Written by training club athlete, Liam Downs.
The London Youth Rowing training camp at Totnes was unforgettable. New friendships were forged, a sense of group morale was apparent and great fun was had. After an incredibly long, back-breaking journey we finally arrived at Dart Totnes rowing club. Unfortunately we had to wait for a couple of hours as the truck which was towing the trailer broke down somewhere along the M4. When eventually we had the trailer in our possession and had rigged all of the singles we made our way to the youth hostel where we were staying. On the way we got lost a few times due to the SatNav which seemed to be lying to us about where to go.
After about an hour we came to a massive house in the middle of nowhere which seemed to be the youth hostel. However, we did not know where Paddy was so we had to wait in the minibus. Suddenly, the call came that the truck had slid down a hill backwards and that the truck was now wedged in a mud bank. In the dark we made our way down the hill in order to try and help move the truck; all to no avail. At last after a collected team effort we managed to free the truck. 10 minutes later, dripping wet we finally came to the youth hostel and had a well-earned rest.
Our first day of training included a steady state outing which lasted about 2.5 hours. During this time we had the opportunity to absorb the beautiful scenery of Totnes and get used to the river. The following session we were boating to do a technical and Lottie fell in when trying to push off the landing stage! To be fair it was incredibly hard because we had to boat of stairs which were really steep and narrow so if you didn’t lean all of your weight into the bank you would easily fall in. In the technical we had to back the boat down for three strokes then come to the catch position and hold the position using our cores.
On the next day we did a distance session in singles which was tiring but useful as we had to ensure that we were working on the technical points the coaches had picked up on on the previous day. This was followed by another technical concentrating on getting the body lean in as early as possible and opening the back hard. For the evening session we went out in quads which was interesting, to say the least. I find that when you go out in a crew for the first time it takes a while for everyone to adjust.
Waking up the next day, we were faced with the thought of training with the marines. Fun Times! So we boarded the bus and just over an hour later we entered the Royal Marines base camp. It was very intimidating to see massive men walking around holding guns and posters with inscriptions similar to: “Hunger is when you’re looking for food under rocks.” We met the guy who issued the kit to us and headed down to the bottom field to attempt the assault course. The assault course consisted of jumping over water, climbing over walls, crawling through tunnels, balancing on narrow walls and more. It was absolutely exhausting and made all of us realise how easy our training is.
In the afternoon we had to play some problem solving games which helped us build up both our leadership skills and our teamwork skills. We then watched the Royal Marines perform a routine which they were rehearsing for a rugby match the following week. I can safely say on behalf of all of us that we slept well that night.
On the Friday we did a 20k outing in quads which seemed to last forever. This was followed by a session in fours which was really fun. It was great to try some more sweep oar, no matter how awful it was.
We found out on the Friday night that we were doing a 5k piece @r28 the next day, in preparation for trials which is in two weeks time from now. When Saturday arrived we were all very reluctant to do the time trial but we did it with other juniors from Dart Totnes Rowing Club and Exeter Rowing Club. We all did reasonably well.
That night to celebrate Halloween we watched some scary movies which we had bought earlier on in the week. It was hilarious to see everyone’s reactions.
Sunday and it was time to go home. We were going to do a session but it was too windy to go out so we just headed straight back to London after reviewing some targets we had made at the beginning of the week.
Everyone who went had an amazing time and we all miss each other greatly so it will be brilliant to see everyone again on the weekend of the Fours Head, after which we are going out for the day.