Swim Camps & Away Trips
For our young people, being part of TYSSS is more than just training and competing.
TYSSS gives them an identity and sense of belonging. They make friends for life and memories that extend beyond personal bests and winning races.
When we ask our swimmers about their club highlights often they recall memories of activities they enjoyed with the squad that go beyond the usual training and competition programme - our training camps, squad socials and away trips.
From ice skating to training camps to Tenerife there is something for everyone to participate in throughout the season that doesn’t just involve swimming!
Socials
Each year we host the Christmas Fun Champs for the swimmers, including a secret santa and party food. We also host an annual awards ceremony. Time permitting, swimmer socials are organised throughout the year too. The whole squad recently enjoyed a trip to Ninja Warrior!
In 2023, we hosted our first fundraising overnight swim combining a social with some serious swimming and fundraising. There wasn’t much sleep and plenty of pizza was consumed!
Our next overnight swim is planned for Friday 21st June into Saturday 22nd June 2024.
Training Camps
Training camps give our swimmers a chance to combine an intense training experience with time to build squad friendships.
The aim of the camp varies according to the cohort of swimmers attending and the time point in the swim season. Often abroad camps focus on preparation of swimmers for achieving national qualification times for the summer championships.
We run three different types of camp at TYSSS to cater for the development needs and age of all our swimmers.
Non-Residential Training Camps
These are local camps hosted at our regular training venues. The camp is a great intro for swimmers to learn what a residential swim camp might be like. It gives our younger development swimmers an opportunity to improve swim technique, build friendships and have fun. Each day focuses on a different stroke, with starts and turns practice integrated throughout the week. 3hrs+ pool time each day.
The camp also includes fun activities over lunch and swimmer education sessions.
As well as coaching from the Head Coach, the camp delivery team includes volunteers from Regional Squad to demo stroke technique & trained team managers.
Where possible we have a Q&A session with special guest swimmers or senior squad members. In 2022, swimmers spent time learning from home grown talent Tom Carswell who is now a Commonwealth swimmer for Wales.
Attendees get a camp t-shirt as a memento. The non-residential camps are usually in the school holidays and are designed to provide a week of intensive coaching after the formal summer break to give swimmers a great chance of achieving Yorkshire times at our Back-to-School Blast swimming gala at York Sport in September.
Past camps:
Queen Margaret School, Escrick, August 2022
York Sport Village, August 2023
UK-based Training Camps
Following the COVID pandemic in 2021 we hosted our first UK Based Training Camp which proved to be a great success.
These camps provide a more affordable alternative to the abroad training camps.
To date, our UK based training camps have been hosted at Millfield School, Somerset. Millfield is equipped with the most impressive training facilities of any school in the country, with a 50m Olympic pool built to FINA/AASA standards. The attendees train twice a day in the pool and stay on campus in one of the boarding houses.
Millfield also provides brilliant facilities for recreational activities as well as access to outstanding S&C facilities and nutritious campus dining.
Past camps:
Millfield, August 2021
Millfield, August 2023
Next confirmed camp:
Millfield, August 2024
Overseas Training Camps
Overseas camps combine it all in our swimmers minds. The squad gets the opportunity to train in some of the most popular sports complexes used by swimmers internationally and spend time away from home with friends. Not just a short distance from home but in a new and exciting overseas holiday destination. The camps are expensive and we understand cost can be prohibitive so we offer plenty of planning time to save and pay in instalments.
Swimmer most memorable TYSSS moment: “Mallorca’s busy days (training then eating, then relaxing then training, and more training, and relaxing again)!”
Past camps:
Torremolinos, 2017
Torremolinos, 2018
Malaga, April 2020 (Cancelled due to pandemic)
Mallorca, April 2022
Tenerife, April 2024
Next confirmed camp:
TBC
Away Trips
Spending time away from home supports swimmers to gain independence. Away trips encourage personal and social development, allowing new friendships to bloom and new challenges to be faced.
As a club we organise short squad trips to away galas where swimmers travel and stay overnight with the Squad rather than with parents or carers.
In July 2022, we attended a weekend gala hosted by the City of Norwich Swim Club. Alongside some great performances in the pool, swimmers enjoyed staying on the UEA campus in visitors' accommodation just a few minutes walk from the pool.
Past away trips:
Norwich gala, July 2022
