UK Sport Skeleton Assessment Centre (Phase 1) 2014
April 26th 2014
The latest Power2Podium recruitment drive involved matching potential athletes with the sport of Skeleton.
I filled in an application form based on my previous rowing experience and made it through the first stage of selection to a Phase 1 selection centre at Bath. Although I feel I'm very much on the older, slower limit of their minimum, I thought I'd go along to see what an Olympic selection assessment is like. After all, there was nothing to lose...
I was invited to go to Bath on the date above. Somehow (I blame mainly the weather) I've been plagued by illness this winter, and the week before the assessment was no different. Having finally almost overcome a cold on the Wednesday, I picked a bug on the Thursday which culminated in the highly embarrassing situation of collapsing on the peak time London-Birmingham train and having to have medical assistance from staff at Coventry. This meant yet another sorry day off work on Friday - possibly not the best preparation for an assessment day on Saturday!
I made it their alive however, and was put through my paces in the various tests, all of which were new to me. The vertical jump was a countermovement jump on a mat, which used your time in the air to calculate your jump height. I enjoyed this test and felt that with more tries I could have improved further upon my scores below.
The sprint test involved a three-point start from standing (which I'd never done before) and then a 30 m sprint, with your sprint being measured by light beams 5, 10, 15 and 30 m down the course. This I really struggled with, and I feel that a few lessons in start technique here would benefit me greatly.
The watt bikes looked like interesting machines - almost like a bike on top of an erg! The flywheel was exactly the same, and for the test I was required to sprint, again from standing, for 6 seconds. I was disqualified from my first attempt for coming off my seat (oops) but enjoyed the second two tests.
Physiotherapy was much less enjoyable. This basically involved someone strapping you to a bed and then pulling your knee up to 90 or 110 degree angles, before attempting to straighten your lower leg. Turns out I'm pretty inflexible in this direction and the whole thing was decidedly painful! Somehow my right leg appeared to be about 20 degrees less flexible than my left too, which has left me feeling rather wonky.
Overall, a very fun day. It won't come to any fruition for me as there were some super athletes, but it was great to meet people from all sorts of sports, and see the facilities and testing that happens at such events.
Results
Anthropometry
Height - 1786 mm
Sitting height - 908 mm
Arm Span - 1755 cm
Weight - 65.8 kg
Vertical Jump
TARGET 450 mm
Trial 1 - 298 mm (66%)
Trial 2 - 319 mm (71%)
Trial 3 - 339 mm (75%)
30m Sprint
TARGET 4.35 s
Trial 1 - 5.27 s
Trial 2 - 5.17 s
Trial 3 - 5.13 s
6 second Watt Bike
TARGET 1000 W / 180 rpm
Trial 1 - DSQ
Trial 2 - 961 W / 154 rpm
Trial 3 - 967 W / 150 rpm
Physiotherapy
TARGET 175 deg
Right leg 90 Trial 1 - 155 deg
Right leg 90 Trial 2 - 159 deg
Left leg 90 Trial 1 - 171 deg
Left leg 90 Trial 2 - 170 deg
TARGET 185 deg
Right leg 110 Trial 1 - 170 deg
Right leg 110 Trial 2 - 171 deg
Left leg 110 Trial 1 - 172 deg
Left leg 110 Trial 2 - 172 deg
The latest Power2Podium recruitment drive involved matching potential athletes with the sport of Skeleton.
I filled in an application form based on my previous rowing experience and made it through the first stage of selection to a Phase 1 selection centre at Bath. Although I feel I'm very much on the older, slower limit of their minimum, I thought I'd go along to see what an Olympic selection assessment is like. After all, there was nothing to lose...
I was invited to go to Bath on the date above. Somehow (I blame mainly the weather) I've been plagued by illness this winter, and the week before the assessment was no different. Having finally almost overcome a cold on the Wednesday, I picked a bug on the Thursday which culminated in the highly embarrassing situation of collapsing on the peak time London-Birmingham train and having to have medical assistance from staff at Coventry. This meant yet another sorry day off work on Friday - possibly not the best preparation for an assessment day on Saturday!
I made it their alive however, and was put through my paces in the various tests, all of which were new to me. The vertical jump was a countermovement jump on a mat, which used your time in the air to calculate your jump height. I enjoyed this test and felt that with more tries I could have improved further upon my scores below.
The sprint test involved a three-point start from standing (which I'd never done before) and then a 30 m sprint, with your sprint being measured by light beams 5, 10, 15 and 30 m down the course. This I really struggled with, and I feel that a few lessons in start technique here would benefit me greatly.
The watt bikes looked like interesting machines - almost like a bike on top of an erg! The flywheel was exactly the same, and for the test I was required to sprint, again from standing, for 6 seconds. I was disqualified from my first attempt for coming off my seat (oops) but enjoyed the second two tests.
Physiotherapy was much less enjoyable. This basically involved someone strapping you to a bed and then pulling your knee up to 90 or 110 degree angles, before attempting to straighten your lower leg. Turns out I'm pretty inflexible in this direction and the whole thing was decidedly painful! Somehow my right leg appeared to be about 20 degrees less flexible than my left too, which has left me feeling rather wonky.
Overall, a very fun day. It won't come to any fruition for me as there were some super athletes, but it was great to meet people from all sorts of sports, and see the facilities and testing that happens at such events.
Results
Anthropometry
Height - 1786 mm
Sitting height - 908 mm
Arm Span - 1755 cm
Weight - 65.8 kg
Vertical Jump
TARGET 450 mm
Trial 1 - 298 mm (66%)
Trial 2 - 319 mm (71%)
Trial 3 - 339 mm (75%)
30m Sprint
TARGET 4.35 s
Trial 1 - 5.27 s
Trial 2 - 5.17 s
Trial 3 - 5.13 s
6 second Watt Bike
TARGET 1000 W / 180 rpm
Trial 1 - DSQ
Trial 2 - 961 W / 154 rpm
Trial 3 - 967 W / 150 rpm
Physiotherapy
TARGET 175 deg
Right leg 90 Trial 1 - 155 deg
Right leg 90 Trial 2 - 159 deg
Left leg 90 Trial 1 - 171 deg
Left leg 90 Trial 2 - 170 deg
TARGET 185 deg
Right leg 110 Trial 1 - 170 deg
Right leg 110 Trial 2 - 171 deg
Left leg 110 Trial 1 - 172 deg
Left leg 110 Trial 2 - 172 deg
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