My work placement is with the strength and conditioning department with the sports development service at the University of Stirling. My first day was quite intense but very interesting. I Started at 7:30am with an introduction meeting with my mentor Josh. We had a chat about emergency procedures within the gym and what to in the event of an emergency. We also had a quick chat about what we went to get out of the work placement, this involved me writing goals as such and then we will see if we have achieved them by the end of the placement. We also had a chat over what we would be doing on the placement as well as what teams we would be working with.
First session of the day and it was training time with the high performance swimming team. We walked over the strength and conditioning room at Allan Grange and Josh showed me the programme online he uses for programming for his athletes. The programme was called Team Builder. Josh showed me the session for the swimmers and demonstrated the warm up to me and asked if I would like to help take the warm up part. I took the warm up with one of the female swimmers. Josh then explained the session to the swimmers and let them get on with the workout. From there I was observing the way Josh coaching then walked around the room to observe the technique of the athletes whilst doing their session.
After that it was time for a quick break then back into the performance suite to coach the tennis team and then triathlon. Again it was very interesting to see the differences in programming for different sports. An example of this was when programming for tennis, the exercises that were put into the programme were tailored for a lot of rotation in the torso region as that is a major movement when playing tennis.
After this it was time for us to train ourselves. Josh discussed the importance of being a coach and training yourself as you need to practice what you preach. This was also nice as it broke the day up a bit as well as discussing programming over lunch.
After this it was time for the last session of the day working with the 1st’s of the men’s football team.
Day one was a success.
Well done Shannon! Looks like you done a lot on the first day!
This sounds like a very interesting placement, with a wide variety of sports. Glad your 1st day was a success and I look forward to reading your next blog post. – Chelsea
Sounds like a busy day, glad your first day was a success!
Sounds like a busy day, glad your first day was a success! -Ellis