Thanet Road Club :: Youth Development Squad
The riders in the Thanet RC Youth development Squad for 2017 are:- Joshua Chivilo
- Hamish O’Reilly
- George Pittock
- Lance Childs
- Jack Hill
- Luke Hill
- Flynn Robinson
- Toby Yemm
- Finn Dunton
The Squad Co-ordinator – Chris Childs
The Squad Coach – Teresa Childs
The Squad Coach – Teresa Childs
What is the Youth Development Squad (YDS)?
Thanet Road Clubs’ Youth Development Squad is designed to support and develop club riders from 12 years old (Youth B category), through Youth A (U16). Setting them up for the Junior categories and into the senior ranks. Giving appropriate coaching and guidance as their needs change. With a support team of coaches and mentors, along with their parents, allowing riders the opportunity to step up from Club racing to Regional & National level events and providing an aspirational pathway for the younger club members to follow.Why we decided to take on the YDS
Following Colin’s plea for someone to take on the role of Youth Development Squad Co-ordinator we decided that rather than sit there and hope someone else would volunteer we’d step up and ‘take the bull by the horns’ not only to help our son Lance who has been a YDS rider for just over a year but also his peers in the club.Chris has always been a keen cyclist and since Lance joined Thanet RC, around 7 years ago we have also joined the club and are now taking advantage of family membership. Chris regularly participates in Time trials and races in both, Lee Valley track league and the Vets track league at Herne Hill, but what most club members may not know is that he is a professionally qualified to ILM Level 5 in Coaching & Mentoring and whilst not a cycling specific qualification it covers the theory of coaching in far greater depth than cycle coaching qualifications are able to. Chris has also signed up to undertake the BC commissaire course early in 2017 to help the club put on more regional racing opportunities for our youth.
Teresa is already a current British Cycling Go-ride coach and Thanet RC’s only Level 2 Track specific & Madison qualified coach. Together we hope to facilitate the continuation of the YDS and help Thanet RC’s YDS progress to meet their goals and perform well in regional and national races, locally and across the country.
The Squad relaunches on the 1st December 2016. We have already begun to arrange meetings with our very busy riders, the first of which takes place on Sat 3rd December 2016 to provide them with their YDS 2017 handbook, a highway code, a Planet X hat (in Thanet RC colours of course), to perform a set of Wattbike tests, discuss expectations of the riders, help riders set target goals for themselves (and as a squad) and review their previous season (for riders who were YDS in 2015/2016).
We hope that we can help Thanet RC be the place to be for our budding young riders and hope that the whole club will get behind the squad and support them through our 70th anniversary year and beyond!