Over this past weekend we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to train in Perth as a test run for the Commonwealth Games Trials in July. Coming straight off the back of the World Cup the athletes were understandably tired, but even so, it was worth it to get familiarised with the competition pool.
This camp was essential for our divers to get the chance to get comfortable in this pool and adjust to all the things that will have an impact on their training and stress levels! We now feel comfortable with everything from the dry-land training mats we will use, to the massage therapist and accommodation. Further, the important things such as testing the springboards and the fact that the 10m platform is thinner than our platform here in SOPAC will be a huge factor as the girls can now mark out the distance on our platform to be specific with their training now for the next 3 weeks.
We also had our biomechanics specialist Damien O’Meara with us who was essential in videoing and analysing all our training sessions. I think Damien would definitely agree the squad not only trained extremely hard but were amazing with all the WA divers. (Damo please send through photos for everyone to see).
This camp was also very good for all the people involved in diving in Western Australia from the beginner club level right through to the WAIS program level. Our athletes were an inspiration to all the divers in Perth taking a lot of time out of their day to talk with the kids and have autograph signing sessions! We had a psychology session with the WAIS psychologist and the WAIS athletes to talk to them about fear and competition which the Chinese coach was so appreciative of as her English is not at the level to have such motivational and meaningful conversations with her athletes.
I also had a lunch with the top 2 coaches from the WAIS program and the psychologist to let them ‘pick’ my brains about some of our training regimes and our philosophy on training and program balance.
All the people involved in diving in WA were extremely helpful and excited to learn from both the divers and myself which was evident from the amount of people (athletes and families) who came along to watch all our sessions. I also had new and returning coaches eager to sit in on our sessions to listen to me coaching and ask questions.
I was very proud of the NSWIS athletes in the way they conducted themselves and what role models they were and the wonderful promotion of NSWIS. I think this is so important to spread our knowledge and insight especially at a time when our squad is so exceptionally talented.
Chava your squad is an absolute credit to you as a coach but also as a mentor which shows in their behaviour and motivation.
I was very excited to be apart of this training camp and I very much look forward to being the assistant coach to this team for the Commonwealth Games trials in 3 weeks time!
Vyninka Arlow
Board Talk August 2010
