Australian Age Group Swimmers Attend Kaizen Talent Camp

On Sunday a 35-strong squad of Australia’s most talented age group swimmers embarked on the annual Kaizen Talent Camp at the National Training Centre in Canberra, and will remain there until Saturday 3 October.

The squad is attending a week-long camp under the direction of Swimming Australia’s Performance Pathway Manager Jamie Salter and head coach, Olympian and Olympic team coach Glenn Beringen and a group of 17 coaches and 12 staff.

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on these young swimmer’s horizons it is only appropriate the Talent Camp be named ‘Kaizen’, a Japanese work philosophy meaning continuous improvement.

The talented squad made up of 16-male and 19-females has been selected based on their individual performances at the National Age Championships, gaining recognition as top contenders for future Australian Swim Teams.

Nine swimmers and two coaches progressed from last year’s inaugural Kaizen Camp onto the highly successful 2015 World Junior Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Games Teams.

Salter says it’s encouraging to see young athletes and coaches progressing through from the from the Kaizen Talent camp and onto National teams.

“We’ve seen nine athletes and two coaches progress on from the camp last year to the Junior Worlds and Commonwealth Youth Games teams where they won six of the 19-medal haul,” Salter said.

“Statistics like this show that the Swimming Australia’s Pathway Performance Program is making an invaluable contribution to the development of our next generation of swimmers and coaches.”

The aim of the camp is to focus on skill development both in and out of the pool with Skill Acquisition experts Damian Farrow and Derek Panchek at the helm.

In addition to this the selected athletes will spend some time focusing on self-management from a physiotherapy and sport sciences perspective.

Swimming Australia, 2015 Kaizen Talent Camp Squad:

Swimming news courtesy of Swimming Australia.