COVID-19 Resources

The following information will be continually updated as more direction and requirements are provided by the provincial government.

OVERVIEW

Athletics New Brunswick will be following guidelines that have been set specifically for the Province of New Brunswick and the Sport & Recreation system.

The recommendations outlined in this document will be reviewed and updated regularly as we receive more guidance from the New Brunswick Government and New Brunswick Health Officials. Please ALWAYS follow directives from Public Health prior to continuing training and competition.

Guidelines in this document are for use in training/practice, as well as competition settings where applicable. Athletics New Brunswick will continue to update these guidelines as we progress through the pandemic.

Return to Training and Competition Documents

1) ATHLETICS NEW BRUNSWICK COVID UPDATE

2) National Back on Track Guidelines

3) National Officials' Committee Back on Track Guidelines (August 6, 2020)

4) Club Risk Assessment & Mitigation Checklist Tool

5) Individual Waiver & Attestation - Available through Trackie

6) Club Waiver & Attestation - Available through Trackie

*The corresponding Trackie links will be made available for all members in the next few days (estimated Monday, June 8th). Until then, no group activity or training will be sanctioned, nor endorsed by Athletics Ontario. Only after all coaches, athletes, or involved parties have completed the required acknowledgements will it be acceptable to return to formal training and practices following the Back on Track guidelines.*

7) SAMPLE Athlete Check-In Document

Additional Resources:

Tourism, Heritage & Culture – Sport & Recreation Branch Covid-19 Frequently Asked Questions

Resources for YOUTH:

- Canada's Sport for Life Resource page: Provides many different resources for youth and parents alike on physical literacy and activities.

https://sportforlife.ca/resources/

- World Athletics: 'Athletics @ Home' provides kids with many different resources to have fun while at home!

Athletics @ Home Create Your Own Spikes: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/series/make-own-spikes-colour-in-craft-art

Athletics @ Home Reading with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/series/shelly-ann-fraser-pryce-reads-i-am-a-promise

Athletics @ Home Kids Geography Activity: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/series/athletics-geography-activity

Athletics @ Home Colour the Stars!: https://www.worldathletics.org/news/series/colouring-in-legend-athletes

- Athletics Alberta's ICAN RJTW at Home: Inspired by the Run Jump Throw Wheel program and modified to be able to provide track & field activities from home.

https://athleticsalberta.com/ican-rjtw-at-home/

Training Tips for U16 Athletes & Above from Steve LeBlanc:

Tuesday, April 21st:

Since many of you are in a situation where you don't have access to equipment or facilities to do more specific training, you might think that you can't keep working on technique. While it can be more difficult, you can still work on many key technical elements in your events by breaking them down to key parts of the skills. For throwers, rehearsing your footwork and doing "shadow throws" can be very useful in building your rhythm and focusing on key movements and positions. For jumpers, doing short approach takeoff work can build really good patterns for full jumps, particularly those final two steps into takeoff, and most short approach drills do not require pits or mats. Even vaulters can work on good takeoff mechanics by simulating the PV takeoff with a hockey stick or broom handle substituting for a pole to achieve the same takeoff position. Hurdlers can still build good hurdle rhythm by using water bottles or other objects to mark out hurdle spacings to run through. By focusing on the basic but essential technical components of your event, you may even make some break-throughs.

Key components to focus on:

Rhythm & tempo - work on developing the rhythm of the skill or the tempo of the movements in the skill

Position & balance - think about the body positions involved in the skill, or the balance required

Sequence & pattern - build the movement patterns and sequences of movements, first slow and smoothly and gradually speeding them up

Wednesday, May 5th:

The Mental Game

While your physical preparations may be disrupted a little, take this time to work on your mental game. There are many mental skills that will help you in competition, but they need to be practiced and mastered just like any other skill. Now is a great time to develop those skills. Mental rehearsal, visualization & imagery, concentration, all of these involve skills that can be practiced and improved.

Mental practice or mental rehearsal of a skill can improve your ability to actually do the skill. For the best transfer, you should try to imagine yourself executing the skill in as vivid a way as possible, mentally executing it in "real time", using the correct movement sequence in as much detail as possible. Imagine yourself successfully executing the skill. You can even add some small physical movements to enhance the proprioceptive "feel" as you imagine yourself doing the skill. Due to the fact that it requires no physical effort to do a mental rehearsal of a skill, you can execute the skill over and over, doing hundreds more repetitions than you could physically do. This will incredibly enhance your learning and mastery of the skill. You can learn more about this by checking out these links:

https://www.sports-training-adviser.com/mentalpractice.html

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/adding-movement-mental-rehearsal-improves-performance

https://www.cell.com/neuron/pdf/S0896-6273(18)30138-7.pdf

For more sport psychology tips, check out: https://appliedsportpsych.org/resources/resources-for-athletes/

Training Tips for U16 Athletes and Above from Chris Belof:

Tuesday, April 14th:

Structural adaptions happen slower than metabolic. Be careful when loading and increase volume, density, frequency, and intensity. Each athlete and environment is unique and should be treated as such. A common rule is to increase one of those factors by 5-10%. Using recovery weeks, 2 weeks building - 1 week recovery is also an effective method of progressive loading. Remember consistent training and quality recovery lead to big gain. Emphasis on consistent growth and development over a long healthy career should always be a paramount goal, and an important principle in programming.

Monday, April 27th:

Two of the foundational pillars to athletic improvement are 1 - consistent training 2 - quality recovery. Emphasis on doing the right things away from sport are equally as important as the technical or physiological stress implemented in practice sessions. Research has shown that sleep, nutrition, and external stress management play a paramount role in the athlete's health. Some quick tips for athletes to follow.

1 - try to obtain 55-70hrs a week of sleep. Sleep is accumulative but ideally 8-9hrs a night plus afternoon naps.

2- proper time and social management in order to reduce anxiety and stress on outside of sport factors. It is important to understand that mental and emotional stress manifest in physical responses.

3- meal planning and proper nutrition play a chief role in recovery, planning snacks and meals thought the day and week to incorporate a balanced diet to make sure you meet you nutritional requirements. **eat your vegetables**
Attention to these key factors outside practice will make for more consistent high quality training sessions, leading to improved preparation and performance.

Tuesday, May 12th:

Training with a purpose is paramount to success at all activities, especially athletics. Proper preparation and being specific in that preparation as an athlete has an enormous impact on the your process and therefore your future outcomes. Emphasis on in intentional preparation crosses over into multiple different areas. Being certain that you are well prepared for your hard session, and allowing recovery session to enhance those intentional hard or technical session. A key part of proper preparation is the work done away from the track to enhance recovery. Self care, nutrition, and rest/sleep are all highly important. Having a strong pre and post workout routine that includes a strong warm up, activation, and quality warm down, sets the the stage for an effective specific session.

Resources for COACHES

- Coach NB: Coach New Brunswick is offering many of their modules via online delivery. A great way to do continued coach education while practising physical distancing.

http://coachnb.ca/calendar/

- CSCA (Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic): CSCA now has a YouTube channel for Coaches, where they have periodic Coach Socialization's and can be viewed online. Great conversation is happening through this series amongst coaches across the Atlantic region.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkRQCRiZjsq4wA7xaMi5WJA?fbclid=IwAR33DRqaMY0EtJVi6NX7N_QjNmJ1KvqfxFOVw90zaCnGugR_bL2Ae8aZW4Y

- 2020 NACACTFCA Virtual Congress (April 16-18th):NACAC is hosting their coaching conference virtually through Zoom this year. Info is linked in the attached flyer and facebook page with more information https://www.facebook.com/groups/226798048518086

- AC Webinar Series: Info is on the AC website in the e-Learning section. There is also a section on available online PD modules from the Coaching Association of Canada and from various 3rd party groups (Altis, Eveltrack, etc). https://athletics.ca/programs/coaching/e-learning/

- Canadian Sport Institute Pacific: Numerous presentations available on a wide variety of Sport Science/Sport Medicine topics. Of particular interest at this time is the most recent presentation on ‘Detraining and Performance Residuals: Minimal Effective Dose?’ by Dr. Trent Stellingwerff and Prof. Stuart Phillips. You can view all the available presentations here https://www.csipacific.ca/athletes/sport-education/on-demand/#presentations

- PlayBuilder: System to help build lesson plans and activities to develop physical literacy, using a huge library of pre-defined activities. Available for free for 1 year for a limited time (prior to Apr 30th) http://getplaybuilder.com/offer/

- ALTIS: A great resource for quality technical coach education is ALTIS online education platform. With online modules for all technical events from some of the worlds best and most experienced coaches there is a plethora of online material that will help with multiple perspectives into all event groups. https://altis.world/digital-education/courses/

- Articles:

- "Home Training for Sprinters: A Practical Guide" on the SimpliFaster website outines some considerations and ideas for training in isolation. https://simplifaster.com/articles/sprinters-home-training-practical-guide/

- "The Role of Adversity in Development" on the HMMR website discusses dealing with adversity and its role in development.

http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2020/03/the-role-of-adversity-in-development/

- Podcast: "Constructing Circuits" podcast on the HMMR website that discusses considerations in designing circuit training options for athletes. http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2020/03/gaincast-episode-185-constructing-circuits/

Resources for ALL

- Athletics Alberta: Athletics Alberta's YouTube channel provides inspirational videos as well as links to the ICAN RJTW programs.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ZygcA5mlC9KpaxU0M22xw?fbclid=IwAR3fIyrVCYktW2QCpjp2BlwcRiO-9mM8550j8Mz9FbHtpHy8VxbObQWL2Gw

- HMMR Website: "Quarantraining" page on the HMMR website pulle together many different videos and articles dealing with training at home.

http://www.hmmrmedia.com/2020/04/march-2020-in-review-quarantraining/

- Altis World: Altis World YouTube channel has many different videos on many different training related topics.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdLuu6qncgyTpRGJu02sTfA/featured

- Speed Endurance: This is a link to a page on the Speed Endurance website (by Jimson Lee) where he has linked a series of videos of presentations by coach Dan Pfaff from a series he did in Australia with coach Mike Hurst

https://speedendurance.com/2018/10/03/dan-pfaff-live-in-australia-fastrack400-part-1/?awt_a=A1zj&awt_l=8MIZl&awt_m=J5MbXTfMrH12zj