Just days after the cancellation of the 2020 London Marathon, England Athletics announced the inevitable: all athletics training sessions and competitions were to be suspended. But Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers coach Colin Godfrey has devised innovative ways to keep his athletes positive and motivated during the enforced break – and without any let-up.
March 30, 2020 12:37
ByRosalind Zeffertt, Rosalind Zeffertt
“If they think that having to stay away from the club means they’ll get out of training, they’ve got another think coming,” he said. “I tell them it’ll be hard but that they’ll love me for it!”
Godfrey normally coaches his 20-strong middle distance and endurance group—which includes Jewish athletes Sam and Daniel Greenstein, Biny Bloom, Dovi Levin and Rachel and Jordan Pearlman — every Tuesday and Thursday evening at Shaftesbury’s north London stadium, with a park session on Sundays. The age range is 11 to 18 and the group is split into junior and senior sections. When group training had to end, he acted quickly to ensure that training would continue seamlessly, just in a different format.
“I’ve set up various WhatsApp groups so that everyone can still train both outdoors and indoors, always in accordance with the government guidelines,” said Godfrey, himself a former middle-distance runner who in his early teens won an 800m silver medal at the Maccabiah Games. “I’ve been very clear about social distancing and I’ve told them that if they or their immediate family have symptoms, they must stay at home. But being outside is essential for health and wellbeing so I encourage them to do that if they possibly can.”
The training sessions are hard work but are also designed to be fun, competitive and interactive. “I run weekly running sessions and ask everyone for their feedback,” said Godfrey. “For one of those sessions they have to go all out and then they give me their times. We also do Q&A once a week.”
In addition to the running WhatsApp group there is one for circuit training. “The kids do circuits every day, plus a challenge which I change every week,” explained Godfrey. “A challenge might be doing press-ups as fast and as hard as they can for 30 seconds, recovery for one minute, then another 30 seconds of press-ups.”
Godfrey knows that options for training at home will vary, so he provides individual guidance for each athlete. “For the general circuits, I know people often don’t have weights they can use, so instead they can do front lunges holding two bags of sugar, for example. If they’ve got a garden they can do bounding and inside or outside they can do on/off step hops. They can do press-up dips off the back of a chair or a settee. I find out what they’ve got at home and make a tailored circuit for them. Whatever their situation, I make it competitive. It’s a way to keep the kids invigorated and for them to interact with each other and with me.”
Godfrey’s advice and support for his group is as much about mental positivity as it is about physical fitness. “I do everything I can to get them to put what’s happening into perspective,” he said. “They’re highly unlikely to be affected by Coronavirus. For them, this is just a blip. For others, it’s their livelihoods and it could be their lives. At a less serious level, I also remind them that most athletes in their career will have an injury that lasts a whole season, whereas at least they can keep training.”
One issue uppermost in the minds of many of Godfrey’s senior athletes is exams. “There’s a lot of talk right now about what’s going to happen with GCSEs and A-levels. It can be the first time the kids are confronted with something like this,” said Godfrey. “There’ll be some winners and some losers and that is the reality. But children contextualise things differently.
“They’re very resilient. Even if we have to go into lockdown, I will help them and we will come through this. It’s a defining moment for them and the reality is to train hard and keep going.”