All members will be required to purchase a Dwain Chambers Performance Academy (DCPA) t-shirt and a Dwain Chambers Sprint Club (DCSC) competition vest; our t-shirt and vest packages, also includes DCSC registration to England Athletics for the first year; thereafter this is the athlete’s responsibility.
All athletes attend the DCPA to improve their performance on the track, build resilience and confidence, and of course to have fun. Parents expect to see their children progress and develop at every session. And this expectation is shared by the coaches who use their extensive experience, expertise and efforts to developing athletic ability.
One thing that prevents this happening, is disruptive behaviour in the sessions. Disruptive behaviour affects everyone, the athletes, the coaches and other athletes using Lee Valley’s facilities. We want to ensure there is mutual respect and trust, between the coaches and athletes, and this is not possible when one or more athletes are not behaving within the session. We know young people want to enjoy themselves, and we encourage this however, when we see and experience behaviour affecting and disrupting other people’s progression then we must act.
DCPA therefore is going to introduce a 3-strike procedure that will help us manage and monitor disruptive behaviour:
Athletes whose behaviour is considered to be disruptive in the sessions, will be informed that they have a strike against their names; this is a misconduct warning. The strikes are recorded and if and when the athlete receives three strikes, their session will end, and the athlete’s behaviour will be discussed with the parents/carers. If the athlete’s disruptive behaviour continues after the discussion, then the athlete will be suspended from DCPA.
Athletes who attend the DCPA are active and high performing athletes, who enjoy taking part in sport and physical activities at school and other clubs.
From time to time, athletes will come to session with injuries which will mean that they cannot fully take part in the planned session format. The coaches will always make allowances for injuries and will come up with alternative drills and training options. However, this is only a short-term measure, as we all share the same expectation that athletes improve and progress whilst attending the academy. If an athlete attends three sessions with injuries, which need to be monitored/taken into consideration during the session, DCPA will contact parents and inform them that their child will need to be referred to a specialist to receive appropriate assessment/treatment and clearance to return to DCPA will be required.
DCPA also requests that if an athlete is tired/fatigued because of already scheduled physical activities that day, and therefore not able to fully benefit from the training, then please consider another training day for sessions.