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