Apprentices offered first team insight (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Apprentices offered first team insight

8:50am Thursday 15th November 2012 in Vikings news

THE Vikings' AASE Programme (Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence) players were offered a further insight into the world of a full time Super League environment on Tuesday night (13th Nov), by Dave Banks.

Dave's specialism in performance profiling and analysis was shared with the group in preparation for the boys' development programmes which will unfold in the coming weeks and months.

The Vikings' first team Assistant Coach passed on his expertise of the club's in-house analysis system and provided the players with the necessary tools to utilise and advance both their technical and tactical skill set.

Ever-keen to deliver best practice, Head of Youth Performance Phil Finney was delighted with the success of the event, saying; "One of the main benefits of the AASE Programme is the increased exposure our young players receive from first team coaches at the club.

"Dave has a wealth of experience from his time spent working with the clubs first team squad and the lads can only have benefitted from this latest session, which gave them an insight into the expectations that are commonplace as a full Vikings player, plying his trade in the game's elite competition.

"Going forward, it will also help to smooth the transition when they do eventually make the step-up from Academy to First Team rugby themselves."

Finney's comments were mirrored by Banks, who added; ”The young players really engaged with the content and quickly grasped the benefit of understanding how to recognise their strengths.

"I am really pleased with their inquisitive nature and willingness to learn. Now they have access to a vast amount of data in our innovative performance analysis suite, allowing them to compare their progress with Super League's best."