National Talent Camp - Day 1

   The National Talent Camp was a fantastic opportunity for me to develop as both an athlete and a coach, learn skills from experienced individuals and also to develop my ideas of sporting philosophy and ethics along with the other coaches in my group. I would like to thank the Youth Sport Trust and the other individual volunteers who gave up their time to make the camp happen.
  
   During our first afternoon together we attended an Opening Ceremony which was led by the Youth Sport Trust Chair, Baroness Sue Campbell. This was a good introduction into what we would learn over the next few days and helped everyone to feel as though we were embarking on a team adventure rather than individually and focused on the process of Dream, Develop and Deliver. Following this the ceremony was handed over to Heptathlete; Katrina Johnson-Thompson and Wheelchair athlete; Hannah Cockroft. This was not only inspirational but also insightful for the athletes and I to hear of their personal pathway to success. Peter Keen took the remainder of the session, using an interesting anecdote about his chickens to explain the difference between a dream and a vision, which was both intriguing and an incredibly useful way of differentiating the two in order to understand them better.
   After this we all separated back into our groups and returned to our daily classrooms, ours being a huge sports hall, perfect for the teambuilding and subject focused activities that we took part in over the duration of the camp. We decided on a team name; The Flaming Reindeer, aptly Christmas themed in my opinion. Then we set off for dinner which was held at the Rutherford Dining Room named after the eminent physicist Ernest Rutherford. This was always something to look forward to as the food was great and there was virtually no limit to how much you could add to your plate.
   Soon it was time to join our sporting groups and participate in a session run by our National Governing Bodies; British Cycling in my own case. Our first session focused on designing a new road bike. Each person was given a specific role in the teams of 5 to try to develop a sense of position each of us would have to fulfil in our roles as either; Athlete, Coach or Official in order to achieve success in our sporting ambitions. It was easy to see how when everyone played their part in the team a strong design was produced, compared to clash of ideas and roles which led to half finished concepts and therefore disjointed designs.
   It was now late in the evening and so it was time to retreat to our hotels for the night. Both Cycling and Tennis shared the local Premier Inn which ensured us a good nights sleep, crucial for the next days' early morning circuit training session.