Training at Scotstoun

Peter Halpin's training sessions will be re-starting at Scotstoun on Monday 25th July.

Sessions will be Mondays and Wednesdays - 6.45pm start - 8.00pm finish.

Sessions will range from middle distance to sprint.

Peter's training

Apologies but Peter's training has been cancelled for this Sunday.

Peter's training

With the continued bad weather, the pavements continue to be very icy and dangerous to run on, Peter's training sessions will move to the Kelvin hall this week. Full details below:

Monday 20th December - Kelvin hall track at 6.30pm

Wednesday 22nd December - Kelvin hall track at 6.30pm.

The Sunday run on Boxing day 26th December will go ahead as normal, 11am leaving fromGoals.

Forthcoming races
Mon 27th December - Down by the river 3k junior race Cambuslang Rugby club. Refer to Ronhill Cambuslang running clubs website for details.

There are two open graded meetings scheduled at the Kelvin hall over the Christmas period. Full details below:
Tues 28th December
Events:
60m
200m
600m U11
800m
Shot putt
Long jump
High jump

Thurs 30th Dec

Events:

60m
300/400m U15 UPWARDS
1200 U11/U13
1500
Sprint hurdles
Shot putt
high jump
long jump

Please refer to the Glasgow athletics association website for a full timetable of events and entry requirements.

Sat 8th Jan - Nigel barge junior 3k - please see Maryhill harriers website for details.

Sun 9th Jan - SAIL match

Sun 16th Jan - Rearranged West district champs at Irvine, U13, upwards

Sun 23rd Jan - Indoor open meeting, U15 and upwards. Pre-entry, please refer to the scottish athletics website for timetable of events and entry details

Please also note we are awaiting for confirmation from Phil, as reards the junior Christmas handicap this Tuesay 21st December.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all the juniors, seniors, coaches and parents at Clydesdale harriers.

JUNIORS - IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT TRAINING

As mentioned below in Brian's Blog,  I am starting a new coaching session for junior athletes on a Saturdays at Scotstoun at 11am.
Anyone interested in coming  along to the new coaching session can e-mail me and I'll give starting date etc.

E-MAIL ME
 

Peter Halpin

AGM

Supporting Yvonne's reminder of the date of the Annual General Meeting of the club and the appeal for members to come along, I would urge all members who can to go along to the Town Hall that night. Members of all ages have the right to attend - and I would go even further and say that they have a DUTY to attend. It is your only chance to call the Committee to account, to congratulate them on their conduct of the club's affairs over the past year or to make sugestions as to what the new Committee might do next year. The two main officers in the club are the secretary and treasurer - presidents come and serve three or four years and move on to another office on the Committee but the best Secretaries and Treasurers go on for years. We are fortunate in having Yvonne and Jim in these positions and the club really needs them to stay on if they possibly can. Peter has done a good job as President as have the remainder of the Committee. There are two issues that I think need to be addressed.
The first is about the future training premises of the club. To determine that we need to know when the track at St Peter's is to become available. This is something that the Committee will have to start chasing up. Information seems hard to find. The Committee should write regularly or even frequently to get the information and any update available: don't expect the Local Authority to keep a letter we sent in 2009 in mind and reply as soon as they know what is happening. Anyone with connections on the Council should be asking them about the topic and anyone with contacts in the Regional Offices should be using that contact for the benefit of the club. Once we know that then it will be fairly clear what we will have to do. The second is what do we do for summer training premises in summer 2010. It is bad enough that the Seniors and Juniors never - or seldom - meet, it is worse when the Juniors do not have a single training venue that they can advertise to potential recruits. I would dare to suggest (it's OK for me, I don't have to do the work these days but I can see what works) that they train say twice a week at Scotstoun for a start. It is busier than Linwood but much, much easier to get to. Almost all school pupils in Clydebank and District know where it is. It is not expensive and it offers all the facilities we need. We used to use Crown Point into the late 90's and it is further away - all the athletes and their parents were happy to go there. And it was shared with Shettleston, Cambuslang, Glasgow Ladies AC, Victoria Park and many others. Scotstoun could be a go-er. The only exception would be field events which are difficult to access. I would suggest either Kelvin Hall or do a deal with West Dunbarton to use Postie's. That would give us Scotstoun on Tuesday and Thursday and the field events venue on either Wednesday or Saturday morning. You can criticise the above if you like but if you do, you need to come up with something better. The matter can't be left in limbo. So the two things I would ask the Committee would be (1) work as hard as possible on access to the new track; (2) Sort out this summer's training for the Juniors and for track athletes generally.

And for the Younger Ones ...

Lots of young athletes get early success by training a lot on the roads and in short recovery stuff on the track. When Graeme Reid started running at the age of 14 there was another boy of the same age who won everything in distance racing. He was doing seven days a week at age 14. Graeme on three or four days a week a year later beat the chap out of sight in most races. The other boy had, because of his big mileage, developed a shorter stride with a lower knee lift and when it came to sprinting, either at the start of the race or at the finish, he just couldn't do it properly. It had also been true that he was winning races because he trained more often and when others caught up in distance, he had no chance. The story then is - don't do too much running training too young. Gradually build up your miles and sessions rather than bashing them up just because an opponent in another club is doing so, You can develop general fitness by things like helping round the house - if Mum suddenly finds that she has run out of beans or potatoes, offer to go and get them for her. Jog up to the shop and walk and jog back! If Dad needs the garden dug - volunteer willingly to do it! Girls are more flexible and have better joint mobility than boys so the boys have to do more - even 15 minutes last thing at night before bed - but girls should remember that as they get older if they don't do work on it, then they will lose this mobility. Boys have a better anaerobic capacity generally speaking than many girls (tonight's homework - look up anaerobic capacity on Google!) and if time is lost through illness or injury then girls lose that aerobic capacity more quickly than boys so they need to work on it.
So - don't train too much but train sensibly and have a generally active lifestyle away from athletics would seem to be the message! Maybe more next Wednesday!

Provocative - Part Two!

Well, that last post received a resounding silence from everyone! Does nobody really care? Well for what it is worth my own opinion is that Clydesdale Harriers has always from the very first day in 1885 been a Track and Field Club as well as a Cross Country running club and when road racing and hill racing came in, we went there too. It would be a backward step in my opinion were we to withdraw completely from any one of these areas of competition. The current situation is difficult and there is no sense in denying that but it will not last for ever. There will be a new track at some point and what must be done is to get ready to capitalise on it when it becomes available. Nor must we let down any of the young club members whom we have at present. Steps to be taken include what was laid out in the previous post:
1. Concentrate and develop the areas that we can develop most easily at present - ie the runners whether they are endurance or sprinters must be encouraged, the coaches working with them must be given all the help that they need.
2. The Committee must take steps to make better arrangements with West Dunbarton for the use of the facilities available at Postie's Park. I mean the Committee and not just Donald having a word with Bob. It will have to be formal if it is to last. I know formal arrangements are a bit of a bind but if it is to stick then it has to be that way. Anything less is letting the children down.
3. Steps have to be taken to recruit and develop more coaches and officials.
a. Existing potential has to be encouraged in every way possible. I mean that Donald must not in any way be overworked, that Donna and Paul should be encouraged in every way possible and that Philshould be helped at race meetings in declaring teams, in taking them round the trail by Senior athletes. That would not seem a lot to ask.
b. Senior members and parents should be approached to become coaches or officials. This is not hard and often parents are pleased to be offered the chance to help.
4. Councillors and former Councillors have to be acquainted with the club and its needs. eg invited to the annual presentation because it is the one occasion when they can see the club as a whole without going anywhere, they can see the club silverware and they can be quietly nobbled by the Committee.

I could go on but the steps above would not take much time or real effort and could make the difference between the club being ready to seize the opportunities offered by the new track. The club really should 'hit the ground running' when it becomes available.

Not What They Used To Be

I went to the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships at Grangemouth on Saturday. They have been held on this weekend (Friday and Saturday) since I was at school but the meeting is nothing like what it used to be even nine or ten years ago. Numbers of competitors and spectators have dropped disastrously. For instance at local level, there were only four (FOUR) athletes entered from Clydebank schools and I didn't see one there - this might have been my eyesight but to the best of my knowledge no Clydebank school pupil actually competed. This is quite a comedown when you remember that St Columba's and Braidfield used to send a bus each on both days, that Clydebank High and St Andrew's used to send at least a minibus, often a bus. If you head towards Bearsden and Milngavie, the situation is almost as bad with Boclair which on occasion sent two whole buses of athletes entering fewer than ten pupils. Peter Bowman told me that Bearsden Academy had only three boys competing om Saturday.

When you see and hear Scottish Athletics boasting about the quality of the sport in the country and then look at the reality it is a bit like inhabiting a parallel universe or talking to Alice in Wonderland.

Where does it put us as a club?
The first and biggest message is that we have to do our own recruiting and coaching and not rely on anyone to do the work for us. We need to sharpen up our act in this respect.
Second and partly emerging from that, we really need to be ready for a whole club approach to making the most of the new track at St Peter the Apostle when we finally get access to it. I say whole club because the seniors need more new blood and they won't get it if they are training elsewhere away from the new blood; I say whole club because the youngsters need the senior role models on the same site. The Committee might have to take a hard decision when some of the seniors refuse to leave the comparative comfort of their own wee howff in the Antonine but will surely have to nominate the new venue as the 'official' club training venue.
Third it tells us that we will have to make greater efforts to cultivate the local schools as recruiting territory - re-enthuse them with athletics as the base sport for all other sports. Rugby, hockey, football and even lacrosse (I suppose) all have athletics as their basic fitness sport and this should be made apparent to all schools.
Fourth it tells us that with the shrinking pool of available talent we need to realise that we are in a competitive world where all sports and all athletic clubs compete for the same talented individuals. The coaches have to take it on board and I believe that they have already done so - it is also incumbent on the Committee however to make sure that they are not operating with one hand behind their back. eg if Vicky Park and West Dumbarton have the clubmark, we must have it too.

From 250+ members in centenary year of 1985 down to 60+ is largely down to the lack of a proper track facility in the burgh as well as the other underlying national factors. We need to get back there.

Where To Now?

I thought that it might be right to have a wee look into the crystal ball and see what the future might hold for the club. Strathclyde Regional Council dealt the club quite a blow when they turfed us and all the other users off the track at Whitecrook in the early 90's. It is still the only eight lane, 400 metre track in East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire or Argyll and Bute. The drains still function and it is being used for the Star Track scheme in the last week in July. I won't go into the (cash driven) eviction here but the effects are still being felt in terms of recruitment, in terms of having a venue where the whole club can train and so on. There will be a six lane 400 metre track at the new St Peter the Apostle School and we should have access to it: politicians and officials at the local authority level have been contacted and they all know we exist and want on to it. Will we be ready to use it to maximum advantage? Last year the Committee discussed the poor recruitment level for senior athletes, will the new venue help that scene?

The young ones first. We now have coaches for high jump and long jump. Paul Doherty is a former Scottish Schools and age group internationalist with medals at national level and is coaching high jumpers. Donna Campbell is a former third placer in the Scottish age group 100 metres and tenth in the GB rankings for the event and is coaching long jump. Bobby Bell is the best throws coach we have ever had and he is now coaching on Mondays at Postie's Park. If you add in Phil Dolan's group of endurance runners and Donald Macleod's work with sprinters then there is a team ready to take full advantage of the new school's facilities. In terms of competition, we will still be in the Scottish Young Athletes League and Phil has plans to enter the Central and South of Scotland League from 2010 and there is the possibility of moving into the Senior Men's team for the Boys.

The Senior Team is a good example of the problems that will have to be faced up to. At present the runners (with two second claim men added) are performing well and the jumps look like being quite successful. The difficulties are with the throws and the distance runners. Throwers will have to be recruited. We have Bobby Bell doing good work with them just now but there are not enough of them. We are working on that and hope to have developments by next summer. The endurance runners are more problematical.

In the past this has been the main strength of the club's track team. Now, for some reason, although we have over 20 men in the club's winter and summer leagues, it is the Devil's own job getting them to turn out for the club. I don't understand it. Two things: (1) I was brought up in the club to do what the club needs you to do. It makes no difference to today's Senior Men that the club needs them to run in track events three times in the year. (2) Those who talk about these things reckon that distance runners are better if they tackle all branches of endurance running. The phrase 'a complete distance runner' is used by Martin Hyman at Livingston. Yet we have seniors who are not happy unless the number is ten and the letter is K. There are more distance runers in the club than in any other group and yet we are shorter of them in track events - and in cross country championships - than we are in any other branch of the sport.

It will probably sort itself out next year when we are all in the same accommodation at the same venue. I am assuming that the distance runners will relocate to the more central venue on the Boulevard. Some won't want to move - that's inevitable - but if the club committee takes the decision to move then that's what happens. All in all I'm quite hopeful for the future.

Sever's and Osgood-Schlatter's

There are two conditions that are less common than they once were but still crop up from time to time that affect young athletes (usually boys). The first is Sever's Disease - which is not a disease at all - where the pain is usually felt in the heel. The heel bone is made up of two pieces of cartilage which turn to bone and form a single unit. This fusion usually tales place in the early teens and if it is damaged at that time it can mean missing several weeks of training. It is often brought about by overuse but my own son had it at one point for a different reason. He always called in for a friend on his way to school. Because the friend's house gate was always tied shut to prevent his wee brother from getting out, David jumped the gate and landed on the same heel day after day. With the ossification not complete and the tendon pulling hard on the heel spur, it brought on this condition.

Osgood Schlatter's Disease is much better known. The good news is that it is virtually never known after the age of 16. It is very painful (the pain can last for months) and causes pain and often swellin g just below the knee. It is alos most common in those sports which involve a lot of running, kicking and jumping. The treatment is always to stop whatever you are doing for a considerable time and when it is painful it can be eased by the use of paracetamol but in really serious cases it can be put in plaster for a time.

This is just a note to coaches to let them know that the conditions exist - proper diagnosis is always by a doctor but have a look at the appropriate information on the web and be aware that they are there. Websites like kidshealth or patient UK will give you more information.

Retaining Athletes

The retention of athletes is a subject close to my heart. It can mean two things to me. The first is keepeing young athletes in the sport and in the club - in the 1970's I did a bit of research with the blessing of the SAAA into how long young athletes stayed in the sport. This involved keeping track of the careers of all the medal winners in the Scottish Schools Championships over a five year period. The overall retention rate was approximately 10%. That is, only 10% of those winning things at 15 were still in the sport at 20 and it was much worse in field events than in track. I suspect that the figure now is even lower than that.

Apart from diversions such as computer games, such as a bigger range of sports to choose from and even a cultural change that doesn't encourage the work ethic either in school or out of it, the children are maybe not getting what they want from the sport. Tommy Boyle compared athletic clubs to buses: you get on it to go somwehere. If you are on the wrong bus, then change! There may be some truth in the suggestion that many young athletes have not got what they want from the sport generally for a variety of reasons - the facilities are lacking which is a general truth in Scotland; the coaching or competition structures are lacking; the social life that many want is lacking.

One thing that I do know is that athletes can get more and better attention in a small club than in one of the massive organisations masquerading as clubs at present. It is no coincidence that Tom McKean spent all his career at Motherwell where there were not massive demands to support the club everywhere; it is no coincidence that Liz McColgan never ran for any of the big clubs in Scotland either in Edinburgh or Glasgow. And have you noticed that Lee McConnell does not have a Scottish club - she runs exclusively in a Shaftesbury Barnet vest and really only turns out in BAL matches - even then not always!

The solution for young athletes is to find a coach with whom you can work, and then do your best. If you are good enough, you will get the races you need to develop. The question for the club is - what sort of bus are we? Do we take the members where they want to go?

Anyway, these are just random thoughts - all comments welcome!

Field Events

On Monday the first session of the new field events coaching system started in Postie's Park, Dumbarton. It is a pity that we have to go so far but since there is no usable track and field facility in Clydebank and the newest field events set up in the West of Scotland is at Postie's, that is where we went. Donna Campbell and Paul Doherty both had a gentle start to their coaching but it went well and more athletes are expected next week. Bobby Bell is also available for the throws events but unfortunately he had no takers on Monday - this must surely be rectified. He is too good a coach for the situation to continue!

John Lunn in Leeds used to do a UK wide ranking of clubs. His method was to take the best three performances by a club member in each of the events, allocate points according to the decathlon scoring tables, add them up and then rank them. His last year of doing it was 1993 and Clydesdale Harriers was seventh in Scotland. Of the local clubs, Shettleston was fifth with 36,393 points, Clydesdale was seventh with 34,560 and Vicky Park was fifteenth with 30.649. We were actually better in 1994 and 1995 was our best points total ever. It is to be hoped that the developing field events scene will help the club back to their former position. Whether it does or not, it will certainly bring more enjoyment to many young and not so young athletes.
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Field Events

Donald Macleod, Mary Ann Savage, Paul Doherty, Donna Campbell, Bobby Bell and Brian McAusland went down to Postie's Park in Dumbarton to survey the field events facilities with a view to adding a field events specific training night. It was a glorious evening and they were all impressed with what the facility has to offer. The result is that a field events session will be held there on Wednesdays from WEDNESDAY, 6th MAY. Mary Ann will be looking after the session with Donna doing Long Jump and Paul High Jump.

Gallimaufry

1. So lack of facilities is not our problem alone. I see that the Julie Rose Track at Ashford in Kent was about to be closed. The track was used for many international matches and national championships over the last twenty + years. Because they could not raise enough money to keep it going, the trust that organised it was on the verge of closing it when the local authority made an offer to take it over and that's what happened on the night that was to be the track's last night. When will local authorities and other relevant bodies realise that athletics is the best and - for them - the cheapest way of dealing with the sport of athletics plus the growing health problems in every part of the counry. It is also the basis of every other sport - apart from general fitness training, it has specialists in speed training (Scottish sprints coach Stuart Hogg has worked with Aberdeen FC, followed by Dunde United, then Rangers FC and is currently back at Aberdeen while Derek Ibbotson has worked with a range of English clubs). Throwing is throwing whether it is from the shot circle or in a lineout in rugby and jumping is useful in most other sports. So tell West Dunbartonshire.
2. The summer is nearly on us. The young athletes who competed last year must be looking for a slight increase of work done. If we look at the progression of training in terms of sessions done, then we get something like this - Under 13/Under 15: two or three days a week; Second year Under 15/Under 17: three or four days a week; second year Under 15/Under 17: four or five days a week; second year Under 17/Under 20: six days a week. There must be progression.
3. One training session need not be only one session, if you see what I mean. If you do a jog, then some mobility work, then some strides, then the session itself, followed by a couple of miles on the road or grass, you could be doing three things. A training schedule often speaks of so many mobility sesions, so many strength sessions, so many speed sessions, etc. The session above includes the session with its own purpose, the mobility/stretchng work which is another element in the training and if you are a sprinter the final couple of miles jog is strength training. One sesion can have sveral training elements in it. Don't skip any of them!
4. Have you seen 'Athletics Weekly' recently? Last week's and this week's are both pretty good. They used to have a section on Athletics Basics which told you how to get started in athletics, how to learn about field events and so on. They now have a section called Performance Basics which do the same thing but for athletes with some experience and who want to develop their road running or high jumping or whatever. It's worth a look.
5. A word for road runners - if you do more than five or at most six 10K's in a year, you are probably doing too many and need to get in some races under and over distance instead. Have a look at races outwith the central belt as well - there is a limit to what you learn from racing the same guys every time.

Young Athletes and Athletics

I once heard a coach say that it would be handy if children were in different colours: eg up to nine they could be yellow, from nine to thirteen they could be blue, from thirteen to seventeen they could maybe be green. I wouldn't go that far but I agree with her that it is a big mistake to see the Juniors in all their age groups as mini adults. Their physiology is different and their mind set is different. No one knows how they will grow up and what event or even sport will be their destination. My own daughter was a good cross country runner until she was about twelve and a half when she developed a bosom and a bum overnight and became totally inefficent in any endurance event. BUT athletics being what it is she just took up javelin throwing! We have something for everybody.
First there are two injuries that young athletes can get that never ever appear for adults. There is Sever's Disease (which isn't a disease!): the heel spur is made up of two bones that gradually fuse together over the years to become one. Before they fuse, there is a danger of constant or even frequent pounding on tar can cause them to separate slightly. The only cure is rest. Then there is Osgood-Schlatter's Disease (again not a disease!) which affects the knee. The knee cap is one that is made of two bones gradually coming together. Too much road running or running on a hard surface can cause this to happen as in the Sever's condition. Today's lesson, brethren and sistern, is not to let the young'uns do too much running on hard surfaces and hard downhill running is a definite no-no on a regular basis - it is clearly impossible and undesirable to be a distance runner and not do downhills!
Second, the heart of the growing child is smaller than the adult's and normally works nearer capacity than the adult's. So don't do very short recovery work with children under about 16 because it will probably only cause distress and turn the child away from the sport.
That's a bit, I'll be back at some point with more.

Field Events

One of the big empty spaces in the club coaching programme in recent years has been the lack of good consistent field events coaches. That, I hope, is about to be put right. From the middle of April we will have at least three coaches operating at the brand new field events facility at Postie's Park in Dumbarton. The track is easier to get to than any other outdoor facility and it is also free! The money was put up by television and so the Local Authority cannot charge for it. The high jump coach will be Paul Doherty, a former pupil at St Columba's HS who has won medals for high jump and long jump at local, district and national levels. He has also been a Scottish Schools and Scottish Age Group Internationalist athlete. Paul will be continuing his own career and coaching high jump once a week. The long jump coach will be Donna Campbell who was also a pupil at St Columba's albeit a few years after Paul. She was a first class runner at all distances up to 800 metres but especially good as a sprinter but was particularly good at the long jump. She is now a PE teacher but will like Paul be coaching one night a week at Postie's. The surprise packet is David Brown who is doing a coaching course in April and wants to do some coaching in the club. He is particularly interested in long and triple jumps so we will be well catered for there. Mary Ann Savage is the qualified coach who will also be seriously involved in the jumps. For the throws, well Bobby Bell - who was the top club throws coach for many years, is talking about a comeback. His favourite events are hammer and shot although he covers all the throwing events. With Donald and Phil looking after the running events a good coaching team is building up.

Training and Other Dangers for Young Athletes

It is the time of year when ALL athletes, whatever their ages, ask themselves why they are doing it. It's dark when they get up and dark when they get in at night and life generally is much less pleasant than it is in summer or in Los Angeles. For young athletes there are particular problems however. I'll have a look at some of them and if anyone wants more, then just ask me or email me.

First is the frequency of training. I have had Under 20 middle distance runners doing six sessions a week being selected more than once to race for Britain. Other guys doing twice a day were not selected at all. I have discussed the question of 'how often?' withe many of the country's top coaches and the general feeling is that it should start with twice a week for Under 11 and Under 13 athletes and up via three or four times a week for Under 15's and four or five times for Under 17's. The difference is because there are big physical differences between children (I remember Robert Emmanuel on the start line against Des Roache in an Under 15 race where Robert was barely at the level of Des's shoulder!) It also reflects the different points of entry into the sport: a 13 year old who has been running for a year or so beforehand could easily do a day more a week than one who is fresh into the sport with no background. Beware those who say that there are very strict rules for all children of a particular age!

Type of training - well it should be based on aerobic running at all ages. Note the following points though - it is often more important for girls of all ages to do the aerobic aspect (ie steady or longish runs), especially after a lay off for whatever reason because they lose the aerobic capacity more than boys do. No young athlete should do work with a short recovery because of their heart size and functioning. IF they do any hill running, then they should either walk back down or go for a jog of 600 or 800 metres after each rep. A wee story:-

When Seb Coe was wee, then his Dad would have him run up hills on his training runs, then get him in the car to run downhill. This was because the joints at knee and ankle were too soft and liable to damage to run hard downhill. Too often you see guys locally (I've seen it in two local clubs but never in our own) say that they can walk uphill so long as they go down the other side hard! Don't run hard downhill.

A Final Point (for now). Alex Naylor, former National Coach and GB Junior Coach, used to ask the question "But where do you get the animals?" The animals were the athletes. All coaches are always on the lookout for good runners/jumpers/throwers. The answer for too many coaches is to get O.P.'s - other peoples athletes. When Graeme Getty went to London, he was told by a coach from Newhan and Essex that he would run better if he strengthened his left leg because his stride was lop sided; another told him that he should take relaxation classes because he was too tense and if he joined Belgrave they would sort it.... He joined Shaftesbury! The same is particularly true of young athletes and young coaches. The coach without a good athlete spots a good youngster and the tells him that he can improve him; he points out an area for improvement (often that he is training not often enough or too often) and then gradually works his way into the child's confidence by speaking to him or his parents at every meeting. The answer to this kind of approach is to ask the coach in question what athletes he has, what they are doing now as far as times, etc are concerned. It is also appropriate to speak to the club secretary of the coach's club and let them know of the approach. If I as a coach had concerns about the training a child was doing I would first speak to the athlete's coach rather than sow seeds of distrust or mistrust possibly wrongly.

So coaches/parents of young athletes should look at frequency of training, the appropriateness of training to the age, sex and event of the runner and beware other coaches unless you know them.