On Saturday 29th October 12 pupils from Coleraine Grammar set off to Tenerife for warm weather training as part of a party of 20 swimmers from
Coleraine Swimming Club. They were also joined by 4 pupils from Loreto and 4 from Dalriada.
It was the first time that Coleraine swimming club had organised a warm weather training trip and everyone was very excited about the prospect of spending
5 days in the heat of Tenerife during the Halloween half term break.
Following an early start and coach trip to Dublin airport followed by the 5hr flight to Tenerife everyone eventually arrived in the team hotel. After a
late dinner everyone got to bed in preparation for the early start the next day and the first training session of the camp.
The 50m open air training pool was a 10-15 minute walk from the hotel and the pool was booked for two 1.5hr sessions per day (one every morning and afternoon/early
evening). Training in a 50m pool was a new experience for most of the team and during the 5 days away they would be doing more training than in 3 average
weeks of training in the 25m Coleraine Leisure Centre pool. Therefore physically the trip was going to be very demanding and push most swimmers to
a new level of training they had never experienced before.
All swimmers were tested using various skill and speed tests on the first session of day 1 hence giving the 3 travelling coaches a knowledge of where each
swimmer was starting from. The main focus of the trip was to encourage team spirit within the club’s senior squad and improve their starts/turns and
dolphin kick. Each training set was devised with this end goal in mind. Some sets being skill based and some endurance based.
The team spirit needed no encouragement as all swimmers from the age of 11 to 17yrs mixed well and encouraged each other when training became tough and
spent time together as a group in their free time.
Away from the pool activities included beach American football, beach rounders, Siam Waterpark, sea swimming, mini golf, shopping and endless Burger King
Fantas.
On 2 different evenings the swimmers did something none of them had experienced before – train in the dark! The pool was floodlit in the evening after
6pm and the sun had set for the day. This was fun for everyone however visibility proved difficult with the mirrored darkened goggles most swimmers
had with them!
On the final day further testing was carried out to check for improvements in skill and speed. Practically all athletes improved their skill and speed
in all tests undertaken – which was a great achievement.
After 5 days of constant training and fun on the beach it was time for home and the long journey back to Coleraine. All 20 swimmers had a great time, trained
hard, had fun and behaved extremely well and were a credit to their schools and swimming club. The next club PTL gala is a few weeks away and hopefully
some of the new skills will be carried through at competition level. Hopefully Coleraine Grammar will also reap the benefits of this training camp
when the next school’s gala is held in 3 weeks’ time.
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