ST. PAUL - Over a dozen young athletes spent their afternoons on the track last week in St. Paul, learning a variety of drills with the aim of simply running faster and better.
Courtney Hebert, along with her siblings Daniel and Taylor, coordinated the "Speed clinic" from Aug. 24 to 27. Courtney is a trained NCCP Track and Field Sport Coach (Level 1), and assistant coach with the Edmonton International Track Club. She's also a fourth year kinesiology student at the University of Alberta, and is part of the track and field team at the U of A.
Daniel is a MacEwan University student, and part of the school's volleyball team. All three siblings are former Northeast Alberta Track Club (NEAT) athletes, and have a list of accomplishments behind them.
The speed camp was an idea that Courtney says she came up with early in the summer, and was based on a similar camp that NEAT had held in the past.
"All three of us were a part of NEAT and really got a lot out it, so I thought it would be cool to bring back some of the stuff I’ve learned in school and from coaching in the city," says Courtney. She adds, "We wanted to give kids the chance to get together and do some sport training before school started to bring back a bit of normalcy."
She admits, it can be hard to make running fun, "so, we had to get a bit creative."
But, aside from being a little sore, Courtney says the athletes appeared to enjoy the four-day clinic.
"We definitely saw some noticeable improvement throughout the week too, which is always awesome," says Courtney.
She adds that she was impressed with how good the young athletes were with social distancing on the track, and sanitizing, which offered them a good introduction to what they can expect as they return to school.
Courtney says having her siblings on hand to help was a huge benefit, since the group could be split into smaller groups.
"Overall, I'm really happy with how the clinic went."
