Winsford Swimming Club

On Sunday 20th February, 37 Winsford Swimmers plus 4 staff travelled down to Mount Kelly in Devon for a focused week of training. The camp was put into the calendar to help prepare our swimmers for the up and coming qualifying window, regional championships and the spring and summer meets to come.

The week consisted of 12 x 2, 2 hour swim sessions, plus 5 gym sessions, add onto that all the various physical activities it was a demanding and very challenging week for us all. We were up early every morning ready for our 7am swim, and then back in the pool for 4pm the same day, and we did this everyday with no rest days. Our swimmers were put through their paces, with 70-80km completed in total, and some superb training taking place.

The venue was first class with an outstanding 8 lane 50m pool, wedge blocks and ledges for backstroke, plus a superbly equipped swimming gym with many pieces of equipment to keep our swimmers busy, with the box jumps and the sledge being the most popular. Not only was the training facilities brilliant but the food provided was great for sports people, with breakfast, dinner and tea all providing us with much needed energy for our demanding workout schedule. It was clear our swimmers needed feeding, and Mount Kelly delivered. We literally must have ate Mount Kelly out of house and home with our swimmers searching for seconds at every opportunity and cleaning the deserts off in no time at all.

The training from all our swimmers was outstanding with everyone making tremendous progress. Of course it was a roller coaster ride with ups and downs (but mostly ups), but I can honestly say that every swimmer in attendance can take great pride in what they have achieved. It was an exhausting week for us coaches and team managers, and that was without us doing any swimming, so I can only imagine how tired our swimmers were at times. But everyone battled on and came back firing, and to be honest as the week went on we looked stronger and stronger. The T60 was outstanding and then in my opinion the set of the week was Friday night with our swimmers training to a super high intensity, some incredible training from all.

Swim camps are not just about the training, but they also help to nurture many other skills such as being organised, being able to cope without mum and dad, and persevering through adversity and developing a never quit mentality. Above all this camps are such fantastic team bonding exercises. I can say in all honesty I have never seen such a wonderful team spirit, everyone was supporting each other, mixing both junior and seniors and all genders. Everyone was having a whale of a time, both in the pool, gym, canteen and common room. It really was wonderful to see all our swimmers chatting and having such a fun time together. Seeing everyone on the last day singing and dancing was amazing! We really are a superb TEAM.

Thank you to Julie Grindley, Sue Wright, Claire Brown, Sarah Carss and Michael Secker for helping to organise our camp to Mount Kelly. Also many thanks again to Claire, Sue and Michael for going over and above to help our swimmers to have the best camps possible. I can 100% say that without them the camp would not have been as successful as it was. I would also like to thank each and every swimmer who attended camp, the training was first class, the team camaraderie was outstanding and without a doubt the behaviour, attitude and politeness they showed to all staff at Mount Kelly should be commended. Day after day our swimmers were challenged, and yet after every session they all said thank you, wonderful to see.

Mount Kelly was a blast both in and out of the pool, thank you to everyone who made it possible. Swim camps are without a doubt the highlight of the whole season, everyone who attended made wonderful memories which will last time, and as they memories are priceless. 

As all swimmers on camp will know Claire was putting a camera in all our faces at every opportunity! So we now look forward to Lee (Claire's husband) doing his magic in producing a wonderful video of all our activities over the week. I am positive it is going to be one too watch!

Well senior swim camp is done and dusted for another year, it is nice to be home but to be honest sad that camp is over. Claire, Sue, Michael and myself loved spending the week with all our swimmers, it was brilliant, but I won't lie I am looking forward to spending a night in my own bed!

Now that the senior camp is over, we now look forward saying bon voyage to our junior swimmers who will be travelling to Moreton Hall during Easter, I am positive they will also have a great time.

See you at the pool.

Dan.