ENGLAND ATHLETICS is joining forces with the Children’s Health and Exercise Research Centre (CHERC) at the University of Exeter to investigate the training practices of endurance runners aged 11-15.
Too much, too young? Teenage athletes are being asked to document pressures being placed on them by training
MARK SHEARMAN
Despite participation numbers in running being at an all-time high, there remains a serious dropout rate from athletics during the teen years and the study aims to look at why this happens. Robert Mann, a CHERC researcher who runs for the University of Exeter and Team Bath AC, will be looking at training volume and quality to see if young runners might be training too hard too soon, potentially damaging their long term development and motivation to continue running.
Mann is calling for adolescent endurance runners to complete an online survey as part of his study. It takes no longer than 20 minutes to fill in and is open to any England Athleticsregistered athlete, aged 11 to 15 years old who is competing in or training for an 800m event or longer, including cross-country. Athletes can access the survey via the easily remembered link englandathletics.org/youthendurance or by emailing Mann on rm537@exeter.ac.uk