National Event Camp successfully delivered as part of talent pathway

Swim England’s National Event Camp was successfully delivered to more than 120 athletes who were selected to take part.

The camp, which makes up step four of the Swim England Talent Pathway, focused on a number of key areas including sports psychology, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and race analysis.

The event was divided into a freestyle camp, an open water camp and a form camp – with a portion of athletes separated into each.

Each of the camps featured expert talks from triple Commonwealth champion swimmer James Goddard and performance squad athlete James McFadden, who both led the form stroke camp.

Jessica Fullalove, who represented Team England at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, and Olympic bronze medallist Cassie Patten were also speakers and led the backstroke and freestyle camps, respectively.

Grant Robins, Swim England Head of Talent – Swimming, commended the athletes and those who delivered the camps for running such a productive and engaging event.

He said: “This camp provided a unique opportunity to engage with our pathway swimmers. While it’s not poolside, it’s an excellent way of reaching out to more swimmers than we would normally be able to.

“It was a testament to the swimmers themselves. Their enthusiasm was great and we were delighted with their participation.

“Swim England and the athletes are feeling very positive after the recent announcement that pools can reopen next week.

“We can’t wait to see them training and racing again.”

Robins also took the opportunity to thank each of the coaches and practitioners involved who put in a lot of hard work to ensure the smooth running of the camps, “without whom, poolside or not, we wouldn’t be able to run these camps,” he added.

“The level of detail that these athletes need to know about their development and how to better their performance is substantial.

“There are a lot of areas to be managed, so the aim of an event like this is to help them digest each element and ultimately better them as people and athletes.

“The feedback has been really positive so far. We asked the swimmers to take away three things that they can add to their day-to-day routines and hopefully, they’ve taken away exactly what they need to do that so that their future performances in the pool are enhanced.”