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Junior Development Squad – Skills Day, 18 September

The Junior Development Squad is being now being run jointly by the  MRC, SRC  and British Canoeing’s Talent Department. 
These are events are for paddlers of the following minimum standards:
Girls –
U16s – Girls C and/or Div 5 marathon or above
U19s – Div 4 marathon or above
Boys –
U16s – Boys C and/or Div 4 marathon or above 
U19s – Div 3 marathon or above
The first event of this new collaboration is on 18 September at Wey Kayak Club, and Ivan Lawler will be the lead speaker.  There are are more details and information on how to sign up
on the web site here.
Coaches
The JDS is also aimed at those seeking to develop their knowledge and engage with other like-minded coaches.  You do not need to have a paddler attending the events – just come along with a desire to learn, engage and share ideas.
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New marathon skills learning resources

The MRC has collated a set of useful resources that athletes, parents, clubs and coaches can use to support their racing development generally, and marathon racing skills.
 
Many thanks to Scott Hynds and Ivan Lawler who gave their permission for their materials to be shared here. We would love to add to these to make this resource as useful as possible, so if you have any to contribute, please let James know.

Click here to access the files on Google Drive

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Race Coach Course – MRC/SRC Bursary

As we move into the summer and the MRC/SRC bursary for the British Canoeing Race coach award continues, it would be helpful to know how many clubs would still like to put coaches forward for the award and the bursary.

We have had 60+ coaches complete the Race discipline specific course so far, and are now starting to allocate funding for the assessment to finish the qualification.  As the funding is from a finite amount, we need to spend it in the most effective and beneficial way for the clubs and sport.

If your club is wanting to put coaches through the award – or if it has already done so and is now wanting to arrange an assessment – then let us know so we can plan to help out accordingly, as it is on a first come, first served basis.

A reminder – the original information on the bursary and the course can be found here.  As the BC course finder isn’t working fully at the moment, we also have a list (not exhaustive) of course providers and assessors that we can put you in contact with.

Finally, a big congratulations to the clubs and coaches who have undertaken the course, and to those that’ll be passing this year – well done!

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Junior Development Squad Skills Day

Around 70 young athletes from 24 clubs attended the first MRC Junior Development Squad event on Saturday.  This was a skills development day, focussed on group paddling and wash-hanging, kindly hosted by Elmbridge CC and led by BC President and multiple World Champion, Ivan Lawler.

The emphasis of the day was on having fun and enabling the paddlers to develop skills in a non-race environment, thus allowing them to take risks and not worry about making mistakes. There was a good mix of on- and off-water sessions, with the “classroom” time led by Ivan.  Complete with cardboard cut-out boats on a whiteboard, he demonstrated wash-hanging and group dynamics from the simplest two-boat scenario, up to the large groups encountered in international races.  The morning’s paddle was done in small groups, but the challenges were increased by the high winds and strong flow on the river.  Luckily the winds dropped for the afternoon session, when there were various drills and challenges, this time in bigger groups, such as having to find a place in a big group immediately from a start-line.

Paddlers and coaches came from clubs as far afield as Lincoln, Chester, Swansea and Cornwall.  In addition to developing the paddlers, it was a training day for coaches of all levels, providing an opportunity for them to work together and learn from each other.  The subsequent feedback on the day has been very positive, with all those involved taking back new skills and knowledge to their clubs.

There are now over 90 paddlers enrolled in the squad, which will continue to grow as more meet the qualifying criteria following promotions throughout the year.  This ensures that all the progressive juniors around the country are able to benefit.

Many thanks to Ivan and the team at Elmbridge for putting up with an extra 100 or more people taking over their clubhouse, and to the paddlers, parents and coaches who were all prepared to turn up on a very windy day.  We are now looking forward to the next MRC JDS event – the two-day training camp at Longridge in April.