Bedford & County Athletics Club

Experience from trying out 365

activities

David & Jackie Cheshire (B&CAC coaches)

Bedford & County Athletics Club

The club has not yet

launched 365.
We just wanted to try it out, assess & understand it first and
have taken the last 5 months to work through the first 6 levels of
365 with 2 different age groups within the club

Bedford & County Athletics Club

Existing young athletes entry groups:

Saturday mornings FUNdamentals (Beagles):
Age 7-11, Attendance 50-60 young athletes:
1 hours (has exclusive use of indoors most weeks)
Split into 3 teams: Warm up, 20 mins skill, 20 mins agility,
20 mins fitness, team competition, cool down (rotation)
2-3 club coaches supported by 3-4 University students
(trainee PE teachers 2nd, 3rd or 4th year)

Club nights youth development (Passport):

Age 10 14, small group 20 young athletes max:

1 hour before other groups start (including use of indoors
on most Tuesdays)
Warm up, 40 mins specific coaching on 1 discipline, cool
down
2-3 club coaches

Bedford & County Athletics Club

Can the young athletes do the 365 activities?

YES.

Bedford & County Athletics Club

Do the young athletes enjoy the 365 activities?

YES.

Bedford & County Athletics Club

Do the young athletes like the idea of 365

Almost all the young athletes engage very quickly and
enthusiastically to the structure of 365 and its
progression through the levels
What colour am I?
What level did I get to?
Whats the next level?

Bedford & County Athletics Club

What do most parents think of 365?

It completely fits in with their expectations based on
other sports

But there is still some resistance from certain parents

Bedford & County Athletics Club

What have the coaches learnt from trying 365?

365 fits in with B&CAC club athletics and doesnt need
to be a special activity / programme

It can be used to determine progress targets for judging when

a young athlete is really ready to move to the next level group

in the club

Young athletes are hungry to learn new things, make

progress and are very competitive

Red, Yellow & Green levels fit very well with the 7-11 age

group
Purple & Blue levels fit well with the 10-14 age group
Black level seems more appropriate to the stage when
athletes start to focus on a smaller number of events

Bedford & County Athletics Club

What have the coaches learnt from trying 365?

We have found 2 approaches that work well:

Teach up to 3 different (but related skills) but only at 1 level

Best starting point for variety and fun
Teach 1 skillprogressively through 2-3 levels
Once you have a group who have covered the skill at
some level already

It works better with small groups that are all roughly

at the same stage of development

The coaching to athlete ratio ideally needs to be 1:10 max

1 hour is not enough1 hours is better

Bedford & County Athletics Club

What have the coaches learnt from trying 365?

You need someone else (can be a non coach) to help record and
monitor young athletes progress
Its possible to coach many of the skills and activities indoors
Completely new skills are better taught at the beginning of a
session
The activity cards in the coaching pack are too bigwe copy &
reduce them to pocket size (handy to refer to during a session)
Majority of the skills up to Blue level can be confidently managed
by a club coach / UKA level 2

Bedford & County Athletics Club

What has the club learnt from trying out 365?

How 365 compares to what B&CAC are already doing:

Basic philosophy and structure in many ways is very similar to

what is already being delivered within existing Beagles &

Passport groups. It is however slightly broader, more formal in
its coverage, and has areas like core strength, lifestyle &
behaviour that were not previously fully covered

365 will help the club retain & encourage young athletes to
learn a broader base of skills and fitness before specialising

365 is a scheme which allows the club to recognise and

reward ALL young athletes in the club

365 rewards technique and therefore will encourage more
young athletes to stay in the club whilst they are still growing
and developing
365 will help the club to curb over enthusiastic parents

Bedford & County Athletics Club

On a lighter note.
You need to practice many of the exercises at home first

dont expect the young athletes to be able to do them if you

cant demonstrate them properly yourselves.

...Plus the young athletes will enjoy watching you try.

Bedford & County Athletics Club

Any questions?