05 May 2014


Pershore Swimming Club’s first ever overseas intensive training camp was a great success according to the fifteen swimmers and twelve accompanying parents who have just returned from an intensive training week at the Blue Water Elite Swim Training (BEST) Centre in Colonia de Sant Jordi, Mallorca.

The BEST centre was opened almost five years ago by ex-Olympic and Commonwealth Swimmers Matthew O’Connor and James Parrack (who comes from Cheltenham). It quickly became the overseas training centre of choice for elite swimmers from all around the world including our own national squad. It has also recently been awarded the accolade of the top swim training centre in Europe.

During their week of intensive training, many of the Pershore swimmers swam around 60km during the 28 hours they spent being put through their paces in the state of the art 50 x 25m Olympic standard outdoor pool. The Pershore swimmers also had a programme of land training running alongside the pool sessions to help build their fitness, stamina and core stability.

The coaching for the Pershore camp was shared between Cati Arasa-Postles, a Spanish ex-international swimmer from the BEST centre and Ian Cumming, one of the coaches at Pershore Swimming Club.

Pershore Swimming Club Coach Ian Cumming said:  "It was great to see our swimmers respond to the intensive coaching during the week with significant improvements seen in all our swimmers’ technique, fitness and stamina. For quite a few of our pool sessions, we shared both the pool and pool deck with the Slovakian national swim squad and other top international swimmers from round the world which was also a great experience and inspiration for our swimmers.   Our swimmers have returned home exhausted, having completed the equivalent of six weeks’ worth of training at home in one week in Mallorca, but having had a fantastic opportunity to take their swimming to the next level.”


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