Junior swimmers learn what it takes to be an AquaBlack

Over the past month High Performance Development Coach Donna Bouzaid has travelled the country completing three camps for junior swimmers and their coaches.

A total of 86 swimmers and 52 coaches attended the camps which were held in Timaru, Rotorua and Auckland.

“The camps were a great success and there was plenty of fun, lots of learning and most of all great interaction between swimmers and coaches,” Bouzaid said.

“It was great to see the swimmers trying hard on the new drills they were given and working towards improving their skills at each session.”

At each three day camp the swimmers had two classroom sessions. The first one was on ‘skills in the pool’ which covered what they have to do in training to produce better results on race day. The second was ‘what it takes to be an AquaBlack’; this was going through with the swimmers the pathways that will lead them to the AquaBlacks one day.

The coaches had three two hour classroom sessions, which covered the long term athlete development guidelines, and working with the coaches on areas that they needed help on.

“The coaches worked really hard, especially when I put them on the spot on several occasions which took them out of their comfort zones. It was great to see coaches working with each other and sharing ideas.”

To find out more about the camps and to see a list of the swimmers that attended this year’s camps click here.