During the school terms, we run our very popular Junior Athletic Development for all school aged children.
Our focus is getting these junior athletes as strong and as mobile as possible for their sport, whatever that may be. We currently have AFL players, swimmers, Rugby League and Union players, hockey players, soccer and cricket, not to mention Moto-X, squash and athletics.
Every athlete needs to be strong and have great mobility and core control. This is what we coach here at the School. Our junior athletes focus on the big rocks of strength. They deadlift. They press. They pull. They throw. They do acceleration and deceleration. They push. They test themselves, not only physically, but the mental approach as well. Every athlete benefits from being stronger. Every athlete benefits from working in a group. Every athlete benefits from more power.
Our focus from a programming view point is for the first 2 weeks of each term, we like to see what baselines are, even for those junior athletes who have been here a while. We sit down with the junior athlete, and get an understanding of what events they have coming up, put them in the program. From there we want to build strength, speed and power. We want to build teamwork. We want to build resilience. We want them to work with different athletes. We want them to worry on their own performance, and not worry about what every one else is doing.
Every term we have a main focus which includes one of the core lifts.
The only two things we require is they play a sport, and have a great attitude towards their sport and the community that supports them.
Adrian is the current Physical Development Coach for the NSWRL Group 16 RISE Program.
Bega Roosters
Far South Coast Falcons
