The team travelled to Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, to conduct its annual week long sparring training camp with a highly established club Taekwondo 2000 (Happy Gym).
This friendship and collaboration is a decade strong and now it more feels like visiting a family. We have so much to thank both Maestro Vito Marino for always welcoming us with open hands and a great smile, and Maestro Vincenzo Giametta for his dedication, knowledge and technical preparation of 10 sessions spread over 7 days. Respect to these coaches and their athletes for welcoming us!
Morning sessions covered the physical preparation of athletes, and the requirements to strengthen mobility, equilibrium, coordination, power, resistance, and velocity. Evening sessions catered for strategy and tactics. Sessions culminated with an evening of an outdoor competition in the city centre, were another 4 local clubs joined in! It was such a sight seeing the local community coming together to help our athletes enrich more their experience!
It was a fully packed week and quite intensive to say the least; though the team still managed to enjoy Summer by refreshing and recovering either in the pool or the sea. Laughter was abundant and such a trip serves well in creating ever-lasting bonds among participants. Truly one great trip abroad!
Lessons were learnt, new friendships were made and a full luggage of experiences and memories were brought back that will shape the growth of our athletes as well as our coaches.
We always feel a deep sense of gratitude to those that help us shape our athletes in the right direction towards competitive sparring, to parents for supporting them all throughout the journey and to the athletes themselves for always turning up and giving their all… it is always a team effort when growth is involved.