Clayton’s junior section has expanded rapidly over the last few years and we are now at the point where we really need to add to the coaching team. We’d like to recruit at least one, preferably two new volunteers to go through the coaching programme and to lead training groups on a regular basis. You’d be helping an experienced coach at first and we’d ultimately expect you to take sole responsibility in leading a group, with the help of our volunteer assistants.

Coaching juniors is very rewarding, it’s always great fun and the perfect antidote to a stressful days work. They’re always keen to run (sometimes too keen!) and they work hard when well motivated.

Please check out the FAQ below, if you’ve got any more queries then get in touch either via the junior email or here on Facebook.

FAQ

• What qualifications do I need to have?
  • Absolutely none! The club will pay for you to attain the Leader in Running Fitness course (a one day, non-exam course) and will arrange for First Aid certification if needed. Any further training needed will be provided by the existing coaching staff, ‘on the job’.

• What kind of commitment do I need to give?
  • We have two training sessions; Thursday evenings in Burnley runs all year round and Tuesday evenings on the fell which runs April-September. Both sessions are usually suspended during the summer holidays. We’d like a prospective coach to able to cover at least one of these sessions on a weekly basis. We don’t expect you to be able to attend every single week (we all need our holidays) but having a regular, ongoing commitment is essential.

• What’s involved, do we just go for a run, or is it more complicated than that?
  • It’s very variable, depending on the terrain, time of year, which races have been on or are coming up. Fell training is usually in the form of a continuous endurance run, within which there will looping back, route choices etc. Thursday training has continuous runs but we also do more structured interval sessions such as hill reps and speed work on the parks.

• Seems like it might be fun but what if I get bored and want to stop doing it?
  • The training courses run infrequently so there’d be opportunity to come along and assist for a couple of months first to see if you really want to make the commitment. You’d be in a group with a qualified coach and you can have a go at organising bits of the session, to gain confidence.

• Aren’t they really fast, what if I can’t keep up?
  • This is only an issue with the continuous runs and it’s all about how you manage the runners. We have several groups and abilities range from national age group champions to those just starting out. Making the faster athletes loop back is a key skill to develop, we don’t tolerate standing and waiting at the top of hills!

• Aren’t they really slow, isn’t it a bit boring?
  • See above!

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