With great excitement and perhaps a little trepidation, a 47-strong party from Griffins Swimming club of Enfield met at Stansted airport at 5am for an early flight to Bologna. After a smooth journey, the group (consisting of 27 swimmers, 2 coaches, organiser, welfare officer, 3 siblings and 13 parents) arrived at the Beau Soleil hotel in Cesenatico on the Adriatic Riveria. Less than 4 hours after taking off from Stansted, they were unpacked and at the initial team meeting.
After lunch at the beach café and playing on the beach, the first training session took place in a drizzle of rain although spirits were far from dampened. For most of the swimmers (a mixture of senior and intermediate squad swimmers ranging in age from 10 to 17 years of age) it was their first taste of swimming in an outdoor pool and ironically the sun cream was not required! Meanwhile many of the parents went on walk around the local area to explore and find supermarkets. After a two hour intensive session, the swimmers were glad of a hot shower after getting out into cool air temperatures. The coaches enjoyed a hot cup of tea poolside during the session.
Everyone enjoyed the excellent hotel food in the evening. Three long tables provided plenty of opportunity for mixing and socialising (which was prevalent throughout the week between all participants of all ages) but all were ready for bed after a long day.
The format for the next few days was very similar; breakfast (buffet style) at 8am reporting poolside at 9.30am for stretching exercises prior to a strenuous two hour session in the pool with distances covered varying between 5-6km. Invariably lunch was eagerly anticipated by the swimmers! Various activities took place in the lunch break at the beach; volleyball, sand castle building and burying swimmers although a red flag (thankfully) prevented sea swimming!
The afternoon session started with an hour’s land training to improve fitness and core strength. Then followed an hour and a half in the pool concentrating on stroke work. After each session the swimmers welcomed the towels held out by Natahsa and Ellie who provided the service throughout the week in addition to occasionally helping the coaches! There was enough time after the session for a shower and relaxation prior to dinner.
For much of the first half of the week the weather was varied with some sunshine but frequently clouding over although the rain largely stayed away. However it was soon clear that it was necessary to apply plenty of suncream prior to sessions to prevent burning from the sun’s reflection on the water. Despite the lack of non stop sunshine, most swimmers returned with a tan and some had sunbleached hair although the weather probably prevented any significant sunburn problems. It was noted that the reading on the hotel temperature gauge was invariably 2 degrees higher than elsewhere locally!
At various times during the week, the swimmers were videoed and had the opportunity to watch themselves on screen as well as having their style analysed by their coach.
Whilst the swimmers were hard at work, the parents became increasingly ambitious undertaking lengthy walks; using the cycles provided by the hotel to explore the local area; running and even swimming when the pool was free! Some also found time to visit places of historical interest.
Some of the evenings saw special activities which tested a range of skills. The flexibility challenge required participants to pick up a cereal box (subsequently cut down) from the floor using their teeth but not putting hands or knees on the floor. This saw the intermediate squad clear winners as a number of them managed to pick up the smallest level box compared to only one member of the senior squad although one parent proved that age was not barrier to flexibility!).
Another evening a coordination challenge was the order of the day. This involved stacking and collapsing ten plastic cups. This time age won the day with a member of the senior squad just beating one of the intermediates.
As expected the quiz night was hotly contested with an excellent set of questions posed by one of the parents acting as a quizmaster ably assisted by his team of helpers. The A team ran out deserved winners a closely fought battle by the joint runners up.
The weekend required a slight change of schedule in the afternoons to accommodate a party of tri-athletes in the pool so land training followed rather than preceded the afternoon swim. However this worked to Griffins advantage when the cloud and rain came over later in day.
On the penultimate evening a two piece band entertained the group but this soon changed to a Karoke night with many performances by a number of swimmers and even a few parents varying considerably in quality but all providing superb entertainment!
The sun shone for the last day and after the last training session in the morning, a much anticipated gala was held in the afternoon between three teams. The races were fiercely competitive and held under stringent officiating provided by the coaches and a team of parents with the remainder cheering loudly. As throughout the rest of the week, Natasha and Ellie were willing helpers. A mixture of races required full use of all team members and three parents were persuaded to swim the first leg of the final squadron relay. The winning team were the “bananas in speedos”.
After packing, everyone enjoyed a relaxing evening prior to an early start for home the next day. As the quotes below are testament, the swimmers thoroughly enjoyed themselves and achieved a great deal during the week, gaining stamina (swimming 48k – 54k, the equivalent of the channel and half way back), improving technique and invaluable team building. The hotel provided a comfortable and relaxing setting and plenty of good food. Thanks are due to Steve for his seamless organisation, and Rosie and Jenny for their enthusiastic coaching. Only one major problem arose – when and where to hold next year’s camp and can we wait that long!
Quotes from particpants:
Luke
Training in Italy was a great experience. It was hard and really fun. I enjoyed the different activities each night the most.
Pippa
Italy made us train hard so we would get faster and it was tons of fun. I really enjoyed singing on Karaoke night and the land training dance me and Natalia made up.
Tim
It was an experience of a lifetime! I enjoyed the swimming gala at the end the most because I knew everyone that I was racing.
Daniel
I really enjoyed the trip. I liked the different way of training and most of all getting to know everyone a lot better. The snag was getting up so early! I would a 110% do it again.
Ryan
I loved the trip to Italy. It was excellent. The thing I liked about Italy was I have learnt many different exercises. The thing I thought could be changed was the early mornings but otherwise I enjoyed everything about the camp. No question about it I would definitely do it again.
Natasha
I loved it. It was good and fun. I loved most being the towel girl and I want to go again.
Ellie
I enjoyed it because we got little teddy bears because we helped.
I loved most of all being Jenny the coach's assistant.
Adrian
The thing that I most enjoyed about the griffins Italy training camp was the land training because whilst doing it I learnt how to improve my fitness by doing exercises to strengthen the muscles needed to swim efficiently. I feel that I gained knowledge and awareness of what I should and shouldn't eat, and now I feel a vast improvement in the speed and technique of my swimming.
Fiona
It was a great experience. Rosie made us train hard so we became better swimmers. I had lots of fun and will never forget it!
Natalia
I felt that going to Italy was a brilliant experience of training like an athlete for a week. I lot of hard work paid off. I personally think that I have improved my strokes and techniques.
I also want to thank the coaches for taking us and Steve Trew for organising this trip. Thank you.
