main update 2 April 2022; section “Waiting List” updated 13 May 2022
Training Sessions
Our training sessions are on Tuesdays late afternoons / early evenings.
In winter we train on the rugby fields at Leodiensian Club (Leos) off King Lane. They have floodlights so we are able to use the fields all year round, weather and ground conditions permitting. We have 3 timeslots – 4:45-5:25, 5:30-6:10 and 6:15-6:55. At each time slot we have up to 4 groups each with up to 12 junior members. We don’t have 144 junior members but this arrangement gives us flexibility. We have 4 activities and each group spends 8 minutes on each activity. The activities are a mix of speed, endurance and agility. The speed activities have plenty of rest in between each sprint but for the endurance activities we do expect them to run continuously for the 8 minutes perhaps with one or two short breaks. See https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/juniors-training-at-leos-2022/ .
In summer we train alternate weeks at Leos and Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL). The Leos sessions are as above. At GSAL we have 2 timeslots 6:10-7:05 and 7:10-8:05 (5:30-6:20 and 6:30-7:20 in school holidays). Again we have 4 groups each with up to 12 junior members. We do have over 96 junior members, hence the need for the waiting list. We have 4 activities and each group spends 10 minutes on each. The activities are usually sprints (80m or 100m), laps (400m), long jump and shot (the younger children use a shot-put action to throw boules). For 2022 we have booked 12 weeks between April and September. See https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/juniors-training-at-gsal-2022/ .
We encourage attendance by presenting medals when our junior members reach 25, 50 and 100 training sessions.
Competition
We encourage our junior members to participate in competition suitable for their ability. Competitions suitable for all are junior parkruns, local junior fun runs such as those associated with adult races at Adel and Kirkstall, and the “Peco” cross country league for local clubs. Our more experienced members are encouraged to take part in local track & field leagues, the West Yorkshire cross country league and higher level cross country. 15 of our junior members took part in the English National XC when it was at Harewood in 2019 and 6 in the Northern XC at Pontefract in 2022.
During lockdown our members took part in 8 virtual races with other junior clubs in Leeds. Real races restarted in June 2021 and we had 40 of our juniors running in the Eccup Junior Races and 45 in the Golden Acre Relays. We had 20 juniors taking part in track & field athletics in summer 2021.
All members and everyone on the waiting list was eligible to take part in the “Peco” series of 5 cross country races taking place between November 2021 and February 2022. 74 of our members ran at least 1 race. There was also a relay race in 13 March where we had 10 teams of 3 runners.
On the website is a list of events that we are recommending to our juniors for the current spring/summer season https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-spring-summer-2022/ . For reference, here is the corresponding list for last autumn/winter season https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/events-for-juniors-autumn-winter-2021-22
Junior parkruns are 2km runs for ages 4 to 14, every Sunday morning at over 200 locations in the UK including 5 locations in Leeds – Bramley, Brownlee Centre, Cross Flatts, Roundhay and Templenewsam. They are free to enter. We see these as a great opportunity for prospective members to gain experience of running and hope that all of our members run these frequently (at least once a month). Here’s the link to Roundhay Junior Parkrun https://www.parkrun.org.uk/roundhay-juniors/ and there is a link on the page to register.
Adult parkruns are 5km for ages 11 and above, on Saturday mornings, similar arrangements.
England Athletics
We register all our junior members with England Athletics.
Most of them are registered as Social Athletes. There is no charge for this. This entitles them to be on the E.A. mailing list from which they will get promotional information about National Athletics events (including discounts on tickets) and from E.A. sponsors (with discounts on products). You can opt out of emails.
Around 10% of our junior members are registered as Competitive Athletes for which there is an affiliation fee – currently £18p.a. for the E.A. year which runs from 1 April to 31 March. Competitive Athlete status is needed for West Yorkshire Cross Country League and West Yorkshire Track & Field League (both for school year 6 and above), and for all Yorkshire County, Northern Athletics and English National competitions. It is also required for all open races – these have a minimum age of 11 on race day.
Competitive Athlete status is not needed for West Yorks events (school year 5 and below), junior fun runs (e.g. Eccup Junior races and Golden Acre Relay), Peco XC League, junior parkrun and “adult” parkrun.
Parents
It is a requirement that all parents remain on site during the training session or they nominate another parent at the session to be responsible for their child.
We are entirely dependent on parents to lead or assist leading the groups of 12, but understand that many are not keen to do this. But all parents can get involved without the responsibility of leading, e.g. by joining in the session if required (e.g. to make up a team for a relay) and/or standing on the sidelines to observe the activities.
Age Range
We normally have a minimum age of 8, but younger children will be invited to try our sessions if they are running regularly at junior parkrun and/or are younger siblings of members.
For juniors aged 15 to 17, we support their move to the one of the two adults training groups both of which also meet on a Tuesday evening.
Cost
Currently £40 per year. This covers one training session per week, all year round including school holidays, weather and ground conditions permitting.
Benefits
Entry fees are paid by the club for Peco Relays and Golden Acre Relays. Members who run Peco cross country races, the Pudsey Junior Race or the Eccup Junior Race get the value of these entry fees as a discount on their membership if they renew the following year.
Club Kit
T-shirts and vests are available to try and buy on a Tuesday evening.
Club hoodies will soon be able to be ordered via the club website. There will be an option to have a name or initials embroidered on the front.
Waiting List
We do have a waiting list for the junior group at the moment. Please note it isn’t first in first out; we take into account a number of factors including recent activity in athletics and, in particular, running. There is an application form / questionnaire to fill in for those who are interested.
Parents of juniors on the waiting list may join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/369749209844475/ This is a closed group, only visible by parents of members, parents of prospective members and some of our club committee.
Update 13 May 2022 – since writing the section on “Training” in early April we have found that the demand for the middle timeslot at Leos and the early timeslot at GSAL has been much higher than the other timeslots and several weeks exceeded the 48 places available. We have now added a 5th group for both of these timeslots, increasing the capacity to 60, but even these are likely to be full some weeks. We are therefore unable to offer spaces to new members who want to come at these times. However we may be able to offer spaces on a week-by-week basis when general demand is low e.g. summer holidays.
Contact Us
To contact us, click on this link https://www.valleystriders.org.uk/contact-us/ and select “Juniors” from the drop-down.