Teens' Summer Sessions

All Teens summer sessions are planned to be outside at Deer Park on the grass track area,  at the usual time (6:30 to 7:30). We will be trying a new approach to the sessions to better align the activities with the Teens’ specific interests and introducing some new activities to aid their physical development.

The sessions will be organised initially into two groupings, generally based on age, i.e. Bears, Seahawks and Lions (BSL) as one grouping, and Vikings, Giants and Titans (GVT) as the other. The warm-ups and the first 20 minute activity (“preparation”) will be done in these groupings. The last 20 minutes activity (“event performance”) will be done with the Teens allocated to the events group they prefer*, i.e. sprints, middle distance, endurance, jumps or throws.

The first activity for BSL, after a common warm-up, will be a general physical preparation activity, aligned to the England Athletics’ (EA) “Foundation” development stage (see). The second activity will be with the members of GVT in an Event Group**. We follow EA guidance on avoiding early over-specialisation as it can lead to injury and mental burnout. Typically, Teens will be in their mid-teens before specialising, i.e. having gone through puberty.

The first activity for GVT will be an event group based preparatory activity, e.g. speed work for endurance runners, following an event-group-appropriate warm-up. Then they will join the relevant Teens from BSL for the event group activity. NB the coaches will adjust the activity for the Teens based on their development and capability, so differentiating volume, intensity and recovery to make the session challenging but achievable for all participants.

Notes

*We asked the Teens in March for their preferences. We will check with them at the beginning of the sessions.

** Event Groups are defined as follows : Sprints, Endurance, Jumps and Throws. Sprints includes hurdles. Endurance is 600m plus.

Teens progression through the groups is based on capability, best demonstrated at official (EA registered) events, although we do monitor performance in training so we can make recommendations on which events individual Teens should enter.

Also, as the Club provides a significant subsidy to the cost that parents pay for membership, we like to see the Teens representing the Club, i.e. participating in events wearing a Club vest. Therefore, only Teens who have done at least two Club Events (see schedule below) in the year will have the option to move up groups. I shared the 2026 list earlier this year and is replicated below.

To recognise the different commitment and ability of the Teens we have developed the following strategy:

1. All Teens who participate in the training sessions, will get suitable athletic development, whether they do the Club events, or not.

2. For those who do represent the Club in two events or more, they will be offered training plans, for them to follow, to support their development when not at the weekly training session.

3. For those with real athletic talent, the coach will discuss with the parents and the Teen about how best to support their on-going development. This may mean continuing with the Cirencester AC sessions and/or joining another athletics Club with more appropriate infrastructure and coaching sessions

Club Events 2026

NB We did the Lydiard Junior Parkrun instead of the March one, due to Cirencester's one not having started yet. We will endeavour to include it when it does.

Next events are : Low Key Open for U14s at Prince of Wales Stadium on Sunday 26th April and the Gloucester AC Spring Open, the same day. I will post soon on how to enter these and upcoming events in May.