AASE athletes meet golden apprentice

Lee Rowberry, SkillsActive - 17/10/2008

The event – held at The Grand Trafalgar Square and following the Olympic and Paralympic Heroes Parade – was an opportunity for about 10 athletes on the AASE programme from sports such as athletics, swimming, basketball, tennis and judo to share their experiences and meet one of the programme’s highest achievers – double Olympic gold medallist, Rebecca Adlington.

Adlington is still completing the two-year programme – developed by SkillsActive in conjunction with the Learning Skills Council. She said: “At school, I didn’t do my A-Levels, so the AASE has enabled me to train for swimming and continue with my education at the same time.

“Winning two gold medals in Beijing and breaking a world record was the greatest achievement of my life. I wish the new apprentices the best of luck for their AASE programme and hopefully we’ll see as many of them as possible competing for Great Britain over the next few years.”

The AASE is a unique sporting Apprenticeship designed to meet the needs of elite young athletes aged between 16 and 18 who have the realistic potential to achieve excellence in their sport and are seeking to perform at the highest level as their main career goal. The AASE has been designed as the qualification of choice for the UK’s sporting talent, providing a structured national training and development route across all sports. There are currently 2500 young athletes on the AASE programme throughout England.

Skills Minister, Lord Young, also attended the event, speaking individually to each AASE athlete about the programme, and their sporting aspirations.

London long-jumper Paul Oluyemi started the AASE programme in September. He said AASE has allowed him to spend more time working on specific drills and training techniques, all aimed at improving his overall performance.

“At the moment, I’m improving my jump by about forty centimetres each year, so with the help of the AASE programme, I hope to do even better.

“AASE is a really enjoyable course and is great because we are all learning as well,” Paul said.

Chris Ruis – an Under-16 County finalist in tennis – said he is already noticing some results since starting the AASE programme last month.

“Now that I’m on the AASE, I’m having about 17 hours on court a week and eight hours off court. I already think I’m hitting the ball better and building up my strength.”

Eighteen-year-old judo player Francesca Steggall completed the AASE programme in July. She said the AASE allowed her access to coaching sessions with top coaches who helped her identify her strengths and weaknesses.

“Through the AASE, I was also able to make use of film analysis techniques, which allowed me to actually see what I was doing wrong rather than just visualise it,” Francesca said.

Freestyle swimmer and European Youth Championship gold medallist, Chloe Hart, said being on the AASE programme helped her stay focused while she recovered from a muscular injury, and also helped with physiotherapy expenses.

“Since being on the programme, my focus has become clear for the future. I really want a medal at London 2012,” Chloe said.

Head Under-20 Great Britain basketball coach, Tim Lewis, has been piloting the AASE programme with a group of 15 young basketballers from South East Essex College in partnership with David Lloyd Leisure. He said the programme has made a considerable difference to the amount of contact time he has with the students.

“We’ve gone from having one two-hour session a week, to about 18 to 20 hours worth of basketball across the week. When you charter that across a year, then their level of skill should improve immensely.

“Being engaged with David Lloyd Leisure means facilities and services are now at our disposal, including medical support, strength and conditioning classes and tailor-made training programmes,” Tim said.

The AASE is expected to make a real and tangible impact on the lives of young athletes over the medium to long term. As well as providing athletes with more quality coaching hours, better access to modern, well-equipped facilities and new technologies, the AASE also ensures athletes gain the knowledge and skills required to have a successful career – whether as a professional sportsperson, or in a related industry.

More information is available on the AASE pages of our website.