On March 6, 7 and 8 the Western Magpies seniors had their Pre-Season Camp at Tallabudgera Outdoor Recreation Camp at Burligh Heads on the Gold Coast in what was the culmination of a grueling pre season. The camp began with dinner on Friday night followed by a lengthy team meeting which focused on a number of areas including goal setting and the philosiphies under which the team will operate in the 2009 Velocity Sports Cup.This was followed by lights outs in preparation for a full day of torture training at the hands of assistant coach Quentin Johnson.
On Saturday morning the Magpies met outside the dorms at 6am before hitting the beach just after the sunrise for a warm up followed by a 4km run along the Gold Coast beach. After the run it was time for some sprints in the soft sand which was very intense and the boys were working together to push each other through the pain. At the end of the sprints the boys hit the water to cool down a bit and then met at the aters edge for a push up and sit up circuit in which they had to battle both fatigue and the rising tide. Another dip in the water and the boys could be forgiven for thinking it was time for breakfast but a series of beach spints from the waters edge up into the soft sand hills was next on Quentin Johnsons menu. Surely now it was time for breakfast but no the mornings activities were completed with a forwards v backs tug of war in the soft sand before a final swim to shed the sand a warm down and finally at 8.20am breakfast time!!!
The boys piled into the dining hall to find plenty of mauch needed sustinance to replace that spent and provide for what lay ahead for the remainder of the day. Following breakfast the Magpies were given an hour of free time which was utilised in many different ways, a snooze, a game of cricket, a swim, surfing while others studied the form and debated the days feature races.
When R and R time came to an end the Magpies were once again split into forewards and backs and each group were provided with two stretchers on which they had to carry a team member on each on a two hour treck through the Burley heads walking tracks. The Stretcher bearers were to rotate every 60 seconds while each team maintained the pace as not to be caught by the other. An hour into the treck the forwards were closing on the backs when the backs turned on the pace and burnt off the forwards and were not seen agian to the trecks end. Before leaving the walking tracks Quence thought it would be a good idea for the boys to run the track just because they could and they did so driving each other all the way. Finally a soothing recovery dip in the creek before returning for lunch.
With lunch smashed it free time again in preparation for sports challenge with all the players taking on skills from other sports to see who was the most tallented across a number of different sports. Matt Thompson proved to be the most versatile of all the Magpies winning easily. The boys were satisfied with a torturous day of training and following some downtime scrubbed up and hit the Tally Surf Life saving Club for dinner and one or two lemonades.
With a good night sleep behind them the Magpies with weary bodies assembled on the beach at 6.40am without Quentin Johnson and completed two 2 km runs before breakfast which unlike the day before was totally demolished by the Magpies knowing that the training was now over. Breakfast was worked off by cleaning up the rooms and packing cars for departure.
As they left camp the Magpies new the Pre-Season was now behind them and was now time to Swoop 09!!!
More photos in the photo gallery.
Last Modified on 10/03/2009 13:30