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Swimming Canada to host Virtual Distance Development Camp for second year

News –

Following the success of last year’s Paris & Beyond 2020 Virtual Distance Development East and West Camps, Swimming Canada will host a similar camp this year.

The Paris & Beyond 2021 Virtual Distance Development Camp will be jointly run by Distance and Open Water Coach Mark Perry and National Development Coach Ken McKinnon. The week-long camp is once again targeting an expanded group of athletes and coaches from across the country, exposing them to a traditional distance training model with a full week of workouts.

“After last year’s successful week-long virtual camp, we’re once again looking forward to engaging with our up-and-coming distance swimmers and their coaches,” said Perry. “It’s exciting that we can interact virtually with so many young swimmers across the country and have them and their coaches all experience the same week of workouts and key training sets.”

The camp will follow the same format as last year, with two virtual Zoom sessions on Saturday Nov. 6 and 13, with a weekly training template for swimmers and coaches to complete in their home programs in between the two Saturdays.

A total of 59 swimmers and 35 coaches will be attending from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

“We are targeting developing distance swimmers in the pool as part of a wider High Performance Strategy towards the Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, which will be launched soon,” said High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson. “We will outline strategies for swimming across Canada targeting specific areas to support our strategic plan to remain a Top 6 swimming nation. There are opportunities as a nation in 400-m, 800-m, 1,500-m and open water events to develop swimmers and educate coaches, in partnership with our provincial sections.”

The camp’s main goal is to educate swimmers and coaches about training and racing in distance pool events and open water. The virtual sessions will include talks from senior national team members Summer McIntosh, Katrina Bellio and Hau-Li Fan. It will also include race-analysis presentations, and education and feedback from the weekly template.

“We’re really looking to impact the training programs of clubs across the country and give them a flavour of what our talented young swimmers are capable of, then back that up with genuine feedback,” said Perry. “A key learning for the week is that Ken McKinnon and I give feedback on all of the recorded and submitted key training set results that are completed by all of the swimmers invited.”