Ireland’s best young athletes have experience of a lifetime at successful training camp in Polish Olympic centre The members of the Junior and Youth achievers panel attended a training camp over the Easter period at the Polish Olympic training facility in Spala. The panel, consisting of those who have achieved the criteria set out in the high performance program, took part in the camp for 10 days that focused not only on training but on educational workshops and physio and medical screening to ensure best practise and best performance. The aim of the camp was not only for training but to educate the young athletes in what it takes to become a top athlete and how to prepare properly for training and competition. The athletes were treated to several workshops on every aspect of being an athlete -

• competition preparation
• planning and goal setting
• anxiety control
• proper hydration
• awareness of the drug testing procedures
• as well as practical sessions on recovery, core stability and relaxation.

Spala is the Olympic training facility for all Polish Sports and is regularly used by the Irish Rugby team. It has a 200m indoor track, an indoor 80m straight and an outdoor 400m running track, over 80 km of trails through forest and gyms and a pool as well as excellent medical facilities and makes an ideal training environment. This allowed the athletes to focus for the 10 days on their athletics (and in some cases study) without any distractions. Spala proved to be an ideal venue and allowed for a lot of excellent work both on and off the track. The camp was also attended by a number of the athlete’s personal coaches who contributed greatly to the success of the trip. The Olympic Council of Ireland also contributed by sending Martin Burke to give the athletes information on the forthcoming EYOF games in Belgrade and it’s Chief executive Stephen Martin - an Olympic medallist himself in Hockey - who gave the athletes an excellent workshop on planning that proved an inspiration to all the athletes. The picture below shows all the athletes at the camp, as well as some of the coaches and staff who worked incredibly hard to make this the best experience possible for the athletes. AAI would also like to thank some of those not in the picture, such as the personal coaches who attended, Team Manager for the first week Peter Sinclair, Dr Dr.Zbigniew Orywal who helped organise much on the ground in Poland, our former Director of High Performance Elaine Fitzgerald, and Aoife Hoey in AAI for the organisation behind the trip. We would also like to show our appreciation to our hosts in Poland who extended us every courtesy and facility to allow us to deliver a camp in the detail we wanted, including the provision of some of their tops throws coaches for a number of days. Most of all we would especially like to thank the athletes for the professionalism, dedication, interest and effort they put in to making the camp such a success. Each of them proved why they have been successful to date and are a credit to their family, coaches, and clubs, and we hope that the experience of Spala will prove a stepping stone to greater success in the future. We would also like to wish them and all young Irish athletes the best of luck in their forthcoming exams and competitions.