TLJT aims to help enthusiasts in a range of sports

Tweed Leader Jed Track is running a series of assessment days, beginning this Saturday, at Tweedmouth Sports Complex.

Participants will have access to video analysis of sprint mechanics, a detailed report of corrective proposals to improve running techniques, and an individual six-week programme to improve speed.

As TLJT says: “We passionately believe speed is a key foundation to any sports person’s success in their chosen sport, be it hockey, rugby, athletics, football, tennis, trampolining.

“Having the ability to gain that couple of inches only might be the difference between scoring or being selected and not.”

The assessment days are on October 10, October 16-17 and October 23. They are led by head coach Bruce Scott, who has guided many young athletes to national honours, world sprint finals, Scottish records and the Senior Scottish Men’s 100m title.

TLJT chairman Leagh Douglas explained: “Both myself and Bruce have found ourselves being approached by parents and teenagers keen to join the running club to speed them up for their other sporting pursuit.

“What all too often happens, though, is they find out that our club’s weekly training schedule clashes with their current sporting training regime – thus, they can’t come.

“There is also a very important consideration of an athlete being overloaded when trying to combine different sporting pursuits.

“The importance of someone having a handle on the bigger picture can never be underestimated and, until a sport person has been recognised at a relatively high level, regionally or nationally, there is no obvious person looking at the bigger picture.

“It lies with the parents but they, all too often, will not know how best to ensure the weekly loading is OK and not bringing with it an increased injury risk.”

Leagh added: “This is something we take very seriously in this new venture and why understanding current sporting commitment is key to the subsequent individualised programme we write the athlete.”

Current Covid restrictions had also reduced TLJT’s capacity, indicated Leagh.

However, if an attendee came along to Tweedbank sports track for a one-hour slot, they would be properly warmed up under the guidance of one of TLJT’s coaching assistants.

“We take the time to gain various physical performance metrics from them (jumping, bounding, acceleration, top speed),” explained Leagh.

“We take a short video of their running action, which we later break down into key freezeframes.

“We combine our findings with a detailed understanding of their weekly sporting commitment and pull together an individualised report containing all our observations, and then a tailored six-week programme which we feel very confident will speed them up.

“If they enjoy it, we have numerous subsequent programmes to enhance further their acceleration and top speed results.”

There’s more at www.speedschool.training