Sportica 2007

In the October Half-Term break a party of 52 parents and swimmers (31 swimmers) took part in the Club’s first overseas training camp in northern France under the supervision of Jill Bullock as Team Manager and Mike Adams as Coach. The swimmers ages ranged from 9 to ‘Masters’ and as well as completing over 25k in training over the 5 pool sessions there were also plenty of ‘social’ events and trips.Our two Girls Club Captains (Jo Patterson and Claire Adams) who attended the camp have put together the report below for you-  

It was a very early start on the Saturday-the first of many. Fortunately we didn't get caught up with too many drunken rugby fans on the ferry.

On arrival it was straight off to a training session at the Sportica centre for the swimmers. The pool was an 8 lane 25m pool and we had 4 of these lanes. It was salt water, and so adjusting at that first session was hard for many. Down one side of the pool were viewing windows. Quite an interesting way to knit pick at peoples strokes.

We were fortunate to be able to travel to/from the pool each day by bus...well apart from one morning coming back from training when there was a running competition and so we ended up single filing down a country road. The people who had kept their pyjamas on had clearly not anticipated doing this!

Arriving back at the chalets presented interesting challenges (especially for those without their parents).these swimmers had to cook, make their beds and unpack their swimming kits! (Surely that’s what parents are for?) But it was lovely when at bedtime we could sleep on paper sheets and cotton wool pillows! The cooking also varied from chalet to chalet, again depending on whether there were any adults, as the meals ranged from some rather luxurious dishes in some to plain baguettes in others (mine). We were lucky to be so close to the town and beach though, so when we had free time on the Sunday we all went there.

Whilst it was another early start, and a 4 and half hour bus journey, the trip to Disneyland was a very fun filled day for all. One highlight was meeting another person from Nottinghamshire. Otherwise known as Robin Hood!

Morning training began at 7am each day with all the swimmers having to be on the bus by 6.30am sharp, this was more difficult for some than others, with the two girls chalet nearly always being last to arrive!

Each session was 2 hours long with Sunday being the hardest day with 2 sessions. Luckily we were told in the morning that the afternoon session would be a kick main set so most swimmers spent the day preparing by playing volleyball on the beach and seeing how fast they could spin each other round before collapsing!

That evening we also had the roller disco after swimming. The prize for falling over the most definitely went to Dave Rudin (Poppy and Rosie’s dad) closely followed by Aimee and Emma who spent most of their time on the floor!

The trip to Bruges was a nice break with everyone taking the chance to sample, and then fill up on, the famous chocolate and waffles! On our last night we all went bowling together and stopped off in the town afterwards for a pizza ready for our final session on Wednesday morning, by which everyone was sad to be leaving but definitely ready for a good long sleep in their own bed!