What was great though was that after weeks of training games against each other we headed off to Sydney for some games against the Cronulla National League Team and the Junior NSWIS squad. Let me tell you it was nice to be beating up on people other than your team mates for a change!

What was great about our trip to Sydney was that we also finished our training on Friday night which meant we had the rest of the weekend to ourselves to enjoy Sydney. With a lot of the squad having family in Sydney it meant for a lot of food and sun to try and combat what has come to be known as our ‘Canberra Tans’.

We are now back down in Canberra for our last 2 weeks of the camp before heading home where we will start preparing for the NTC challenge.
Til next time,
Mel

It seems a lifetime ago since writing the last update, It’s hard to believe it has only been two weeks These last few weeks saw us finish off the testing phase and move into some more regular training sessions. We still get to do our skill sessions and we love seeing Gormo and Rick (our skill acquisition coaches) waltz onto pool deck with a bunch of swiss balls for our adaptation training. It’s a refreshing change from swimming or drills. It’s great to see the girls’ shots improving week by week as a result of these sessions.

With a few injuries still lurking, it was common sense that guided us over the last week. We settled into a more regular routine since the testing was over, but paid close attention to what our bodies were telling us. We have been playing games and the competition is really getting tense. Every game, whether it is a counter attack drill, extra man game or normal game, is high stakes. One girl was given a blood nose while another’s nose was broken (again!). None of us want to lose and this makes for exciting training sessions.

We had a change of scenery with moving out of old rooms and into the new AIS residences. They are more like small apartments with a lounge room, kitchenette and bedrooms.  6 girls can live in one apartment and there are enough bathrooms for us all! They are a lot more comfortable and the good news is we don’t have to walk nearly as far to get to the food hall (probably not good news for our nutritionist)!

We were all very excited to be let free for the long weekend. We were able to travel home and spend four days with our loved ones. This may have been the reason last week seemed to take forever as we were all hanging out to go home for a break! However, the weekend was over before we knew it and we were all back in camp on Monday night ready for our session Tuesday morning. From now our training will change slightly to incorporate more time in the water and the intensity will increase. We have already had a small taste of things to come on our first day back with spending 6 hours in the pool.

The mood amongst the girls is positive and we have settled in for some intense water polo over the next 6 week block.

Emma Knox
AIS