Whilst many companies and academic institutions wind
down over the summer months, life at the Institute has been busy.
Two rugby camps aimed at preparing the next batch of SINI athletes
kept the Strength and Conditioning coaches, the sports scientist
and performance analyst on their toes. The camps were a great success
and have provided some food for thought for the future. A gaelic
football and hockey camp have been organised for the coming weeks. |
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A BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP IN DESERTMARTIN Last Saturday some staff from SINI were invited to attend a round of the British Motor Cross Championship in Desertmartin. What an event! At least 5,000 spectators, numerous competitors from all over the world and over 100 motor homes housing works teams and suppliers.The course itself was spectacular and the atmosphere superb. Music heralded the riders and when the flag went down, the race to the first bend was competitive…to say the least. SINI has been supporting Richard McKeown from Dungannon with his fitness programme. It’s only when you see these riders in action that one can truly appreciate the level of fitness required for this sport. Congratulations to everyone concerned with the organisation of a superb event. Well done to Richard and other local riders, with a full year’s training under his belt next year he can be challenging for the top honours in the sport. Read the story and view some action photographs from our website. |
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GRAY CHASES GOLD ON SUNSHINE COAST Institute staff members, Peter McCabe and Declan Gamble, watched as Janet Gray put the finishing touches to her home-based preparation for the 2003 Disabled water-ski World Championships to be held at Cranes Roost, Florida starting 28th August. Video footage and heart rate data was collected to help inform Institute staff so that Janet’s future training programmes can be targeted with even greater precision. Janet
continues her preparation with a two week holding camp at the
Swiss Ski School, Orlando. The GB team have made this their base
for training and acclimatisation purposes. Janet is currently
overall World Champion and in addition holds the World title
in all three disciplines – Jumps, Slalom and Tricks. Everyone
at SINI wish Janet every success as she endeavours to retain
all four gold medals. |
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ATHLETICS ROUND UP The busiest period of the athletics calendar is almost over, with many of the SINI athletes travelling all over the world for competitions. The international athletics bandwagon rolls into Bangor on Friday the 1st of August with a host of top internationals competing in the North Down Games. The big names include Sonia O'Sullivan in the 3000, Steve Backley in the Javelin and Yamile Aldama going for a world record in the women’s triple jump! Our SINI athletes will also be putting their toe to the line. Paul McKee goes in the 200m, Kelly McNeice in the 800m, Vicki Jamison in the 400m, Eva Massey in the shot, Dermot Donnelley in the 1500m, Anna Boyle in the 100m, Michael Allen in the Javelin, and Paul Brizzel in the 200m. Action gets underway at 7pm and admission is free. It’ll be a nervous couple of weeks for many of the above named athletes as they try to qualify for the World Championships in Paris. Several of them will be in action in next week’s trials in Santry. Also this weekend Elizabeth Mc Williams fresh from two major championships, competes in the Celtic Games at Mary Peters Track over 800m. David Shields will also be representing Ulster in the high Jump on Sunday. Elizabeth intends to take on the Seniors in the trials in Santry the following week. On the 23rd of August is the World Student Games where we will hopefully see Anna Boyle in action. This years championships takes place in Korea. Good luck to all SINI athletes during this important period. |
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SINI GAELIC FOOTBALL CAMP APPROACHING The Sports Institute squad for the 2003-04 season will be announced within the next two weeks. This takes place after the second Ulster U16 Provincial camp gets underway on the 4th August. Players selected from the counties will be in residence at the University of Ulster Jordanstown campus until Wednesday 6th August. During the camp they will go through intense fitness assessment and receive vital information regarding their diet and hydration levels. Strength and conditioning practicals will be given to all players and group skill sessions on the pitch will be in abundance. This three-day camp will certainly not be a holiday for these young talented players, with the programme beginning at 7:30 in the morning and running until 10:00 in the evening. The introduction of the ice baths will also give them a little shock but they will soon learn the benefits of such treatments, especially in aiding their recovery process after training and matches. These players will form the backbone of Ulster’s minor teams for the 2004-05 season. Congratulations to Dermot Carlin, former SINI squad member of 2002-03. He was last years Minor Captain for Tyrone and has progressed into the Senior squad. He played in the Ulster final against Down and was the youngest player on the pitch as Tyrone lifted the Ulster Senior title. |
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IRISH RUGBY – THE ROAD AHEAD How can Irish rugby sustain four professional rugby teams with a limited playing base and declining revenues. The following is an extract from the consultative document ‘ Taking Irish Rugby Forward’. The Irish and Provincial teams are competing at world–class level and are doing so with one of the smallest base of players compared to the other countries in the top eight. International commentators believe that in many ways we are punching way beyond our weight. This is illustrated in the table below.
The decision to limit provincial squads to 2 foreign players will place a huge demand on the elite player development process. There are concerns that the base of quality players does not exist in Ireland to ensure a continuation of the current levels of success enjoyed by the provincial and national teams. Challenging
times ahead with the role of elite player development Read the full report by clicking onto our website |
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HEART RATE MONITORING INTRODUCED AT RUGBY CAMP A squad comprising of current SINI rugby players and those seeking elevation into the institute, recently participated in a series of rugby specific fitness tests on the first day of the annual summer camp held at UUJ. During the fitness tests the players were asked to wear heart rate monitors so that individual effort during the rugby specific multi-sprint test could be determined. This particular test assesses a player’s multi-sprint capacity, i.e the ability to reproduced high intensity running efforts, and involves six maximum efforts of 30 seconds, with a 30 second rest in between each effort. Unfortunately players have been known to pace themselves during this test. Therefore, unknown to the players, the heart rate monitors were introduced to identify these players. After the first series of tests, the players were given feedback regarding their performance and individual targets were set according to current levels of fitness and playing position. As expected, the results from the multi-sprint test, combined with the heart rate data revealed that some of the players did indeed pace themselves. This information was communicated to the players, with the majority accepting that they hadn’t performed maximally during the first test. The exercise proved worthwhile in terms of motivation as most players who repeated the test a week later improved their overall result in the test. The heart rate monitoring exercise is hopefully going to be extended to include some of the SINI squad training sessions in the coming season. |
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