Solent Personal Training students educate local gymnastics club

Final year BSc Fitness and Personal Training students, Jon Fildes and Aaron Kennedy, volunteered to give a talk on sports nutrition to coaches and parents from Southampton Gymnastics Club this week in a bid to educate them about healthy eating and improving their athletes' diet.

Under the supervision of Emma Patel, Associate Lecturer in Diet and Nutrition and unit leader for the final year Sports Nutrition & Performance module, Jon and Aaron presented enthusiastically for an hour and professionally fielded some tricky questions from the audience.

Emma commented, "this was a great experience for the students and they did an excellent job. The feedback from the head coach and the audience was very positive as both Jon and Aaron are passionate about healthy eating and this came across in their talk. It also gave them invaluable experience of presenting to an external audience".

Aaron (left) and Jon present to an attentive audience

The only downside to the evening was getting to the venue. In true health and fitness tradition, the three of them decided to walk rather than catch the train, and ended up getting incredibly lost and spent over an hour trying to locate the club. Fortunately, armed with the maps on their mobile phones, they finally arrived with just over 15 minutes to spare, much to the relief of Emma and the awaiting audience!