Sport
Above: 1st VIII powering down the river in the Head of Parramatta Regatta
Rowing
Head of the Parramatta Time Trial—Sat 10/11/12
All of the Senior Crews and two Year 10 Eights competed in the Head of the Parramatta Time Trial last Saturday. Newington crews performed strongly with the 2nd VIII and 3rd IV winning their respective events, whilst the 1st VIII, 2nd IV, 3rd VIII and 2nd Year 10 VIII finished in second place.
Special mention to members of the 3rd IV, Carl Salamon (11/FL) and Wil Anderson (7/JN) who managed to win in their very first race for the College. This regatta has a point score trophy against The King’s School for the senior eights and fours. Newington was able to take the Downer Trophy in the senior point score for the first time in 11 years.
Above: 2nd VIII with their winners’ medallions from the Head of Parramatta Regatta and the Downer Trophy
Junior Head of the Parramatta Time Trial – Sat 3/11/12
Congratulations to the Year 9 Quads who competed in the Junior Head of Parramatta Time Trial last Saturday. This race is organised by King’s and it is run in a time trial format where crews are sent off one at a time with 15 second intervals between the crews. Newington, King’s, Scots, St. Josephs, Sydney High and Sydney Grammar all competed.
The results show a dominant performance from the Newington squad. From seven crews entered, five of them finished first and two finished second.
This is a good reward for the positive attitude that the squad has approached the season with thus far. We congratulate all boys who competed and look forward to them continuing to improve as the season progresses.
Athletics
Congratulations again to Morgan McDonald (11/MO) who recently ran a time of 8.17.71 in the NSW Open State 3000m Championships at SOPAC. This was a new personal best for Morgan, beating his own Newington Open record by 26 seconds!
Performance Centre
It’s been an exciting start to the summer season in the Newington Performance Centre. Students of all year groups are generating some momentum with their prescribed programs, and we thought we would take this opportunity to provide some insight of where we are currently at.
Overview
In preparation for the Summer season Years 7-9 have focused on getting attendance up and doing so consistently. With consistency comes progress, and throughout this time students have learnt how to follow their specific program, understand reasoning behind its implementation, combined with the importance of sound technique. Students are challenged in a variety of exercises that may involve lifting their own body weight, or are introduced to other resistance based training devices. Participation on an individual level is encouraged, whilst the core values of the facility are applied (train safe, train smart, and train hard).
Throughout Years 10-12 students have demonstrated a sound fundamental base and understanding of particular exercises, combined with the knowledge of relevance to their particular sport. Students are progressed throughout various challenging lifting exercises, whilst stressing the importance of being capable of moving/supporting their own body weight.
Rowing: Having completed numerous injury prevention strategies targeting their core and surrounding structures, testing results have also indicated sufficient strength within the program. Emphasis now has been on speed of movement to encourage effective power to weight within the boat.
Basketball: With the high workload of the program, it’s been important to devise the most efficient program likely to produce positive effects. Students in the 1sts and 2nds have learnt many key fundamental lifts, whilst ensuring they have the stability to land (absorb their weight), and take-off on both legs as well as each leg individually. A speed/agility session has also been completed weekly to replicate the different movements the court.
Cricket: With the technicality of the sport, much of the learning has taken place on the field, or in the nets. Our cricketers are well equipped as they have completed extensive screening, combined with many injury prevention exercises/strategies. The key philosophy of the Cricket program is to ensure students can support their own weight (particularly on each leg individually), and have sufficient shoulder stability to withstand high torque.
Tennis: Use of the facility is still very new within this sport at the college, however has certainly been embraced. With extensive support from coaches within the program, this has allowed students to excel at the rate they have. Fundamental movement patterns have been established, and are now progressing onto more sport specific exercises that will only improve with better understanding.
Conclusion
All students are welcome within the facility and encouraged to participate. Recently there has been a large uptake from the younger years within the school, which is encouraging to think that at such a young age they have taken very mature steps not only in their sport but also in consideration of their health.
Mark Dickens
Sports Operations Manager
