Gifted and Talented Events
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Olympic Star
I have recently been selected for the British Cycling Talent Team, which is the first step to getting into the GB Squad. Everyone new onto the Talent Team was invited to go to Loughborough University for a National Talent Orientation Camp, which was organised by the Youth Sports Trust and was for young performance athletes from cycling, sailing, triathlon, rowing and kayaking. It was headed by Dame Kelly Holmes. It lasted 4 days from Saturday 5th - Tuesday 8th January.
We got to Loughborough University at 10am on Saturday morning and we were put into groups which were mixed up of all the sports. We then had to give in our suitcases as if we were going on a plane and we were shown to our rooms. After we had come back from our rooms we were given a tour of Loughborough University and we were shown all the top quality facilities. When we got back we had a lecture from Kelly Holmes about the whole purpose of the camp and what we were going to do. After that we had a two hour training session.
That night we did team building exercises organised by the army and every time we didn’t do something quick enough we had to do loads of push ups. That evening for dinner we had a hot vegetable curry, which was disgusting!
The next morning we had to get up at 5.45am to do circuit training. We had to do this every morning and I hated it, it was easily the worst part of the camp because of the time we had to get up at. Later in the morning we had the first of five classroom sessions with Jamie Staff who has been double World Champion on the track. In the afternoon we had a really hard training session and in the evening we had a big question and answer session with professional athletes from all the sports and I got some really good advice from it.
The next day we had circuit training again. Later that morning we had another class room session with Jamie Staff and then in the afternoon we had another training session but instead of cycling we had to do core stability with the sailors which was really hard because we weren’t used to it. That night we had a disco and I had a pool match against Kelly Holmes and I won!
The next day, which was also the last day, we had our last circuit training session and at the end I was relieved that I’d never have to do circuit training so early in the morning again. Later in the morning we had our last classroom session and then in the afternoon we had the closing ceremony. After the closing ceremony my parents picked me up and we went home. I felt that that the camp was really helpful in showing me what it takes to get to the top.
Brock Duncomb-Rogers 10WTN
