Burnaby, BC - The Simon Fraser University Strength and Conditioning staff had the pleasure of working with some of British Columbia's top Special Olympics track and field athletes on May 11, 2013.  

The workshop was held at the UBC track and included both athletes and their coaches, with the intent of providing high performance coaching methods to both the athletes and coaches in the area of sprint and start technique.  

This high performance initiative was led by Cathy Priestner-Allinger, the mind behind Canada's successful “Own The Podium” program from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.  

Rather than simply focusing on participation, the Special Olympics movement in BC is now providing coaches and athletes with the tools needed to push their performances to a new level.  

SFU Strength and Conditioning staff led athletes through a comprehensive warm-up routine and also introduced several technical drills as part of the preparatory work.  The workshop focus then shifted to acceleration technique using a variety of resistance training methods, then finished with start techniques. 

All athletes excelled tremendously through the workshop sessions, and a video compilation of the day is available to watch here.

The experience of working with the athletes was exceptionally rewarding for SFU Strength and Conditioning staff, and it was exciting to see how quickly the athletes picked up new techniques and integrated them into their performances.

Additionally, the volunteer coaches with the Special Olympics BC program were very attentive throughout the sessions, recording many of the drills and exercises with their iPads and providing instant feedback to athletes. 

SFU Strength and Conditioning looks forward to future work with the Special Olympics BC program, and would like to thank Shawn Fevens, the Special Olympics BC Sport Manager, who was integral in getting their staff involved with this project.

Additionally, former SFU Clan Football athlete, Farhad Abi, is currently working on fundraising and events for Special Olympics BC and helped to bring our two teams together to make this a productive and rewarding event.

For more information on the great work being done by Special Olympics BC, please visit:   http://www.specialolympics.bc.ca/