Our week starts out with three sessions on Monday. The morning session is a water polo oriented session, and then we hit the gym after lunch, followed by another water polo session that night which may include some game practice. With the help of specialized AIS staff we have incorporated a lot of different skills that have pushed us out of our comfort zones. The idea being it will improve our adaptation and shooting skills. There is already some notable improvement which is exciting.

Our week pretty much follows the same schedule as Monday (some water polo sessions are substituted for swim sets) except for Wednesday where we do (‘attempt’ is more the word) some dry land games that are designed to get us thinking and adapting to different situations. After the dry land games we jump in the pool for a water polo session, followed by hot/colds in the new AIS recovery centre.  It is fitted out with everything we need for optimal recovery. Our favourite is the nice cold plunge pool.

Saturday morning is a swim set followed by recovery again. Then we get the rest of the weekend to ourselves!  In between our training we fit in any meetings, physio, massage and rehabilitation that we need. It makes for a busy week but it goes quite fast and we all sleep very well!

This week we will be incorporating some swim testing into our program. These tests will help design future programs and get us to our peak fitness. Next week we should settle back into our normal water polo schedule.

We have made ourselves at home here at the AIS and have been provided with everything we could ask for.  We spend quite a lot of time in the food hall and have designed some great desserts to get us through the week!

Mel Rippon and Emma Knox

AIS