Centrex provides head start for West Lothian athletes
08/10/07 | Centrex Group
An innovative scheme aims to help promising young West Lothian athletes race ahead of the pack.
Recently launched at the Centrex Conference Centre, the Excellence in School Sport Programme (ESSP) aims to provide talented West Lothian schools pupils with the coaching and support necessary to achieve both their full academic and sporting potential.
The unique scheme is one of the first of its kind in Scotland and aims to revolutionise sport in West Lothian, with promising pupils given time off lessons to receive additional training from some of the top coaches in the country in their specific field.
A total of 68 senior secondary school pupils will take part in the first phase of the ESSP programme, which will initially cover four sports - basketball, girls' football, golf and swimming.
All athletes will be tracked on their progress by a web based sports management system provided by Centrex, currently used by a number of national teams around the world. This system allows coaches and therapists to input all information regarding an athletes training and well being, and allow informed decisions to be made regarding improvement.
"Centrex is delighted to support this project, we provide sports systems and services to some of the top sports bodies around the world and it's encouraging to see such a proactive approach being taken here in Scotland"
"West Lothian have impressed in there holistic approach, utilising local resources while working closely with specialists in conjunction with the sports governing bodies.
"
West Lothian Council's sports development team have joined forces with the East of Scotland Institute of Sport, sportscotland and the Institute of Sport Foundation, as well as various sporting governing bodies, in a programme designed to help young elite athletes bridge the gap between club level and Institute level performance.
It will see the future sports stars work on their strength, conditioning and fitness, backed by support services such as physiotherapy, sports psychology, nutritional talks, and cooking lessons for the young people and their parents, and is already being supported by local sporting organisations such as West Lothian Leisure and Kingsfield golf club.
The young athletes will also receive coach education courses, so they can assist with the training of next generations of sports stars.
"Our systems provide a high performance tracking and development framework, focusing resources towards achieving end goals and encouraging the athletes to take responsibility for their development" said Archie Paton, Centrex Group.
Councillor Andrew Miller, Executive member for Education, said: " West Lothian is fortunate to have so many talented young athletes in a variety of sports, and this programme will support them in achieving their full potential.
"The scheme will allow us to train top athletes in West Lothian, and hopefully help us to produce even more homegrown sports stars in a variety of areas." |
