The SWAS Cycling program visited Hilton Clarke who is the VIS Cycling Sprint as well as the Carnegie Caulfield Cycling Club Coach at the Joe Ciavola Indoor Velodrome located inside the Darebin International Sporting Centre Melbourne.
Hilton was himself a successful competitive cyclist resulting in his representing Australia at the 1996 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica and the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
He was approached in 1983 to Coach the Victorian Track Team and has been coaching ever since!
His tally of Australian Champions to date is 230 and his talk with the group covered all things cycling from Club to National level for the athlete, parent and coaches view point.
Hilton has been the driving force behind the Carnegie Clubs' successful Junior Development Program which culminates with the top 6 athletes invited to try out for his Talent ID Squad.
When asked what the biggest change has been in training since he started, his answer was, "Recovery".
He also spoke at length about the importance of maintaining an accurate training diary and providing feedback to the coach.
The group stayed on and watched the Squad go through their session and gave everyone an appreciation of the level of commitment and intensity Hiltons athletes have, something I am sure the SWAS athletes who attended will take home with them and use in their next training session.
Facebook
Twitter