Membership

Wycombe Phoenix Harriers AC is a thriving local athletics club, based at the Wycombe District Athletics Complex in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire.

Adults looking to join our athletics club, please select "Joining the club" from the Contact us page, giving details of your athletics experience.

School age children interested in joining the club, please read the below to see if athletics training at WPH is something for you, before requesting to join.

Waiting List

WPH is a highly sought-after club, thus many squads maintain a waiting list, with waiting times spanning from a week to several months.

For younger athletes (under 14), we generally take on new athletes in larger groups at designated intervals, although coaches may also onboard new athletes sporadically throughout the year.

At times of particularly high demand, waiting lists may be closed (and new athletes can not be added to the list) until spaces become available.

The club reserves the right to invite athletes to join the club based on vacancies in certain squads, age categories or performance in club taster sessions, and not necessarily based on the date of joining the waiting list.

Junior Athlete Development Pathway - Summary

The minimum age for joining the club is 8 years old. Children aged 8 to 11 are placed into one of our FUNdamentals groups, where the focus is on developing the fundamental movement skills of running, jumping and throwing. At this age, our aim is to develop these skills through games and fun activities. Even at this age, athletes are expected to train with the club regularly.

From ages 11 to 13, children train within one of our Foundation groups where the focus moves towards event specific training within the three areas of running, jumping and throwing. There is still an emphasis on developing all round athletic ability and further development of the fundamental movement skills. There is also an emphasis on increasing the training volume from one to two sessions per week to ensure that they are fit enough to move into a ‘specialist squad’ at the age of 13+ years. At this age, athletes may be given the opportunity to try out specific event group training in an area where they have expressed particular interest and year 8 athletes may be invited to an additional Thursday training session. This would however be at the coach’s discretion and is dependent on spaces in the event group.

From the age of 13 to 18, athletes will train in more specialist Event Group squads, for example: in Sprints, Throws, Jumps or Middle Distance. While athletes at this age are likely to continue with other sports, their athletics training will become more frequent and focused.

Progression from the FUNdamentals into Foundation training groups will typically take place in either the autumn or spring terms of school year 6. Progression from Foundation to an Event Group usually occurs from the summer term of school year 8. However, this is at the discretion of the coach and may occur earlier or later as deemed appropriate for the athlete and is also dependant on spaces being available in the Event Group squad. Athletes in Event Group squads are expected to commit to training more than one session a week.

Transfer between Event Group squads is possible, although movement between squads covering the same events is discouraged. If an athlete wishes to change Event Group, they must first discuss this with their current coach.

Our Training

Training takes place at a number of locations depending on the time of year and the squad and athletes are expected to have the correct clothing and equipment for the conditions and the type of training. Individual squad pages will have the details. Training is usually in mixed groups and will be supervised by a UKA qualified coach. Qualified coaching assistants may also be involved in delivering the sessions. On occasion unqualified helpers may be called upon, however, this will always be under the strict supervision of a qualified coach.

The club expects that athletes treat all volunteers at the club (including coaches, officials, etc.) with respect and that they abide by the club’s code of conduct (read about our club policy's here). Failure to do so may result in an athlete being asked to leave the club.

Competition

WPH is a competitive athletics club and we take part in a number of leagues and other competitions. The majority of these events are team competitions and much in the same way as other sports clubs would, we expect our members to make themselves available for selection for a high proportion of these events and to compete when selected.

Selections are made by the coaches and team managers.

Where an athlete is not selected to compete in league or higher matches we would expect them to compete in open or other competitions that are supported by the club or otherwise recommended by their coach.

As a minimum we would expect our athletes to compete as below.