Tenerife Training Camp

Our Week in Tenerife

Before we leave: Where we're going

The old harbour town of Los Cristianos will be our base for around 70km of hard swimming this week. It's one of the most popular tourist resorts in Tenerife, situated in the arid South of the island, and boasts a rather large artificial (i.e. soft sand) beach. With luck, we'll be enjoying better weather than those of you staying at home. Average October temperatures for Los Cristianos are in the mid/low 20C. In fact, due to its location off the coast of Africa, average temperatures are pretty constant throughout the year (Jan: 18C, Aug: 24C) so we should be guaranteed good weather. Those who enjoy a dip in the ocean will also be pleased to note that October's average sea temperature is a nice balmy 23C - oh the joys of being in the Atlantic Ocean. The all important rainfall meter is also rather promising - just 2 days of rain expected for the entire month.

Don't forget your sun cream!

So what's in store for those lucky 20 athletes travelling to the sun? Hopefully a sun drenched outdoor 50m pool - the one opposite no less, surrounded by palm trees. We've no idea who will be sharing the pool with us, but as the sun parasol suggests, we're likely to occupy the two middle lanes. As usual, land training will be done poolside so don't forget your sun cream!

The big lesson learned from previous years, which is always forgotten until next time, when training outdoors you really do need mirrored goggles. You don't want to be swimming Backstroke at mid-day, with the hot sun directly over head shining directly in to your eyes. So if you buy nothing else for this trip, mirrored goggles are probably essential (hopefully we've reminded you in plenty of time).

And don't forget your sun cream!

While we're away, we'll keep everyone back home abreast of what we've been up to on this blog.
Famous last words!
No really, this year we will.
Unlike last year where someone forgot the password, this year we've taken the radical step of writing it down and sharing it between two of us. So you can expect daily updates of our adventures in the sun and how long it takes the coaches to demolish our young stars in the pool.

The athletes have risen to the challenge in previous years, and this looks like being the strongest group we've taken on camp in the past decade so Coach Andy and Coach Dave may well have their work cut out. Who will win? Will the coaches exhaust the swimmers, or will the swimmers return from Tenerife buzzing and ready to take on the World at the Bradford Halloween meet the day after we get back?

Come back later in the week to find out.

And don't forget your sun cream!

Well we've arrived

20 Oct: After over 4 hours flying over the Atlantic Ocean we've now arrived in Los Cristianos. Hopefully we weren't too annoying on the plane, but as usual everyone was asking who we were and who was the best. Thankfully, for Tenerife the turbulence on approach to the airport wasn't as bad as expected. So now the coaches and chaperones are sat overlooking the hotel pool (pretty much the view in the pic - but darker) while the kids have unpacked and are hopefully now sleeping soundly.

Over our first evening we were treated to the entertaining tones of three spaniards with guitars singing familiar songs with the locals joining in. The food itself was excellent, with a massive range to suit every taste. First activity of the camp for the coaches was the customary wander around the town. The beach has been located, as have both McDonald's and the local Burger King (just so we know where to steer the kids away from).

First thing in the morning (8:30, so nice and late) we get a guided tour to the training pool in our local contact's car. It looks like being a 10min walk for our first easy session at 11:30, but always good to confirm.

Well that's it for tonight. Just letting everyone know we've arrived and remebered the password for the blog ;-)

The Day of the Lobsters

21 Oct: Our first foray in to the rather large hotel pool (which was of course empty before the mad English arrived) showed a couple of lobsters among the team. Any guesses as to who forgot the sun cream for the first training session? You got it, clearly the most experienced training camp athlete on the team would forget to cream up. Following Max's lead, his room mate Alex did likewise and both are now suffering the consequences.

Ooops.

Anyway, back to the start of the day. The coaches made an early morning car journey to the pool with Patrick, our local contact. There we met the coaches from Leicester Penguins who we'll be sharing the pool with tomorrow. Later in the day we all made the 15 minute walk to Los Cristianos for the first pool session of the week. A nice easy drill progression set to start off the week. Tomorrow, they're all aware: hell week proper begins.

Quote of the day: "I had bacon and bread for breakfast"
Err, a bacon butty then?
"Nooo, it wasn't a bacon butty, there wasn't any butter."
Thank you for that gem Kathryn.

It might have been an easy pool session, but straight after breakfast the coaches put the older boys through an improvised kettle bell walk. We didn't have kettle bells, so instead we popped down the road to the local Spar supermarket and picked up two 8 litre bottles of water each (12 x 8litres). A speed walk up the hill back to the hotel, then collapsing in the hotel lobby. Arms felt like they'd been stretched a few inches.

Back to the fun pool after lunch the hotel guests were treated to a predictably noisy afternoon of bulldogs in the pool. It didn't take very long for the sun loungers to start emptying. One by one our guys disappeared too, as Oliver, Max, and Elliot discovered the table tennis. That left Natasha, Holly, and Kathryn inventing novel ways of entering the 3m deep pool. Techniques attempted included walking on water, handstands, cart wheels, the crab, and many more besides.

The day's formal activities ended with a team meeting and a game of Would I lie to you?. It quickly turned out that yes, everyone was more than happy to tell a little white lie if it meant getting one over on their team mates. Even Coach Andy was getting in on the act - his story was perfectly true, except he was feeding swans, not ducks! Doh, that threw everyone.

Chaperone Ellie wanted to say something highly creative to the one she left behind. Unfortunately all she could think of was "Hello Megan". Chaperone Pete on the other hand was clearly thinking about it all day: "Grace, stop moving all your clothes in to Max's room".

Rain, Rain, Go Away

22 Oct: Rain, rain go away, come again another day.

Training outside under a blazing hot sun always looks glamorous and fun, but as the new guys on camp are rapidly discovering, it's never as warm as you think it will be, and staying in a straight line on Backstroke is pretty tricky too. Instead of a stable ceiling to guide you down the lane, you have clouds blowing across the pool, the odd seagull or pigeon trying to land on top of you, and as if that wasn't enough, the sun in your eyes. That's why the first two Backstroke sets of this year's camp have seen Holly and Kathryn starting on one side of the lane and swimming head long in to the opposite lane rope within a few metres.

Ooops

A persistent breeze across the pool surface can quickly lower the perceived pool temperature no matter how warm the water is. It may be scorching hot, the coaches might be wearing straw hats to stop their almost bald heads from burning (too late for Mr Wallace), and the pool temperature might be a nice balmy 27C, but a breeze blowing over wet bodies soon causes a shiver or two. "I can't feel my finger tips" said Holly; "My feet have gone numb". For poor skin and bone Os, 90mins without a warm shower proved too much this afternoon, although to be fair the weather was a little extreme.

Black clouds and torrential rain accompanied land training poolside (a pleasant respite from the heat). Coaches and chaperones had the good sense to hide under the gazebo, the athletes didn't get that option. Skipping in the rain, piggy back carries around the pool, and 50m lunge walks, all while the rain hammered down on the pool warming the surface, cooling off the hard working swimmers doing their dry land workout, and the lifeguard hiding in a dry doorway. So much rain fell in that hour that the pool overflowed and the chaperones' footware had to be removed rather quickly.

As the land work came to an end, a very soaked Leicester Penguins arrived for their final session. Later they challenged us to relays - not something we often turn down.

Kathryn was nominated as lead off swimmer. Looking nervous at the thought of racing the biggest Penguin on the team, Joe did the manly thing and stepped up in her place.
He got beaten.
But not by much.
The older Penguins managed to earn themselves a small lead, but it wasn't to last beyond half way. 18 Dartes versus 18 Leicester swimmers, and 1 by 1 we started to claw our way back. A final four of Alex, Oliver, Max, and Shannon tells its own story. In the end a couple of body lengths was all that separated the makeshift teams and we all celebrated the fun end to the day's training with a combined team photo - watch out for Swimming Times at a later date.

Overall then, after two days and 3 sessions in Tenerife, spirits remain high. Tiredness is starting to set in among the less experienced athletes, but no one's died just yet. Very likely though that many will take the opportunity for an early night after the team meeting taking place right now. The mornings this weekend are relatively late starts, come Monday they'll be up and about by 6am instead of the more civilised 7am lie in they've enjoyed so far.

We've just had chance to get a few words from the hard workers.

Special message for Laura Brookes from her sister: "I hope it's snowing!"
Needless to say, it isn't here :-)
Sunburn is proving to be an issue though.

A quick song from Elliot, Max, Oliver, and Shannon regarding the Breaststroke sculling drills they performed in the rain storm:
The weather outside is frightful
But the pool is quite delightful
So there's only one place to go
Let us scull, let us scull, let us scull

The Day After the Day Before

23 Oct: Yesterday torrential rain, today scorching sunshine. Gallons of sun cream are being applied prior to training, and at regular intervals during training. Everyone now also has a cheesy hat to protect burnt heads and necks.

Good job too, because today's land training took place in the heat of the midday sun. It consisted of a run to the pool. Lots of tired legs and bodies covered in sweat as they reached the pool.

Evening entertainment moved towards the table tennis table as usual. This year, two tables instead of the one we had in Mallorca. Holly got to show off her superb hand/eye coordination, playing Natasha, Os, and the other younger players. Oliver reprised his role as table tennis superstar until Joe and George hogged the table. Elliot, Max and Shannon of course, were far too cool for table tennis and quickly disappeared to play cards. Ping pong was wound up as coaches and chaperones joined forces with Mark for a brief game of doubles.

Sun tan update: Andy is a little concerned about his sunburn. An extremely red neck, arctic white shoulders, burnt arms, and a white watch band. He's now reverted to rubbing sun cream on the tanned parts and trying to burn the white bits. He's failing miserably. The tan lanes resolutely refuse to fade.

Nip count for 2011 - 0!
It appears Tenerife doesn't have biting insects. Not even Coach Wallace has been bitten which is something of a first. The new wild life fascination is lizards. Mark lived up to his nickname as a Velociraptor, by standing around looking inquisitive and hunting geckos among the rocks. Whether that was to eat or photograph them we're not quite sure. Predictably Jarvis and Alex were also on the hunt, we suspect one or both will try to smuggle one home to Doncaster on Friday.

We've all been rather quiet around the hotel pool of late. The other guests have been noisly playing water polo (Span versus Spain mainly), we daren't let Joe and Jarvis loose on them. But today we managed to empty the pool and thus regain our reputation. The girls (under Chaperone Pete's instruction and encouragement) pushed Andy in the pool 3 or 4 times, while Andy let the lifeguard know of his presence by soaking him on a tumble turn.

Entertaining times in the bar tonight. This is being written while watching Pete trying to play Spanish bingo. We quickly discovered that he's rubbish at it. All of a sudden our Spanish hostess announced "Blah blah blah stripteeeeeeeease". We have absolutely no idea what's going on, and it's highly unlikely anyone else in here does either as she's speaking Spanish and its full of English, Russians, Italians, and Germans, but everyone's waving their arms and clapping so we're joining in.

If there was a webcam on Pete's laptop we'd show you, alas you have to miss out.

For tomorrow chaperone fun day out, something special: Siam park. The world's biggest water park (possibly). An absolutely eye watering water slide that ends with a tunnel below a shark infested pool. Having spoken to a few of the other teams here this week, we've heard nothing but rave reviews so tomorrow is hotly anticipated.

Chaperone Fun Day Out

24 Oct: As ever, the half way stage of the camp means we drop down to a single session for the day (every other day is two 2hr sessions) and the chaperones take everyone on a special jaunt for the afternoon. This year was extra special, seeing as the hotel was just down the road from Siam Park, a huge water park whose most iconic feature is a massive 28metre vertical slide called The Tower of Power that zooms through a shark infested pool. First up the tower of course were Joe and Jarivs. Jarvis' version of the story has him leading the way up the tower but being tricked by Joe at the last second, leaving the way open for Mr Cheeky to make the death defying leap first. Joe on the other hand, let it be known that Jarvis actually refused to go first cos he was too scared. We'll let you decide which story you believe.

Either way, the general consensus was that The Tower was actually quite disappointing. All anyone really experienced was a face full of water at the start and a splashy stop at the bottom. There were far more terrifying rides to enjoy without the half hour queue for that one. But we'll let the kids tell you all about it in their own words below.

Right now the kids are out by the pool (yes it's dark) competing in our own little dance contest. Judging by the noise, they're enjoying themselves. We've also just had tonight's team meeting and elected the Swimmer of the Camp so far. Who could it be?
Max perhaps.
The leader of the gang Elliot maybe.
How about Jamie for quietly getting on with the hard stuff.
Or Shannon for leading the girls.
Nope, none of those.
This week's runaway winner of the Swimmer of the Camp award goes to the ever positive, never say die (I can't die yet I haven't got a tan), always smiling, singing, laughing camp first timer: Kathryn!

Max: The sound of Dartes swimmers while riding the awesome rides at Siam Park:
"Who am I?"
"I am a Champion!"
[Dave: We have it on good authority that this actually turned in to "Who am arrrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!"]

Heidi: Alton Towers on water - Epic!

Jamie: The wave pool in the water park was good and the waves were huuuuge.

Caitlin: The best day out by far. The Dragon ride was amazing and funny; Andy trying to get us all to fall out. The rubber dingy rapids was funny after I stuck my foot up Elliot's bum. The Tower of Power was really scary and Max trying to shout "I am a Champion" going down it and Oliver got as scared as me. I had great fun going round with Max, Elliot, Oliver, Andy, Shan, and Heidi. Jamie kept running away and refused to participate. I lost the mat race and had to do press-ups.

Me and Heidi then went around with Joe, Jarvis, and George; everyone thought we were freaks because Joe, Jarvis, and George were being nutters. The wave pool was amazing also, as Andy came up with inventive ways to face the waves: vertical fly kicks, swimming over the waves, swimming under the waves... [Andy: I was trying to drown them to be honest. The wave pool has actually been used for surfing competitions previously, such are the size of the huge waves].

Joe: It was fun, especially the wave pool because of the 5m high wave. Also we got very wet.

George: A slidetastic day.

Chloe: The water park was AMAZING especially the Dragon because I went down with Kathryn and Tasha and Holly.

Elliot: Water plays on my mind but I'd rather play in the water.

Kathryn: The water park was amazing. The highlight of the day was when me and Natasha went on the ride "Dragon" with Dave and he screamed like a girl literally [Dave: how do you scream any other way?].

Kim: Siam water park was a very exciteful experience including high drops and wet surprises. The Dragon was the best ride and we enjoyed it more as we were accompanied by our friends.

Alex: The water park was very fun.

Shannon: Totally mega-super-awesome day!!!

Jess: Siam water park was phenominal! The weather was really nice which was a huge bonus. Although it may have seemed really good once we had ventured on all the slides, when we first walked in, it looked a bit boring. After me, Kim, and Kelly had wandered around the park and observed what there was on offer, we decided to go on the "Lazy River" which was actually quite good because it was steady and relaxing. We went on many good slides, I even managed to brave up to my fears and battle the 28m slide which was almost a straight verticle drop. The only problem was I travelled so quickly I didn't even realise I had reached the end, so I nearly drowned in the finishing pool. Anyway, overall the day was great, a good time had by all.

Natasha: Siam water park was amazing! Some of us went on the 28m vertical drop that went in to a pool of sharks and stingrays (of course we were in a tube)! Then there was the Dragon and the Volcano which I went on with Holly, Kathryn, and Chloe the first time, and the second time with Kathryn and Dave (Dave screamed like a girl! [Dave: grrr, see above]).

Then I went on the races waterslide with Kathryn, Holly, and Chloe and the heavier you are the faster you went, so Chloe and I went the fastest. The down part was searching for Holly and Kathryn which took an hour because they didn't want to go on the 28m slide. They said they'd wait but the queue took 40mins so they decided to go for a wander instead.

Overall I thought all the rides were amazing! Thank you for letting us have a day at the waterpark!

And here's what they're raving about:

Shooting, Darting, Aerobics, and Sleep

25 Oct: Well, with two days left they're all starting to look a little tired. The hour's walk over the course of the day is taking longer and longer. This morning's set was a big Freestyle affair. Negative splitting a couple of 1000m swims, then 500m swims, then 250m swims. An exhausting effort. Just what's needed to keep warm before the sun comes up over the mountain.

It wasn't all hard work in the pool today though. Lunch time entertainment in the hotel consisted of an aerobics session taken up enthusiastically by Kathryn, Caitlin, and Heidi. So amusing was their attempt to follow Pedro that Peter sent Shannon over with the camera. Look out for that incriminating photo over the next few weeks (right).

The fun didn't end there though. Coach Dave was in action attempting to swim backwards: "Rubbish" was the general consensus. Coach Andy demonstrated his superb underwater hand stand skills - developed over years of working as a lifeguard. Chaperone Ellie joined in and vastly improved on her attempts at this life skill last seen in the wave pool at Siam Park. Coach Dave also had a crack: "Rubbish" said Coach Andy!

Never mind, Coach Dave had the last laugh with the air rifle contest. Having reached the final, and leading most of the way through, he was just pipped to the post by the last competitor - beaten by a girl as Ellie says; or as Dave insisted afterwards: "it's only polite to let the lady win!" That wasn't quite the last laugh though. That came when the pigeon sitting in the palm tree above the rifle contest decided to let loose on Head Coach and male chaperone. "Not to worry" comforted Ellie, "it's really good for sunburn".

Max, Shannon, and Oliver kept up the Dartes assault on the fun and games (albeit weakly) in the darts contest. Alas, they were booted out early for not being the best darts players in the world.

Finally, back at the training pool. The local team have been offering to swap caps all week, and a few days ago Jarvis and Max reciprocated. A standard red, and Nationals black in return for the bright orange Club Natacion Los Cristianos cap. Today we sent Ellie in search of more, 8 bright orange and 8 of their blue variants. After negotiating in Spanish like a pro, the club official remained silent hanging on every word she had to say. Fluent Spanish came forth from Ellie's mouth, the club official remained completely silent in awe of her elliecution skills. Then when she'd finished and the caps were in the bag, so to speak, the club official announced: "Your Spanish is really poor".
Gee thanks!
Pete demonstrated his superb negotiating skills too, he managed to literally get the team shirt off the official's back (we've come to expect nothing less from Pete). Hopefully we'll manage to get more tomorrow.

Time to sign off for tonight.
Pete is playing no-numbers bingo once more!
It's billed as a Crazy Game, and really is.

Beauty Pageant

26 Oct: Tomorrow we return home after our final two sessions. It's generally considered that this has been our best camp so far. Everyone has knuckled down to the job at hand; a very positive team spirit has shone through right from day 1. As is typical of Dartes, all the kids across the age range have encouraged, cajoled, and issued each other press-ups for minor infringements. They've shared jokes, swapped shirts among themselves, challenged each other in, around, and away from the pool for a wonderful team atmosphere.

Sharing shirts wasn't reserved to team mates either. Yesterday Chaperone Pete came away from the pool with the local swim team's shirt. Today another local swimmer wandered over and asked if anyone wanted to swap caps with him, Elliot did so - the photo of the exchange will appear once we get home (see right). There are now at least 3 Dartes caps bobbing around proudly in the Los Cristianos pool; we seem to have made quite an impression. Tomorrow we're promised team shirts for the rest of our motly crew too.

But today was assigned: photo day!
Once again we prepared in advance: big banner and little banner were carried down to the pool, and big banner remained hung up on the pool fencing all afternoon.

Hello to anyone from Los Cristianos visiting our website as a result :-)

Two copies of Swimming Times magazine were whipped out and Elliot was positioned in his favourite pose lying in front of the team. Later in the session we did our usual job of entertaining the locals with Coach Andy's favourite fun drills. The learn to swim kids following us in to the pool seem to enjoy our land training and stretching enough to copy from the side lines.

But we said this is widely considered to be the best camp we've done to date, why so? The pool is superb (a lack of starting blocks since a recent renovation the only downside). The hotel is perfectly adequate, with a nice large fun pool, table tennis, and superb food. It's only a 3 star, but that's more than plenty for 20 hyperactive kids. The weather has been absolutely glorious all week, apart from one rainy afternoon - to be honest more rain would have been refreshing - lots of sun burn and peeling skin will no doubt arrive home Friday morning. Today was probably the hottest day of the lot, with our black Tenerife 2011 team shirts baking on to tanned bodies. Earlier in the week Max managed to tattoo the pool surround with an outline from the back of his National Squad shirt transfering on to the floor. Next year we'll be having white training camp shirts, and possibly a cooler material entirely. Get training hard to secure yours for next year; you'll have to wait and see what design we come up with. But it's the team spirit that really sets a camp apart, and this year has had that in abundance.

The all important evening entertainment for chaperones and coaches has been, well, rather entertaining for the wrong reasons. This evening promises to be nothing short of excrutiating! The entertainment board promises: Miss Hotel Oro Negro. Basically, we believe, a beauty pageant (the exact detail we'll have to wait and see). So when today's shopping trip uncovered a shop selling blond wigs, Chaperone Ellie insisted on the coaches splashing out and getting dressed up for the contest. Predictably there was great enthusiasm from the kids for: Andrea and Davinia. Fortunately, with early training in the morning, the kids will all be sound asleep. Pete however is threatening YouTube action while Ellie is running around finding bikinis, shoes, and any other accessories to help the cause.

This blog entry will now have to be cut short in the interests of trying on outfits, applying make-up, shaving legs, and generally making the coaches look absolutely fabulous.
Any tips girls?
We certainly need them.

Strictly Balldroom

Late update on the beauty pageant.

Davinia (Oscar the compére got the wrong name, it was actually Andrea) took part in the contest, but Dave decided to take on a supporting role as dance partner instead. There were 7 contestants, 4 Spanish girls, a Russian, one from London, and Davinia. Judging by the cheers throughout the 3 rounds, our tutu wearing, blond, juicy orange boobed Davinia was the popular favourite, but in the end the genuinely female Russian girl's aggresively competitive tactics won over the judges.

So here are the rounds...

Round 1: The Parade
Strutting his, or rather her, stuff across the stage.
Round 2: The Kissing Game
Kissing as many single men in the audience as possible.
Round 3: The Dance Off
Go find a man in the audience to dance with, and then see which of the 7 pairs give the best performance. Obviously Davinia chose Dave as his, errr, her partner, and they gave a fabulous performance.

Best not to ask any questions about this next week.

 

Views from the First Timers

We hope to get a few words from each of our camp first timers. First up though, here's newbie female Chaperone Ellie.

Training Camp for the Fledgling Chaperone

It was with a certain degree of trepidation that I agreed to chaperone 20 teenagers on this years training camp. I'd heard plenty of highs and lows from the previous camps and was up for the challenge.

With two training sessions most days and the task of escorting 20 swimmers to and from the pool the week was both demanding and tiring for all involved (particularly the camp first timers). Fortunately, the swimmers this year were where they should have been whenever asked, worked hard, respected one another and gelled as a team. The older swimmers looked after the newbies and the whole team looked out for one another.

Apart from the occasional headache and a touch of sunburn the week passed without serious incident. A great time was had by all both in and out of the water. It's a huge responsibility chaperoning swimmers abroad but a task made comparatively easy by the great bunch of swimmers we took who are a credit to Dartes coaches and parents alike.

Thanks to swimmers, coaches and my co-chaperone Pete for a most enjoyable week.

Tenerife Training Camp by Kathryn Shepheard, aged 13 and 3/4

Going on the training camp was an amazing experience. I found it hard at times especially the heart rate set but sometimes it was easy. On the way there the flight took forever and when we arrived at out hotel it looked good. In our room I had to share with Shannon - she is a really good room mate. The first couple of sessions I thought were quite easy.

On the Friday we went in the pool and first played bulldog. Then everyone got out leaving me, Natasha and Holly to do some acrobatic moves into the pool e.g. cartwheels, handstands and crabs.

We had a bit of time everyday to relax and have a bit of free time. Most of us played table tennis, went in the pool or went in our rooms. It was funny when me, Holly and Natasha made a sweet fan and our strawberry laces went flying round the room.

Monday was the best day for me when we went to the water park. Going on the ride volcano with Natasha and Dave (he screamed like a girl) and Holly eating lots of chocolate marshmallows. One night we had a dancing competition I think Shannon, Caitlin and Heidi should have won with their moves.

By the end of the week I didn't want to leave I had had such a good time. I tried my best every session and I was happy when I was voted the swimmer of the week and I got a bright orange t-shirt for it.

I would definitely go again. I would like to say thank you to Andy and Dave for letting me go and to Ellie and Pete for looking after me.

Tenerife by Oswald Hood

As a first timer on the camp I can tell you it was hard, in fact very hard work. We did two sessions most days and land training too (in the wet one day). Although Andy and Dave made us swim hard, there were some fun times. I really liked playing table tennis with the others and of course our trip to Siam Park.

By the end of the week I was so tired.
It was a great camp!
Thanks to Andy, Dave, Pete and Ellie for looking after me.

Things I liked:

• The heat
• Table tennis
• It was a big pool
• The people
• Siam Park
• The wave machine
• The food
• Getting a tan
• The swimming
• Having fun with everyone

Things I didn't like:

• It was cold in the pool
• The bugs
• The rainstorm
• Missing Andy getting dressed up ... as a girl
• The night time flight
• The big, big kick set

A Week in Tenerife by Mark Beech

As this was my first ever training camp I didn't know what to expect, but I had heard from previous years that it would be very difficult. So I went to Tenerife thinking I would not survive! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the training was not too difficult, (or at least some of it!) Even though Backstroke is my favourite stroke I soon learnt to avoid it because it is very difficult to swim in a straight line and not crash into the lanes ropes.

After one training session Andy decided to have a bit of fun and said if 6 people could go 50m underwater then we wouldn't do land training and instead would go shopping. Triumphantly the swimmers beat the coaches with 9 people making it, and off we headed souvenir shopping.

Away from the training pool we had free time to play table tennis, go in the pool or chill in our rooms. After our evening meal we had a team meeting where we discussed the events of the day, followed by fun team games.

The highlight of the trip was going to Siam Water Park which had some fantastic slides, most of them you could go on in groups. Everyone enjoyed the day even though a few of us got sun burnt.

Over all I had a great week and I would like to say a big thanks to Andy, Dave, Ellie and Pete for making the trip so enjoyable. I would definitely go again if I was invited.

Alex goes to Tenerife

I was really pleased to be going on camp this year despite my sister telling me how hard the training would be. Training was tough as we did two sessions each day but I managed to keep up and really enjoyed my time in Tenerife. The sun was hot which made it hard not to get burnt. The highlight for me was Siam Park. The rides are incredible and we all had really good fun. The hotel and food were all good and everyone got along well.

Ping pong at the hotel was fun. I played against everyone and beat Andy!

I'd love to go on camp again.
Thanks to coaches and chaperones for looking after us and letting us have fun. We should definitely go on more training camps!

Holly Survived Tenerife - Just!

It would be pointless me sitting here and saying how cold the pool was (it was very cold!) or how hard some of the main sets were (really hard). It would be stupid to say how much fun it really was playing bulldog in the fun pool at the hotel during our free time, playing table tennis (and failing epically - hence Dave's sarcastic comment on the blog. It's not my fault it took me ten tries to hit the ball ... !) or just relaxing in our rooms and making sweets spin off the fan on the ceiling ...

... nothing to do with me, it was all Kathryn's idea!!

I'm not going to waste time saying how the highlight of the week was by far the trip to Siam Park with the 28ft slide [they all say 28ft, it was actually 28m - significantly taller!] and the chocolate fountain! and I'm definitely not going to tell you how dramatic the week was, with new found love blossoming, old love re-kindling, seriously painful sunburn, and a few shoves in the pool for Andy (that was all me - I'm so proud of myself!!) - Everyone else has already told all that stuff.

Which leaves me, the oldest first timer, to give the wise words of advice to whoever gets asked to go on camp next year has got to say YES!! It was one of the best experiences and something I will never forget. I'm pretty sure I can say that for everyone, first timers and people who have been on camps before. It was a great week under the scorching sun for team bonding, and whole new levels of fun with everyone together even during training!!

And to finish off, all my thanks go to our tremendous chaperones, Pete & Ellie, and of course the courageous coaches, Andy and Dave - thanks guys for looking after us and for such a great time!

P.S. Dave, what happened to that very distracting cowgirl hat of yours? I was looking forward to laughing at you when you wore it on the poolside back at home...