoors trying to get the standard for the World Indoor Championships, which will be held in China, mid-March 2020.

Other Stuff

This Saturday I will be going to Arizona for 7 days to attend the Altis ACP (Apprentice Coach Programme). The trip will also give me the chance to train for a week as I prepare for my own indoor season. The weather looks to be around low 20s so it will be a nice break from the cold of NI! In my absence I have two fantastic coaches to cover me on the Wednesday and Thursday Youngstar session, Laura Greer and Zoe Carruthers. Both of these coaches work as casual coaches for Athletics NI and if your child has ever been to a Star Track summer camp they will have been coached by them before. If anyone is planning on popping down to Mary Peters Track to get an additional session in, the track will be closed on December 24th, 25th and 26th.

Have a great Christmas, guys and a Happy New Year!

Fast Twitch Athletics – One Month In

Hi folks, 

As we are approaching the end of the first month of coaching I thought I would fill you all in with a summary of how things have gone so far, along with some offers and opportunities.

Youngstars Athletics

The Youngstars athletics has gotten off to a solid start with two squads currently running at the Mary Peters Track on a Wednesday and a Thursday. There has been interest in other evenings and the most popular waiting list right now is Friday evenings at the Belfast Boys Model from 6pm – 7pm which has 5/10 children interested. Once we hit 10 people interested and registered that session will get up and running.

Since the Youngstars Athetics is a new program, the past month has been used as a feeler to see what people like, dislike and are interested in.  Since the start of this program, there have been offers such as ‘second child or second session gets 40% off’ and more recently I have introduced the option to have a free taster session before signing up to see if the athletics training suits your needs. The next offer I think I will introduce will be any new sign ups on referral will get their first month at half price and the person that made the referral will get their next month at half price also. I believe word of mouth is the best source of advertising at the minute and I would not be where I am currently without the help of the awesome coaches at City of Lisburn, Orangegrove and St Annes athletics club who have promoted my coaching service to the athletes on their waiting lists, so thank you all so very much!

Storm lorenzo giving the javelins an extra boost during the first week of youngstars!

Development and Senior Coaching

On the developmental and senior side of athletics, this month has had me quite busy working with jumpers and sprinters who are on current Athletics NI squads (Youth Academy and Event Group Sprints and Jumps) along with Ulster University students who are preparing for varsity championships in the upcoming months.  I have also created a squad of athletes aged 16 – 20 at the St Colmans track in Newry on a Friday evening as well as coaching senior athletes during the afternoons between my own training and the kids/ development coaching in the evenings (as I said, busy busy!).

To be honest, the weeks leading into the start of October and the start of self-employment had me quite anxious as I was leaving a great job with great people to work independently and start my own business. However, this has been one of the most enjoyable months of my life and I’m super excited for what the future holds.

Other Stuff

The last thing I will say is that a small ‘passion project’ of mine has been to create some merchandise/ branding to help get Fast Twitch Athletics’ name out there so I have designed some limited edition t-shirts, baseball hats and iPhone covers. They are now available on my website under the ‘products’ tab and keep an eye out on my Instagram as I’ll be doing some free giveaways over the upcoming weeks. My instagram handle is @fasttwitch_athletics for the development and senior coaching and @youngstarsathletics for the kids coaching.  It would also be awesome if you subscribed to my YouTube channel ‘Fast Twitch Athletics’ as that’s where I am posting coaching tips and advice alongside performance videos of my athletes and myself.

That’s all for now and I will be in touch next month with more good news and offers!

Goodbye!