Countdown to Commonwealths
Countdown to Commonwealths
by Rebecca Roberts
The countdown to the opening ceremony of this year’s Delhi Commonwealth Games on 3rd October is well and truly on with athletes set to put the finishing touches to their preparations over the coming weeks.
Whether sports are working towards 2012 or competing as part of their international calendar, the event is a good marker on how squads have developed over the past four years since Melbourne and provide athletes, coaches and support staff with vital experience.
“Major multi-sport events like the Commonwealth Games, provide sports, their athletes, coaches and support teams with vital experience in a competitive environment” says Steve Cram, Chairman of the English Institute of Sport (EIS).
“Performance solutions in elite sport require the detail and depth of working on a daily basis with athletes in their training environment, and then integrated with the intensity of competition, to ensure that all aspects of athletes’ preparation are working as effectively together as possible.
“EIS support teams will put strategies in place to complement what athletes do during competition. We are also working closely with the ‘WeareEngland’ team to best prepare the English Commonwealth games squad and ensure continued support is delivered at the event, which is really important” he adds.
The intensity of competition is not only a good opportunity for athletes to address the physical and mental aspect of their game but also for support teams to understand how to work effectively at events.
“We know that athletes usually perform better at their second Olympic or Paralympic Games, which is partly due to the big Games experience” says EIS’s Dr Mike Loosemore, who will also be heading up the Commonwealth Games England’s medical team.
“However, support teams are not resistant to the impact of such large scale multi-sport events; the size of the food-hall, breadth of sports competing and increased media attention. Therefore it’s extremely important that both athletes and support teams gain valuable experience at events like the Commonwealth Games as it will help them at subsequent major events and for many, help with their preparations towards London 2012” he adds.
Transferring expertise from the training to competition environment is another challenge support teams must address to make sure they deliver when it matters, according to Loosemore.
“It’s a completely different role that support teams play in competition. Working abroad you’re in different conditions and days are often long. Hopefully nothing much happens, in terms of injuries, however you have to be prepared to take on the unexpected – an athlete relative being struck by lightning for example, as happened in Beijing, something you just can’t foresee.
“The fact that many of the support staff delivering sport science and medicine at major events, including the Commonwealth Games, are from the EIS, adds to the wealth of understanding the Institute offers and will help future generations of athletes as they progress to the international stage” he adds.
Working closely with a breadth of Commonwealth sports, the EIS will have support teams working up to and throughout holding camps, with several practitioners delivering support to sports at the event itself. In addition, the EIS has a number of practitioners who will work as part of the Commonwealth Games England support team including Dr Mike Loosemore, who will lead the sport medicine support team and Lynda Daley, who will lead the physiotherapy support.
The Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010 run from 3rd-14th October, for more information about the Commonwealth Games England team visit the We are England team here