Yeadon Junior Squad Successes

Following on from the various Summer events and the Zone Championships in September the winter junior squad selections are now out. Congratulations are due to a number of Yeadon Juniors who have been selected for various training squads.

This is a great list and it reflects the efforts and commitment they all, and their parents, have put in over the year. So while the rest of us keep warm over the winter they, and their support crews, will be driving and sailing all over the country improving their sailing and racing !

The selected Juniors are :-

Matthew and Benjamin – RYA National Junior Squad – Mirror

Luke – ITCA Junior Development Squad – Topper

Also congratulations are due to William and Callum who although they sail and race predominately at other local Clubs ( Ripon and Yorkshire Dales) they are also members at Yeadon and sail with us just on Tuesday Nights.

William – RYA National Junior Squad – Mirror

Callum – RYA North Zone Squad – Topper

The RYA (and ITCA) Squads aim to nurture junior sailors, across the country, refining their boat handling and racing techniques and turning them into skills and to develop their ability to analyze and improve their own performances. The Squads form essential part of the RYA Pathway Scheme to develop sailors of the appropriate age and ability to go on over time and win medals at major regattas.

Basically young sailors under the age of 14, sailing Optimists, Toppers, Cadets and Mirrors who show promise can get selected for Regional (Zone) Squads and even National Squads. The Squads operate over the winter months between November and May and they have, typically, 6 training weekends. These weekends involve land and classroom sessions as well as a lot of on the water training and are run by top coaches. As well as being fairly intensive the squads weekends are good fun and the young sailors form long lasting friendships which helps develop the social side of sailing as well as the racing side. The parental support teams also get involved and it becomes a whole family event.

At the end of a winters training the improvements are dramatic, the junior’s sailing is vastly improved, as is their general confidence on and off the water and it is excellent to see the progress made. Adam Simms went through the various Squads a couple of years ago and this year all those efforts paid off when he won the competitive YHYSA Series. This is a series of eleven regattas from April to July and attracts junior sailors from all over Yorkshire. This is one of the best attended junior race series in the country and Paul Goodison, Olympic gold medallist, has been a previous winner of the series.

So on behalf of the all the Clubs involved congratulations to Matthew, Benjamin, Luke, William and Callum in gaining Squad Selection and thanks to their parents for their continuing support and encouragement. We look forward to seeing you all on the water next season.

(With thanks to www.fotoboat.com for the Mirror pictures, YDSC and Andrew Cowling for the Topper pictures)