18th April 2007

2007 Targets And Rationale For Support

UK Athletics and its governing partners have announced Power of 10 targets for 2007 and how the sport will work to further develop the athletes, and their coaches, who achieve them. These targets can be seen at Power of 10, the statistical website established to raise standards in every event in every age group in every region on the way to London 2012 and beyond.

 

Colour coding means the targets – whether they be UK, Progress Review or Nation / Regional – will be easy to spot … and UKA, England Athletics, the Northern Ireland Athletics Federation, Scottish Athletics and the Athletics Association of Wales have joined forces to ensure that regional and national programmes supporting developing athletes and their coaches are meaningful and appropriate.

 

The resources for target-beating athletes and their coaches will be based around the “5 Rings” being developed by UK Athletics for use on UK, National and regional support programmes that are delivered year-round. The ‘rings’ are:

 

(1)     fundamental movement skills, which are basic to advanced motor skills that underpin athletic performance in every event

 

(2)     psycho-behavioural aspects – the mental abilities and fitness required to train and compete with peak efficiency and effectiveness

 

(3)     lifestyle, the often neglected external factors that can play a significant part in enhancing or detracting from top performance

 

(4)     technical and tactical, the techniques and tactics required to master specific events

 

(5)     strength and conditioning, systematic and sustained preparation of the physical components necessary to address the demands of the event.

 

Each of these can indicate specific strengths and weaknesses of a coaching programme and what may be missing from an athlete’s development.

 

Using this as assistance – and planning an appropriate competition pathway – can help athletes and their coaches to attain progressive targets.

 

Clubs can also use these resources to review how they operate and what they are doing in contributing to the process of helping athletes improve.

 

UK Target – the yellow line…

 

These figures have been raised for 2007 in line with how performances progressed in 2006 and are directly linked to the long-term aim of achieving 50% of finalists in 2012.

 

Some events made great progress. For examples

  • 12 women beat the 800m target of 2:03.00 in an historic year when 5 ran sub-2 minutes for the first time
  • 16 men beat their 800m target of 1:48.00
  • 12 Under 20 men beat their 100m target of 10.6 seconds
  • no fewer than 24 Under 20 women beat their 100m target of 12.0 seconds
  • 11 Under 17 women beat their pole vault target of 3.25m
  • 15 Under 17 men beat their pole vault target of 4.00m
  • 12 Under 15 boys beat their shot target of 14.00m
  • 15 Under 15 girls beat their 75m hurdles target of 11.49 seconds.

 

Some targets proved more elusive than hoped but these statistics have highlighted where special assistance is needed. The UKA Event Management Groups (EMG), the Coaching and Teaching team and the World Class teams are committed to working closely with the Home Nations to support programmes that address weaknesses and build on strengths.

 

Athletes who rise above the yellow line in 2007 – whether in a Senior or Under 20 event – can be assured that the appropriate EMG will identify them and include them within the appropriate event programme. As part of UKA’s established and on-going policy of enhancing the educational development of as many coaches as possible, every personal coach of a UK Target-beating athlete will also be contacted.

 

Each EMG has a full set of plans in place and a full breakdown of these will be available in the Event Development section of the UKA website www.ukathletics.net before the end of April 2007. In the event that an athlete has been selected onto the World Class pathway, appropriate support will be identified through their primary performance point of contact. Inclusion in an event programme kicks-in on a 12-month cycle beginning each autumn, at the conclusion of the summer track and field season.

 

NB. For those events in the endurance world without P10 Targets – e.g. Half Marathon – the EMG has coaches in place to identify and assist in the development of athletes and coaches accordingly.

 

Progress Review – the blue line

 

This line sits below the UK Target and is the same whether an athlete lives in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or England. The line only appears on events in the Under 17 and Under 20 age groups.

 

Athletes in these age groups who perform well enough to exceed the blue line target can expect to hear from their local athletics agency, whether that is a Celtic office or an England Athletics regional office, with details of the relevant local event programme.

 

Programmes will focus on helping both coach and athlete to progress but continued inclusion will be dependent on their commitment to the local programme. Crossing the blue line does not mean “job done”. It is simply one indicator of progress that needs to be measured alongside others.

 

Within England, this responsibility will lie with each of the 9 regions and the England Athletics Performance Manager. Across the Celtic nations, Performance Development staff are also in place to lead the programmes and are employed by the respective federation.

 

Celtic Nation / English Region Target – the green line

 

This target is specific to where an athlete lives and trains. It is the first benchmark for them and their coach to gauge level of performance versus current local performance targets.

 

This group of targets provides a baseline for nations and regions to gauge progress in their area towards raising standards.