Fell future is in safe hands...
Technique is everything on the hills
The past weekend allowed me to get a first-hand experience with the new Fell and Mountain Running Level 2 Coach which was kicked off earlier this year after collaboration between the FRA and UK Athletics. The course bases itself on the standard “Endurance Level 2” course…
…but has a significant fell-running slant and that’s only the start of the good news.
Having spent two days in sunny Mytholmroyd (a name more difficult to pronounce than you’d think!) I can report that the future of English fell-running would be in safe hands if this course is anything to go by.
A talented group of coaches (around 12 in total) made up our group during two days full of practical drills and innovative approaches to tried and tested training methods. Heading the whole thing was Graeme Woodward, the head coach of Calderdale Valley who have made such great strides forward in the latter years, especially on the junior side, and Bashir Hussein who mountain-running aficionados will know for his impressive World Mountain Trophy debut (he finished 5th, he also set a new course record in his very first fell race). Some said he was lucky, but he ran 29 minutes for the 10k and 63 minutes for the half-marathon, and luck is rarely involved for runners of such caliber.
Bashir Hussein
Apart from their obvious credentials Graeme and Bashir proved terrific hosts: A well-structured theoretical presentation, with plenty of eye-opening videos and photos, flowed together with plenty of exercises, opportunities to practice and thoughtful team-work.
The two days I attended formed only the first of 4 total days for this qualification (the second weekend will take place in Stockport in November) and focused on fell-running basics, technical drills and uphill running. I found myself positively surprised, as an avid reader of running theory, on the currentness of the theory (no debating against the Central Governor here) and the amount of new material (for me) presented.
Particularly, the section on how to take into account individual athlete’s level of physical and technical development stood out as an essential, if often over-looked, armament for the successful coaches’ tool-kit.
Most of all, though, the course allows you to link theory into practice and gives you plenty of opportunity to show what you can do with immediate feedback provided. On the first day we designed warm-up routines for each other and there was not a static stretch in sight: instead full focus was on getting the specific muscles for the planned session (uphill in this case) warmed up in an interesting, engaging and challenging way. Games, dynamic stretches and simple technical drills were the order of the day.
As Graeme put it: “Fell-running is technically and physically the most demanding running event.” So fell-runners, more than anyone, need to learn theirABCs (Agility-Balance-Coordination). So during the weekend the majority of sessions were technical in nature rather than purely physical . So during the weekend the majority of sessions were technical in nature rather than purely physical with main focus on running form and proper execution of drills. This makes sense, first of all, practically anyone can design a physically challenging session (“there’s a steep hill, lads, run up and down ‘till you drop”), and the true feat lies in designing a session that will develop your athlete fully from his or her current status.
Second, if you aren’t running right, then you aren’t training as well as you could be. Get the technique right and you will complete better sessions, improve quicker, and get injured less.
But as Bashir would point out, this is a hard message to sell in the running community. Working on your technique requires great concentration and the benefits don’t seem readily apparent to many. And runners prefer to “just run”.
There a long fight ahead to make this type of work a greater part of most runner’s programs, but with this course the FRA and UKA have made a praise-worthy attempt at changing old habits.
So off we went up onto the Yorkshire hills where the soft grassy slopes proved a perfect training ground for technical hill reps, uphill skipping and more! Our tutors provided valuable observation on form throughout and you could often feel yourself improving from repeat to repeat.
The weekend also gave me the opportunity to visit one of the local hills Stoodley Pike with its monument commemorating the Allies defeat of Napoleon in 1815. I was later fascinated to know that four fell races go here: Noonstone, Hebden Bridge, Shepherd’s Skyline and the Stoodley Pike Fell race.
Stoodley Pike
I managed to catch a lift back to Manchester Airport with Bashir giving me the opportunity to ask him a long-held question: “Do you have to treat the latecomers to the sport, like you would treat juniors training-wise?” The answer lies somewhere between yes and no: Adults, even those who have been sedentary all their lives, are fully physically developed while juniors are not (young juniors, for instance, do not fully developed anaerobic energy systems).
Apart from noting this difference a coach can train late-comers to the sport pretty much the way they would train juniors. What this entails specifically should be the topic of another article but suffice it to say that Lydiard was right to point out that there are no shortcuts to the top…
Next we’ll travel to Stockport for the second two days of the course which, amongst other things, will focus heavily on downhill running, and then it’s time to design our “exam session” in order to achieve Level 2 qualification. not (young juniors, for instance, do not possess a fully developed anaerobic energy system).
