Holiday Programme

Throughout the School Holidays Glasgow Athletics Association in partnership with Culture and Sport Glasgow Athletics Development organises Athletics Camps at a variety of venues throughout the City.

Athletics Camps are designed to introduce children between the ages of 7-13 to all aspects of athletics in a safe, controlled environment. The Camps are designed to accommodate children with no experience in athletics and regular Athletics Club Members Children with a Disability are integrated into the Athletics Camps.

Our fully qualified and enthusiastic coaches will help you to take part in activities such as sprinting, speed bounce, long jump, high jump and shot putt as well as lots of fun athletics games and relay races. All of which is incorporated into week long camps throughout the school summer holidays.

Registration for these camps is available on the first day of the selected week at the desired venue. So come along and have a great time!

Christmas Athletics Camp

The Christmas Athletics Camp will take place in the Kelvinhall International Sports Arena on Tuesday 29th December 2009 between 10.00am and 3.00pm.

Coaching Will be provided by the startrack coaches who have been coaching at startrack events throughout 2009. Startrackers will be provided with Christmas Coaching and Competition session.

The cost for this camp will be £5. For an application form click here.

Summer Camp 2009 

A coaches View

For seven weeks of the summer school holidays, Glasgow Athletics Association in partnership with Culture and Sport Glasgow, delivered the largest Aviva Startrack  Athletics Holiday Camp Programme in Scotland in venues all over the city. The main aim of the camps was to ensure the children had a fun and exciting introduction to athletics. The Kelvin Hall camps were particularly successful, having many children come back week after week. There was one family who turned up to a camp every single week of the holidays - this must show something! Hopefully the children will go on to join local athletics clubs, or go along to the Run Jump and Throw clubs that are on during term time. Flyers for local athletics clubs were put in the goodie bags given to the children at the end of the week.

At the start of every camp the children were split up into groups sorted by age and given a team coach for the week. This way the children could bond with those in their group and also develop a relationship with their coach. It was clear that every coach could interact well with the children and manage to get them involved. The coaches received a lot of positive feedback from the parents at the end of the weeks, which was a major confidence booster.

The coaches have a vast amount of experience in athletics and I think this was a major advantage to the camps this year. Every coach was passionate about their own event, which meant we were able to show technical demonstrations and share our experiences in the sport with the children.

Another high point of the camps was the shine awards. The shine awards involved the children attempting 7 different events. Each event was measured or timed and points then calculated for a level of shine award, which encouraged the children to take part in some competition. The shine award certificates were given out at a mini presentation at the end of the week along with goodie bags and a photograph taken at some point during the camp.

A game that everybody seemed to enjoy was 'cat and mouse', our version of a team relay. The children were put into mixed teams of all ages and would run one lap of the track, aiming to catch the team in front while trying to get away from the team chasing behind. At this point in the day, the sound from the arena was deafening with the children cheering on each other having a great time.

One of the only low points was the turn out to some of the camps that were being held in the schools. At the beginning of summer we unfortunately had to cancel some camps due to lack of numbers. At the schools there was also no equipment available for use, having the coaches bringing out equipment every day. However, the equipment available at the Kelvin Hall and at Easterhouse Sports Centre was excellent and we managed to make great use of it.

Overall the 2009 summer athletics camps have been a huge success. As a coach I have had a great time working this summer! Next year we hope to make the camps bigger and better, and to keep encouraging kids to get involved in athletics!

 

Startracker's Views

Q: What were your reasons for coming back to the camps week after week?

"It is just great fun, why else?! Can you please put the age limit up to 14?

 This is what got me started in athletics. It has helped me gain a Glasgow Schools badge by learning how to High Jump properly with help from Hazel, one of the coaches."

Patrick

Kelvin Hall

"Because of the coaches and it is good fun. As well as being coached in athletics, you can make good friends."

Samantha

Kelvin Hall

" i made many friends and had so much fun"

Chris

Easterhouse

"The coaches made the week so much fun, i really loved doing the high jump!"

John

st mungos

 

"My kids really enjoyed the athletics camp at the Kelvinhall this summer - the coaches made it very special for them."