Last week I travelled to the Zoetermeer white-water slalom course in the Netherlands, with 17 other members of the lottery funded World Class Programmes. We had a five-day training camp ahead of the Great Britain and Olympic team selection races to be held there over the weekend of 12-13 April.

Training camps allow us a much more focussed period of training than what is generally available at home. That doesn’t mean they are easier, but when you are free from the distractions of home you can perform at a higher level of intensity and focus. Combined with the fact that whenever you go somewhere different, you have to learn the various idiosyncrasies that every course has to offer, this means your powers of course analysis and decision-making are constantly tested.

To give you an idea of what is involved, most training camps generally last for five or six days. This allows for two high-quality white-water sessions each day, with adequate rest in between to maximise recovery. A typical day last week started at 7.30am with breakfast, before leaving for the course to start the session at 10am. In the intervening time we had to make a short 15minute drive to the course, get changed, warmed-up and ready to go for when the water is switched on. Because the Zoetermeer course is an artificial one, and is run as a private venture, the water only gets turned on, on the hour. Hence we have to be quite savvy when it comes to ‘walking the course’ (deciding how to do the various moves set), conscious of the fact that we only have an hour to do the session, or else the water is switched off leaving us quite literally high and dry!

Having completed the workout, what normally follows is a video review where we analyse the various moves and techniques we performed on the white-water. This varies in length but usually takes an hour and could, for example, comprise of measuring the time taken to negotiate an upstream gate, or perhaps the line taken through a big drop. Either way, in the review we’re looking to critically appraise the work done during the session. The discussions are pretty frank and to the point - they have to be, we’re looking for the margins that will, hopefully, win us an Olympic gold!

Following video we have a short break for lunch and an hour to have a sleep or just chill out, before repeating the morning routine in the afternoon. Typically the ‘day’ would finish in the region of 6pm, with the rest of the evening free to ourselves.

So far this winter I’ve been on two training camps to Zoetermeer, and I have another one planned for February before the selections in April. I’ve spent a lot of time there over the previous 18 months, and in terms of course familiarity, I feel I certainly know it as well as Nottingham. The challenge of an 8 metre drop, over a length of 250 metres makes Zoetermeer quite special, and presents an exciting challenge in trying to negotiate it successfully.

All in all I had an excellent training camp. With the emphasis in the run up to selection being on delivery (i.e. getting it right first time), I was certainly encouraged by the runs I put down during the week there. Nothing is better for giving confidence than seeing the things you’ve striven for, and worked on for months (or even years), being reflected in the time on the stopwatch. Good stuff!

Next time I’ll focus on boat designs, and how Formula 1 construction materials are utilised in the construction of our race boats.

Hope you enjoyed the read.