A week of intensive swimming, new friendships, fun experiences and an inspirational talk from an Australian Olympic swim coach formed part of Swimming Gunnedah’s hugely successful Gold Coast camp earlier this month.
Thirty swimmers aged between eight and 16 years participated in the six-day camp at the world-renowned High Performance Centre at Runaway Bay, which boasts state-of-the-art facilities for elite athletes.
Now in its fifth year, the camp welcomed swimmers from other clubs including Manilla, Armidale, Quirindi, Werris Creek and the Hunter Valley. The swimmers gained valuable experience in an intense training environment, while also forging strong team bonds.
Swimming Gunnedah’s head coach Colin Marley led the Gunnedah squad, alongside assistant coaches Aaron Smith and Dan Ramien. There was also help from volunteer parent helpers Marcus Shorter, Colleen Callaghan and Tracy O’Quigly.
The squad trained twice a day and fine-tuned racing skills, technique, starts and turns, drills, core strength and activation.
It was a chance to not only improve fitness for the upcoming competitive season, but also make breakthroughs in performance.
A highlight of the trip was travelling to Brisbane elite swim club St Peters Western, where the youngsters met with Olympic coach Dean Boxall who took time out to motivate, inspire and give advice.
The youngsters also watched Olympians in training, and they heard from St Peters National Age and Junior National Age coaches Cameron Gledhill and Jacob Hansford who spoke about all aspects of the sport. This included training sets, competing, technique, work ethic, nutrition, recovery and how to not only be successful in the sport but enjoy it as well.
The squad was given special access to three levels of elite coaching at an elite club, which also hosted the group for a barbecue breakfast.
The High Performance Centre hosts international athletes, and this year Swimming Gunnedah rubbed shoulders with the Japanese National Age swim squad and watched members of the Australian track and field team in action.
It wasn’t all about the pool, however, with the squad enjoying time at the beach, movies, laser skirmish, beach volleyball, basketball and navigating the giant inflatable obstacle course at the Gold Coast Aqua Park.
The youngsters finished the week with some water polo fun and relays, followed by a stint in the shivering waters of the ice bath to help with muscle recovery.
Eugenie Goddard, Tahnee Steele, Jessica Broadhead and Dana Campbell have fun at the Gold Coast Aqua Park.
Recovering sore muscles in the ice bath (left to right): Jake Hausfeld, Macey Dalessandro, Tahnee Steele, Cameron Sills, Riley Thompson, Marsel Tikhonskiy, Louis Wait and Evan Hausfeld.
Australian Olympian swim coach Dean Boxall inspires the squad during a 30-minute talk.
