Martin Boddie from Tri Dynamic has sent in his camp report from the first ever tri camp with Elite Coach Darren Smith. Organised by UK based Tri Dynamic, the camp was specifically for age group athletes. The lucky few participants got to spend four intensive days working closely with Darren Smith in Canberra over the Australia Day holidays.
Athletes travelled from all over Australia and there was a good mix of ages, abilities, race distances and nationalities present. These included World Age Group Champions, a first place finisher at Noosa and the fastest AG Ironman bike split record holder in 2012. Everyone made significant improvements working closely with ‘Coach Daz’ and his team on this unique camp. PowerBar provided nutritional products for the camp and the athletes also received a Skinfit t-shirt as part of their goodie bags.
Not only did the camp participants get to be coached by Darren Smith, they also benefited from watching his stellar Dsquad athletes training ahead of the new season. Immersed in the world class training environment, in which Darren Smith develops his athletes, the camp participants witnessed what is involved every day to be the best in the world of tri.
A range of elite Dsquad athletes were present. These included: world ranked number two and World Champ Grand Final winner Anne Haug; fifth place finisher at Hy-Vee and 2012 Guatape ITU Triathlon World Cup winner, Jodie Stimpson; Ireland’s Olympian Aileen Morrison; World Duathlon Champ, Cancun World Cup winner Katie Hewison; and IM 70.3 Auckland winner Annabel Luxford to name but a few.
The Dsquad elites were all training at the same time as camp participants who were also able to join in on a few sessions.
Commenting on the camp Darren Smith said “I really enjoyed my first opportunity to work with Age Groupers on a camp like this. It’s obviously a bit different to my normal set up but I am pretty certain I was able to impact significant change. It was really satisfying to see such big improvements in a short space of time.”
Smith added, “Martin at Tri Dynamic did a great job providing a safe and well organised platform on which to run our camp. I am fairly confident that we will run some more in the future if there is enough interest.”
The camp focused on learning and skills development under the watchful eye of Coach Daz. There were also some great opportunities to work with his world class support team, which keeps his athletes in top condition and injury free. The support team includes: Dr Liz Broad, Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Dietician; Dsquad Rehab Specialist Rick van Riemsdijk; Team Physio Roz Penfold; Team Chiropractor Colin Clarey; and Dsquad running technique consultant from Kenya Rob Higley.
One camp participant, Laura Siddall, who races for Team Wiggle said “It was an amazing opportunity to learn from Darren Smith and gain an insight into the world class environment and support team he has set up. We were able to watch and train with his elite squad, which was an extremely motivating experience and I loved every minute of it!”
Tri Dynamic will be working with Darren Smith once again in London for 2 x 1 day triathlon master classes. These will cover swimming and running technique at Hampton Pool & St Mary’s, Twickenham, on Saturday 2 February and Sunday 3 February. There are very limited places left for this coming weekend’s master classes. Interested attendees are advised to get in quick with a booking!
