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Triathlon is a very unusual sport – both in its nature and its culture. At the top level it requires a high level of all round fitness, endurance, balance, co-ordination, intelligence, motivation, self-belief and dedication. It offers a huge variety of training and racing environments and caters extremely well for participants of a wide range of ability. Culturally it is still a very new sport and keen to embrace new ideas and new thinking. It has very little of the baggage of more established sports. There is complete equality between sexes, for instance, and competition is in five year age categories from 20 through to 80. Under 20 the bands are two years wide.
Our philosophy at Hoddesdon TC is closely aligned with that of the British Triathlon Association. Firstly we want to have fun but we place a strong emphasis on learning essential skills and building confidence. Doing a sport well is safe, satisfying and provides a sound platform for long-term development and life-long enjoyment. We teach good swimming technique, we teach good running technique and we teach good cycling technique. Besides the three basic disciplines we work on fundamentals such as balance, agility, core stability, speed of movement, flexibility and strength.
Cycling on the roads forms a major part of any triathlete’s training (and racing) programme. So far we haven’t been able to do this as the times of our sessions are not conducive to having very young cyclists on the road, especially during rush hour. We would like to reach a point where we can start doing this, at least for the older and more skillful riders. When we do take our junior section cycling on the roads, the initial emphasis will be on road safety and awareness, then on learning to ride in a group, then on developing basic cycling endurance. As many Tristars (U15) races involve cycling on grass we include that in our programme too.
We are well aware that in this age band there is a wide range of ability and physical development. There is also a big difference in speed between a heavy mountain bike with knobbly tyres and a lightweight road bike with narrow slicks. We’re only interested in helping our young members to have fun, to learn and to get their own rewards through seeing themselves improve. Ultimately those who start with us are likely to be the ‘top dogs’ when they reach the senior ranks. Those who come to us who already have strong swimming and/or running backgrounds could be in a position to progress very rapidly and we should be able to provide pathways to support right through to international level. We have links with the BTA World Class Performance Programme.
All of our sessions are run by trained and qualified coaches. In addition the Club has a Welfare Officer and is, of course, affiliated to the British Triathlon Association.
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