MSA calls on young stars to sign up for free training
Posted: May 22, 2009 3:04 PM
The Motor Sports Association is urging all competitors who are aiming to make a career as professional motor sport drivers or co-drivers, to sign up for the MSA's human performance training programme - the Advanced Apprenticeship in Motor Sport.
Athletes aged between 16 and 24 years old can apply to join the scheme, providing they have a track record of results that indicates that they have the potential to go on to become elite performers in the future.
The programme is completely free of charge for participants, as it is government-funded by the Learning and Skills Council. Similar schemes are running with great success in other sports such as football, rugby, tennis, golf, athletics and swimming.
However, MSA Performance Director Robert Reid believes that it is the structure of motor sport that is preventing drivers from understanding quite how important this scheme could be in their careers.
"The Advanced Apprenticeship is basically putting the guys on a dedicated training programme, focussing exclusively on improving their performance as competitors and giving them access to top professionals to develop their skills," says Reid, who won the World Rally Championship in 2001 alongside Richard Burns.
"Unfortunately the vast majority of our young drivers do not have such a thing as a 'coach', and that's largely because motor sport itself does not have a recognised coaching structure. This is something we are missing as a sport and we hope to do something about it in the near future.
"In the meantime, it means that we do not have an established network of professionals that can ensure that the most promising performers are getting the right kind of consistent guidance. This makes it very difficult to make sure that they all know what opportunities are available to them and what it all means.
"As it's completely new to motor sport, people aren't really sure what to make of this Apprenticeship programme and it seems to have been labelled as an educational initiative. Yes, it provides recognised qualifications, but they are almost a by-product. In other sports, the Advanced Apprenticeships are developing professional and Olympic athletes.
"Make no mistake - the whole rationale is to train the best drivers and co-drivers to make sure they develop as potentially elite competitors. It's an opportunity they really should take advantage of."
Full details of the Apprenticeship scheme can be found at
Applications for the first intake of up to 50 competitors are now open with the programme scheduled to begin in August 2009.
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