Olympian bringing the javelin community together with outstanding masterclass
Last week the UK javelin community had the privilege of working with the 2016 Olympic Javelin Champion Thomas Röhler. This was the third time he had visited (the last time was in 2019) and this was by far the most successful masterclass in the last decade - with 114 athletes and 40 coaches over the three days at Loughborough University.
The first day was set aside for our most talented javelin throwers; a smaller group of 15 with focused time with Thomas. This included biomechanics, videoing of a throwing session and a more in-depth winning mindset session with sports psychologist Jelani Robertson from the UK Sports Institute, and facilitated by Mark Hoile from Ginger Talent Ltd who worked with the coaches.
Paralympic champion and world record holder Dan Pembroke was present and reported that the masterclass was a great experience for him - and he got to meet one of his javelin heroes!
"Days like these are essential for a healthy javelin community in the UK, not only to meet our heroes but to chat amongst each other and share ideas."
Saturday and Sunday followed a broadly similar format with seniors and under 20s on Saturday and under 14 to under 18 age group athletes and their coaches and parents on the Sunday.
Throwing sessions were broken down by ability and PB, each group spending time with Röhler and being carefully managed by four of England Athletics’ best talent pathway coaches: Mike McNeill, Mark Bradford, Simon Forster and Scott Knighton.
Elissa Bucher is the parent of a keen young javelin athlete. She said:
"Being able to attend alongside my son and record his training session with such an inspirational athlete was utterly priceless. I truly appreciate my son being invited to these incredible events. It was superbly organised with plenty of opportunity to chat with coaches and other athletes."
Röhler also led the warm up routine focusing on quality movement, conducting a series of demonstrations for key medicine ball and ball throwing exercises with a principle focus on creating tension and length in the throwing positions.
Under 18 thrower Lottie Pabbari found the masterclass to be an enriching experience:
"Learning with my peers about javelin concepts, such as 'tension and release' significantly enhanced my throwing skills through minor adjustments. I was also taught new exercises that I can easily integrate into my weekly training programme."
The weekend was also structured so that the emphasis was also on coach development - not just from observing Röhler and the athletes, but expert coach developer Mark Hoile was available to work with coaches to aid with general coaching development. Mark - himself an Olympian - is already working with performance coaches within England Athletics and UK Athletics, and has worked in sport across eight Olympic cycles. His insight was invaluable and allowed England Athletics to invest in improving all the coaches present from a technical, physical and personal perspective.
The event really brought the javelin community together and was very well received by all involved, scoring a 4.8 out of 5 rating from feedback forms. Keywords in the comments included: inspirational, impactful, a great opportunity and invaluable in helping with technique, physical preparation and mental skills.
Tom Dobbing is the England Athletics Talent Event Lead for Javelin, and was heavily involved with the masterclass weekend. He told us that the key themes of technical improvement and coach development were fully met this weekend.
"Having such a role model and superstar of the event as Thomas Rohler spend three days with our javelin throwers and coaches was a massive boost and he certainly challenged our thinking in many areas."
He concluded by saying:
"The athletes and coaches who enrolled all worked incredibly hard and fully embraced the day - the future for UK javelin throwing is bright where, as a community, we are striving to be the best."