FLITWICK DOLPHINS CYPRUS TRAINING CAMP – REPORT

 

14–21 February 2009

 

Team:

35 swimmers (33 aged 11-17, 2 Masters)

2 coaches

1 team manager

3 female chaperones (one a qualified nurse)

2 male chaperones (one a qualified pharmacist)

3 partners of staff members

Venue:

Hotel: Aliathon Holiday Village, PO Box 62303, CY-8063, Paphos, Cyprus. Tel. +(357) 2696 4400. Fax: +(357) 2696 5700. e-mail: info@aliathonvillage.com. www.aliathonvillage.com.

 

Pool: Geroskipou Municipality Sports Centre (www.trainingincyprus.com). The pool is 50m long × 25m wide, 10 lanes, heated 27/28 Celsius, with changing rooms, showers and toilets.


working hard in the pool


the 50m pool outdoor pool – our training base

 

Costings:

£592.66 per swimmer, broken down as follows.

As the actual price paid per swimmer was £600, a refund of £7.34 per swimmer will be made by the treasurer.

 

The increase in flight costs between initial budgeting and booking and the fall of the £ against the Euro between booking and payment caused havoc with our pricing. It was only by fundraising that the club managed to keep the cost down to just under £600. In total we raised £3,100.66 towards the cost of the trip. Thanks to the following.

 

Group insurance was arranged with Insure & Go for those who required it. Cost was £5.30 per person.

 

The team flew with Monarch Airlines from Luton Airport to Larnaca with coach transfer from Larnaca to Paphos (90 minutes). We could have flown direct to Paphos from Gatwick but it was decided that it was better to have the long transfer in Cyprus, rather than the UK, especially with the early morning arrival back in the UK on our return. We did not book seats altogether as this would have been an additional cost on top of what was already an expensive camp. On our outward flight this did not prove a problem as we booked in 3 hours before the flight and the check-in staff were very helpful in seating us altogether. However, the return flight proved a problem and in future it would be recommended to pay the additional cost involved in order to get everyone seated together.

 

The Aliathon Holiday Village is a complex of apartments on a large site just across from the sea front a couple of miles outside Paphos Harbour. Swimmers were mainly sharing 4 to an apartment. This type of accommodation proved popular because swimmers had plenty of room, it was generally quieter than staying in a normal hotel where bedrooms are next door to each other in a long corridor and the complex had plenty of outdoor space. We stayed “all-inclusive”. Although there were some problems with swimmers accessing snacks because of our training times, generally this worked well and meant that swimmers did not have to take a lot of money with them for “extras”.

 

The Pool was about a one mile walk each way. We were told it was 700 metres, but this turned out to be via a short-cut which was flooded whilst we were there and also unsuitable for wheelchairs (we had two swimmers and one coach in wheelchairs). However, the walk each way certainly provided a good lower-body warm up for the swimmers. The increase in time spent walking to and from training sessions did mean that the timetable had to be adjusted after the first day to accommodate this and this was the reason for the shorter time periods between events on the timetable and the feeling that we were rushing everywhere. For any future camps the distance between the hotel and pool should be confirmed from more than one source so that timetabling can be more accurate.

 

The pool complex was as expected. Apart from one day when the boiler broke down the heating kept the pool temperature at around 27 Celsius. The lane ropes proved a problem as they were dilapidated and many swimmers scratched themselves on them. On enquiry it was found that the pool were awaiting a delivery of new ropes from overseas and they should have arrived in January but had been delayed. We took our own lifeguards who were also allowed to train.

 

The team arrived just past midnight on Sunday 15th February. To give swimmers a lie-in training took place from 11am-1pm that day. On Monday and Tuesday training sessions were 9–11am and 3–5pm, Wednesday 9–11am (with the afternoon off), Thursday and Friday 9–11am and 3–5pm and Saturday from 10–12 noon before our departure home. For the morning sessions we were allocated 5 lanes and in the afternoon 3 lanes. Unlike many pools where you pay per lane, this pool charged per swimmer and if lanes were available we could have them.

 

Swimmers were divided into 4 teams, each with a chaperone as their team leader. Points were awarded throughout the week for things such as tidy rooms, achievements, group activities etc. On Tuesday evening the staff ran a “mini olympics” and on Wednesday there was a quiz. In between pool training sessions swimmers had rest time, free time, land training (15/under), Gym sessions (for 16/over), lectures on goal setting, visualization and nutrition. On the afternoon off we played “crazy golf” and went down to the beach. Swimmers also had to fill in their log books every day. Another advantage to staying on such a large complex was that there were plenty of open spaces for land training and because it was low season we had no problems with booking suitable rooms for lectures etc.

 

Three members of staff spent the week taking photographs and video of all swimmers in the pool, at the hotel, during activities etc and these will be available to purchase on DVD shortly. Further information will follow from Phil Abbott.

 

The weather was generally good, not as warm perhaps as we would have liked. We had a couple of rain showers at the beginning of the week during pool sessions, but the rain kept away for the rest of the time (at least during our pool time!). Any rain showers that did occur only lasted a short time before the sun came out again.


Presentation dinner


Presentation dinner


Presentation dinner

 

Just before departure all swimmers were asked to fill in a questionnaire (this could be anonymous). They were asked to rate the following from “Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Unacceptable”. Percentages given below are for ratings “Good” and above. Not all swimmers answered every question.

 

Land Training facilities – 96%

Land Training content – 96%

Swimming pool facilities – 82%

Swim session content – 96%

Seminars – 78%

Timetable – 76%

Hotel facilities – 99%

Hotel staff – 98%

Bedrooms – 93%

Meals – 85%

Team staff – 99%

Information (UK) – 96%

Information (camp) – 96%

Group activities (on camp) – 96%

Group activities (afternoon off) – 97%

Quiz – 70%

Overall – 96%

 

Other questions on the questionnaire were (with a selection of swimmer’s answers in italics):

 

What did you learn from this camp?

That I can swim

Athlete rest is important – never to give up

I learnt how to work with people I wouldn’t normally

I learnt that if you work hard then it all pays off

I learnt a lot about diet and the importance about good ways to warm up (and more)

Technique and team building

To believe in myself = success

Importance of teamwork

That if I work hard, even in such a short space of time, I can improve

I’m tired! To work well in teams, look out for one and other

What food is good for different types of swimming

I learnt how to work as a team and look after myself

Log book importance

What I do wrong in front crawl and backstroke

Long course training is better than short course

Concentrate and don’t give up

Swimming hurts when you do it a lot!

How to set goals

To focus more and remember the sets

To organize myself

Flexibility, Flexibility, Flexibility

I learnt to be more committed in training and not moan!

 

What was your camp goal?

To swim well

To try my best in every session and not miss one

Improve stroke speed on every stroke

To get better at swimming

To streamline off every turn

To not quit or make excuses

PB for 100 free

Kick with both legs

To become more confident

To improve my pacing

To improve my backstroke and get a regional qualifying time

To improve breathing on turns

Improve front crawl technique

Improve 400 kick

Try hardest in every session

To improve the speed of my turns

Faster time in kick

To do a 3,5,7,3 breathe pattern

Improve technique

Improve hand position

To train well

To up my fitness

Improve endurance

To complete all of the main set

Improve my breaststroke technique

 

32 swimmers out of 35 achieved their camp goal

 

What did you like best about this camp?

The day off

I had fun and worked hard, communicating with team mates I normally wouldn’t have

Going away from the UK and spending time on swimming

The hard work, the amount of activities and space

The hotel staff, apartments and staff

The free time

Training in a 50m pool and card games

Doing your own session

The all inclusive facilities

The people, the swimmers and the atmosphere

The facilities and there being such a large group

Group bonding – we all got on well together

The success in training successfully

The training helped me improve, the free time we had was good

The apartments and the training

Bedtime, free time with mates and the dance

Experience, being somewhere new and different

The structure and organization of activities

Pool facilities

The large number of swimmers at the camp

The coaching, the atmosphere

The gym and the team games

The pool

Having lots of people, improving a lot

Being with all my team

 

What did you like the least about this camp

Having to swim for 2 hours

Repetitive food, not enough free time, sometimes a rush

Not as much free time

The walk to the pool

The weather

Travelling

Would like more rest time, not as much rushing around

The quiz

The very busy timetable

Being shouted at

The food

Going to Cyprus (because it’s hot)

Athletes rest time

The lectures

Core stability was not a proper session, only demonstrations

The pool was not what I expected

Attitude of some swimmers

The coldness of the water when the boiler broke, the lane ropes

 

Many swimmers did not like the lack of free time, the busy timetable and thought the quiz was too long. The lack of free time was mainly caused by the increased walking time to and from the pool. This is an issue which can be learnt from for future camps.

 

Would you attend another camp with FDSC in the future

32 said “Yes”

2 said “maybe”

1 said “no”

 

Would you prefer the same venue or a different one?

22 said “different”

7 said “same”

6 had no preference either way

 

Other comments:

Well organized and thank you

The staff helped a lot and were brill

I really enjoyed this camp, thank you

Team staff, very helpful, kind and friendly, lights out should be earlier for younger swimmers

Was good

I didn’t like the food because it wasn’t very healthy

The lane ropes could have been safer

Woop Woop

I would prefer not to go green in the pool

It was really fun

Meals needed a little more variety

I liked the day out

Thanks to all for a great camp

I hate freezing cold pools

 

Many swimmers commented on the food. This was an issue we had with the restaurant staff and efforts were made to improve what was on offer.  It was a surprise to us as the hotel is used to accommodating swimming groups. We did manage to get pasta on the menu! Generally things had improved by the end of the week, although the comments about the food are justified. Again, this is a learning experience which can be taken forward for future camps. However the attitude of the restaurant staff, indeed all the hotel staff, could not be faulted. Everyone was very helpful and the camp staff received many complimentary comments about the swimmers behaviour.

 

On our return we received many comments from parents. Following are a few:

 

“Would just like to say a huge thank you to Sue for sorting out the millions of details to enable this trip to have taken place. Many thanks to Diane and Becky for their coaching skills and experience of swim camp. Much respect and gratitude for the chaperones and parents who went with the children and acted as surrogate parents when the children were feeling tired and a little homesick - also for the txt messages. It seemed the camp was a complete success from my child’s perspective – I hope everyone else felt the same. Once again many many thanks to all involved.” – Jean & Cliff Barber

 

“Thank you for the opportunity and experience you gave Hayden last week, I have no idea what you did with him, but it worked, he was exhausted yesterday and couldn’t keep his eyes open all day. He has had a fantastic time, hasn’t stopped talking about it since he got home. Thank you again for the organising of it, and to everyone else who helped.” – Clare Davies

 

“Please could you pass the contents of this email onto the coaches and staff of Cyprus. We would like to say a massive thanks for the effort and help you put into Cyprus.” – Lynn C-C

 

And one from a swimmer:

“Just thought I'd say thank you very much for all the work you did leading up to and at Cyprus. It was an excellent training camp, which I really enjoyed and feel I benefited from a lot. If I go sub 18mins in the 1500m this weekend I think you are all slightly responsible! (No pressure on me then!)” – Toby Willson (P.S. – Toby did go under 18 minutes at Counties!)

 

On our last evening we had presentations after the meal. The main awards were as follows:

 

Top Boy (voted for by all staff): Toby Willson

Top Girl (voted for by all staff): Leah Neary

Swimmers Swimmer (voted for by the swimmers): Sean McGeever

Top team: Philippa Relf, Victoria Abbott, Emily Simmons, Ronnie Curr-Partridge, Harry Archer, Hayden Davies, Toby Willson, Sean McGeever

 

Sue Warne

Cyprus Team Manager

March 2009