Academy

Academy Guidance for Parents

What is the Academy?

The Academy is our scheme for young athletes aged 8-14. For session times, see Club Opening, but please also read the notes below.

New to the Academy?

All new starters can join either session on a Sunday or Wednesday.

Athletics combines running, jumping, and throwing events, and as such, has the widest range of event and developmental opportunities of any sport.

We have two Academy sessions in the week on a Sunday and Wednesday (see Club Opening for more information). Athletes are encouraged to come to both sessions, but this is not mandatory. The benefit of coming to both sessions is the ability to take part in all the different disciplines (running, jumps and throws) and avoid over specialising in any single discipline.

Coaches

The Academy coaches are:

Matt Evans
Felicity Gray
Gordon Densley
Richard Hall

All our coaches are appropriately qualified and DBS checked. As volunteers, they may not all be present at all sessions.

Please note: all our coaches are volunteers. As such, session times are not always exact and are occasionally subject to cancellation, sometimes without notice, particularly on Wednesdays when work commitments or traffic may prevent coaches getting to the stadium.

Competition

We encourage all children to take part in competition, although it is not compulsory. We are affiliated to a number of leagues (see below). For more details please speak to any of the coaches or see our Competition page. NB: only members are eligible to compete.

League	When?	What?	Age Groups
Heart of England	Summer	Track and Field	U11, U13, U15
YDL Lower	Summer	Track and Field	U13, U15
West Mids Cross Country	Winter	Cross Country	U11, U13, U15

Details can also be found on the Clubhouse notice boards.

In addition, we hold a series of Academy Championships throughout the year.

Contact Details

Please complete the form to register your interest for your child/children. If you have multiple children wanting to join please add their details in the message box below.

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Athlete’s Name

Athlete’s Age

Our Academy sessions run on a Wednesday evening and Sunday morning, times can be found here: Club Opening.

PLEASE NOTE Our Academy sessions are currently over subscribed for the number of coaches we have. Applicants aged 8-10 will automatically be placed on our waiting list. You will receive an email confirming this. Applicants aged 11-14 may be suitable for one of our other training groups. Please use the message box to provide details of current fitness levels to assist us in deciding if one of these other groups may be suitable.

You will normally receive a reply within 2-3 days. Please check your junk folder; we know our replies do sometimes end up there! If you haven’t had a reply in 7 days, please feel free to write again!

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