Athletics NI Youth Academy Class of 2010 - 12 December 2009

Tuesday 8th December saw the Launch of the New ANI Youth Academy (YA) at the university of Ulster which will mark the formal start to the New ANI Talent Development Strategy and signifies a fresh outlook towards future success.

There are currently 31 athletes and their personal coaches on the YA this year which is a great number of potential talents coming through. The YA athletes who are all between the ages of 14-17 have been identified as potential medallists at Major Youth Championships and ANI hope to assist these athletes to reach their full potential through supporting their personal coaches.

ANI also hope that assisting the development of these key YA Coaches will have an overall effect on the level of coaching within clubs and within the whole of Northern Ireland whilst nurturing the YA athletes in the process.

ANI’s Talent Development Coach Elaine McCaffrey who is responsible for the YA programme was “delighted to see the athletes and coaches coming together to formally start the programme, although the coaches have been busy working behind the scenes developing an annual plan for their YA athletes it was nice to make it official.

I have been extremely impressed with the level of commitment from the YA coaches as many attended the Spar Sprints workshop in November showing a dedication to furthering their coaching ability and they all have been working hard developing their annual plans and most importantly coaching on a daily basis.”

UK Athletics Strategic Head of Coaching and Development Kevin Tyler commented on the YA on his recent visit to Northern Ireland saying

“It’s great to see Athletics Northern Ireland supporting both talented athletes and coaches in their Youth Academy. The development of the athlete-coach relationship is the key to success and is sure to provide a strong foundation for the sport in the future.”

The Launch evening began with an introduction to the New YA Programme along with a get to know you session were all the athletes and coaches shared ideas, aims and interests.

This was followed by a short workshop on Performance Lifestyle and use of the YA Diary that every athlete and coach received on the night.

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Photos from the launch will follow shortly.