The first gathering of the above group took place indoors at Nenagh track last Saturday and was a fantastic success. A point shared by the 20 athletes who participated and their respective coaches and parents.

The session was opened by Denis Finnerty, Nenagh Olympic who welcomed everyone in the board room and he outlined the plans for the squad. Mary Barrett Loughrea A.C. outlined the importance of every event in the combined events and how important it was to give equal time to all.

This was followed by Pat Power St. Josephs A.C. speaking on the theme ‘Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail’, which covered some of the main areas in which all the athletes should attend to in order to succeed. He also covered off on snacking and hydration during the day of competition as well as how to concentrate and be ready for every event.

This was followed by Pat leading the group in a full warm up which was a dynamic mixture of exercises which contained Jumping jacks, various lunges to the inverted hamstring swing. Denis finished the warm up session with a variety of exercises using a broom handle.

Following this Pat and Denis put the group through their paces on the hurdles. On completing this they had video analysis of the session and they discussed as a group the techniques and how to improve on how to get over the hurdles more proficiently at all times.

After lunch we were joined by Martin O’Grady Nenagh Olympic who took a group working on the high jump while Mary Barrett took a second group to the throwing area for shot putt where they were put through their paces. All athletes took a lot from these sessions as Martin and Mary have years of experience and their passion for the event rubbed off on the athletes. In addition to this Pat & Denis worked on the long jump with the group.

In finishing up Denis and Pat reviewed the day with the group and finished up with a cool down. The next session is fixed for the 3rd Nov and all are welcome.