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GBR Talent Squad Member - Training Camp Diary #1: David Bunn (TVOC)

Jennie Taylor Communications Officer at British Orienteering caught up with a couple of the athletes who attended the recent Balmoral Talent Training Camp in Scotland.   

David Bunn (TVOC) has been selected to compete at the European Youth Orienteering Championships (EYOC) for the first time this year. 

David kindly agreed to write a diary account of his time at the recent Talent Training Camp. 
Read David's account:

Name: David Bunn

Member of the Talent Squad

Club:  Thames Valley Orienteering Club (TVOC)

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David Bunn (TVOC)

Talent Training Camp, Balmoral, Scotland

Friday 18 - Sunday 20 May 2018.

 

Day 1:  Friday 18th May 2018

20:00

Arrive at FSC Pitlochry and straight into dinner.

21:00

A preview of the week to come - followed by a control description quiz before bed.

 

Day 2:  Saturday 19th May 2018

08:00

Breakfast

09:00

Technical Preparation Session:  Head Technical Coach Mark Nixon had scoured the web for any relevant information about European Youth Orienteering Championship (EYOC) areas (as had most athletes). We discussed possible key strategies and techniques for the Sprint, Long and Relay areas, tailored to the terrains. The majority of the geeking will be done over the next few weeks by athletes independently, but it was useful to pool ideas and make sure we are as clued up as possible as to how we can best prepare for the technical demands of orienteering in Bulgaria.

10:00

The Challenges of International Competition:  A great opportunity for more experienced athletes to impart some of their wisdom with athletes like myself, who will compete for GB for the first time this year. We talked about the whole experience of international competition - from travelling abroad to accommodation, transport, quarantine, GPS, warm-ups, the race itself and everything in between. The differences between international and domestic competitions are vast, but I now feel that little bit more prepared and confident that I can make everything run smoothly.

13:00

British Championships at Balmoral:  A mixed bag of performances overall, but while I seriously lacked in accuracy, I certainly did spend a lot of quality time in good technical forest, which I suppose is a plus.

18:00

Dinner

19:00

Physical preparation:  Mainly comprised of learning how we can best prepare ourselves for competing in what could be heat approaching 30? Bulgaria is likely to be a real test of heat endurance, but we discussed ways we could lessen the shock for our bodies. We have been tasked with either finding or creating our own heat chambers at home in order to ‘acclimate’ to the environment, something I suspect few other nations will be considering! Could this Team Sky-esque attitude yield similar results for the GB team??

20:00

Individual review sessions: 1 on 1 sessions with coaches, talking through physical and technical training that we had completed, and also looking ahead to the next phase of competition-specific training.

22:30

Lights out

 

Day 3: Sunday 20th May

7:00

Breakfast and pack bags.

8:00

Depart for the British Orienteering Championships (BOC) Relay. 

10:00

BOC Relays, Torphantrick:  We competed for our respective clubs, but got a chance to run with other members of the Talent Squad, and for some to run against senior GB athletes on the Premier classes. Again - a very good and quite rare opportunity to hone our relay running skills in preparation for an EYOC Relay which will feature some very strong GB teams.

14:00

Depart for home

Thank you, David.  We wish you well with your final preparations.

 

Talent Squad - Tier 1:  Includes primarily the 15-18 (School) age group and aims firstly to identify and induct promising juniors into the Talent squad and then assist in progressing them from the 'Learning to Train' to the 'Training to Train' phase of development.

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