Photo Courtesy: Swimming Canada\/Scott Grant<\/p>\n
TORONTO – Swimming Canada’s Race Simulation Camp featured some of Canada\u2019s top junior swimmers in Toronto this week.<\/p>\n
The camp brings 10 males and 10 females ages 14 to 17 to the new Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre for an intensive week of training. But in addition to pool and dryland training, the swimmers are getting up on the blocks and racing each day. The new pool\u2019s timing system is being used and the camp is meant to have a competitive meet feel to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re practising racing in season, something that we\u2019re trying to encourage Canadians to do a little bit more diligently and a little bit more consistently through all the training programs,\u201d said National Development Coach Ken McKinnon, who is overseeing the camp.<\/p>\n
The swimmers are in the pool for two training sessions most days, with racing as part of each session over a four-day \u201cmeet\u201d from Tuesday through Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe camp is a really ambitious camp for a number of reasons,\u201d McKinnon said. \u201cIt\u2019s about not compromising your training in order to race while you\u2019re in an in-season template. What we\u2019ve noticed in the country is we have a little bit more of that going on than we should. In-season compromising like taking a workout off or a morning off or resting a little bit into a non-significant meet in the early season. It\u2019s going to cost you in the end. That compromise you make in October, November, December, January is going to cot you in the accumulation of training time and training effort as you go into your major peak.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 20 swimmers are \u201ca really good group,\u201d McKinnon says are on track as hopefuls for the 2015 FINA World Junior Championships in Singapore next September.<\/p>\n
Of course, with the Pan Am Games set for Toronto, some of the swimmers also have dreams of cracking the senior national team and representing Canada on home soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to make 2015 Pan Am Games and 2016 Olympic Games,\u201d said Javier Acevedo, whose Scarborough home is just a few minutes away. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m prepared already, I just need to keep working hard until (the Canadian Swimming Trials in) April and then by April we\u2019ll know if I\u2019m on a junior team or a senior team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fellow Ontarian Danielle Hanus of Newmarket said she also has the Pan Am Games in the back of her mind. This camp is just another step on the road to representing Canada at the highest level, and the participants will be working to ensure every minute counts before the camp wraps up Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to listen, learn and work with others to become better within your sport,\u201d Hanus said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun, it\u2019s something different than I\u2019ve ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n