Two squads from the Northern Inland Academy of Sport spent their Sunday being put through their paces in Armidale.
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Mountain biking is back in the Northern Inland Academy of Sport’s program for this year and the squad made their way to the Piney Trails for training.
A team of 14 riders from Armidale, Inverell, Tamworth and surrounds are part of the academy’s program for 2016 with seven coaches from around the region guiding them.
Sunday was the third training day the squad has had for this year and were were joined by some of the region’s best junior elite mountain bikers from the 2 Wheel Academy as well as coach David Harris.
They were allocated mentors for the six hour session to go over a two-month training plan based on the information provided by each athlete’s first training session as part of the academy.
NIAS mountain bike coach Steve Mair said the program identified cyclists who demonstrated promise through their local clubs and develops them further by teaching them skills to improve their on-track performances.
He said the training day in Armidale was an eye-opener for some of the academy’s athletes who were able to learn from other young mountain bikers.
"We are lucky enough to have someone like Dave who is one of the few level two accredited mountain bike coaches,” he said.
"He has an incredible track record with developing young people to an Australian championship standard and you have a whole bunch of those kids in Armidale with the 2 Wheel Academy.
"[Sunday] was really about exposing our kids to his level of coaching and his 2 Wheel Academy, who are qualified coaches, were fantastic in what they did. Most of our kids are year seven and eight and most of his are year nine, 10, 11 and beyond and to see that modelling between the ages was fantastic for our kids.
"We are very, very happy with [Sunday].
"We are likely to do more stuff with the Armidale guys down the track.
"The level he is working at, we are at the sub-level to what he is working on, so having that nice transition where they are getting exposure to those kids is really good.”
NIAS’ netball squad also spent the weekend in Armidale.
The squad spent Sunday morning at SportUNE going through fitness training.
All athletes were set up with training programs specially tailored for the Christmas break.
The athletes will re-start training after the holidays.