IMG_0059Following in the footsteps of some of the country’s top athletes Harrow Way Community School GCSE PE students were put through their paces at Bath University recently. 15 Year 10 students visited the £30 million Sports Training Village which is renowned as a world-leading environment for the delivery of sport, sport services and health and fitness qualifications.

Hosted by a Bath University BSc Sports Science Undergraduate the students saw and participated in a number of the cutting edge fitness tests offered at the University which are used to inform on athletes’ progress and determine future training. Student Olly Cox took part in the VO2 Max test (on a treadmill) which is a general endurance test and Roland Jones performed the Wingate Test (on a bike) which determines an athlete’s peak anaerobic power and anaerobic capacity. All the remaining students had the opportunity to try other tests including the three repetition max test, vertical jump test, sprint tests and hand-grip test – all using state-of-the-art equipment. An important lesson learned was that any test administered must be suitable and relevant to the sport and various components of fitness being trained.

PE Teacher at Harrow Way, Karen Winnett said: “Taking these GCSE students to an inspiring environment such as Bath University helps to demonstrate the practicalities of this subject in a world-class training setting. This field trip shows how many opportunities await them as gifted sports men and women or as professionals looking to ultimately work in this field. They were fascinated by the science and technology that sits behind top-end sport and I hope this trip has inspired them to consider studying the subject at the next level.”

A tour around the outstanding sports facilities included the start track for bobsleigh and bob skeleton, indoor and outdoor athletics tracks and a newly upgraded 50m swimming pool, using the materials from the 2012 Olympics pools.