Report by Leisa Cass, Club President
Tuggeranong Masters Swimming were again invited to participate in the Ryde Masters Swimming Club’s annual October long-weekend Thredbo Training Camp. This year saw Greg Gourley, Nicolee Martin and Leisa Cass as return participants and Annette Byron, Katrina Burgess and Maddie Flemming were first timers at this excellent weekend away.
The weekend involves 6 x two-hour training sessions, the first one starting at 4:30pm on Friday. Saturday and Sunday were 7am — 9am and 4:30pm — 6:30pm, and it wrapped up with a 7am — 9am session on the Monday morning.
While this may sound like a particularly tough programme, there is a strong focus on technique and drills, with the four Saturday and Sunday sessions each dedicated to one stroke. The overall distance in each session is similar to an average one-hour training session swum at a normal Vikings training session. They also ran a Freestyle sprint and ‘Form’ stroke sprint series, allocating points in line with FINA pointscore against your nominated time for each event. Greg Gourley and Annette Byron were high in the pointscore ranking after each session, with Greg coming out a winner for the ‘Form’ race series, and Annette was just a couple of places behind. Annette also placed fairly high in the Freestyle series.
This year, Ryde brought along their portable mirror panels which were laid on the bottom of the pool, to enable swimmers to practice drills and technique and observe themselves and correct their stroke. Apparently once swimmers get over the whole idea about looking at themselves swim, it is wonderfully helpful.
Leisa was coaching during that part of each session and unfortunately (or not?) missed the chance to see herself swim!
Between sessions, there was plenty of amazing food prepared and waiting for swimmers when they got back to Boali Lodge after training and at lunchtime, cafes and bakeries to visit, marked bushwalks for those with energy to spare, or a ride up the chair lift to Eagles Nest, and free wi-fi for those who just want to hang out at the lodge and get ready for the next swim session.
Everyone trained hard and enjoyed themselves, but probably Annette Byron summed it up best when she was heard to say (more than once) — “Did I mention to you how much fun I’m having?” .. and that’s the key to it all … work hard, take on board the feedback from the coaches and have the most fun possible!
