Training Camp Logs (Part I)
Trying to repost some things that I’ve had kicking around for a while. Don’t you hate it when you can't find that old resource that you used to look at? The following are quite a few camp logs I picked up during my time in Canada. Thanks to all the coaches that collaborated with me, or submitted these and for the Canadian Swim Coaches Association for the support.
Quick links:
🇦🇪 FINA World SC Championships 2010
In I was selected by Swimming Canada to attend the FINA World Short Course Championships competition in December as an apprentice coach. This was in December in advance of a Junior team tour to Great Britain that would occur after Christmas. These two trips took me away from my home program so I sent an email summary back to my team each day with my observations of the trip, country, competition and my thoughts during this time.
At the time my international coaching experience was limited to the 2010 Junior Pan Pacific championships (Hawaii 🇺🇸) where our team had two swimmers representing Canada, and I was selected as one of the coaches, and working with Team New Zealand at the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships in Victoria 🇨🇦. This trip to Dubai was my first senior international experience, and documenting it was quite helpful since I could then continue to come back and learn from what happened during the two weeks.
I think journaling thoughts and observations, whether I share or keep them private, during travel and competition has helped me to reflect and develop as a coach, and I would encourage everyone to find a way to do this that works for you.
I have edited my original documents slightly mainly for clarity, but I’ve tried to maintain the ‘first-time’ experience as much as possible.
Download the log of my trip here.
🇬🇧 Concentracion Sprinters
Yes, likely spelt incorrectly, but this is a log that I originally had no idea where I had picked it up from, but Rob Greenwood has since informed me that it’s likely a GB Swimming camp led by Tim Kerrison from around 2006.
Some really great stuff in here, and I’ve come back to it time and again for some ideas and inspiration. The Speedcharts referenced are available here, and are some of the same I mentioned in an post from my Montréal days on my old Tumblr site (Points to Race Pace).
Concentracion Sprinters
🇦🇺 Gold Coast visits from Johns & Zucchi
Here are two reports from Canadian coaches Brian Johns and Lucien Zucchi on their trips down to the Gold Coast 🇦🇺.
The report from Brian Johns is from during his time with the Vancouver Pacific Swim Club. He had the opportunity through Swim BC, the BC Swim Coaches Association, and his club to visit the Gold Coast in Australia during June/July 2016.
Since another coach - Lucien Zucchi - from his team had already done a visit to St. Peters Western, Brian reached out to other programs in the greater Brisbane area as well.
This summary is from Brian’s visit, thanks to him for making this available and thanks to Swim BC, BCSCA and VPSC for sending him out there! Thanks also to Michael Bohl, Dean Boxell, Rory Macguire and David Lush for opening their sessions to the community.
Lucien Zucchi, also during his time at the Vancouver Pacific Swim Club had the opportunity through Swim BC, the BC Swim Coaches Association, and his club to visit Michael Bohl while he was at St. Peter’s Western. This log is from Lucien’s visit to the program in May, thanks to him for making this available and thanks to Swim BC, BCSCA and VPSC for sending him out there!
St. Peter’s Western has long been home to some great quality swimmers, and thanks also to Michael Bohl for opening his doors to the community.
For more reading check out coach Zucchi’s log from his trip here.
“Old school” distance camp logs 🇨🇦
Here are some training camp logs from 2009 and 2010. The 2009 logs are from distance camps run by John Rogers during his time in Canada, while the 2010 log (en français) was hosted in Victoria by the late Randy Bennett.
Interesting from a long term athlete development perspective some of the names of the participating swimmers in the camps; in 2009 we have Tera van Belen (OAK) who would go on to represent Canada at the 2012 Olympics in the 100m and 200m breaststrokes, and in 2010 we have Brooklyn Snodgrass (CASC) whom in 2014 broke the Canadian record in the 50m backstroke at the Commonwealth Games.
I collected these camps from those who compiled them and am putting them here as a resource.
May 2009 Female Distance Camp (Vancouver, BC)
Nov 2009 Female Distance Camp (Toronto, ON) - compiled by Steve Price (then coaching for EKSC)
Nov 2010 Female Distance Camp (Victoria, BC) - complied by Michel Tremblay (then at PPO in Montréal)