Youth Sport Trust Development Camp
Fourteen promising young rowers have been selected to attend a Youth Sport Trust talent development camp, which aims to provide skills and knowledge to youngsters who are just starting on the path to possible future success.
The National Talent Orientation Camp 2009, which starts today in Loughborough, will focus on various aspects of training and performance and will include sections on improving self-confidence, education and lifestyle choices, and making decisions while under-pressure.
Amongst the elite sportsmen and women who will work with the youngsters will be Guin and Miriam Batten, silver medallists in the women’s quadruple scull at the 2000 Olympic Games.
Selection for the camp was done by members of GB Rowing’s coaching staff and was based on several factors, including recent performances at the junior winter assessment 5km trial.
One of the Youth Sport Trust’s main criteria for the camp is that the participants are aiming to join their sport’s talent development scheme. The Youth Sport Trust hope that the skills learned on the camp will enable promising youngsters to make the step up onto their sport’s talent development programme.
The young rowers are from a broad range of clubs and schools, including Maidenhead Rowing Club, Evesham Rowing Club and Peterborough Rowing Club, all of which run the ARA’s Project Oarsome scheme and are Clubmark-accredited by Sport England.
Running successfully since 2000, Project Oarsome is designed to link schools with a rowing club in the local area with the aim of encouraging people to try and subsequently take up the sport. As such, Project Oarsome as well as being a scheme to increase participation, is also a way of identifying and developing young talent in rowing that might not otherwise have been found.
The young rowers will be joined by other up-and-coming talents from five other sports: canoeing, sailing, cycling, hockey and wheelchair basketball. In total 80 teenagers, aged between 14 and 18, will take part in the four-day camp.
More information on the Youth Sport Trust can be found at www.youthsporttrust.org
