After a weekend’s recovery from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, I found myself boarding another flight to Budapest for a pre-world championship training camp with the senior GB foil ladies. After enduring 22 hours on a plane from Australia, the flight to Budapest seemed very easy, especially since I was kindly met at the airport by someone from the Hungarian Fencing Federation. This marked the start of the amazing hospitality the Hungarians showed us throughout the week.
The GB team were staying in their brand new training complex in Budapest. It is a multi-sporting venue where athletes can eat, sleep and breathe fencing. We stayed in rooms equipped with the latest mod-cons including plasma TV screen, free wireless, air-con and a big balcony perfect for hanging out sweaty kit! The girls and I all agreed that the rooms were better than most hotels we stay in on the international circuit. It really was fantastic and very comfortable.
A typical training day was split between two training sessions – morning and late afternoon – meaning we had a long break to recuperate between each session. Mostly we did a short warm-up and footwork session and then made the most of our new Hungarian sparring partners with continuous sparring throughout the day. It was a pleasure for us all to fence with such good training partners. It also allowed the British girls the chance to catch up and bond together as a team after the summer off. The atmosphere was happy, relaxed and ideal for getting the most out of ourselves during training.
On the last day we were asked to meet downstairs for a ‘special meeting.’ We were excited to see what the Hungarian coach had in store for us. After years of military-based training camps in Grantham I was half-expecting a ‘special’ team run! Little did we know that we were actually being driven to a private speed boat on the Danube. It was such a great treat! We were each allowed to drive the boat – I of course hit the accelerator hard and sped off as fast as I could – such good fun! It was a beautiful day too and the perfect way to see the beautiful sights of Budapest.
I’d like to say thank-you once again to the Hungarian coach and team for such a fantastic training camp. They were the perfect hosts from start to finish and we each got a lot out of training with them. I hope we can go back there soon! Thank-you!
Claire, I’m glad you all had a good time at the training camp (you can tell by the nice big smiles in the photos that you did).
ReplyDeleteIt’s really interesting to see inside the life of a professional fencer and what goes on at these training camps, so thanks for sharing the structure of you days etc. That “special meeting” turned out to be a whole lot more fun that a team run :)
Another nice article, please keep them coming.